I’m sure you hear it over and over again – post regularly on social media to leverage the power of your following, create brand ambassadors and increase your company’s name recognition online. Posting updates on social media is one thing, but publishing strategically and sharing the right content is another beast entirely. For those who are unsure what to post, this article provides some helpful ideas that can get your creative juices flowing.
8 Challenges Of Creative Content Marketing
It isn’t easy to come up with fresh, new and exciting ideas for your business day in and day out. As Jeff Bullas mentions, there are eight main challenges that can be barriers to your content marketing plan. They are:
- Finding inspiration and ideas for the content
- Creating it
- Making it relevant
- Resourcing it
- Managing it
- Monitoring it
- Measuring it
- Making it “liquid” and contagious
As CoSchedule continues, the most important questions to ask yourself when determining if content is a good fit are:
- What’s in it for my audience?
- Would I click on this?
- Is this relevant to my business?
Want to reimagine the world of your business? Here are 20 excellent ideas for what to post next.
20 Creative Content Marketing Ideas
There are many ways to come up with creative content marketing ideas for your business.
- Create a daily, weekly or monthly series
On social media, and online in general, content is king, but consistency is queen. Creating a series that you post to your social media channel regularly builds trust with your audience; they will see that you are consistent and will be more likely to engage with your content.
- Create Instagram and Facebook stories
Have you noticed the Instagram and Facebook story feature? This feature allows users to share photos or live video in the form of a story that lasts for 24 hours. This is an awesome opportunity for brands to take advantage of because it allows you to share more content marketing material without clogging up customers’ newsfeeds and appearing spammy. It also allows you to create a “story” for each day, which is a great place to highlight current specials or happenings at your company.
While viewing a story, users can send the creator a direct message easily through the app, which makes it simple for customers to contact you. Remember to have a social media point person assigned to monitor fan engagement, because the average customer won’t wait long for a response.
- Run a contest or giveaway
People love contests, and even more so, they love free things. According to Sprout Social, “Running the occasional contest is one of the most impactful social media ideas when it comes to potential engagement from followers. Ninety-one percent of Instagram posts with more than 1,000 likes or comments are related to a contest. Meanwhile, accounts that run contests on a regular basis are noted to grow 70 percent faster than those that don’t.”
- Offer a tip of the day
While you don’t want to give away all of your company’s secrets, there is great value in dangling a carrot! Try sharing a Tip of the Day related to your industry to showcase your expertise. For example, if you’re the author of a cookbook, try sharing your favorite recipe.
- Host an ask me anything (AMA)
AMAs are increasing in popularity and are very common on Reddit. This is a great way to engage and educate your followers. AMAs are question and answer sessions connected over social media where you can show off your industry knowledge, experiences and insight. Just be prepared to answer anything that’s asked – you may want to have a trusted colleague with you to help navigate any tricky questions that come up.
- Prepare a top 10 list
Curated content is another great option to share on social media, especially when you are feeling some writer’s block. There is a ton of fantastic content on the internet, so take a research day and dive into the ins and outs of your industry. Compile these into a blog post (adding an introduction, conclusion and your own commentary), then share it with your followers on social media. This helps establish you as a thought leader and shows you are always learning.
- Create bite-size videos
Video content marketing is a must-do for modern brands in more ways than one. Unfortunately, some companies worry about video content being too complicated or costly.
According to Sprout Social, “When you consider that video content gets exponentially more shares than video or text, brands should give some serious thought to creative social media ideas that incorporate video.”
Bite-size videos (15 to 60 seconds) are low cost and are perfect for social media platforms like Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
- Share a video demonstration
Creating videos for your content marketing is a great way to keep your content fresh.
Some business’s products are hard to explain using words and pictures. If this is the case for your company, try a more dynamic approach. Create an interesting video demonstration of your product or hold a Facebook Live session where you can answer customer questions. This helps shake things up, keeping your content marketing approach fresh and fun.
- Repurpose your content
There is a good chance that you spend a lot of time creating your original content, so you are going to want to repurpose it as much as possible. According to Sprout Social, “Fifty percent of articles only receive eight shares or less on social media. For every blog post you write or video you shoot, you should consider additional ideas for promoting it on social media beyond its original format. For example, you can pull a quote from your content and repurpose it into a share-friendly image via Canva.”
