Repurposing Content for Social Media with Kassaundra Foster

Kirsten 0:00

You're listening to the creative teacher podcast, a show for busy teachers looking for ways to engage, inspire and make an impact in their teacher businesses. I'm Kiersten, a teacher business owner who is all about simple and actionable tips, strategies and resources that result in wins, big or small. If you're looking for that extra spark of creativity, you've come to the right place. Let's dive in together.

Hi, guys, hope you're having a wonderful Monday. Today we have a special guest on the podcast Cassandra foster of foster content solutions. She is here to talk about repurposing your content for social media. We are all told long form content is important. Having a blog having a podcast having a YouTube video show is important so that we are kind of putting out our content out there and establishing ourselves. But how can we take all of that and also at the same time, create our social media posts and our email scheduling and all the stuff that goes along with marketing, our resources and our content. So we are going to hear from her she is going to talk a lot about how we can repurpose. So we are working smarter and not harder. So I can't wait for you to hear this interview. All right. I am here with Cassandra Foster. I'm so excited for her to talk with us. Welcome to the show.

Kassaundra 2:37

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to chat about repurposing content today.

Kirsten 2:44

Yes, I'm excited to Well, let's start off with if you could share a little bit about yourself and your journey as a teacher per door.

Kassaundra 2:52

as a teacher printer, back in: 2021

Kirsten 4:26

That's really amazing. And I know a lot of us can relate to that. Just with the whole, like, we want to spend more time with our kids if we're mothers. But as a teacher, it's really hard. We just don't know, like, we don't know how we could do that. And I love how in the last four or five years more teachers are coming you know, being able to kind of build something different that we may not have anticipated, but it's just a really cool way like through helping other teacher business owners or being at A teacher business owner. So I love all of that. And I can definitely relate. It's like

Kassaundra 5:05

awesome to see people still like keeping a pulse on education, because you can tell that people are very passionate about it like, yes,

Kirsten 5:14

definitely. All right. Well, we're talking today about repurposing content, which is something that I, like really love to do. And I'm so glad you're here to share with us the information about it. But just kind of going back to the very beginning, what does it mean to repurpose our content for teacher business owners?

Kassaundra 5:35

Yeah, so when you think about repurposing content, it's taking the ideas, the copy the images that you have used to create usually a longer piece of content, which we call long form content, like a blog post, a podcast episode, like this, a YouTube video, and taking those ideas and that copy and those images or videos, and breaking them down into using them on another platform in order to educate your audience and market to your audience. In this case, I kind of specialized in repurposing for social media, so specific social media posts to help bring those ideas over to social media platforms and market to that audience.

Kirsten 6:23

Okay, that's pretty great that you're giving us the rundown. So that's really helpful to know. So what are some common misconceptions that TPT or teacher business owners might have about repurposing content? Like I'm thinking, without giving, you know, anything of what you're sharing way, but just like, I know that, like, we may think, oh, my gosh, we wrote this whole long blog posts, how am I supposed to like, what ways am I supposed to do that? So there might be some certain ways people do it. But just in general, what are some common misconceptions that we might face from that?

Kassaundra 7:03

Yeah, so I think the first misconception I hear a lot when talking about repurposing is people are afraid that if they're talking about the same thing on multiple platforms, that their audience is going to get bored or annoyed with them. And I mean, unless you are completely overdoing it, and only talking about one topic like 24 hours a day, that's just not going to happen, just because people's attention spans are so short nowadays, like preliminary scientific research is like people need to see things 20 plus times before it sinks in, or they act on it. Just because with like our digital world, we've been just so conditioned to only give a short piece of our attention to everything. And so in fact, you're not annoying them or boring them. In fact, it's a really great marketing strategy, because your audience members need to see those ideas over and over and over again. And by repurposing you are showing it to them in a fresh and new way. And so it ultimately helps you in the long run. I think the other piece that I see as a misconception, is that like re purposing is another thing to add to your plate. So like you said, you've already written like this long blog post, and okay, now I have to take it and now I have to make social media posts from it. And that just can seem like a really daunting task. But with some like proper procedures and workflows, it actually ends up saving you time in the long run to repurpose your content versus writing blog posts and coming up with social media posts and coming up like with what you're going to do for your email marketing, using that one piece of long form content kind of as your anchor across what you're going to do for your marketing, as long as you have some procedure set in place saves you time, and it helps you market as well.

