Dreaming up new and creative ideas for your social media week in, week out can be a challenge – particularly when you're juggling business and family commitments.
Here are six ideas for creating engaging content which can be easily adapted to your business niche.
1. Share tips
Sharing tips, tricks or advice specific to your business niche is an effective way to inform and educate your audience as well as show off your expertise and knowledge.
It can help build relationships and loyalty and encourage sharing of your content to help increase your following.
Try to think of original ways to share tips and use graphics, videos and emojis to make your content more appealing.
For example, if you’re a cakemaker, share a video of how to pipe the perfect frosting on a cupcake.
2. Write a blog or newsletter
Have you thought about starting a blog or newsletter for your business?
Writing an effective piece of content takes time and practice but once you’ve settled on a theme and written your copy it can be used in a multitude of ways.
You can use the same content on your blog and in your newsletter – perhaps in long and short form.
You can encourage sign up to your newsletter and promote your new blog post on your social media platforms.
You can share it in your stories and recycle snippets into posts throughout the year.
So, when it comes to content, a little effort goes a long way.
3. Give away a prize
Running a competition or giveaway can boost your engagement, grow your audience and expand your reach. If you ask entrants to ‘tag a friend in the comments’, your audience does the work of sharing your content with their friends. And if their friends have similar interests and like your contest, they’ll enter and tag their friends too.
If you’re launching a new product or service, a giveaway can be an effective way to drum up excitement and interest.
The prize should be related to your business or brand. So, if you own a craft business you could give away a hand-knitted scarf, for example, in return for a follow and tag – with an extra entry for a share in their stories.
A word of caution though – don’t ask entrants to do too much as it may put them off. And, if you’re a small business, don’t give away a prize which is too costly in terms of time or money.
Use your social media to launch and promote the campaign by using a unique graphic with a striking image. Canva is a brilliant tool for creating quality graphics.
Define the terms of the competition, use a campaign hashtag and use a random generator tool to select your winner – which you should reveal on your social media.
4. Share a testimonial
Sharing praise for your business on social media is a great way to showcase your strengths and show that customer service is important to you.
Approach your best customers individually for help and ask product or service specific questions which guide them towards writing testimonials which aren’t just complimentary but are informative and inspirational too.
Good questions to ask include:
How much money has our product saved you?
How much time does our service save you each day/week/month?
What’s the biggest benefit you’ve seen as a result of using our product?
Once you’re happy with your testimonial, after correcting any grammar or spelling errors, you can share it in a post, in a graphic or in a story. You can even transform it into a case study which can be used on your website as well as on social media.
5. Behind the scenes
Sharing what goes on behind-the-scenes of your business can be an effective marketing strategy – after all, people buy from people. Showing your brand as human with real aspirations and motivations will make your business more relatable.
Share a photo of yourself or your team at work, give a sneak peek of a project you’re working on (stories are brilliant for this) or focus on a particular employee for a Q&A.
You can take it one step further by asking your community to offer their opinion. For example, do they prefer particular colours or designs for your new product?
Giving your followers the opportunity to contribute to your business will make them feel as though they’re partly responsible for the outcome – so they're more likely to buy your product when it’s ready for sale.
6. Frequently asked questions
Have you ever invited your audience to ask you questions about your business?
Answering your followers’ questions encourages them to engage and allows them to get to know your brand on a more personal level.
Try using the ‘ask me a question’ feature on Instagram stories or tell your audience that you’ll be online at a specific time to respond to comments on your post.
If you get a good response and you’re feeling confident, consider holding a live Q&A session.
Check your insights to see when your audience is most engaged online and schedule your Q&A then.
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