- Create interviews and podcasts
According to The Podcast Consumer 2019, “Seventy percent of Americans have heard of podcasts – that’s an additional 20 million more people over the 2018 statistic.” Podcasts help build brand recognition, authority and trust among listeners. With so many people tuned in, they provide a fantastic opportunity for conversations related to specific industries and build the speaker’s credibility in their niche.
- Team up with another brand
Teaming up with another company is a great way to get new eyes on your product or service. You are showing your brand to an already established audience, and it makes your business seem amiable and more personable.
- Ask your followers a question
Similar to sharing a Tip of the Day, why not ask a Question of the Week? This not only engages your followers and brings them into your world, but it also offers you a valuable opportunity to get into their heads and collect data about their needs and behaviors, such as preferences or suggestions for improvement on any of your products.
- Go live
According to Sprout Social, “People spend three times longer watching Facebook Live videos than pre-recorded ones.”
With live video you can directly interact with your audience. However, it can be a huge time commitment, so consider that when planning for live video.
- Predict future industry trends
Do you have a great idea about a cutting-edge new trend in your industry? Share it with the world! Create a blog post that details your predictions and share the link on your social media channels. Encourage your fans and followers to add their two cents and encourage comments on your website. This will help build your business’s credibility as an industry thought leader.
- Take advantage of trending topics
The internet and its trends move fast; they come and go in the blink of eye.
According to Sprout Social, “Trending topics on Twitter and Facebook represent a way for brands to capitalize on topical content. While you have a limited window of opportunity for such content to be relevant, topical posts can score huge numbers.”
It’s important to note, however, that not all trends will suit your brand. Trying to hop on a trend that doesn’t fit your brand can end up making you look disconnected from your audience.
- Showcase your company’s culture
If you and your team members have fun, be sure to show it! Besides allowing customers a peek into your world, it can help them see you as a trustworthy figure who is passionate about your business. Do you have casual Fridays or company picnics in the summertime? What about allowing dogs in your workplace? Whatever it is that makes you unique, be sure to share some behind-the-scenes images.
- Take advantage of unique holidays
Ever wonder where people find out that it’s National Clean Up Your Desk Day or World Creativity and Innovation Day? There are many sites where you can learn about obscure holidays, including DaysOfTheYear.com. Take a look on a monthly basis and identify which holidays would make sense for your business to participate in. These can include business, customer-centric dates or fun holidays for increasing team building and morale.
- Repurpose company blog posts
Repurposing blog posts is a great way to create content marketing materials.
If your business doesn’t yet have a blog, it should. Blogging has countless benefits for your company, including:
- Marketers who blog experience 67 percent more leads than those who don’t.
- Writing 21-54 blog posts can increase your company’s website traffic by 30 percent.
- Websites with blogs have 434 percent more indexed pages (which helps search engines find your site and boosts SEO efforts) and 97 percent more inbound links.
- Blog posts that are shared on Twitter and Facebook receive 149 percent more inbound links than those not shared on social media.
- Blogs are 63 percent more likely to influence purchase decisions than magazines.
Once you’ve dedicated time to blogging (or asked a company like Three Girls Media to do so on your behalf), you’ll want to promote those posts to increase their mileage. Take small sections of the posts and share them on social media or take a fact and statistic and turn it into a question to increase your follower engagement.
- Share about your community involvement
Another great way to raise visibility is to showcase your community involvement on social media. People love connecting with brands that feel human and genuinely care about giving back. For example, you could host a local park or stream clean up. If you take this route, just make sure to get permission from the city first. An extra way to boost your company’s name recognition is to invest in shirts that have your company’s name printed on them and include your logo, website URL and social media handles. If your community service initiatives are extensive, share the news! Contact local members of the press to let them know about your community involvement!
- Respond to your followers
Social media is a great tool for responding to your followers. Brands should always be willing to engage with users on any of their social media platforms. Your audience’s time is valuable and limited, so make sure you show that your brand cares.
Do You Need Help With Your Content Marketing?
Need a hand with consistent, compelling content creation? Contact Three Girls Media today for a complimentary, 30-minute consultation to discuss ways we can help make your business shine.
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