So, you have read that posting content regularly is the best way to attract and engage visitors to your social media accounts. You know that you can spice things up by using different formats, like videos, infographics, and graphics. But how do you come up with ideas for new content for your business’s social media feed? What types of content might grab the interest of your target audience?
Well, the first rule of generating new ideas for social media is not to assume what your audience knows or likes. For example, you may think that posts about the inner workings of your business are boring. Still, they may be fascinating for your customers. So, start with a blank sheet of paper, and assume nothing. Then see how you might apply some of these topic ideas to your business social media feed. You may have thoughts on what will work and what won’t work, but the only way to make sure is to try everything.
Remember this tip, choose to have more content that may not always be jaw-dropping but consistent, versus choosing to post less content spread over random periods and crammed into longer articles with supposedly “more value.”
1. Share Company News
People love to peek inside a business. So, keep your customers and prospects up-to-date with what is happening within your company. If you win a massive client or job, for example, why not boast about your success? If you win an industry award, let the world know that your company is a winner.
Even news that seems mundane to you might be of interest to an outsider. Taking on some new employees, for example, demonstrates that your business is expanding. So, see what company news you can put a positive spin on and release on social media.
Here is one that is as simple as can be, your company’s birthday. It comes around every year, so you know you can always rely on that.
2. Press Mentions
If your brand has been mentioned in the press, then share the article with your social media followers. Tag the posts with the reporter and the outlet, and your post will probably reach more people than a regular post. It doesn’t matter whether the mention was in a trade magazine, a local newspaper, or a national publication.
Whether it is a devout follower or your competition spying on you, a press mention will always be a fantastic, engaging piece of content.
Press coverage of your company helps to increase the awareness of your brand. So, help spread the news by sharing press mentions on your social media feeds.
3. Research Data
The data you have gathered for market research could provide you with a topic for a social media post. People like to read statistics about things that concern or interest them. For example, the annual pollen statistics would be interesting to people considering purchasing a home cleaning due to allergy season.
Potential car buyers might be interested in car manufacturer’s market share. People concerned about climate change would find renewable energy statistics interesting.
You never know how powerful a piece of market data can be for readers, and the more in-depth you go, the better the chance your readers stick around for an extended period of time.
4. Behind the Scenes
Have you ever wondered how they make potato chips? Well, other people are probably also wondering how you make your products or do your services. So, use your social media feeds to give your audience an idea of how things are done at your company. It’s not only a manufacturing business that can make use of behind-the-scenes content.
For example, service companies can show how projects are managed and how employees are trained. Retail companies can explain how the shelves in the store are always kept stocked and how buyers are looking for the best deals.
If you are a home cleaning service, you can shadow one of your cleaners during a routine home cleaning and record the proper steps to take care of a particular area. If you end up having too much content, you can either condense them into a quick 60-second video or break them up into segments.
5. Industry News
Your business social media doesn’t need to be full of news about your company. You could also share breaking news of any significant developments in your industry sector. For example, perhaps some other companies have made some significant technological breakthroughs in your industry. Or maybe you could publicize some newsworthy industry conferences.
Of course, you might not want to share news about your direct competitors. Still, there will probably be plenty of non-competing businesses operating in your niche.
Sharing information about other organizations could make your social feed the go-to place for the latest updates on your industry. And sharing other organization’s posts may also win you some further shares of your content. When sharing other organization’s content, your readers may see you as more confident and insightful. You are open-minded and not a company that only cares about itself.
6. Employee News
Sharing news about your employees is a great way to show the human side of your brand. However, try not to make the company executives the only people you talk about on social media. Your customers will be interested in virtually meeting the people who answer the phone and ship out the orders, too.
Another great and super simple way to have your employees engaged in this is to share their birthdays and write a friendly and sincere appreciation post. Again, this will show anyone who lands on your page that you are like a family, and they will be more likely to want to do business with you.
It can add an extra personal touch if you allow employees to write or present social media posts. And don’t forget to share happy events like weddings and births with your followers, too. Putting faces to names will help followers connect on a personal level with your brand.
