Fresh Content Ideas for Dynamic Social Posts

You've loaded your calendar with content for social media posts. Followers respond well to your content, but after a while, you feel like you're posting the same images, text, and infographics over and over. Your audience begins to stagnate and even shrink when they turn to your competitors.

These niche content ideas appeal to a wide audience while diversifying your profile. Increased interactivity, positive affirmations, and personal touches can make your social media profiles explode in popularity. For more conversions, learn how to optimize for both traffic and conversion.

Creative Content Ideas for Your Social Media Posts

Ask Your Audience

Your audience can tell you what content for social media posts they want to see. Do they enjoy your live videos and interviews? Have they learned a lot from your blog posts? Did they have fun entering a contest? Ask them for ideas so that you can tailor your content to their needs.

However, don't request their input on every decision that you make. Followers have good ideas, but they're not marketing experts. If you listen to someone who says, "Post a lot more memes!" you'll gain followers--but not for your business. Rather, take your audience's ideas into consideration as you build your content calendar.

Share Relevant Content

Not all your content has to be strictly business-related. Relevant content supplements your posts and shows customers new ways to use your products. You'll start conversations, educate people and become a real part of the community, not a faceless corporation trying to drive sales.

Related content includes instructional articles, industry news, product reviews, educational blogs, and videos. You can ultimately promote your business, but educating and entertaining your audience takes priority. Sometimes, you don't have to write anything at all. Ask content creators if you can share a relevant post, such as an iced tea recipe that's relevant to your cookware business.

Discuss Your Favorites

Everyone has a favorite. Your favorite movie, novel, pet, restaurant, park, or snack: these facts all reveal something about you to your followers. If they can relate, you'll become their friend from a distance. Plus, you'll give off a vibe of positivity and optimism--cheerful people always focus on things they enjoy.

Sharing your favorites also strikes up a friendly, cheerful conversation. Once you've shared your thoughts, invite your audience to talk about their own favorites. This is even more effective if you tie the question back to your business. A cookware line could discuss their favorite ingredients, while a used bookstore owner could talk about their favorite novels.

Promote a Flash Sale

Flash sales create a sense of urgency. Customers can't bookmark your store and come back later, likely forgetting about the sale in the meantime. Instead, they have to stock up before the deal ends. Your rush of sales will quickly make up for the discount, and you'll have a new set of potential returning customers.

Before your sale launches, build momentum with social media posts. Announce the sale a week or more ahead of time, then count down each day and discuss the upcoming freebies and discounts. Keep customers motivated during the sale by making a post whenever a product sells out, signifying that they're running out of time.

Thank Your Followers

Your customers and followers keep you in business. Show your appreciation with the occasional post thanking them for supporting you. To make it more special, have a "Customer Appreciation Day" with discounts or freebies, such as samples or e-books. Celebrate this any time, or highlight your audience when you hit a milestone, such as 10,000 followers.

Better yet, celebrate individual clients. Tag recent followers to thank them and welcome them to your community. You can also highlight customers who share pictures or videos of themselves using your products. Post glowing five-star reviews from Google Maps, Facebook, and other profiles. If you have a great experience with a client, ask them to film a video testimonial.

Share a Failure

Talking about your failures sounds counterintuitive, but everyone stumbles occasionally. People relate to one another's failures and make personal connections. When you discuss your struggles, followers see the human side of your company, but they also understand how impressively far you've come.

However, you shouldn't regularly bring up setbacks--that make your business look incompetent. Instead, discuss your struggles on rare occasions and always frame them as success stories. If your company nearly shut down in the first year, talk about the worries racing through your mind and what you did to keep your business alive. Did you struggle to find an audience? Talk about the ways you revamped your marketing strategy.

Partner with a Charity

Partnering with a charity scores you immediate moral points and is great content for social media posts. Everyone thinks positively of businesses that collaborate with charities because you're volunteering your time and money with relatively little reward. Charity partnerships also give you new content to share. You'll grab your audience's attention while inviting them to donate to a valuable cause.

If you're a small business owner, local charities often have volunteer opportunities. Taking pictures at the event provides more unique content for your calendar. You can also sponsor major charities that align with your values. Search for charities relevant to your business for brand integrity--for example, if you sell dog food subscription boxes, share pictures of you and your colleagues working at a shelter.

Invite Followers to "Fill in the Blank"

Everyone loves sharing their thoughts, but open-ended questions, such as "What are you working on today?" can be a little challenging. Fill-in-the-blank questions provide a simple template, and they can write as little as one word, leading to increased post engagement. They might even invite their friends to answer out of curiosity.

Share a broad yet specific question, such as "Every day, I get up and dream that I could _____" or "My favorite smoothie ingredient is _____." Your audience will leave quick, cheerful replies, providing opportunities to start a conversation. Make sure that you answer the question yourself to get people talking!

Motivate Your Fans

You aim to make clients associate your business with warm, happy feelings. Whether consciously or subconsciously, they'll feel dopamine when they buy products or interact with your profile, inspiring them to buy more. Motivational posts build those positive associations before they even buy anything. When you make them feel good about themselves, they'll also feel good about you.

Share motivational quotes that you found online, or make up your own. Some opt for self-love affirmations, such as "People like being around me" and "I'm an asset to my team." Happy followers may share and comment on your post, increasing your engagement levels.

Promote Guest Content

Guest contributors add a fresh voice to your content without permanently joining your team. You can pay content creators to write long-form articles, craft infographics, produce illustrations, and discuss their experiences with your brand or a relevant topic. Similarly, your employees could hop on for a guest article, video, or testimonial spotlighting their role in the company.

Collaborating with popular influencers gives you an extra popularity boost. High-budget companies seek influencers with 100,000 followers or more. If you can't afford their prices, you may succeed with micro-influencers with a dedicated niche following. Their endorsement adds a new perspective to your content and enhances your credibility.

Share Your Routine

Everyone wonders what successful business owners do all day. Share your routine with pictures, video clips, and live streams, guiding viewers through a typical shift. While you're at it, you could provide exclusive sneak peeks at upcoming products, services, and grand openings.

Afterward, invite your audience to talk about their routines. People love talking about themselves, and you'll learn a little about your demographic, which helps you adjust your products, services, and marketing strategy for them.

Ask for Recommendations

You've helped your audience; now, it's time for them to help you. Connect with your followers by asking them to recommend a book, movie, TV series, restaurant, or anything else that interests you. People love sharing their favorites, hoping you'll enjoy them as much as you did.

Subconsciously, asking for recommendations makes your followers feel good about themselves. You wouldn't accept a recommendation from just anyone. When you reach out, you're implying that you trust their expertise. Better yet, they'll feel proud and accomplished if you take their advice.

Contribute to Throwback Thursday

Every Thursday, thousands share old posts with the tag "#throwbackthursday" as they reflect on positive memories. Throwback Thursday also shows people how far you've come. When you compare a picture of you in high school to a photo of you standing in front of your business, you can't help but admire your accomplishments--and your followers do, too.

Participating in Throwback Thursday increases your visibility because your post appears in this popular tag. You can entertain your followers by joking about your old self or revealing your company's humble beginnings. You can even turn it into a motivational post, inspiring your audience to start their own businesses.

Request a Free Business Report

Not sure where to start? E-Marketing Associates' free business reports assess your website and grade you on various categories, including how your business is listed across the web, reviews, search engine optimization (SEO), and more. Once you've reviewed your report, talk to E-Marketing Associate to learn how to turn your card into straight A's. We offer products and services tailored to small businesses at rates that you can afford.