GET UNSTUCK WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA
A lot goes into creating a consistent posting schedule on social media, and often, finding engaging content can be the most challenging part. If you feel stuck with your social media content it’s a good time to step back and evaluate your core messages and goals. which can help you discover new ideas. Take these tips and get ready to start scheduling!
CONTENT BUCKETS
A good approach to generating content ideas is to understand what you want to achieve. Are you trying to build awareness for your products? Recruit new hires? Share how your services can make your customers’ lives easier? All of the above? Often social channels serve multiple purposes, so creating buckets, or categories of content types, you’d like to hit on each month is a great way to ensure you’re sharing content that serves those purposes regularly. These buckets will be a guide you can come back to each month.
Some examples include:
- Credibility
- Culture
- Events
- Experts in our industry
- Product/Services
- Recruitment
- Specials/Discounts
HIGH-VALUE CONTENT
Once you’ve determined your buckets, it’s time to determine what content your audience finds the most valuable within those categories. Your social content is like pages of a novel. Each post is a quick soundbite, but they all add up to the bigger picture. What do you want to leave your audience with? How do you want them to feel? Your social content is one way to give them that context regularly and consistently so when they’re ready to make a purchase or take that next step, they think of you.
So how can you find high-value content month after month? Getting other individuals within your organization involved is a great way to ensure it doesn’t all rest on you and that you’re creating content your audience will find valuable. When it comes to your products or services, what are some common pain points your sales staff hears in the field? What do customers most often have questions about? If you’re recruiting new hires, talk to HR and find out what your current employees like most about working at your company.
A spreadsheet is a simple and effective format for putting your buckets and content ideas together.
Here are some additional ideas to get you rolling.
- Employee achievements
- Getting started with your product/service
- How to maintain your product
- Informative industry articles
- Most loved employee benefits
- New hire welcomes
- Q&A with someone on your sales team
- Reviews for your business
- Testimonials (employee or customer)
- Tips on how to use your product to do X, Y or Z
- Troubleshooting tips
- What your audience should know when choosing a product/service in your industry
TRY DIFFERENT FORMATS
Using a variety of formats will also help keep your content fresh and engaging. Is it a topic that needs more explanation than a few sentences? Sharing a video or linking to a blog post on your website might be ideal. If you’re sharing a product stat, maybe a simple graphic will do. If you don’t have a graphic design degree, Canva is a great tool for this! And sometimes just photos will be ideal as well. It’s a great idea to have a mix to keep your audience engaged and see what type of content resonates.
FIND INSPIRATION
If you’re still feeling stuck, take a look around social and see what’s gaining traction on other pages. You don’t have to stay in your industry either. There may be some interesting tactics B2C businesses are doing that your B2B business can utilize.
Got questions or need help social media-ing your business? Let’s chat!
Read our blog The Many Hats of a Content Creator to master your content creation.
