
Using long-form videos to create shorter content for different platforms takes more resources than most care to admit.
Behind the most prolific video repurposing engines is a small team and smart tools dedicated to creating and repurposing video content that makes the most of the initial effort that goes into making long-form videos.
Fortunately, the video editing and other resources are becoming more accessible than ever, so individual creators and smaller teams can appear larger than life on the world’s most popular video platforms.
Let’s show you how Justin Moore, Sponsorship Coach and Founder of Creator Wizard uses his live stream and long videos to create blog posts and bite-sized videos for TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
We’ve also got insights from Vimeo’s repurposing champion, Alexis Nash about how she maximizes the value of long videos (think: virtual events, interviews, masterclasses, and video podcasts).
But first, let’s get the basics out of the way
Before you begin using long-form video as your parent asset to create more content, understand this:
1. Repurposing isn’t limited to copy-pasting parts of your video script
An easy way to create content from a long-form, parent asset is to chunk it into short videos.
“Content being copied & pasted from another platform isn’t always a bad thing,” notes Alexis Nash, Vimeo’s Social Media Lead. Particularly, if you’re aiming to grow your audience on a specific platform.
For example, Vimeo uses Twitter to cross-promote its TikToks with the intent to improve visibility:
This isn’t the only way to reuse content. A lot of effective repurposing involves rewriting and/or tweaking the parent video’s script and taking a new angle.
For instance, repurposing your long video’s script into a blog post requires producing new narratives around it — say by elaborating on the idea further or bringing in more niche experts to share the core idea in more depth.
2. Use a mix of CTAs in your repurposed content
Instead of limiting yourself to the ‘watch full video’ calls-to-action, test different CTAs.
Sure, CTAs to the parent video drive more traffic, But you can also experiment with CTAs that drive conversations on social media. For example, you may have seen creators end their videos with ‘what are your thoughts on [topic]’ CTA, which is super useful for engaging your audience.
Alexis recommends asking yourself: “What are you trying to communicate, to whom, and what action do you want to elicit? Those key questions should inform a significant chunk of your decision-making process.”
3. Identify channel-content fit as best as you can
As you plan recycled content for different channels, try to assess how well the content will resonate with the audience there and in which format it’ll perform the best.
Ask yourself:
- What’s the best format for this type of topic on the publishing social platform?
Review whether a text-based post will do better or a short audio clip. “Repackaging the content in new creative formats & optimizing it for a particular platform is definitely key,” says Alexis.
- Is this topic idea something a specific platform’s audience enjoys?
Focus on your target audience on each platform and their “unmet needs,” Alexis advises.
To do so, Alexis reviews videos she aims to repurpose “through [the platform-specific audience’s] eyes and asks [herself] questions like: Will this video actually add value for them, or is it simply self-serving or promotional? Do they care about this message? Will this story resonate with their experiences?”
- Does this topic align with our brand tone on a specific channel?
For instance, Vimeo’s Instagram is film-driven and extremely artistic, which is why “a highly corporate thought leadership event clip would disrupt the tone on our page and confuse audiences,” Alexis explains.
Keep in mind though: nailing channel-content fit is challenging. That’s why Justin Moore takes a volume-first approach to repurposing his content across four video sharing platforms: TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Sharing your repurposed content on all your publishing channels means over time, you’ll understand which content performs well on each channel so you can best serve that audience and maintain relevance across the board.
Where should you be adding repurposing to your workflow?
Repurposing fits nicely into both pre- and post-production phases.
For example, if you already have a published library of video assets, start repurposing it as part of your post-production workflow. But if you’re only just planning new video content, make repurposing a part of the planning stage.
The best part? You can use a combination of both these approaches as well — let’s show you how each works:
Plan on reusing videos before hitting record
This takes a bit of intention as your script and record your videos. But it works remarkably well for Justin who recreates 4-5 bite-sized videos from 10-min long recorded videos.
Two main action points here:
- Make notes on exactly what you’ll repurpose and how when writing your video script (you can also use AI to write your scripts)
- Record extra words and sentences when recording the video
So when Justin creates scripts for his long-form videos with his team, they earmark clips they’ll repurpose. “We include a separate section down at the bottom [of the script] where we identify where to make cuts to the editors.”
And by the time Justin records the video, he shares, “Usually I record some extra lines that only get utilized in the repurposed [video content. This could include] recording another word so it makes sense when the Short loops right back to the beginning or adding a different hook at the top so it actually makes sense what I’m talking about.”
Recycling your parent video asset after you’ve published it
To do so, go back to your video to review what’s worth reusing. Justin does this with his live stream recordings that he simulcasts on Fridays.
Here’s the process: “I have my assistant download the replay and chop it up for Shorts. So usually we’re able to get around 12-15, one-minute short videos from the live stream and we just chop up the juiciest sound bites.
“Then we throw those over to our editor who adds captions and makes it punchy. And then we distribute those across all the short platforms, reels, TikTok, YouTube shorts, Twitter, et cetera.”
P.S. Looking to work with a creative professional to help you repurpose your long-form videos? Use Vimeo Creator Marketplace to quickly hire any professionals you need — a video editor, graphic designer, animator, or just anybody.
