Do you ever sit in front of your PC or tablet, scratching your head thinking about what next to post on Social media? Honestly, we’ve all been there, but with smart planning and a little thought you’ll be overflowing with great new content ideas. 

Here’s a snapshot of what this article covers:

• Promotion or discount
• Ask questions to your followers
• Famous quote of the day
• Share what you are reading
• Hints or tips
• What your business has been up to
• Testimonials from your customers

Content Ideas #1 – Promotion or discount

People love a bargain, in fact 71% of consumers follow brands on social media to get offers and discounts.

This provides you a great opportunity to not only keep your current audience happy but to also grow your following.

A great content idea is to offer exclusive deals in social media that can’t be found elsewhere.

This will help your posts increase shares and likes as it’s unique to your social media accounts.

If there is an exclusive edge (it can’t be found elsewhere) to your social media, then in time people will join you.

Remember to use the correct general hashtags when posting a promotion or discount, such #offer, #discount #moneyoff and other hashtags relating to what it is for e.g. #coffee  #museum #fashion.

Example: 

The below image illustrates a social media post we did to run alongside the 2018 world cup. We offered a promotion that was only to be found in our social media channels, not available on our website or elsewhere on the internet. Not only was it something exclusive, but it was also using trending news content that everyone was talking about

Content Ideas #2 – Ask questions to your followers

It’s human nature, if someone poses a question, it’s very difficult not to answer.

When you’re thinking about content ideas, ask questions, it will boost your social media engagement.

You could for instance, post a picture of a product or service and lay text over it, asking a question.

Using images and graphics in social media also increases the chance of engagement.

The goal here is to get your followers to answer the question in the form of a comment below the original post.

Not only is this good for that post directly but is also allows others to see your follower comments, which may get comments from others, meaning more activity on your posts.

Content Ideas #3 – Famous quote of the day

Everyone loves an easily digestible quote from a famous person.

Try and make sure that the quotes you use are inspirational, motivating or offer a thought provoking responsive.

Remember not to go overboard though, mix them in with your other content ideas for a well-rounded social media content strategy.

Using quotes will to increase your social media shares.

Like the above point, they are great if you do them visually as a graphic and keep them to one or two sentences.

Try and stick to well known people that your audience will instantly recognise.

Content Ideas #4 – Share what you’re reading

The saying goes ‘sharing is caring’, this is true for your social media content too.

By telling your audience your latest read, helps bring personality to your social media accounts.

You’ll likely get comments from other people that have also read the same content.

However, make sure that what you share will be of interest to your audience demographic.

For instance, if you sell car engine parts, it’s likely your audience won’t be interested in needle point.

If you do share your latest reads, you can also tag in the authors social media account to increase exposure, if they share or like your posts it’s a ‘win-win’.

Example: 

As you can see one avid reader shared a post on their own Twitter feed with a cute picture with the short Tweet 

There are a few of my favourite things

She mentioned a few hashtags, but more importantly she use tagged in the author. The author retweeted the post, if you view his timeline this is something he doesn’t do a lot. 

The result was his audience of 30,000 plus would have been able to see it. Her Tweet received 9 additional shares and 81 likes, she may have also received more followers on her own account. 

Not bad for a nice picture and an 8 word Tweet.

Content Ideas #5 – Hints and tips

These can come in many forms such as a hint as part of a tweet, a how-to video on YouTube, a blog post on your website or an infographic.

Hints, tips, hacks and cheats are incredibly powerful as part of your overall content ideas. They are designed to help your audience in some form or other.

Giving away useful information is a great way to increase the response rates of your posts as you’re giving away valuable knowledge.

This is great method of building trust by your followers.

Try and mix up, how you present the help and advice, using text, images and video.

Monitor which of these types of posts are most successful (most shares, likes etc.) then produce more of them.

This goes for all types of posts you produce, without monitor your successes and failures you’ll never understand what your audience wants.

Content Ideas #6 – What your business has been up to

Out of all the content ideas, we would say you have to be careful with this one. Only post these dispersed between other types of posts.

What you post will depend on how often you should be posting in social media.

For instance, if you’re posting about a new contract win, a conference you’ve attended or a new piece of equipment in your business, then they have possibly little value to your audience.

The intent of the post needs to bring to light something your followers would be interested in.

Remember, social media is just that, social!

It must be engaging and has the potential to liked and shared. Too much self-promotion can damage your social following.

Example: 

Although the below is a little self promotional post, it’s not self indulgent. It brings value to its Facebook followers by telling them they now offer deliveries through Deliveroo. 

It also uses Deliveroo’s hashtag to help build the social reach of the post. 

Content Ideas #7 – Testimonials from your customers

Reviews and customer testimonials of your business are an important part of your overall marketing strategy.