7. Customer Stories
Sharing stories and images of customers using your products or services is a great way to gain publicity without overtly selling. It’s also an excellent way to say thank you to people who have purchased from you.
You could develop formal customer case studies for this purpose, or you could search for relevant hashtags to find mentions of your brand and share that content.
If you will share customers constantly on your feed, it is best to get the customer’s permission first. Using this type of customer-generated content is also another way to get your content more widely shared.
You never know when you share a story that it might be seen by a friend or family member of this customer, and they decide to give you and your business a try as well.
8. Polls and Surveys
Polls and surveys are an excellent way to engage followers. For example, you could ask your followers for their input on designing a new product or service. Or you could carry out some market research to help you target your marketing.
People like being asked for their opinion, so surveys are also an excellent way to increase interaction on your social media feeds. If that doesn’t go so well, you can incentivize your followers by giving them a specific dollar or percentage off their next purchase. We all love getting deals, and if a quick poll will end up giving you what you want, why not provide the followers with a little something as well?
9. Tips and Advice
Tips and advice posts provide you with an opportunity to showcase your expertise. These types of posts lend themselves well to many formats, including videos, blog posts, and infographics. For example, you could post tips on using and maintaining your products, or your content could cover more general advice related to your niche.
In addition, social media posts that help your audience are great for building trust in a brand. So, don’t be afraid to share your knowledge on social media, even when there is no immediate benefit for your business in doing so.
We believe that tips and tricks will catch anyone’s attention since we are always looking for the best methods to achieving something.
10. Contests and Giveaways
Contests and giveaways are another great way to engage your followers, and, of course, they work well as lead magnets for your mailing list, too. You could also expand your reach by making the sharing of the post a condition of entry.
But, as is the case with all social media, your content must relate to your niche and be relevant to your brand. Contests and giveaways that are not pertinent to your brand will merely attract entrants with no interest in buying anything from you.
11. Blog Posts
The best way to keep your social media feeds interesting is to vary the content and post regularly. One source of social media posts will be sharing your blog posts. It is relatively easy to set up an automatic feed of your blog posts to your various social media accounts.
However, don’t let automation make you lazy. You will still need some original content on your social media feeds. You will need to interact with your audience by responding to comments.
12. Events
If you are hosting any events or webinars, your social media feeds are an excellent way to promote these occasions. But don’t forget that you can also share video footage or photos of these events after they have taken place.
13. Product Launches
The release of new products or services will provide you with another content source for your social media accounts. For example, you could build a buzz around a product launch by giving your social media followers a sneak preview of a new product.
Using social media will make more people aware of the new product, and it will increase the audience size for the eventual official launch. But be careful not to give too much away in your teasers, or the official launch will become old news.
14. Customer Feedback
Favorable reviews of your product are always good news. But have you considered sharing those reviews with your audience on social media? Of course, you might want to seek people’s permission before you share their quotes. But sharing positive customer feedback on social media is a great way to reinforce your sales message.
15. Cross-Promote Platforms
Generally, it is best to have different content on different social media platforms. However, there is no reason why you cannot repurpose some content to cross-post on another platform.
Cross-posting will help you increase your followers and let people know what they are missing on your other social media feeds. A blog post might be turned into a short video, for example. A video might be transcribed into an infographic.
Reusing content in this way saves you time developing content from scratch. Repurposing also makes content available in various formats, which will increase the total number of people who view that information.
We have all been there, scratching our heads and pulling our hair out, thinking of the next clever thing to post. We want to have as much engagement as possible and have the content go viral, but there are times when it just doesn’t happen.
Hopefully, the ideas listed above will help you if you have been struggling to develop content ideas for your social media feeds. The next thing to do is see how you can apply the above concepts to your business and then draft a content publishing schedule.
Remember, what you think is common knowledge may be fascinating to your audience. So, it is best not to write off any on-brand topic ideas until you have tried them and monitored the interaction they generate.
