Generating an endless supply of social media post ideas is often one of the most taxing steps of online content creation. The trouble with social media is that it is so… daily, right? The good news is that you really don’t need to reinvent the wheel. There are a few steps you can take to keep generating updated ideas that play off of your past, popular content.
Consider Social Media Goals
As you sit down to brainstorm social media content ideas, it’s always good to go back to your goals. Hopefully you have drafted a social media strategy for your business. If so, then you have a clear “why.”
- Are you on social media in an effort to increase brand awareness?
- Is it to generate new leads to sell your products and services to?
- Maybe it is to have a platform to establish yourself as a thought leader.
- Something else?
Whatever it is that you have identified as your reason(s) for being on social media, your content should support these goals. For example, if you are wanting to establish yourself as an expert, EDUCATIONAL content is going to be your jam.
If you are working in the lifestyle/influencer space, ENTERTAINMENT is going to be key.
In reality, all brands benefit from a good mix of educational, inspirational, and entertaining content.
Come Up With a Content Recipe
A content recipe is simply a list of categories or buckets of content you want to share. I aim for 7-10 categories per client.
If you want, you can even go so far as putting them on days of the week:
- Monday: Quotes
- Tuesday: Tutorials
- Wednesday: Behind the scenes
- Thursday: Personal
- Friday: Promotional
- Saturday: Humor
- Sunday: off
The benefit to a Content Recipe is that you always have some direction when you go through creative dry spells. When faced with the “what do I post today” question, the Content Recipe at least gives you a starting point!
You may worry that this idea makes your social media feel repetitive and predictable but truly, no one notices! What they DO notice is that you have a nice variety of content to share and it feels diverse. A Content Recipe can even stretch you and inspire you to keep thinking and coming up with creative ideas, instead of relying on all quotes or all funny memes.
After I determine my Content Recipe, I challenge myself to come up multiple ways to communicate that type of content. For example, if I had a day that I wanted to share tips or educational content, I would think of several ways to share that like:
- A numbered list: “7 ways to…”
- Q & A: present a common question you get with your response
- Myth buster: share a common myth people have about your product/service/industry
- A step-by-step tutorial or “show and tell”
Remember this is just supposed to be helpful for YOU. You don’t need to feel pressure to be rigid about it. Just use it as a tool to stay creative and keep your content varied.
Use Different Post Formats
You can take one content idea and share it again and again, just by putting the information in different formats.
Using Instagram as an example, think of all the different ways you could present one piece of content:
- A static image or graphic
- A carousel of images or graphics
- A 60-second video
- Stories
- A Reel
A real-life example of my own is from a popular blog post I wrote a long, long time ago: the 7 Habits of Highly Engaging Instagram Accounts.
I turned this blog post into a large infographic for Pinterest.
On Instagram I have shared it (or spun off the idea) with a Reel:
A carousel:
A flowchart type graphic:
These were shared over the course of months, or even a couple of years. No one has shouted at me for repeating good info in a fresh way :).
What content do you have that you can present in new in different ways?
Molly Marshall teaches small business owners and online entrepreneurs how to systematically and simply grow a profitable online presence through social media. Get your FREE Instagram Strategy Guide now!