You’ve set up your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, you’ve filled in your bio, your banner photo is looking swish, you’ve invited everyone on your email list to like and follow, and now you’re wondering what to post to your followers.
Even if you think you’ve got it sussed, it’s easy for marketers to run out of inspiration juice when they have been managing social media accounts for some time.
There is no shame in looking for ideas elsewhere, be it keeping a close eye on websites such as Social Media Examiner or Social Media Today, gleaning insights from your favourite social media accounts, seeing what competitors are up to or asking a colleague to brainstorm with you.
Filling up your social media calendar is daunting when you’re looking at a blank spreadsheet, Google calendar or Trello board. Wherever it is you log your ideas for upcoming social media posts, we hope these suggestions will save you time and headaches.
Decide how often you will share each type of post (for example, a two-week rotation) and then add them into your content calendar.
Once you have established the sequence of your posts, you can get creative with the copy and design.
So, what exactly can you include in your social media calendar?
ONE: Quotes
Inspirational quotes from industry thought leaders make for fantastic Monday Motivation and Wednesday Wisdom inclusions. Superimposed onto a beautiful image, these make for a brilliant scroll-stopping feature in the newsfeed.
TWO: Testimonials
Why be modest about your achievements? If your customers are willing to praise you, then show it off. Design a jazzy template in Canva and get pasting your most glowing references for all of social media to see.
THREE: Statistics
Nothing is more convincing to our logical minds than a snappy statistic your followers can be wowed by and quote to their friends. Statistics and infographics provide nuggets of knowledge, and knowledge is valuable, especially if you’re pitching your content to busy professionals who could do with a helping hand staying on-trend.
FOUR: Questions
Questions are a great way to engage your target audience. You can do this in several ways, including simply asking a question as part of a visual or using a poll. How about using the Questions feature in Instagram Stories to elicit interaction? Ask your followers to answer a simple question
FIVE: Benefits of Your Product/Service
Promoting your business isn’t always a bad thing! People love to connect with highly engaging and entertaining content, but they also want to know what it is you do. It’s therefore important to including in your content mix a few posts advertising your product or service.
This is only a bad thing if all you do is promotions as people become promo blind and scroll right past you.
A photo of your product in context or a list highlighting the pros of using your product are to be expected.
SIX: Tips
Whether it’s a short sentence on a visual or a mini tutorial video, help people understand the creative applications of your product or service by suggesting ideas or showing them what to do.
SEVEN: Blog Posts
Don’t forget to share your articles with people on social media. It may sound obvious but lots of people go to all the effort of writing a blog post only to leave it on the site and not do anything about it.
Blogs are supposed to lead people to your site in addition to providing insightful content. Help them earn their keep by sharing them on all your channels.
EIGHT: Useful Articles
Let’s not be selfish! As good as your posts are, you’re not the only experts out there. Prove that your page is worthy of being followed because you a hub of helpful content. People will follow you because you are the go-to page to brush up on everything to do with your industry. How do you do this? By sharing other people’s content.
NINE: Life in Your Company Photos
People like to know all about people, and we have a certain curiosity to know about the “behind the scenes” aspects of a place. That’s why fly-on-the-wall documentaries have been popular. As humans, we’re not simply content to see the end result. We want to nose at the story behind what we usually see and glimpse the process. It’s all too see companies as faceless entities operated by algorithms and robots. But if you show off the people behind the brand, followers will feel more empathy and recognise that you value your staff’s contribution to what your company does. How about featuring “a day in the life of” one of your technicians, or follow how your product is made? Congratulate your staff for birthdays, anniversaries, having babies or for winning awards.
TEN: Polls
Polls are a very easy way to generate engagement. Let’s face it, most of us are lazy. We may like an article and have an opinion, but rarely do we take the time to leave a comment. With polls, the answers are ready-made and as easy as a “like”. You can gauge opinions and feedback with this simple feature on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Stories.
ELEVEN: Jargon Definitions
If your product or services involves a lot of jargon that can be alienating for potential customers, a graphic explaining the term can help people learn something and feel a little less excluded. This can also be used in a humorous way if it’s referring to something that is universally understood by your audience.
TWELVE: Memes
Memes are extremely popular for their funny content and witty outlook on familiar scenarios. A meme is a picture with a funny caption or dialogue conveying an observation that is shared by your audience. Don’t overuse memes, but for anyone on your team who has a good sense of humour, set them to work on generating a few memes.
THIRTEEN: Interview Snippets
If you’ve created a larger piece of content such as an interview video, cut up small snippets to share as a social media post. These should be no more than one minute and give people a taster so they visit your blog or YouTube channel.
FOURTEEN: Presentations
Experts create presentations, so why keep them in the conference room? You have an eager audience on the web hungry for knowledge, so why not create some short presentations as an animated gif, a video or a SlideShare and you can use this to entice people to sign up to your webinar, event or conference.
FIFTEEN: Live Q&A
The options are endless! IGTV, Facebook Live, Linked In Live and Twitter Live Streaming… Choose where you have most followers and set up a live Q & A to cement the relationship and get away from merely broadcasting. Get your followers to leave questions for you during the live transmission and they’ll excitedly await your response.
SIXTEEN: Client Work Examples
A job well done is worth showing off about! Don’t miss an opportunity to show your future clients why they should be employing you. What if you don’t do work for clients? Then get your customers to send in pictures of your product in situ so you can share it in your Instagram Stories.
SEVENTEEN: Company Announcements
Easy to forget, but when something changes in your business, the best place to start letting people know is your social media. Do you have a new product? An event? Has your website had a facelift? Tell everyone about it.
EIGHTEEN: Ebooks and Resources
Websites can be home to a wealth of content including ebooks, whitepapers and resource packs. How do you get the word out about this meaty content? Your social channels of course. You can ask for email addresses in order to access the content or you can give it away without a sign-up. We all love a freebie so blast the message out to all your followers.
NINETEEN: Email Campaigns
Emails are exciting content pieces and not everyone gets to see the wonders of your creativity. The good news is there are links that display your email to your audience even if they are not on your mailing list, so you could share these links on your Facebook or Twitter.
TWENTY: Jump on Popular Hashtags
If you still can’t think of what to include in your social media calendar, remember that most days have a hashtag you can use as a starting point. Monday = #mondaymotivation, Friday = #fridayfeeling/#friyay. Find out what’s popular on Twitter in the Trending section and find your inspiration.