They don’t just help drive traffic to your website and increase click through rate, but they also help convert these visitors into becoming customers.

Using the odd customer review as posts in social media is fine, again this can be done as a graphic. However, like the previous point, make sure they are only sprinkled in every now and then.

Everyone likes to read a positive review, but don’t be ‘that’ social media account that is on a mission to prove that everyone loves them.

If you’re constantly having to tell people how good you are then the chances are that people will wonder if you’re that great why do you need to keep telling people.

Content Ideas #8 – Answer customer questions

Like it or not, social media is an open forum, you can’t control what people write. They can use your hashtags and post to your account mentioning you in their posts.

If your customers have questions about your products or services. Then answer them directly for all to see.

Don’t ignore them. Remember that social media is a two-way street. It doesn’t matter whether the question they ask may seem obvious to you.

If you respond, chances are people will observe this interaction. If you don’t respond it can leave a bad feeling in your audience that you don’t value your customers and followers.

ALWAYS appear super helpful, open and be socially aware that everyone can see whats happening.

Example:

Virgin recently posted on Facebook about cycling and e-bikes. Obviously from the 330,000 followers they have, someone would have made a comment or ask a question.

One follower did, he commented that you couldn’t pre-book bikes on their trains. 

Virgin responded in an awesome way by thanking him for the comment and asking him to contact Virgin Trains directly and they would appreciate his feedback

Content Ideas #9 – Show off new products and services

Your social media followers do just that because they are interested in what you do or your brand in general.

By keeping your audience updated in social media on the latest launches is a great way to keep help them stay informed.

They already follow you for a reason, chances are they will really appreciate your new offerings.

Try and keep in mind, that how you do this always has to be of value or use to your followers. If you can answer your social media post with ‘so what?’ – it’s probably not going to hit the spot.

For example, if you launch a new piece of software, you could Tweet the following

“Check out our new software for business owners”

Not much value.

Instead add a benefit that will address a ‘pain point’ or intrigue your viewers. You could instead try.

“Ever wondered how to save 25% off your office phone call costs?”

A basic Tweet, but you get the picture.

This could be done by bringing in three of the above content ideas, it’s a new product, it could be posted as a graphic with text and it’s a question.

Triple whammy!

Make sure that you’re not constantly pushing new product lines down your followers’ throats though.

If you’re an ecommerce store selling fishing rods for example, if you post 5 times a day about new reels, your content is going to bore your audience and will quickly start to become stale.

Content Ideas #10 – Use of infographics

Not everyone wants to read a lot of text like this blog article. Some want to digest content quickly in a visual manner.

It has been stated that the brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. This is key, if you quickly want to get your message over, then producing infographics should be a great part of your content strategy.

Infographics should be short, not over complex and visually get your point over fast.

If you don’t have the skills to do this yourself, you can source many freelancers that will be able to do this for you online.

Another great idea is to use other people’s infographics and share them. Add in your own comment and tag in the original source.

Although not originally your creation, if your audience will love it, share it. The author shouldn’t have any issues as it’s probably the original reason the created it in the first place.

Content Ideas #11 – Long form posts or content

Not everyone has the time to produce longer articles or blogs, however some subjects can’t be summed up in a few paragraphs of text.

Like this blog article, it’s long. The reason behind this is sometimes you must be comprehensive and cover a subject well.

Not only is this great for helping your website rank better but its also part of any good content marketing strategy.

These longer form posts are incredible for posting in social media. People love to fully understand subjects that they are interested in, this is where longer content helps.

If you do opt to use this as part of the mix of content ideas then, we would suggest the following.

Make sure the post is interesting and helpful and has a great cover image. Add an intriguing headline.

When you post it in social media, share the link back to the original source on your website.

On the landing page the post is on your website, enable social media share buttons.

If people find your post on your website through organic means (not through the link you provided in your post), there is the potential they will share on their social media too.

It will help increase your exposure, two bites of the cherry!

Content Ideas #12 – Free resources, giveaways or contests

Everyone loves a freebie and the feeling they are getting something for nothing.

It’s an awesome way of getting traction on social media. If done right, you can even leverage your followers to build your audience further.

For instance, here are some examples of posts you could do:

“To be in with a chance of winning xxxxx, please share this post”

“Visit (your website link) to download your 20% off voucher”

“Receive a free coffee today when mentioning #freecoffeefriday when purchasing a sandwich in store”

You must be somewhat careful though. Check whether asking for these likes and shares in return for the offer isn’t against the platforms posting polices.

Don’t make it look like you’re begging or trying to piggyback too much on your follower’s social media accounts. Keep it short, sweet and easy for them to take the next step that you want them to.

Make sure that the resource or giveaway is great and of value or a competition that is worth entering.

