Writer’s block strikes again! It feels like it should be so easy to market your business on social media but, time and time again you find yourself struggling for content ideas. You pop the odd post out about your services and what you’ve been up to, but past that it just feels like you are wading through thick mud and getting nowhere!
Half of the problem, if you can face up to it, is that you are likely treating your social media posting as an admin job that gets squeezed in around other tasks.
If this sounds familiar, it should hardly come as a surprise that you aren’t at your most inspired!
Social media is a brilliant marketing resource for businesses of all sizes, enabling you to interact directly with your audience – however in order to gain commercially through it, you need to give it more than a glancing thought.
Your potential customers are busy, you need to stand out from the crowd, and draw them in. You need to create content that they want to read about!
In today’s blog I’m going to cover some content ideas that you could post about on social media, to help get you started.
Related Content: Social Media – Do you really need to be on all of the social media platforms?
Market your business on Social media: 6 Social Media Topics that will give you endless content ideas
#1 – Showcase Your Expertise
Show up, and show your audience what an expert you are. They do not know what you know, and by providing them with tips and advice you can showcase the knowledge that you have while being helpful at the same time. There are lots of ways you could demonstrate this but here are some ideas:
- Tips and Advice
- Background and Experience
- On-going training
- Results from case-studies
- Team introductions
- Blog article shares
- Industry Insights
Stop worrying about giving all your ’good stuff’ away for free. By showing value to your audience you could help convert browsers into customers. What you are building on social media is trust.
#2 – Frequently Asked Questions
I’ll bet you get asked the same questions all the time on the phone and in person. List them down and answer them one by one on your social media channels. Nowadays people hate to ask questions directly, they’d rather hide away and make presumptions. By bringing the questions you know they want to ask to the forefront you are giving them what they want without them having to ask! Get a piece of paper and list them all down, here are some prompts to help you out.
- What do you?
- When should I?
- What are?
- How can I?
- How much is?
#3 – Promotional Posts
A direct sales post can work every so often for your audience members that are ripe to buy. However, as audience members rarely buy on first interaction you need to use other methods to warm them up too so that they get one step closer to conversion.
Some ideas might include:
- Testimonials and Case Studies
- E-Book guides
- How you work with clients
- Behind the scenes
- Product/service Highlights
- Quality Assurances such as awards or accreditations
#4 – Related Posts
It’s important to realise your audience isn’t on social media to buy. They are likely surfing the channel while watching TV or having their breakfast! They are there to be entertained and to see what their friends are up to! Your content therefore needs to intrigue them and pull them in. Believe it or not though, not all social media posting needs to be about you!
Think about it, perhaps you sell soft furnishings, your ideal customer is likely to also be re-decorating their room – they might also be interested in design trends, paint & wallpaper ideas, flooring concepts and accessories for the finishing touches.
By painting your social media channel as a place full of useful information you are being helpful, while also aligning yourself with certain brands. Just a word of warning – be careful who you share, as your audience is aligning your quality with them. For example; If you have high end soft -furnishings you want to be sharing Farrow and Ball, rather than bargain basement brands.
- What else are they buying around the same time?
- What are they researching?
- Could you be sharing local shop products?
- Are there collaborations you could be promoting?
- Local events
#5 – Conversation Starters
Social Media – it is social after all!
Help people open up on your channel and get them used to interacting with you. You could ask open ended questions, or even create polls on some social media platforms.
Start simple, and be patient. It may take a while for people to feel confident enough to interact. It might even be worth asking a close contact to start the ball rolling – people often get put off if they’ll be the first one!
- What is your favourite…
- What was your first job…
- Which do you prefer…
- When did you last…
- Tea or Coffee to start the day off…
- What part of the world are you in?
- Finish this sentence – If I could go on holiday tomorrow it would be to…
Try and link it back to your business and make it relevant if you can – but the important thing is to make it feel like a conversation!
#6 – Have Some Fun
You might not class yourself as someone who is ha ha funny! However there are lots of ways to inject some fun into your social media.
Gifs, jokes and myths are a good starting point – search away online! You’ll find everything on there these days! Cartoons are great visuals, search the image galleries or other social media pages – just be sure to thank the source in your caption.
I also love a Friday quiz! Stories are a great way to build engagement on this – where perhaps the questions are given one day then the answers revealed a day later, or consider the use of polls.
The Aberdeen Science Museum did a great quiz at the start of lockdown where they’d ask around 5 questions each Friday with multiple choice answers. It was great as you learnt at the same time! Could you do something similar for your business?
Market your business on Social Media: What to post about
Face it – writer’s block is not going to disappear until you start making some more time to plan out your social media strategy. However, using the below 6 topics as prompts for inspiration can certainly provide a good starting point.
- Showcase your Expertise
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Promotional Posts
- Related Social Media shares
- Conversation Starters
- Have a little Fun!
For more Straightforward marketing ideas – why not join our Facebook community for small business owners >>>