Content Marketing is at an all-time high demand! Why? Well, everyone wants to increase engagement but lack the creative ideas on what to post on social media! Most people feel they draw a blank once they are ready to create content for the entire week or month!
Content Marketing is about how well you can tell a story without being redundant. You want to be relevant using the right type of content posted at the right time and targeted to the right audience.
Another important factor to consider is how to create a graphic/visual aid to communicate the story you want to tell. I posted a free tutorial on how to use Canva to create graphics. The Infographic I posted below was created using Canva.com.
You can access my FREE Tutorial on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1ov7K5NQLI
Additionally, I am plugging my digital product, The 2020 Social Media Content Calendar! If you’re interested in utilizing this calendar, you can purchase your copy here: https://mailchi.mp/8680e3e21f68/2020maedaycalendar
- Motivational Quote
One of the most common posts you will see on Social Media are quotes. It might be a quote from an author, a pop star, a religious personality, a historical figure, a politician, or your mother, motivational quotes have been popularly shared across different platforms!
One of the best ways to share quotes is through photos. You can create and customize your own photos that you took at the beach or with your family and apply filters to edit and overlay text. You can also purchase stock photos or download one of my favorite apps (Photofy) to create quote images to share.
2. Share a Stat
There are always interesting statistics you can share no matter what industry you’re in. Statistics will intrigue your followers or help defy some common misconceptions with scientific and proven data. For example, if you are in the Real Estate Industry, you can share statistics on the percentage of approval rate for new home buyers with 720 credit score.
If you are in the Fitness Industry, you can share statistics on the weightloss studies as it relates to people who drink more water. You can share statistics on the rate of weight loss after 40 years old.
If you are in the Beauty Industry, you can share statistics one confidence boost after a new hair cut or statistics on how many people buy more of a specific product compared to others.
Statistics will always intrigue consumers and you can help them become more educated by sharing accurate and confirmed statistics. Refrain from sharing something if you are not certain of its validity.
- Trending News
When you post about trending news, this is most likely something that’s controversial at the moment. Something that is viral and rapidly growing in popularity. This could be something related to a celebrity, a politician, or a popular figure.
One of the best ways to track the trending news is to check your Twitter feed.
- Promotion Your Product/Service
The tricky part about promotion is you have to do a soft-sell approach more than you do a hard-sell approach. In case you need further explanation, let me break it down for you. A hard-sell is when you are forthcoming with the facts and using words like:
- Buy now
- Purchase this
- RSVP
- Join now
- Get your copy
These are sales keywords and often times frowned upon based on speculated social media algorithms. Social Media platforms can easily flag your post in the category of “sales” and will prefer that you “pay to play”, meaning spend ad dollars for more people to see these types of posts.
The soft-sell approach is the type of post that promotes your products and services but isn’t forthcoming in selling it. For example, if you are promoting a shirt design, instead of saying “purchase this shirt on this link”, you will simply admire how cute it looks on your cousin! Or if you have an event coming up, instead of asking people to buy their tickets, you’ll simply post photos from last year and how much fun you had and that they shouldn’t miss the next one.
There are simply so many ways you can soft sell and I’m not saying you are not allowed to do any hard sales, I’m simply advising you to keep a conscious effort to soft-sell more than hard-sell. Pay attention to your insights and see what works.
Lastly, one of the most important things to remember when promoting your product/services is to promote the solution to your customer’s problems. You can promote homes for sale, or protein shakes, or planners, or social media tools but it’s better if instead, you promote that you can help them finally find their first home, promote total body wellness to live longer, promote time efficiency with social media.
- Share a Hack
In your field of expertise, I’m certain that there are some hacks that you can share with your followers. People love it with you bring value into their lives by increasing the convenience factor.
Maybe it’s a life hack like a faster way to dry your hair or remove stains. Maybe it’s a food hack like how not to cry when slicing onions. Maybe it’s a self-care hack on how to get more sleep. Maybe it’s a business hack on how to create more efficiency.
It doesn’t have to be business or industry-related but figure out a way to also insert your purpose and mission from time to time. The key is in the rotation. You don’t want your customers to feel sold to all the time.
- Countdown
Counting down to an important date in the future can be an exciting post. If it is a countdown to a holiday or event that your target market is interested in, this will become a valuable post/reminder for them.
You can countdown to a sale event, a special event, a holiday, a big sporting event, or your big launch! Instagram has a countdown feature on the story section and your audience can even save the date from your stories.
- Quirky Holiday
Quirky Holidays are fun! You’d never expect that donut day or be nice to your husband day exists. I’ve included some fun quirky Holidays in my Social Media Content Calendar so you don’t have to search for the ones that typically tends to make the top trending list.