Kirsten 9:08

Yeah, I definitely would agree with that. Yeah, I know that I that's kind of what I've started doing with my workflow in the last six to nine months with I will start my content creation like batching that for the month. Yep. And I won't do my social media until after I have that batch so that I can take pieces from my content into my social media. So it's, it's super efficient. And overall, it's been working pretty well as far as sanity wise, like not trying to come up with a bunch of different ideas of okay, what should I post on my Instagram and what should I post right like so?

Kassaundra 9:51

And definitely to like, even make that more efficient. What I suggest people do and like what I try to do when I'm working on my own podcast asked is like, as I'm drafting that piece of long form content, I also have up like my social media planner and calendar. And as I'm going, I'm like pulling over ideas into that. So it's happening like simultaneously. And so I finish that piece of long form content. And then I kind of click out of that and go into my planner. And all those ideas are right there. And they're fresh in my mind, because I just finished that up. And I create all those and I get them scheduled. And I don't say that that podcast episode is done, until all those posts are ready to go and scheduled. And so kind of just having that workflow is if you do it as you go, and you look at it as that piece of long form content like that blog post that podcast that YouTube video is not done until these other marketing pieces like the social media posts that have to do with it are done. That's kind of where the magic happens. And that's where you're going to be so efficient. And you're going to save so much time.

Kirsten: 10:57

Love that. Yes, totally agree with that. All right. So what are some? How do we decide in general, what platforms are best suited for repurposing content? So let's say whether you know, we might have a blog or a podcast or a YouTube channel? How do we go about deciding where to start? As far as what we repurpose?

Kassaundra: 11:20

Yeah. So I think if you're thinking about your long form content, and you're like, where am I going to post all this information that I'm going to repurpose? And the first thing you want to consider is like, where are your ideal audience members hanging out? Where are you going to be able to connect with the most of them? So is it Facebook? Is it Instagram? Is it tick tock? So just first, like taking a quick look and going to those platforms, and like searching the title of your ideal audience member? Like if you create resources for like fifth grade social studies, like, go and search fifth grade social studies? Like does it seem like there are a lot of people on Instagram? Is there a huge amount of people on Tik Tok? are they hanging out in Facebook groups? And that can kind of give you an idea, like, where should I be funneling all of this information based on where your ideal audience member is hanging out. But then kind of on the other hand, you want to make sure that you're actually comfortable like with that platform, too. So you know, if I did that, and I found that fifth grade social studies, teachers, oh, my gosh, they're hanging out on tick tock, but I don't like making videos and I don't like showing up on videos, that's not going to be a great place to funnel all of your information, because you're not going to stay consistent with it. Because when you don't like it, and you're not comfortable with it, and so then you kind of just look at okay, okay, where else are they hanging out? So it's like, where are they hanging out? And where am I comfortable and kind of pulling those two pieces together? And so that you can show up consistently, and you have an audience to consume that content on that platform.

Kirsten: 12:59

I love that. Yes, consistency is definitely key. But whether it's like, twice a week or every day, all right, consistent, I feel like that's, that's the good way to go. Right?

Kassaundra: 13:11

Consistency doesn't have to be every day. I think sometimes there's a misconception about that, too. Consistency kind of looks different for everyone. But like, if you know, you had chosen Tic Toc, and you're not comfortable, but you know, you're like, I'm gonna give it a try. So you do it for like two weeks, and they're like, I absolutely hate this. And then you just go on hiatus for two more weeks. And like, Okay, I'm gonna try it again. And it's just like this back and forth, back and forth. And then that's kind of where the issue comes in. You want to be putting out that consistent content for people?

Kirsten: 13:38

Yeah. And I would even, like, say, that kind of leads into long form content as well. Like, yeah, I many times I've, like, really, I really liked this podcast. And it's kind of inconsistent, like, well, I thought they were coming in Friday, but I guess it's not every Friday, you know, so Right.

