How to (And How NOT to) Create Content Ideas for Social Media.
Have you ever found yourself wanting to post on social media but struggling to come up with ideas you think your audience will love? This struggle is common among entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on social media’s capabilities. It often results in the following:
Not Posting Consistently
Not Growing Your Following
Failing to Communicate Effectively with Your Audience
Giving Your Competitors an Advantage
Missing Out on Opportunities to Gain Brand Awareness
It’s possible to avoid these issues and start showing up in front of your audience consistently on social media. Of course, it all begins with an effective marketing and social media strategy. It’s important to know who you are, your audience, your competitors, and what trends are happening worldwide when taking on any task in your business. Your content strategy is no exception. Once you thoroughly understand these essential aspects, creating content ideas that resonate with your audience becomes 10x easier by following the tips below:
Listen to Your Audience
Nobody knows your audience better than your audience! The easiest way to come up with content ideas is to simply ask them what kind of content they want to see from you. Sometimes this will look like posting a question sticker on your Instagram stories asking what topics they’d like to know more about. Or, listening to your audience may look like DMing a follower who matches your target audience and inquiring about their business challenges, needs, and desires.
Read/Watch Industry-Specific Resources
Educational content should be one of the main themes of your social media posts. This theme helps build your credibility as an entrepreneur and prepare potential buyers to invest in your brand. Therefore, it’s important to stay up-to-date on industry trends and changes in your target market and competitors related to your specific industry. As you continue to educate yourself, you can provide valuable content based on your knowledge to your audience. Of course, always give credit where credit is due if your content is not original.
Engage in Conversations with Other Professionals in Your Industry
Some of your best content ideas will come from having conversations with the other leaders in your industry. Networking in-person and online will help you build relationships with like-minded professionals and give and receive value that can be shared with your audiences. It’s important to have conversations with other people about industry topics so that you can hear different perspectives and better understand thought processes outside of your own. When taking content ideas from conversations, it is wise first to ask if the convos can be shared and give credit when their thoughts are included in your posts.
Research Your Audience’s Pain Points & Desires
Target audience analyses conducted in the strategy stage will often reveal insights about your audience’s pain points, challenges, desires, and needs. Answerthepublic.com is an excellent resource for learning what questions your audience may have concerning your offerings or industry. Further research can be done by typing your specific product or service category into social media search engines and looking through your audience's content based on their feelings toward the categories. You can also use the insights to ask your social media community whether or not they have similar feelings to your research. Creating content based on your understanding of your audience will always generate the best results.
How NOT to Create Content Ideas:
Never Steal or Reword Content from Other Content Creators
Never Buy or Use Premade Templates without Changing Copy
Never Jump on an Idea Someone Else Shared with You
These “hacks” for creating content actually hurt your brand more than they help by destroying your credibility and integrity as a business owner. These are also signs that you lack a social media and content strategy. Combining a solid strategy with the four tips on generating ideas mentioned above, you will never have to resort to stealing or buying content.
Need Help Creating A BOMB Social Media Marketing & Content Strategy?
The only way to stand out on social media and consistently show up in front of your audience is to have a strategy that draws on the strengths of your business’ foundation. We help you dig deeper into your core values, target market, and competitors to help you feel more confident about posting and engaging on social media. And trust us; your audience will feel the confidence too!