- Get Personal
If you think that no one cares to know about your life story then I’m here to prove you wrong. Your customers and potential customers want inside access to you and who you really are. Plus, people do business with people who they can relate to. Consumers automatically like you if they can relate to you as a single mom, sister, hustler, dancer, struggling student, and etc. There is an audience for your product/services.
When you want to “get personal” this simply means you are willing to share a life story, a struggle you’ve overcome, your inner thoughts and your experiences. Something you’ve recently realized or learned. Something that makes you human and relatable to your audience.
- Share a Tip
Share a quick tip about your products, about life, about the subject matter that you know all too well. You want to be valuable to your target market.
- Re-purpose Old Content
If you are a blogger, you can always go back to your popular posts in the past and repurpose them by sharing the blog or quoting your blogs. You can even create new graphics from your old posts.
If you’ve had your social media accounts for a while, platforms like Facebook show you memories from your old posts that you can use. You can share that time you first took the stage, the first client you had in your salon, the
There are also hashtags like #ThrowbackThursdays and #FlashbackFridays that encourage users to post a blast from the past.
- Share a Review
Brag a little by sharing one of the positive reviews your clients, friends, or colleagues have shared about you. It’s an indirect bragging right for someone else to endorse you so take a screenshot of your reviews online or via text/email and post it for your potential customers to see.
If you do not have any official reviews, now would be the time to take a pause and send out requests for your clients to send you their review. If you do not have any official clients just yet, ask your friends and/or colleagues to speak about their experience with you.
- Shout Out Day
Bring more attention to your page by featuring other accounts. It could be your friends, business partners, best customers, potential partners, favorite influencers, or other brands. Giving someone or something a shout out will make great content if you pair it with a story. Perhaps you were inspired by someone to start your business. Maybe your customers inspire you to keep going. Talk about other people besides yourself once in a while. If you use certain brands in your business or in life that you admire, you can choose to recommend it and share with others something that could also help them.
- Meme Time
It’s undeniable that memes are taking over social media. You cannot scroll past 5 posts without seeing a good shareable meme. Why are memes so popular? That’s because many of the memes are made to express our deepest and darkest thoughts and humor that we would otherwise feel bad to share.
Memes are relatable and a good one can become viral quickly. If you find an opportunity to capitalize on a trending meme then you certainly should try.
- Jump on a Trend
The trending world of social media is very fast paced. One day it could be a cat video the next day it could be a dance video and 10 minutes later it could be a live feed during a tsunami or a meme about President Trump.
It could be a tough content to plan 2-3 weeks ahead of time but it can be something you can do in the moment. Once you see something trending, that you repost and share your expert opinion or create your own rendition.
On a different note, this could also be what is trending in your industry. If you are in retail, and Valentine’s Season is coming, you can definitely share statistics about the Valentine’s Season or share the top romantic trending gifts to buy for men or women.
- Share your Product
If you are selling products, you definitely want to showcase appealing photos of your products. Candid “on-the-go” photos are fine but professional photos are necessary. Just because I said professional doesn’t mean you have to hire a professional. Understand the power of your mobile phone capabilities and maximize the features it has. You paid hundreds of dollars for the newest phone and guess what? It can take amazing photos of your product!
Here are some things to consider when taking your product photo:
- Use a plain background. There are inexpensive product photo booths you can find on Amazon.
- Take a shot of your products with fun backgrounds (i.e. at the beach, at the park, and etc..)
- Hire models to help make your products look good and professional.
- Edit your photos to compliment your product’s best features.
- Ask a Question
Asking questions that will elicit a response from your followers is a great way to boost your engagement. Nobody has the confirmed social media algorithms but it has been highly tested and proven that posts with comments and responses are considered “engaging” and will therefore be shared to more users.
You can literally ask any questions from any industry. You can ask for their opinion or their vote on something.Have your followers help you decide on your next flyer design or logo design. Social Media users love to voice their opinion.
- Share your Top List
Share your top 3, top 5, or top 10 favorite things. List your favorite books, songs, apps, softwares, outfits, celebrity crushes, brands, or themed items. Maybe you are going on a trip and you want to share the top 5 things that you must pack. Maybe you love to work out and you want to share your top 10 favorite workout songs. Maybe you will share the top 3 secrets to beautiful skin?
Whatever it is that you want to share, make it valuable to your target audience.
- Self-Care Tips
Speaking of beauty tips, self-care is a universal struggle for so many people and therefore, it is always a good idea to remind people to take a break, relax, meditate, take a vacation, or simply enjoy a hot cup of tea. Remember that your basic goal is to bring value to your target market’s lives.
- Weekend Selfie
The weekend selfie is how you show your followers that you let loose and take breaks from work. When you share these, you could also share your weekend plans to hopefully help inspire others to enjoy their weekends.
