How To Repurpose Your Live Streams Into Engaging Video Content

Find The Dopamine Points

The first thing you’ll have to learn when repurposing content is what your audience is after. Suppose you’re an educator. Your audience is obviously after information and insights. So, when you repurpose your live streams, you have to isolate insightful moments.

On the other hand, a comedian might not get the same reach or reception singling out informative moments. He would need to isolate the funniest bits because his audience is after laughs and not fresh insight. The same person who follows a thought leader for great ideas may follow a comic for laughs.

Understanding why your audience follows you will help you satisfy your followers. Write down everything that your viewers appreciate about your live streams. Remember, there can be more than one dopamine point. Some comedians are great philosophers, and some teachers are great comics.

It helps to point out the primary dopamine points as well as the secondary ones. The former is the main reason people follow you, and the latter are other aspects they appreciate about you. Do not assume or project these.

You may want your followers to tune in for your unique takes, but if they actually tune in because you look cute, then you'll get ahead, isolating your cutest moments.

Set A Repurposing Strategy

It might seem like many top streamers are very random with their clip selection. Their repurposing strategy doesn't look strategic at all. But top-tier streamers have a very calculated approach to repurposing and their content in general. Every upload is digital real estate, and they can't afford to waste it.

If a good clip is followed by a bad one, the number of people who tune in for every upload decreases. Only when every upload is high-quality do people decide to check out everything you post. Creating this reputation for consistent quality requires understanding what your audience wants and including it in your live streams.

Only if you add those elements to your stream can you repurpose them later. Podcasters have mastered this art and have even given it an informal name. “Clip bit” is the informal name given to the part of a podcast that is intended to be clipped as a standalone upload.

When podcasters discuss celebrity drama and the latest events, they deliver pre-written punchlines and make calculated statements. They heighten their performance for what they know will be an individual clip.

As a live streamer, you can also be strategic like that. Now that you know your content's dopamine point, you can pepper it throughout your stream. Not only will this produce great raw material for repurposing, but it will also make for a great stream.

Identify Repurposing Possibilities

This step happens once you have a recording of your stream. Many novice streamers go to their stream metrics and clip parts with the highest engagement. That is a bad move. Streams are consumed differently than pre-recorded videos.

If you clip the most replayed part of your YouTube video for a YouTube Short, you are isolating and repurposing the most engaging part. But if you clip the moment of your stream with the most viewers, you're repurposing a moment when most people had the time to check out your stream.

Perhaps your funniest and most insightful moments came at a very late point in the stream when no one was around! So, do not go directly to analytics. Instead, start with the dopamine point identified earlier. If you have followed the previous steps, you might have an idea about the best moments of your stream.

For instance, if you planned a gag for the two-hour mark, you know you can go to (and isolate) the two-hour mark on the recorded stream.

Pro Tip: If there are spontaneous moments of insight, humor, or controversy, make sure to make a note of the time.

Once you have identified the moments you want to repurpose into their own content pieces, it is time to start repurposing. Busy streamers have producers, editors, or tech-savvy VAs who do this for them. But you do not need a team to multiply your content as long as you get a content multiplier.

Get A Content Multiplier

A content multiplier is a software like ContentFries that lets you turn one piece of content into multiple pieces. Live streamers can use these repurposing programs to create short clips from their long form content.

With ContentFries, you can:

• Create Short-form Vertical videos (TikTok/Reels/Shorts) from your recorded streams.

• Produce Medium-form horizontal videos (Youtube).

• Auto-caption content for higher engagement.

• Turn stream clips into blog posts.

• Create quote cards out of quotable moments from your livestream.

The program has a lot more to offer. You just need to play with it and discover the possibilities for yourself. That said, you can use other programs to repurpose your stream into shorter clips.

For instance, you can use Premiere Pro, iMovie, or Final Cut Pro to trim short clips from long pre-recorded videos. But ContentFries saves you time and requires no editing background. Plus, it autocaptions your content far more accurately and lets you save your branding for quick reuse.

Generate Short Clips

Once you have decided which program you want to use for content repurposing, it is time to generate short clips. Gary Vee has dubbed the 2020s as the decade of “Tiktokification” of the internet. So, it is pretty clear why short-form video is the highest priority content format.

ContentFries has a context editor for TikTok-style videos. It automatically crops and places your clips in the 9:16 aspect ratio when the option is selected. With a standard video editor, you might need to set the canvas/frame to 9:16 and crop your stream content accordingly.

Once you have exported the first clip, you can celebrate having repurposed your stream. But have you strip-mined it for all its worth? Not even close. Do not make one or two clips and call it a day. An average livestream has 770+ clippable moments!

As the go-to repurposing solution for live streamers and podcasters, ContentFries has a community of creators that share their experiences in a closed Facebook Group. Through various channels of feedback and social media discussions, we have learned that 2-hour-plus live streams have far more clippable moments than we initially assumed.

So take as long as you like at this stage and make as many clips as you want. For many streamers, short clips are the only content repurposing style they’re familiar with. The rest of the repurposing tactics in this article can be considered “advanced”.

Create Graphics

Once you have generated clips, it is time to venture into other content formats. To make things simple, you should no longer work with the long-form recording. It has served its purpose, and the best parts have been isolated into clips. Now, you will work with (and repurpose) the short clips you have exported into different content formats.