Kassaundra: 13:57

And you start to like, look forward to it. And it's kind of like on your mind on that day. And then all of a sudden, they're like, you know, like, I go to fold the laundry. I'm like, this is the podcast I listen to I fold the laundry in, then it's not there. And it's like, so disappointed. So yeah, also just like determining the long form content that you want to put out as well. Like, for example, I decided on doing my own podcasts because I did blog writing for people when I kind of first started my freelance journey, and I didn't enjoy it. And I was like, I don't want to do that every week for myself, right? So just picking something that you kind of enjoy doing so that you're consistently putting out that long form content as well.

Kirsten: 14:39

Yeah, definitely. So could you walk us through your process of how you repurpose content for yourself or clients? Yeah. What steps do you take?

Kassaundra: 14:50

Sure. So when you go to repurpose long form content, if you haven't been repurposing it in the past, there's kind of two paths you can take As I like to call them, you can either take the Go Back path or the go forward path. So if you have a big bank of long form content that you haven't repurposed, and you've probably worked really hard on that, right, and you want to get those ideas working harder for you, you can go back to like those blog posts, those podcast episodes, whatever you have created, and pull ideas from there in order to repurpose. Or you can kind of do the go forward method, where you just say, Okay, starting from now, whenever I make a piece of long form content, I'm then going to repurpose those ideas and put out those social media posts around the same time that that piece of long form content goes live. Both ways can definitely be effective, it's just really a preference for you. And like, what kind of work you want to do. Going back does include a little bit more work because you need to take a look at like your bank of long form content, and your categories of topics and basically pull them together and see what posts kind of build off each other what kind of topics go together and get them organized that way, because then that's going to give you a clearer picture of how you want to start dripping out those ideas over on your social media. So it does kind of take that extra step, you have to go through all of your bank of long form content and kind of group things by topic for yourself, and then start the repurposing process. Or like I said, you just start from where you are in the next blog post I write that's when I'm going to start repurposing and I'm just going to move on from there. Again, all personal preference, right. So if you aren't going back, you're just going to like follow that schedule that you set up for yourself for your lair, your long content, and that stuff is just gonna go live when it goes live in its long content form. Kind of when it comes to taking your long form content and adapting it into different content types, there's a few guidelines that I use some information lends itself better to some types of content. So for example, if we're thinking just about like Instagram, Instagram, has like the most options of type of types of content you can put out there. So you can do like static posts, which is just like a single photo or graphic carousel posts, which are could be multiple photos or graphics, reels, just to name a few. Those are like the three big ones there. So if you're looking to make like static posts from your long form content, as I'm going through working with clients, I look for things like powerful quotes you might have used in your podcast, or your blog, or your YouTube video, or like questions that you have used. pulling those questions over that you might have used as a hook in your blog can be a really great way to make a graphic with that same question and get some engagement on Instagram and see what people think about that topic know about that topic, if they're feeling like they're in the same boat. And that gives you a really good pulse on how you can like present the other information to them. So those are the two things that kind of look at when I'm creating static posts pulling stuff from longer content, anything and your longer content that has like lists, steps, procedures, those all make great carousel posts because you can break them down and you can list one out and explain each of them. So one on each side of your carousel. So literally, when I am breaking down like a blog post for a client, I the first thing I do is I scroll through and I know if there are like any lists or any procedures or things like that, and I immediately pull those and think about which would make the best carousel. So that's usually where I start. Because it's kind of the easiest piece like so if you're a going back or to repurpose, doing that quick scan of your post first lists and finding the lists can give you that in to get started. Because that's kind of the easiest piece because you can find them right away and pull them and start making those graphics right away. When it comes to reels like lists and steps are also great to include in reels also utilizing reels to showcase like the product or freebie that you're using that piece of long form content to promote. So pulling that same promotion from the long form content and using it over on Instagram. And showcasing it in a real can show people like what it looks like in action, what it looks like to set it up. See all the benefits of it. So pulling that piece too. So usually, after I do the lists and start some carousel posts, I will go and figure out okay, what is being promoted in this post and then I will make a plan to usually make a reel of that A resource, whether it's free or paid, have that promotion to pull that over onto Instagram as well. So that's kind of how I chunk things and take a look at that long form content to start repurposing it. I love that

Kirsten: 20:13

so many JAM PACKED ideas. And even like the real you know, with reels anything of course related to video can be transferred over to Tik Tok. Right. So, that's really easy. And of course, we can now you know, schedule anything on Instagram, with Facebook with meta business suite. So that just kind of like instant, like what you shared with Instagram, we can easily repurpose to Yeah, pull it to other social media platforms that we might be on. So that is perfect. So I am probably or maybe, maybe not me, but listeners might be thinking how they may not have a lot of time. Actually, no, I do have I don't have a lot of time. I have very limited time. So. So I'm also thinking the same thing. But how can we be efficient in repurposing our content without it being like, you know, super time consuming and taking, however many hours, eight hours, 12 hours, right, dragging on and you're spending all week, you know, trying to repurpose or find things to repurpose?

