We have all been there. Stuck and lost for ideas on what to post on your social media accounts. But don’t worry, there is a world of inspiration at the end of your finger tips. You just need to know where to look.
That being said, having a bunch of ideas is useless without a social media content calendar to plan your posts. That’s why I have decided to give away for free the content calendar I use for every brand I have worked with, including myself. You can download it here, but I recommend you read the rest of this blog post before you do.
The Topics In Focus
Ideas For Social Media Posts
Finding inspiration for content can be both time consuming and stressful when you don’t know where to look. I have said before that you can find inspiration for social media content anywhere and everywhere. But I realise that is a bit too broad of a statement. That’s why I have decided to curate a short list of my top 3 favourite places to find social media content inspiration.
Pinterest offers a world of inspiration. Infact, you can simply type in ‘social media content ideas’ into the platform and you’ll be faced with hundreds if not thousands of ideas.
Competitor Social Media Accounts
Jealous of your competitors' content and how they keep coming up with fresh ideas? Chances are, they are getting ideas from other accounts too. So should you! I’m not saying steal content, but look into what they are talking about, what followers are engaging with and use that as inspiration.
Blogging Sites
Again, similar to above. Checking competitors or industry leading websites and scanning their blogs gives you an indication of what you could be talking about. The best thing about blogs is that they are the holy grail of content. Meaning that there is so much information within one good sized blog post to make hundreds of social media posts.
My Monthly Content Idea Blogs
If you don’t know, I create monthly social media content ideas that can be copied, altered and used for almost any brand and industry. I share monthly topics, blog post ideas and trending suggestions. All completely available for you to use on your own platforms. Check out my monthly content ideas here. Remember to sign up to my email list to be the first to receive the latest monthly content ideas and more.
Create Social Media Themes
You should create social media themes based on your business, industry and what your consumers are mostly interested in.
Themes or content categories are basically groups of ideas that focus on one particular interest or topic. You can have as many theme categories as you like, however I recommend having 3-5 maximum. This will help keep your message and strategy clear and consistent. Talking about too many things can waterdown your key messages.
For example, if you are a Personal Trainer, your themes may include:
Inspirational Content
E.g. quotes & motivational sayings.
Promotional Content
E.g. showcasing your workout plans.
Community Focused
E.g. Before & afters client transformations.
I based my Masters dissertation on investigating the most effective content types for influencing consumer engagement and purchasing (I am in the process of writing this up as an easy to read blog post). But long story short, creating themes based on your industry and consumer interests makes or breaks your social media strategy.
A good article to also read, is Previewapp's core content ideas blog which discusses content theme ideas you can use for your brand or business.
Have A Social Media Content Calendar
Mapping out your ideas, business goals, key dates and public events is a very useful task. Being able to easily see what is happening in the world and your business on a single document can only improve your businesses output.
One of the easiest ways to map out your key activities is by having a content calendar. If you know me, I am obsessed with marketing strategy. So much so, I utilise a content calendar with every job, client and even my own marketing tasks.
Time should be spent planning out content for the month. If you don’t do it yet, you should. Here are some of the reasons why you should use a content plan:
Holds you accountable to releasing content.
More likely to create fresh ideas.
Can plan & prioritise your time.
Adapt your strategy to what's happening.
Delegate tasks if you have a team.
Encourages you to use other channels.
It Keeps your marketing activities organised.
When creating a calendar, I recommend having an overview page. This is to see everything as a quick scan. Here you can map out the entire year or you can work by business quarters.
Next, break down your content strategy by months.
Within each month, have each marketing channel you use.
If you have optimal key posting times when your engagement is the highest, put them on the calendar.
Don’t forget to include key public dates, events and key business or personal information. This helps you keep track of what’s going on and allows you to adapt your plan if you need to.
Social Media Content Creation Tools
There are many social media content creation tools available for free online and on mobile or apps. Here is a list of my favourites and what you can use them for.
Great for general content creation and graphic design work. Has thousands of templates ready to use.
A perfect tool to tie into your marketing strategy plan. Find winning hashtags for your industry and better yet, track their performance.
My life wouldn’t be the same without VSCO. One of my all time favourite apps on the market. It’s not only an amazing photo editor tool, it has a community full of inspiration and challenges to improve your photography skills.
Most platforms want you to publish stories and you should! This helps you connect and show off your personality to your followers. Use unfold to create eye catching stories with the amazing templates available.
Content wouldn’t be content without high quality and engaging images. Unsplash offers free usable imagery for your content.
Wrapping Up
There you have it. My tips on how to find social media content ideas. Not only that, I shared tips on strategising content, creating content theme categories, content creation tools and even my own marketing content calendar template free to download.
If you’re still stuck for ideas, make sure to check out my monthly content ideas blog or contact me for guidance on how to create a winning social media content strategy for your brand or business.
Until next time. Thanks for reading.
Jack Willoughby
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