Content Resurfacing and Repurposing: Strategies to Connect your Content with your Audience on Twitter
Introduction:
Producing great content often feels like half the battle. The second challenge is getting your work in front of as much of your audience as possible. I have been thinking a lot about the steps technical creators should take if they are making great tweets/threads, but their audience doesn’t always see them. I wrote this blog post to provide some clarity on this question.
In this blog, I will walk through what resurfacing and repurposing content means. I will also show different examples of how technical content creators and some startup folks use these strategies on Twitter. My hope is that you leave this article with actionable steps and inspiration on how you can further engage your own developer audience.
What are Resurfacing and Repurposing?
Content resurfacing is the process of bringing back great content you previously posted so that more of your audience can engage with it. Resurfacing can be a simple repost of old content, a refresh (changing the wording slightly), or a thread that highlights old content.
A fun example of this that I have seen circulating on Twitter, are these refreshed tweets from Neil deGrasse Tyson:
Content repurposing is the process of transforming a piece of content from one medium to another. On Twitter, a common goal is to make long-form content more digestible. Great content repurposing often gives highlights of a long-form piece of content and entices the reader enough to engage with the full piece. Repurposed tweets tend to do better than just posting an individual link in a tweet. Here is a good example of repurposing a blog post to a thread of highlights:
In the next section, I will walk through a variety of resurfacing and repurposing tweet/thread formats that can be useful for any technical content creator.
Resurfacing:
In Case You Missed It
By posting this tweet at the end of the week, Chris reaches more of his audience. This helps members of Chris’ community who may browse Twitter on different days/times, to still come across Chris’ newest content.
Thread of Top Moments
I have seen this format executed effectively on a monthly or yearly basis. You can also make a thread of your best tweets as well not just your best threads. Making a greatest hits list like this is a great way to have new followers engage with old content, and to remind old followers of the impact you have had on them. I loved seeing this comment from Greg Isenberg about how one of Wes’ threads impacted him:
Mult-Content Thread
This thread has all the relevant info to get a Web 2.0 Dev from “0 to Hello World” on Solana. I call this multi-content because it does not only resurface tweets but has links across all mediums they post content to.
Threads like these can also be a really good resource to use in replies to potential users who have questions about how to get started. If someone in your community has a question about getting started with Solana, this thread has all the relevant information.
Repurposing:
Tutorial to Thread
Here are two of my favorite examples:
Making tutorials into threads is a great way to help a developer discover helpful content that they can implement. You organically come across tweets in your feed but often only look for tutorials when troubleshooting a specific problem.
I love how Ben starts by explaining the direct pain point he is solving in his thread, and Ali gives the reader an interesting insight into her terminal. I found both of these opening tweets interesting. I also like that there is flexibility on Twitter to create a thread that either teases your tutorial content or totally converts it to a thread with all the steps written out.
Blog to Thread
This thread reminds me of Ben’s teaser thread in the “Tutorial to Thread” section above. For this approach, you provide the reader with your motivation for what you are building and some highlights of what they will find in the longer piece. This thread provides meaningful insights into what your audience is about to read and can help drive more of your followers to your offsite, long-form pieces if they are avid Twitter users.
Stream Highlights:
I really like seeing Learn With Jasons’ show highlights on a weekly basis. Sometimes streams can last over an hour and this is a great way to give an audience a taste of what they may see. This tweet makes the decision to watch the entire stream easier and more accessible.
Interview/Podcast to Thread
I found this thread format interesting because I often see tweets for a lot of interview-style podcasts but rarely see highlights if they aren’t filmed. I think having a thread like this for key learnings is a really frictionless way to give your audience a sense of what they will listen to before they commit to a full podcast.
Conclusion
The core takeaway I want readers to have from this article is that a content strategy of resurfacing and repurposing will help you reach more of your audience. I hope you take some of these strategies, try them, and see what works for you : )