Kassaundra: 21:18

Yeah, I would really love to meet someone who does have time,

Kirsten: 21:23

like I know, right? Where's, where's it go?

Kassaundra: 21:26

Where are those people at the time? No. So when it comes to repurposing, the major goal here is to save you time. And that's why I think that I love and talk about repurposing so much with my audience is because I know how much is on your plate. Especially if you're a teacher printer still in the classroom, like I've been there. I've done that. And so let's make your life as easy as possible here. So the idea is you spend your like a big amount of energy on this really awesome piece of long form content. And then you break it down so that you can use that in other places and extend your marketing impact. So you want to think about what your workflow is like already for that long form content that you're going to put out. So if you are someone who writes one blog post a week, and so say you sit down on Mondays to write your blog post for the week, you would also want to give yourself a little bit more time in that time block, so that you can repurpose it as well all in the same setting. Because it's harder, right? If you have to go back and like reread, and re acquaint yourself with the ideas that you were talking about there, it just takes a little bit longer time, you can definitely do it. Like I said, if you have a huge bank of content, you want to repurpose, and you want to go back, go for it, because you worked hard on that. But moving forward is the way that's going to really save you a lot of time in the long run. And so like I said before, as you are drafting that piece of long form content, have whatever social media calendar, you know, I use air table. So I'll pull up my air table that has my spots with all the days that I'm going to post and just start pulling over ideas, as you start writing out a list, copy and paste that list over into your planner so that you can make a carousel reel of it. Just pulling those ideas as you go. And then when that draft is done, and you've kind of finalized it and that piece of long form content is ready to go. Then you go right to your air table or whatever you have open that has your content plan on it. And you start creating graphics, and you start writing captions. And the way to make that part of it easier is two things, one, having graphics templates already ready to go. Maybe in Canva, or another design program that you use, so that you can easily just like plug and play. So putting that information into that template saving it, it's ready to go. The other piece too, is don't feel like with your captions, you have to reinvent the wheel, you just wrote about all of that information you just wrote about that topic, go pull pieces of your copy for your captions, and just break it down. Right. So in long form content, you're probably writing paragraphs that are a little longer. And we know with social media and with people's attention spans, you want to keep things a little shorter in the caption. So just breaking it down into like two or three sentences per paragraph, inserting some lists in there with emojis and just utilizing that copy, you don't have to like reinvent the wheel there. So those are the two things. So starting off with your workflow, you are going to pull your ideas as you draft and then when you are done with that piece of long form On to, you're gonna go to your planner, you're gonna get your graphics done with your graphics templates, and you're gonna pull pieces of the actual copy from the finalized version, and just break it down a little bit more at a hook, add a call to action, and then schedule and you're good to go.

Kirsten: 25:15

Awesome. Love it. Thank you for those. Yeah, well, okay, so now, let's think thinking about, you know, what's working, what's not working? What are some ways to know? What, how can you analyze what repurposed content is working for you?