9 ways to create more content from your hero asset
Small teams can always create a full platform strategy using repurposed content. You can also throw in some net-new content if you’ve the time to spare.
With that, here are 14 assets to create for six channels from your long-form video. Feel free to use some or all of these based on the resources you have available:
1. Fuel your social media content strategy with repurposed content
Start with auto-generating a transcript (psst! Vimeo can help with this).
Next, create the following assets:
- Instagram posts and carousels for LinkedIn and Instagram
Pull quotes and key takeaways from the transcript to design Instagram graphics.
Pro tip: Feed your video transcript into Writer’s Recaps. Then auto-generate key takeaways and speaker quotes.
As for ideas shared in steps or insights related to a topic (think: 2023 predictions or X steps to do Y), turn them into carousels.
Tweets and Twitter threads
Share the key takeaways as tweets. Or tie them together using a coherent narrative to create a Twitter thread.
LinkedIn and Twitter audio clips
Separate the audio from your video. Then use it to identify interesting bites that make sense as standalone clips. Finally, create audiograms featuring the audio bite with a sound wave visualizer.
This repurposed video post, for instance, combines a soundbite from a virtual event, and a visual from a separate part of the event to make it visually pleasing for Twitter:
“The original accompanying visual was the speaker talking to the camera from his car,” Alexis shares.
You can also cross-post the same audiogram on LinkedIn and Twitter. The key to nailing this part though is to make sure you’re correctly resizing your video clips for the channels you publish them to.
Here’s Semrush doing the same — recycling takeaways from its conversation with Christina Garnett into an Instagram Reel:
Pro tip: Use Vimeo’s text-based editing tools to reduce the work that goes into finding and creating the best clips to repurpose. Here’s how Alexis uses it: “It used to be so cumbersome for me to have to watch an hour of footage all the way through to find little nuggets of gold. Now, I can efficiently read through video transcripts and immediately turn the lines I like into clips.”
You can also improve the quality of your repurposed clips by adding stickers, sound effects, and captions to them. See how Shade Zahrai has done this with a recycled clip from an in-person event:
Text-based posts and newsletter for LinkedIn
Share the full list of takeaways from the parent video as one LinkedIn post.
If the topic resonates with your LinkedIn audience, create as many new LinkedIn posts as the takeaways you have by expanding on each one.
Yet another way to fuel your LinkedIn content strategy with the parent asset: publish a summary of the video in your LinkedIn newsletter (again, AI can pull out the summary for you to edit and share).
Alternatively, bundle the key takeaways and share them in your newsletter — including a ‘watch full video’ CTA. Daniel Huerta, host of the video podcast, The Modern People Leader does this. Here’s one of his LinkedIn newsletters featuring takeaways from an episode:
2. Create content for your community with repurposed content
Identify novel takeaways, ideas, and frameworks shared in your video and reuse them as posts for your private community (Facebook group, Slack, Discord, or similar).
Ideally, look for thought-provoking ideas or controversial takes on topics people tend to have opinions on. Those types of posts are conversation starters as they invite your community members to share their experiences and point of view.
3. Create repurposed content for your newsletter or email list
Again, go back to the takeaways you identified from your parent video and use them to inform your email copy for promoting the new video or an event recording as Superside does here:
In the months after publishing the video, expand on each takeaway as net-new newsletter issues.
Experiment with taking new angles, adding more thoughts you’ve developed around the same topic/takeaway, or curating insights from community members on it.
4. Write new content for your blog with repurposed content
One way to do this is to edit your video script and publish it as a blog post as Justin does.
“We take the script and we basically just do some light editing on it and just throw it up on creatorwizard.com. And usually, we’ll embed the YouTube video too.”
Another approach is to review the published video to uncover the themes it’s exploring. If the themes align with your content strategy, leverage them to write 2-3 net-new blog posts. Pair the expert insights shared in the video with additional research to create new narratives.
For instance, the team at UserGems created two blog posts from their Sales Strategist’s interview at the 30 Minutes to President’s Club podcast.
The first post packaged her insights on structuring discovery calls (the interview’s topic). And the second blog post covered tips on career growth that the strategist shared on the podcast based on a question about reps’ professional development the hosts ask all guests.
5. Advanced tip: Curate insights from videos into one content piece
Lastly, curate expert insights shared in your videos on similar topics as LinkedIn and Instagram carousels tilted X experts on topic Y.
All the better if you have a video format asking guest hosts the same questions — say, one mistake they’ve made or one tip on topic XYZ. Combine and package all their answers into a blog post, carousel, or Twitter thread.
Once this post featuring multiple experts is ready, create a summary of it for your newsletter. You can also condense the takeaways into one-liners and share them as a LinkedIn post.
Create your video-led content engine today
Remember, repurposing your videos not only gives you content for other marketing channels but also multiplies the ROI of all long-form videos you create.
Simply start by chopping your videos into bite-sized ones. Then, slowly but surely scale your repurposing plan using the ideas we’ve shared.
And for the tools you need to transcribe, chop, and add elements to your repurposed video, Vimeo’s got your back.
Start making marketing videos
Enhance your content before it gets repurposed and hits the video player. Rather than just relying on tools from a platform like YouTube, you can use Vimeo's editing tools like the trimmer, merging tool, compressor, and GIF creation feature.