If you read our blog about how to optimize your social media strategy, with tips to save you time and maximize engagement, you’re already on your way to social media mastery! Sometimes the hardest part about social media marketing is coming up with content ideas or knowing what to post. If you feel uninspired when it comes to thinking up engaging social media posts, keep reading for ideas to get you rolling! The possibilities for content—that is, written captions paired with images or videos—are truly endless.
Brainstorm these 8 questions to kickstart your next social media posts
- Who is your target audience, and what are they interested in?
- How can you add value to the lives of your customers and potential clients?
- What can you give them besides your product or service?
- What do they struggle with, and how can you help them with that?
- Can you solve a problem for them?
- How can you entertain or engage viewers beyond making a sale?
- Can you make them feel understood with a meme or a joke?
- If your brand was a person, what would they be interested in? How would they express their personality and interact with others? What would they like to talk about?
Why engagement (not paid ads) is what you aim for.
Paid ads are a great tool, but you can use social media to your business’ advantage without paying a dime. User engagement with your social posts—such as shares, likes, and comments—is the best way to increase your organic reach by becoming more visible to a wider audience and gaining new followers without spending on paid ads. If you can inspire a feeling, a thought, or new idea for a user, chances are that they will either click “like” on that post or leave a comment underneath the post—both of which you definitely want!
The mystery of the algorithms.
We’re going to let you in on some inside knowledge here; your post will never be automatically shown to everyone who follows you. A new social post only appears to a small percentage of followers at first, until it gains some traction through engagement. Whenever a user likes or comments on your social post, the post becomes visible to a wider audience. That means every like leads to more viewership, and every comment leads to more likes or comments. The best way to get likes and comments is to provide users with some value that inspires them toward action. If the post provides nothing of value to them, they will scroll right past and you will go largely unnoticed, your post slipping through the cracks into the abyss of rejected social media posts nobody will ever see again. That’s the mystery of the algorithms!
So, how to boost engagement?
Ask yourself, what can I offer my clients besides my product or service? Maybe it’s advice or useful information that is relevant to their lives. Maybe you can answer their (unasked) questions or provide a solution to a problem they have. Give them a laugh or a smile, a sense of connection, an inspiring idea, or even just some eye-candy (a beautiful image or video).
10 topic ideas for social media posts:
- Posts about specific products you want to highlight or feature for that month
- Announcements of promotional offers for the month
- Posts wishing followers Happy Holidays or other seasonal holidays wishes
- Off-the-floor realness – posts that let your viewers in on your business’s daily operations and show them that you are real people, doing real things on the daily — the more relatable, the better!
- Viral content relevant to your business
- Memes or jokes
- Quotes that inspire your target audience
- Articles or news stories relevant to your business or industry
- Re-share a post from a partner or client that really spoke to you or your brand
- Tips or FAQS
Our Formula For Social Media Content Creation: The Rule of Thirds
⅓ Educational/Informative posts
⅓ Engaging/Entertaining posts
⅓ Promotional posts
Educational or informative posts share industry news, articles, or tips your followers could benefit from. Engaging or entertaining posts are aimed at interacting with others, and promotional posts promote your product or service.
When you sit down to create your monthly content calendar, plan your content according to the rule of thirds. (Learn more about the importance of content calendars, plus other helpful social media tips, in this blog). Think of it this way: If you are posting at a frequency of 3 posts per week, one of those should be educational or informative, one should be entertaining or engaging, and one should be promotional. Whatever you do, avoid relying too heavily on only one or two types of posts and aim for a balanced variety.
Get excited about social media management!
There’s a lot more to social media content creation than just posting random images with captions whenever you remember. Creating effective and high-quality social media posts isn’t as hard as it seems—we promise! If you’re ever feeling in over your head managing social media, the Danger Dynamite team is always here to support you. Get in touch to discuss ways we can up the ante with your social media content!