Kassaundra: 25:33

Yeah. So when it comes to what's called, like, key performance indicators, those things that you those metrics that you will be looking at to see if something is working the way you want to be working? It truly depends on like your business goals and the goals you have for your content. But like for if you're someone who's working more towards like brand awareness, you really want to be getting people to know who you are, how you help them, what kind of resources you offer, things you might take a look at and see is like, how many followers are you bringing in from posts. So in your insights, you can see how many people followed you as a result of that post, as well as overall follower count. You can also be looking at your reach. So how many people actually saw that content, and specifically, what they call non follower reach, which is people who aren't following you that saw your content. Because the more people who aren't following you that saw your content, hopefully, that's going to help you bring more people into your community. If you're someone who has like an established brand, and you're looking more for conversions, so getting people off of social media, and to your resources to purchase, which is the end goal for everyone. But if you're like more far along, and like establishing yourself as a store and as a brand, then you probably want to look more at like engagement rates, how are people engaging with you, if you ask them to comment for the link? Like how many comments did that post actually get versus other posts where you ask people to comment for the link so you can compare them. So when you have similar calls to action, you can compare to see which one's got the best results like if, you know, I had a post where I was promoting one freebie, and I asked people to comment for it in a post where I was promoting a freebie and ask people to comment for it, you can kind of look and see, engage, you know, how much interaction did one get over another? And then you can see kind of what styles your audience is more drawn to, you know, versus like a carousel or real like, how many more comments? Yeah, either way. Yeah, and also like link clicks, because at that point, your main goal is to actually like get people off of social media and purchasing your resources. So how many people saw that piece of content, you can see this in your insights as well, for each post, how many people saw that piece of content and went to your profile and clicked on your Lincoln bio to get off of social media. So you can kind of be looking at those pieces. But again, those metrics are really specific to the goals you have. So depending on like what your business goals are, and the goals of your content. Those can be varied widely across people and businesses. But those are just kind of some general things that you can be looking for. As you try to figure out what content to make as you move into the future.

Kirsten: 28:39

Awesome. Well, that is great to know. Thank you for that. Okay, so I have a few rapid fire questions. Questions. These are the ones Yes. Okay. Question number one beach getaway or mountain retreat?

Kassaundra: 28:54

Oh, this is a hard one because I love them both. But I think in the season of life I'm in right now. I would have to say mountain getaway. Like a nice cabin up in the mountains. The quiet. Cooler weather. Yeah. Sitting sitting on the porch, sipping my coffee. That sounds nice right now. Yes, definitely.

Kirsten: 29:10

Okay, second question. What's one software or tool you cannot live without?

Kassaundra: 29:17

Oh, airtable. Yeah, it houses that in probably Asana. But like all of my, that's how I deliver all of my content creation for my clients. That's how I organize all of my content. That's how a lot of clients organize, like, extra pieces of their content, like their blog posts that I pull in use from. So I'm in there like every single day. Yes.

Kirsten: 29:39

airtable is I love it too. And if it ever went down, I don't know what I would do with myself. Like, yeah,

Kassaundra: 29:45

my whole life is there. Yeah. Yeah. And

Kirsten: 29:49

last question, what's your go to background music when you're working? Oh,

Kassaundra: 29:54

I like listening to podcasts while I'm working artists are favorites. Um, right now I'm listening to oh my gosh, what the decluttered mom, were Yeah, I'm really my son's a little older. He's like four years old. Now we're starting to get like less stuff. And so it's time to like, clean out, like all that baby stuff and like, really open up some space in our home. So I've been kind of binging her podcasts, but I like to listen to podcasts, because it makes me feel like someone's there with me. And it makes me feel a little more accountable to like stay focused and be working because this other person's like talking to me.

Kirsten: 30:36

Well, I love that. Yeah. Well, Cassandra, thank you so much for being here. Where can we learn more from you or even potentially work with you?

Kassaundra: 30:47

Yeah. So you'll find me over on Instagram, at foster content solutions. I also host my own podcast called schooled in socials, you can find that over on Instagram or on any podcast streaming platform. And on that podcast, I talk exactly about topics like this. So helping a teacher printers leverage their social media, to market their resources. And if you give it a listen, and you really like it, we also have a Facebook community over in Facebook groups where we talk about the episodes and people can ask me questions and things like that. So you can come check us out over there, too.

Kirsten: 31:29

Sounds fine. Well, thank you so much for being here.

Kassaundra: 31:32

Yes, thank you so much for having me.

Kirsten: 31:34

I hope you enjoyed that interview just as much as I did. Even just talking with her, I got a lot of really great reminders and tips from her what she shared. So I hope you enjoyed it as well. Make sure you follow Cassandra on Instagram, she's at foster content solutions, you should definitely check out her podcast schooled and socials. And of course, I'll link everything in the show notes so you can connect with her. And also just check out everything she has to offer. She offers services for business owners in the teacher space. So you can definitely just kind of see what she offers and listen to her and go from there. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and I will talk to you again soon.

Thanks for listening to the creative teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also follow me on Instagram at the southern teach dot designs. Have an amazing day.