Multiply your return on every piece of content

I'm a big believer in maximizing the work I do when I create content and I'm constantly preaching that concept to others. Too many people treat their content as an expense but it's not. Content is an ASSET. Assets are things you possess that continue to work for you and go up in value over time. You need to start looking at your content from that point-of-view and making it work for you over and over and over.

Let me share an example of this concept that took place today - and is still taking place:

Colin Theriot has been sharing flash fiction over on Facebook for quite some time. He writes in the 55 fiction style - stories that have all the usual elements (setting, characters, conflict and resolution) but are written in 55 word or less. He just created a FB group for those who have been avidly following his flash fiction posts and want to try the style for themselves.

I submitted my first attempt at this style a couple of hours ago. After posting to the group, I also turned around and posted it to my own timeline so I could reap the benefits to my social media presence.

Next, I took this same story and posted it to a social blogging site that happens to pay me for views to my content. I added a few sentences about the background of the 55 fiction style as well as a bit about how the style can improve your writing.

I put a copy of the above post into a folder for reuse in a future product and that's when the lightbulb went on. This is a perfect example of what I try to teach others about maximizing each piece of content. I decided to share this with my Facebook following as a live example of being able to repurpose content to reach multiple audiences.

It dawned on me that this is also a concept that people here on the forum have asked me about, which brings me to this post. This makes 5 times that I have or will repurpose this content - and it all took less than 30 minutes. And I'm not done, as I can think of several other ways that I might reuse this content in the future.

Are you treating your content like an asset or an expense? What other ways have you repurposed content? With content such an important part of almost all of our businesses, I think this could be a very helpful discussion, particularly for newer marketers.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, here's the 55-word story I originally wrote:

The Good Wife

Dinner put away and kitchen cleaned, I sigh as I look at the footprints trailing from door to couch. I can't stifle the yawn as I make up his lunch.

“Why so tired?” he said. “You don't work.”

I cleaned the gun before putting it back in the closet. A wife's job is never done.