The evolution of the Internet has been interesting. You could say that it’s unique in a number of ways. But in some ways it’s a repetition of what’s occurred in human history.
As far as types of content are concerned, the Internet has followed a familiar path. First came the written word and the printing press. Newspapers, newsletters, letters, etc. Then came radio technology and that completely changed the way many people consumed content. Then film and television. Eventually things settled into a balance with all three types of content – written, audio and visual – all filling in certain niches.
When the Internet started booming it was all about text. Writing and reading content online. Then it seemed like video was next. YouTube became the top channel for video with other sites also filling in. Then came podcasting, which provided the audio aspect.
Podcasting really began booming between 2015 and 2020. And many businesses and organizations have launched podcasts for their marketing efforts.
But to learn a lesson from the past, it’s not entirely advisable to ignore one or two types of content to focus on just one. Especially if you’re able to repurpose content.
That’s what this post is about. How to repurpose a one-hour podcast episode into multiple blog posts.
1. Listen & Organize
Your podcast may be off the cuff. You may have it well organized in advanced. Whatever the case, now you’re going to take a blogging approach for the blogging effort. That means listening through and organizing the points made in the episode.
It could be a one-person show. It could be an interview. That usually doesn’t matter. Listen to the topics and figure out how to best separate and organize for blog post(s). Typically an hour-long podcast covers a handful of topics. This usually means you could create about 3-5 blog posts. One for each topic. Most of those posts will probably be between 500 and 1,000 words. Obviously it could vary on either account depending on what’s discussed.
But the first step is organizing the content in the podcast so it can be repurposed.
2. Reuse, Add & Format
Once you have the topics laid out you’re going to have content for each. You just need to take what was discussed and write it for a blog post. That usually means not doing a straight transcription. Casual conversation is different than reading a blog post. They have different flows. You want to make a blog post that people are comfortable reading.
Most people that read the post will have found it only. They likely won’t know about your podcast. They are reading the post as if it’s the only piece that exists. And that’s fine. That’s why you’re creating the post. So you want it to fit the blogging format.
You may need to edit. You may need to remove. You may need to add. You may even need to add a proper blog post title and image. If it’s an interview you can include quotes and stories. Those are good for blog posts.
But really you want an intro, a middle and a conclusion. Usually with headings and possibly even numbered headings. You may structure it as a how-to post or a list post. But make it a blog post.
3. Assign Responsibility
By now you see that it’s a fair amount of work to repurpose content. There really isn’t a shortcut for doing it right. You’re using existing content, but you’re using it to create a new post or posts. Posts that can stand alone for new people to discover.
You may be able to hire one person to handle it all. That’s common. You may have someone on your team that can listen to each episode, write a description and also organize the topics for future blog posts. Then you have a writer take over from there. Taking the topics and using the podcast, along with other research, to create posts.
Conclusion
What you’re looking to do is to bring in people that have different content preferences. We all consume a certain amount of video, audio and text. We all likely skew toward one or two more than the third. Some of us may skew heavily toward one.
From a business standpoint, you likely have customers in all three. That’s the goal. Use the same ideas and themes and reach as many people as possible. It’s not easy, but that also eliminates a lot of competition. And gives you an advantage in your industry.