Here are some opportunities to create graphics from your short-form video content.

Produce Animations

Another way to repurpose your clips for a video-first audience is to produce animated versions of them. Before you dismiss the possibility on account of it being too difficult or expensive, consider the recent updates in indie animation-making.

Adobe Character Animator is a program you should be familiar with. It allows you to live stream as a cartoon character with fully lip-synced audio. How cool is that? Plus, with just a few months of dedicated practice, you can churn out high-quality animated videos using this program.

AI Video-making is also taking off, so you might soon be able to generate realistic videos to illustrate stories from your livestream clips. Keep in mind that this isn't your typical repurposing format. It takes some time. And if you hire an animator, then it takes money.

Either way, most content repurposing is relatively effortless. This one is an exception and entirely optional. Unless you have an audience of over ten thousand subscribers, animating your clips might not be worth the effort.

Create Slideshows

Slideshows or carousel posts are posts that feature multiple images. If you have repurposed your clips to graphics, then you already know what it takes to create slideshows. You simply need to produce and export multiple related images. Then, you need to post them all in a single post –preferably in a specific order.

Carousel posts can currently be uploaded to Instagram and LinkedIn. Threads, Facebook, and Twitter also allow uploading multiple images to a single post but can often randomize their order. Some slideshows, like collections of quotes and facts, can be explored in a random order. Others, like cooking instructions, need to be explored in a specific order.

Look at the table below to see where different slides belong.

Create A Podcast

You can compile your live stream clips into audio files and upload them as podcast episodes! One of the most popular podcasts in the world, The Daily Stoic, has some episodes where the host simply introduces the episode and then plays some of his own Stoic advice TikToks.

You, too, can create an audio podcast if you can get your content's dopamine point across via audio only.

Curate And Compile

Curating and compiling your clips for long-form content isn't just an audio-only strategy. You can create clip compilations for medium-form video content as well. YouTube sketch comedian Adrian Bliss often creates thematic compilations of his YouTube Shorts and uploads them as standard YouTube videos. You can repurpose your livestream clips in a similar way.

Follow The Masters (Of Repurposing)

At this point, you have explored all the different ways in which you can repurpose your live streams for video, image, and audio platforms. Now, we’re going over optional steps for excellence.

And a prerequisite for excellence is to be open to learning. By following those who are good at repurposing, you can be inspired and informed about fresh content repurposing strategies. Here are some of the best (at repurposing) content creators to follow:

• Gary Vee

• Alex Hormozi

• Neil Patel

• Amy Porterfield

• Marie Forleo

• Pat Flynn

• Grant Cardone

• Andrew Schulz

Be On Every Platform (Where Your Audience Is)

Once you have figured out how to repurpose your content, what else remains but to repurpose your content? Well, one thing remains. You need your efforts to count, so you need to be strategic about the platforms you get on. That’s why knowing your audience is so important.

If your audience is too young or too old for a platform, there's no point in posting there. Be everywhere your audience is, but avoid any platform where your viewers don't hang out. It also helps to be mindful of the platform's purpose.

• LinkedIn - People are there to build their careers. Only post career-assisting clips from your streams.

• Facebook - People are there to have discussions about social content. Post discussion magnet content here.

• Threads / X (Twitter) - People are here to read and write in bite-sized posts. Use a video-to-text generator like ContentFries to make text posts here.

• Instagram - This is a highly visual platform, so post visually engaging clips and graphics here.

• YouTube - People are here to consume content intentionally. Post insightful and engaging clips here.

• TikTok - This is a music-driven hyper-short platform. Publish the bite-sized content here.

80-20 Your Repurposing Efforts

This step is so advanced that you should not try it unless you have been repurposing and posting content for over six months. Only then do you have enough data to pull this off.

You need to look at your content analytics across all platforms. One thing you will notice is a Pareto distribution of effort and reach. The Pareto Principle suggests that 20% of the causes produce 80% of the consequences. You will notice that 20% of your content produces 80% of your engagement.

Notice the content types that are generating this engagement. Also, notice which 20% of the platforms give you 80% of your total reach. The percentages might not be exactly 80-20, but they will be close. You can become more effective as a creator by simply knowing what your most effective content types and most potent content channels are.

10x What Works (Pedal to the metal)

If you want to go beyond “effective" and become a global brand, you need to accelerate. Previously, you discovered the 80-20 distribution in your content and distribution channels. Now, you have to put your foot on the pedal.

Ignore completely every platform except the 20% that get you the most reach. Then, ignore every content type or topic except the 20% that gets you the most engagement. When all that remains is the top 20% of your engagement driving content on the top 20% of your content distribution channels, you should 10X your production.

Put all your effort behind the two to three content formats and themes that get your audience fired up. And publish a lot more often on the platforms that give you the greatest reach.

Carry this on long enough, and you'll become so popular that people will clip and repost your content for you. When you become a UGC (User-Generated Content) brand, you don't even need to worry about repurposing. People do it for you!

Final Thoughts

To repurpose live streams, you need to record the stream and isolate the most dopamine-boosting moments. Knowing your audience and having a content repurposing tool like ContentFries are two of the most important things for a streamer who wants to expand his digital footprint. The rest is in the article above. Follow it, and success will follow you.