The nature of these types of posts are really good as people like to help their friends and families with deals too and are more likely to share the love….or your post at least.

Content Ideas #13 – Latest news

We have already mentioned above about sharing content about what your business has been up to, however this is slightly different.

It’s worth mentioning that if there is something happening in the news in your industry or niche then this is the perfect time to post it or re-share, adding a comment.

This helps you add more weight to your social media accounts, not only do you provide your own awesome content.

You’re also willing to share others that you know will be of value to your audience.

A great example would be if you are a wedding dress shop.

You could for instance do your normal posts as mentioned in this article but also share a news piece about Prince Harry’s and Meghan Markle’s wedding.

This works for any industry and any type of business you may run.

It goes without saying however, the latest news you share must be current.

There is no point reposting a news story from 3 months ago as it would have no relevance and little interest from your followers.

These types of posts can be incredibly powerful if timed right and by using the correct types of hashtags. They can help broaden your social media reach, beyond your own followers.

Content Ideas #14 – Behind the scenes photo

One of the major key points of social media is to make your business personality shine through. You need to adopt a natural and conversational style of posts.

This is where behind the scenes photos are useful.

By showing your team, being out and about at an event or them enjoying their work, speaks volumes.

It brings life to your feeds, it shows that although you’re a company, it’s made of individuals, we’re all human. It’s social and engaging.

Content Idea #15 – Conduct a poll

Many social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram already have tools available for you to easily create polls that you can share with your followers.

But, should you?

Yes, people love interacting in social media polls.

Make sure the questions that your poll asks are relevant to your followers. For instance, say you run a sandwich shop.

You could ask a simple one question poll. What is your favourite sauce to have on a bacon sandwich?

Giving the options of tomato ketchup, mustard, BBQ or Mayonnaise

Some polls even offer live results which again is very helpful.

People will probably also comment along side the poll with comments such as ‘mayonnaise on a bacon sandwich!?!?!?’

This is great for building social media traction and input from your audience, it also encourages them to share with their friends and contacts.

You can even use the results that you gather as another social media post, an infographic or a blog post.

Content Ideas #16 – Statistics

Following on from the above point, posting statistics can get you incredible engagement from your audience.

People like to be surprised by facts and figures and are easy for your audience to take on board.

The internet is awash with loads of facts and figures. Make sure your sources are up to date, are factually correct and from reliable sources.

Using the previous example:

“Did you know 96% of people surveyed prefer mayonnaise on their bacon sandwiches?”

We’re not sure whether that’s true or not but it leads nicely into the next point.

Content Ideas #17 – Fun facts

This a quick way to engage with your audience and mix things up a little.

If they are industry related to what you do as a business, then you’ll be fine.

You can also form these as questions as mentioned above. Starting with sentences like, did you know? How many? When did?

Fun facts are a way to quickly add a post when you only have limited time to spare.

Content Ideas #18 – This or that

You can probably remember a few years ago a post that went viral in social media based on a picture of a dress?

Some saw the dress colour as back and blue, some saw it as white and gold. It had more than 10 million tweets.

Now your posts possibly won’t push these dizzying heights, although posting a two-option this or that question is a great content idea you can use.

You can put it out there and let your audience grow its interactions by their input and responses.

Again, this can be used for any industry, here are a few examples:

Beach holiday or city break? – Travel Agent

Ebook or paperback? – Book store

On trend fashion or individual style? – Second hand clothes store

Steak and Ale or Chicken and mushroom? – Pie shop

As you can see, it’s a very fast was for a follower to comment without too much thought. This allows for a quick and easy way to grow your social following.

Content Ideas #19 – Meme

In case you don’t know, memes are usually photos with a caption intended to be funny, have a deeper meaning or to be controversial.

They are usually a famous repurposed image or animated gif with a piece of text.

Be careful when using these types of posts as part of your content ideas. Due to their nature, they may not ‘click’ with your audience, if done wrong they could even offend or alienate your business from its followers.

Done correctly they can easily resonate with your audience increasing your personality online.

Content Ideas #20 – Repurpose old content

If you have old content on your website than a great idea would be to repurpose the format into something new.

For instance, if you have a written blog you could use that content to produce an instructional video. If you had a video, you could take out the key facts and produce an infographic.

The main goal is to take old and stale content, rework it into a different format and push it to your social media audience

Summary:

There is no right and wrong answers in truth about the content ideas that you have and use in social media.

The main point to take away is to try many different types of posts, see which work and which don’t. Monitor what your audience responds to and give them what they like.  

A great idea is to use a social media content calendar or simply set up a spreadsheet. Record the type of content, the topic and how many shares, like and reposts etc.

In no time you’ll get a good idea of where to focus your content efforts.