Content repurposing checklist: 27 items to run before you publish
A 27-item content repurposing checklist covering source quality, platform-native formatting, captioning, hashtags, scheduling, and post-publish review.
Last verified 2026-05-22
Direct answer: A 27-item content repurposing checklist breaks into five phases: source quality (5 items), platform-native formatting (8 items), captioning and hooks (6 items), scheduling and metadata (4 items), and post-publish review (4 items). Running the full checklist takes 5-8 minutes per output once you have it memorized; the upside is meaningful reach lift on platforms that throttle non-native outputs.
Checklists are operational, not strategic. They turn the editorial discipline that takes years to internalize into a 5-minute pre-publish review. The 27-item list below covers every failure mode that platforms penalize in 2026. Print it, save it, or build it into your team's review process.
The sequence matters. Source quality items come first because they gate everything else — no amount of platform-native polish recovers a bad source piece. Post-publish review comes last because the audit-loop is what separates operators who improve from operators who plateau.
Phase 1: Source quality (5 items)
The source piece contains at least 3-5 quotable lines per hour. Without them, downstream outputs have no hook material.
Audio quality is clean enough for auto-transcription to hit 95%+ accuracy. Background noise, low mic levels, or accented mumbling kill the pipeline.
Video framing is consistent — face on camera, predictable lighting, single subject in frame for talking-head sources. Inconsistent framing kills auto-reframing.
Pacing has natural breaks every 30-60 seconds. Monologue without breaks is unclippable.
Topic is specific enough that downstream outputs can carry meaningful titles. "How I grew my agency" is too broad; "the 3 hires that 2x'd my agency in 6 months" is specific.
Phase 2: Platform-native formatting (8 items)
Aspect ratio matches the destination platform — 9:16 for TikTok/Reels/Shorts, 1:1 for legacy IG/FB feed, 16:9 for YouTube long-form, 4:5 for LinkedIn.
No black bars. If the source is horizontal and the destination is vertical, reframe via face tracking or split-screen layout, never letterbox.
No competitor watermarks in the frame (TikTok logo on a Reels upload, YouTube logo on a TikTok upload).
Resolution meets the platform minimum — 1080×1920 for vertical, 1920×1080 for horizontal, 1080×1080 for square.
Frame rate is platform-appropriate — 30fps for most platforms, 60fps acceptable on YouTube and X.
File format matches platform spec — MP4 H.264 for nearly all platforms in 2026.
Duration matches platform sweet spot — 15-30s for TikTok, 30-90s for Reels, 30-60s for Shorts, varies for long-form platforms.
Audio normalized to platform loudness target — roughly -14 LUFS for most short-form platforms.
Phase 3: Captioning and hooks (6 items)
Captions placed in the platform safe zone — TikTok center/lower-third, Reels lower-third, Shorts upper-third per platform UI overlays.
Caption font matches platform conventions — sans-serif bold for TikTok, italic-light for Reels, large-block for Shorts.
Caption text proofread against the transcript. Auto-transcription errors are inevitable; the manual check takes 30 seconds and saves the post.
Hook overlay in the first 0.8-1.5 seconds for short-form vertical. Question-style hooks for Shorts, statement-style for Reels, line-of-dialog for TikTok.
Per-platform caption text rewritten — not identical to other platforms. Same idea, different wording.
CTA matches platform conventions — "link in bio" for IG/TikTok, "see comments" for LinkedIn, "thread below" for X.
Phase 4: Scheduling and metadata (4 items)
Publish time matches your audience's actual active window — not the platform's recommended generic time.
At least 8-hour gap between consecutive posts on the same platform from the same source piece.
Hashtags placed per platform convention — first comment on IG/Threads, caption on LinkedIn/X, no hashtags on TikTok (rely on captions instead).
Title text includes the search-relevant keyword for platforms with search (YouTube long-form, blog, newsletter).
Phase 5: Post-publish review (4 items)
Check engagement metrics at the 4-hour and 24-hour marks. Significant deviation from your baseline signals an early throttle pattern.
Read the first 5-10 comments. Use them as editorial signal for the next source piece.
Archive the output file and metadata to your own storage within 7 days of publish.
Tag the output in your tracking sheet — source piece ID, platform, publish time, performance bucket (top 10% / middle / bottom). Quarterly review of this sheet drives format kill decisions.
Frequently asked questions
How long does running the full checklist take per output?
5-8 minutes per output once you have it memorized. Faster if you split the work — designer handles platform-native formatting, copywriter handles captions, scheduler handles metadata.
Can a tool run this checklist automatically?
Most of phase 2 (formatting) and phase 4 (scheduling metadata) yes. Phase 1 (source quality) and phase 3 (captioning) need a human. Phase 5 (review) is partly tool-driven and partly editorial.
Is this checklist different for B2B vs consumer?
Slightly. B2B accents the blog and LinkedIn items, consumer accents the TikTok and Reels items. The core 27 items apply to both.
How often should I update the checklist?
Quarterly. Platform conventions drift — safe zones change with UI updates, recommended durations shift with algorithm changes, hashtag conventions evolve.
Do I need to run all 27 items on every single output?
Yes for new operators. After 12 months of reps the items become reflexive and the explicit checklist time drops to 1-2 minutes per output.
What happens if I skip the post-publish review?
You lose the feedback loop that drives format kill decisions. Operators who skip the review tend to keep posting formats that have already died.
Is there a Kompozy-specific version of this checklist?
Kompozy handles items in phases 2, 3, and 4 automatically based on the destination platform. The human still owns phases 1 (source quality) and 5 (review).