There’s no avoiding social media in today’s marketing landscape. If you want to compete, however, you need to stand out. After all, viral content doesn’t come about by imitating what everyone else is doing. This isn’t a simple task, however, especially if you’re a small business who can’t afford to shell out for a copywriting service. To help your social media stand out from the crowd, we’ve compiled a list of ten social media content ideas for small businesses.
1- Social Media Takeovers
Getting an influencer to take over your social media is a great way to appeal to your audience and attract them. The concept is simple: find an influencer who’s brand aligns with yours, then ask them to make posts for your social media accounts.
They can post to your story, upload videos, share pictures, and even share other relevant content through your social media account. Just make sure you give them clear instructions about your goals and what they aren’t allowed to say.
2 – Celebrating Fun National Holidays
Using tools like Holidays Calendar and National Day Calendar—or through just a quick Google search—you can find official and unofficial national holidays. These can be serious days like National Stress Awareness Day, or more fun holidays like National Pumpkin Day.
A blog or post centered around holidays is a fun way to diversify your copy, entertain your audience, and spread awareness about topics you care about.
3 – Making a Puzzle for Your Followers
People love feeling smart. One way you can capitalize on that feeling is by creating a puzzle for your audience members to solve. This can be as simple as writing your Instagram caption in code, or as complex as a fleshed-out ARG.
You can even offer a prize to the first few followers to solve the puzzle to increase engagement.
4 – Make a Series
Another way you could increase engagement is by having the puzzle span several posts or platforms. Games and riddles aren’t the only things you can turn into a series, however. Whether a story, a collection of recipes, or just a recurring theme, creating a series is a great way to keep your followers coming back for more.
5 – Make a Quiz
Again, people love feeling smart. Another way you can make them flex their brain power is by implementing quizzes. These can be trivia about your brand, a true/false quiz, or any number of ideas.
Have them share their results and show off their grades!
6 – Introduce Your Employees
To humanize your brand, you can spotlight your employees. Show off your employee of the month or the people working on your much-anticipated project.
You can give a brief profile of who they are and what they do, or you can highlight multiple employees by showing off their responses to fun questions. This also gives you the opportunity to show off your company culture and help your employees feel appreciated.
7 – Participate in Bigger Discussions
Online interaction is social media’s entire point, but when you’re trying to market your business you can get caught up in the routine of generating content. You should respond to comments, of course, but you can also take time to search out other conversations to insert yourself into.
If a post related to your brand is trending, take a moment to participate in the conversation.
8 – Respond When Fans Tag You
On that note, you should take the time to respond if a lot of your followers tag you in another post. Whether they’re asking you to respond to a serious question or a meme, answering shows your fans you care…and that you have a sense of humor.
9 – Curate Ideas Based on Your Platform
The items on this list so far have been pretty general, but you need to take your specific social media platform into account when brainstorming ideas. Ask yourself questions like…
- What features can I use to my advantage?
- Who’s this platform’s primary user base?
- What content is trending on this platform?
Taking these questions into account can help you decide what content you should be putting on that platform.
10 – Curate Ideas Based on Your Audience
Even more important, however, is curating ideas based on your audience. You wouldn’t make horoscopes to market to corporate professionals any more than you’d make corporate infographics to appeal to astrology buffs.
Then recipes are a safe idea. Are you marketing your eco-friendly clothing line? Then maybe your audience is more interested in fast facts about fast fashion. The bottom line is that you want to create content your audience will appreciate.
Conclusion
There’s no end to the content social media has to offer, so you’ll need to flex some creative muscles to stand out from the crowd. Ask yourself what your audience wants, what you’re capable of, and what people respond to, and you’re sure to come up with content to suit your needs!