This post is important because it is a way for your followers to get a glimpse of your personality. If posting a selfie doesn’t make sense for your brand then certainly replace this with a photo of your promotional items. Anything with your logo on it is a great replacement.
- Poll
One of the best engagement tactics I’ve done was when I created a poll between two different logos and asked my followers to vote for which logo they liked best.
Facebook has a great polling feature. Instagram has a polling feature in the stories.
- Promote Yourself
Sometimes, it is hard to think of ways to promote ourselves but you must know how to do it without sounding arrogant. One of which is to share your recent accomplishments and share how thankful you are for overcoming them.
Share any articles written about you. Share how you have recently helped your client. There are those rare moments when you can be honest in simply wanting to share about your achievements and that is okay, too!
- Quiz your audience
What I love about this type of post is that you can make this industry related, a self promotion, a product promotion, or just something fun! You can post a brain-teaser, or a question about you to see how well people know you.
- Photo or Video
There are statistics that show videos will get more visibility than photos. A photo post on Facebook is definitely better than just text. Not to mention, Instagram is all about photos!
When you are out and about, you should think of taking photos and/or videos that can help your content mix. You can post a selfie while doing something you love or while using your product. You can post a photo of your product with the beach as the background. You could post a video or photo of your travels.
From time to time, you must consider posting a video or photo that can help share a little bit more about yourself or about your product.
- Live Video
Going live will create a buzz because there is an automatic notification that Facebook or Instagram pushes out when you go live. Going live can sound intimidating if you’re the type of person that wants everything to be perfect. You can schedule a live tutorial and promote this for a few days before going live. You can take a live video of an event. You can go live with a business partner and host a Q&A video regarding your new product launch.
Host a live panel discussion. Do a live workout session or a live coaching session. There are many ways to go live and don’t let analysis paralysis get in the way.
- Good Reads
Share your book recommendations or a list of your top choices of books. Knowing who your target market means you have a good idea of the genre of books that they would be interested in.
- Throwback Thursday
This is one of those fun social media trends that has stood the test of time, no pun intended. #ThrowbackThursday has been around for several years and the idea is that you post an old photo. As a business owner, you can really play with the idea of posting some of your early ideation portion for your business and
- Expert Advice
We are all experts on our own subject matter. Don’t let your expertise remain the best-kept secret in town! Share a tip and make it short and sweet. If you are a Dentist, you can share a tip about the proper amount of time to brush or what to do in case of toothache emergencies. If you are a fitness trainer, there are certainly a plethora of tips to share from workouts to diet plans.
If you’re a makeup artist, there are beauty tips, if you are an accountant, you have money tips, if you are a nonprofit, you have volunteer tips.
When I say we are all experts on our own subject matter, I really mean it. If you are a stay at home mom, you certainly have tips for other stay at home moms about life hacks, cleaning hacks, and baby hacks.
- Upcoming Event Promo
There are two ways you can post about an upcoming event. You can either post about an event you are going to attend or post about an event you are promoting for people to attend.
You might think it’s useless to let people know you are going to the event but this depends on the event you are attending. If you are a doctor and you are going to a medical conference, then it is a way for you to ensure your potential clients that you stay on top of whatever is new to your market.
If you have an event you are promoting, you should definitely find a way to communicate the value of why your audience should attend this event.
- Current News
When posting about current news, remember that some news is foreseeable but this is most likely going to be the type of post you will have to post as it is happening. Some expected news are planned events like the election or presidential debate, and etc…
The actual current news that you see on the news channels is something you may spontaneously post and will not be able to plan ahead of time. This type of content aren’t necessarily trending but they are current and relevant news to your followers.
- Reflection
Your followers do want to know what is on your mind. Sharing some type of reflection whether it is uber personal or something light hearted will help your followers get to know you more.
31. Milestone Announcements
It’s important that you share every milestones you reach. It will help motivate your target market and it will give them a reason to celebrate you! It will give you a reason to tell your story.
I hope that you enjoyed the 31 Social Media Content Ideas. There are literally so many other ideas of what to post and I only wanted to list 31 to reflect the 31 days out of the month. I wanted to show you that you don’t have to feel like you’re being redundant at all! I want you to see that there are several ways to tell the same story. Comment below and tell me about the other types of content that I didn’t include in this blog.
I’ve created a Social Media Calendar that you can use to implement this entire list of creative content. I’ve put them all in rotation for you and I have curated some images that you can use! I also created video tutorials on how to use the Facebook Creator Studio and a Canva 101 lesson! How would you like to get your hands on a copy? Click this the image below or click this link to purchase: https://mailchi.mp/8680e3e21f68/2020maedaycalendar
Mae Day Marketing 