With platforms and algorithms evolving and short-lived trends coming in and out of vogue, it can be overwhelming to navigate the chaotic world of social media and create social media post ideas. When it comes to elevating your social media presence, the goal is to accurately represent your product and brand ethos.
The tricky part is that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Brands must juggle timeliness, originality, and focus. No wonder it’s so tough to strike the right balance.
To help offset these challenges, get in the habit of preparing social media posts ahead of time. Create posts about anniversaries, new products or services, and tutorials to keep your audiences engaged without overstretching your team or resources. Employing a diverse mix of social media post ideas will help you foster a more personal connection with potential customers.
22 Social Media Post Ideas
1. Announcements
2. Behind-the-scenes footage
3. Community news
4. Contests
5. Customer testimonials
6. Employee spotlights
7. Engagement plays
8. Graphs or statistics
9. Holiday celebrations
10. How it’s made
11. Industry news
12. Inspirational images
13. Live videos
14. Memes
15. Partnerships
16. Product education
17. Promotional content
18. Q&A’s
19. Related content
20. Thought leadership
21. Tutorials
22. User-generated content
The most effective social media content makes followers feel something. A post has the power to inspire, motivate, inform, and entertain. To accomplish this, brands create authentic content that reflects their points of view.
But part of the struggle is coming up with a good idea. To help you bolster your social media strategy, peruse these tried-and-true formats to get creative:
1. Announcements
Social media channels are a great place to share company news. Announcements can make your followers feel connected to your brand and excited about what’s to come. Consider posting announcements about product launches, upcoming events, or new team members.
For example, a mid-priced purse company can post about collaborating with a luxury brand. By teasing a line of bags, the purse brand is telling the customer that it can get a luxury item at a more affordable price.
2. Behind-the-scenes footage
An authentic post can encourage your social media followers to comment and interact with you. A good way to reveal more of your company’s personality is to share videos and photos of unstaged moments. This could mean posting images of the color-coordinated outfits employees wore to the company party or a sample of the feedback you addressed while testing a product.
3. Community news
Local businesses might choose to post about relevant community events to show they feel invested in their own neighborhood. For example, you might post about a new farmers market in town or celebrate a regional holiday.
4. Contests
Free stuff can capture people’s attention. Brands can use social media accounts to host product giveaways or other contests. Contests often offer social media users the chance to win free products if they follow a brand’s accounts, engage with a certain post, and tag their friends. This type of post can attract new followers and boost engagement.
5. Customer testimonials
Consider sharing customer success stories on your social media platforms. It’s an effective strategy to show your followers how your brand has made a difference in someone’s life.
For example, if a customer leaves positive feedback after a customer service agent walks them through connecting hardware to their computer, it can show how your company will take the time to help them. Since brands often share customer testimonials as text over images, consider a graphic design treatment to turn positive reviews into social media content.
6. Employee spotlights
Featuring employees on social media can help followers form a personal connection with your brand. Consider sharing photos or videos of consenting employees along with a few fun facts to help put a face to your brand.
7. Engagement plays
Ask and you shall receive. If you want to increase your engagement on social media, try posting a call for ideas, suggestions, or opinions. Followers can share their thoughts in the comments, boosting your post’s engagement rate.
8. Graphs or statistics
Turn information about your product or your industry into infographics. Statistics don’t have to be displayed as simple data tables. Creative data visualisations can help followers see your product in a new light. For example, a mail-order snack box company could post a histogram to present its most popular snack combinations. This might encourage followers to weigh in on why their favorite should reign supreme.
9. Holiday celebrations
Commemorate national or local holidays with celebratory content ideas. Including national holidays in your content calendar can help remind your team to come up with content ideas. It’s also a way to avoid missing out on popular conversations that happen that day. For example, if you are a women’s clothing store, you might choose to celebrate impactful friendships between women on Valentine’s Day, opening discussions about how the holiday celebrates all kinds of love.
10. How it’s made
Consider offering followers a glimpse of your product’s construction. This might be particularly relevant to small business owners who make their products on their own and can provide a step-by-step look at the process. Capturing the process in short YouTube videos can show your audience all the care and attention that goes into your craft.
11. Industry news
You can use social accounts to weigh in on news in your industry. If a new development affects your business, you might choose to share links to relevant blog posts and news stories. You can also weigh in by providing commentary of your own. This can help keep your customers informed.
12. Inspirational images
Use inspirational images to highlight your brand’s ethos or to share moments that influenced your company’s journey. These could be historical photographs, images that align with your mood board, or pictures of people who have influenced your brand. For example, if you sell T-shirts inspired by soccer teams, you can post an inspirational image of a player who broke barriers, paired with a caption expressing appreciation for how they changed the sport.
13. Live videos
Live video streaming can increase engagement through authenticity. Broadcasting a live video creates an opportunity to interact directly with social media users, answer any questions, and show your brand’s personality.
14. Memes
You can use social posting to join in on trending topics. This might mean posting memes—widely shared images accompanied by text that are often jokes. Not every meme format will be appropriate for your brand, so it’s OK to sit out a few rounds. But if you keep your target audience in mind, you can participate in trends and post witty, timely memes that your customers might feel inspired to share.
15. Partnerships
Partnering with influencers or doing a social media takeover can help your brand reach a new audience. Influencers can create content for you to post on your brand’s channel, or you may choose to share content that partners posted first on their own channels.
16. Product education
Brands can use social media to get the word out about their products. Featuring your product on social media helps ensure that customers know where to find it, how to use it, and why they need it.
17. Promotional content
Use social media marketing to draw attention to any discounts, special offers, or other sales promotions. Posting about sales can help keep your most loyal customers informed.
18. Q&A
An authentic question-and-answer post presents an opportunity to tell your audience that their concerns and queries matter to you. You can turn questions that users submit into content. For example, create a carousel where you answer your audience’s most pressing questions. You can also go live on your social media page and answer questions as they come in.
19. Related content
Sharing relevant content can be a low-lift way to populate your social media pages. This could include posting links to free resources related to your niche or sharing news stories, popular blog posts, or podcast episodes that feature your product.
20. Thought leadership
Share industry insights or original commentary on social media to portray your business as cutting-edge or influential. Posting interviews with or articles featuring your team members might help establish them as industry leaders who have something important to say. For example, if your company sells eco-friendly items, an interview focused on what the CEO looks out for when shopping for green products can provide valuable tips that people can apply to their lives.
21. Tutorials
Creating tutorials highlighting a product can help entice customers by giving them a better understanding of how it works and ideas for its applications. For example, if you’re a makeup company, you can show how your blush glides on smoothly or that the product is adaptable enough to also work as a highlighter or lipstick. You can format tutorials as videos, blog posts, or photo galleries.
22. User-generated content
Sharing content created by real customers is a win-win, because customers feel valued and recognized. Plus, you and your team get to take a (brief) break from creating original content.
Blog post from Shopify Staff at Shopify.com
For more information on social media and how to grow your business contact us here at Click Return.
