Social media has become much more than a place to go for entertainment and socialization. For business owners and entrepreneurs, social media is where you build your brand. By now, you probably understand why it’s vital for you as an entrepreneur to have a social media presence. Not only is social media the place to go to engage with your clients, but it’s also the place to go to find more clients. In order to use social media to brand your business, you need to have engaging content that will show potential clients who you are, what you do, and why they need your services.
Create Engaging Content
Your content needs to be quality and informative to attract your audience’s attention. You want people to be excited to see what you will post next, to keep coming back and engage with your posts. You want to add value to people’s lives, inspire them, and even share free information and tips. You want them to know that you are the expert so that they will return to you time and time again. Your content that you provide will build your brand for your business.
Overcome Content Fatigue
Do you struggle with creating engaging content consistently? Do you run out of ideas and get writer’s block? It can certainly be challenging to come up with new ideas and even more to keep your content exciting and engaging all of the time. The best strategy to combat content fatigue is to stay on top of it with a content strategy. If you set a plan in place, it will help you not to be overwhelmed and stay focused on your goal of consistency. You can brainstorm ideas and add to your list as you think of content ideas.
Find Inspiration
When you are ready to brainstorm ideas on what to post for your social media content strategy, a great tip is to get inspiration from other businesses. Can you think of some successful companies that have catchy content? What about your competitors? You don’t have to copy someone else’s content, but you can learn from what others are doing and get inspired for your own fantastic content. Remember to think about your target audience and research where they hang out online. If your target audience is millennials, you may want to consider posting more to Instagram, and many millennials are still on Facebook. If your target market is other entrepreneurs, LinkedIn is where they hang out the most.
The Many Types Of Social Media Content
There are many types of social media content that will help you build your brand. Here are several ideas and examples to inspire you:
- Videos and Live Videos – Digital videos drive the most web traffic and are a fun way to provide engaging content. Many businesses use YouTube to upload videos and even have a YouTube channel that allows followers to subscribe and get notifications when posting a new video. You can upload them to your Social Media pages, share the link in blogs, or anywhere digitally. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn all use “stories”, a popular and interactive feature on these platforms. These three platforms also feature the ability to do live videos, which is another great way to get your message out and engage with viewers by conversing. Pro tip: You can share videos on any of your social media channels, but for Facebook and Twitter, it’s best to upload videos directly (rather than sharing the YouTube link or Instagram video link) for the best engagement.
- Blog Posts – If you have a company blog, you will want to promote the blog on your social media channels. Blog posts, as well as company newsletters, can be repurposed into social media posts.
- Behind-The-Scenes Look – Did you ever take a company tour? Offer a virtual tour of sorts by posting a video or photos for a behind-the-scenes look at what you do. Show your office or any workplace events. Give your viewers a sneak peek into a new product launch as a teaser.
- Contests, Raffles, and Giveaways – These are a fun way to gain attention! Boost your engagement by offering a prize or reward to your followers. Share a condition of entry by having your audience like, comment, and share the post, and you will likely gain new followers that heard about the contest from their family and friends that shared your post.
- GIFs, Memes, and Animations – These are entertaining posts that grab attention! GIFs are moving images that make a post stand out and provide funny or lighthearted content. A meme is an image or video representing the thoughts and feelings of a specific audience, usually to portray humor. Both GIFs and memes are typically based on trending topics and pop culture. Animations are a cross between GIFs and videos. You can use a service like Animoto to create animated videos for social media sharing.
- Inspiration Quotes and Graphics – Quote posts can be used to highlight important parts of your blog or a way to share tips and inspiration. Instagram and Pinterest use inspiration quotes in eye-catching graphics frequently.
- Influencers and Guest Takeover Posts – Social media influencers are people with a large following who get paid to post about a brand or product and can be a great advertisement source. Team up with an influencer and have them generate content about your brand and then share with both of your social channels. Choose an influencer that often shares content that fits your brand and consider who their usual audience is. Similar to influencer posts, have someone else do a guest take-over of your social media accounts. You can use an influencer, an employee, a well-known person, or anyone you think will be attractive to your target audience. Have your guest choose the content they will share for a whole day or even a week. Your audience may be curious to hear about your business from someone other than you. Your guest may even offer a new perspective to your audience and generate more interest in your brand. Choose a guest or influencer in a different generation than you, and they will help reach a whole new era of followers. If you are in the forty and up age, try using a guest or influencer that is part of the millennial generation to reach other millennials.
- Questions, Polls, and Surveys – People love to share their opinions and feedback! A great way to hear from your audience is to offer a poll or survey. Make it fun to encourage your audience to share their answer. If you are using Instagram, you can use the question sticker in your stories. Your audience will click on the sticker and answer the question, which you will receive via a message. You can then share their answers anonymously in your stories.
There are still so many types of social media content and this is constantly changing. Stay informed and engaged with your audience to find out which types of posts generate the most interest from your followers, but don’t keep doing the same type of posts over and over again. Mix it up and try new things!