Bill Faeth
Blog post link. News article link. Infographic link. YouTube link. Yawn.
Raise your hand if you’re guilty of occasionally getting a little bit, well, routine with your social media content. It happens to many of us. Social media networks reach some 82% of the world’s population currently. However, nearly half of all social users can feel more than a little fed up at times. Some 41% recently reported feeling annoyed with social media posts, and expressed intent to spend less time on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other networking sites.
If your brand’s content has gotten too formulaic, boring, or predictable, you’re only contributing to many consumer’s growing issues with brand’s online presences. Many of the world’s most socially-savvy companies don’t just rely on blog links to create posts! To give you a little inspiration and help you up your engagement in the weeks to come, we’ve compiled a list of 50 creative content ideas.
In this blog, you’ll learn ways both B2C and B2B brands can provide humor, relevance, and true value to their prospects with a wide variety of social media content:
- Polls:
Who doesn’t love sharing their opinion on brand social media pages?
- Fill in the blanks:
“After work on Friday, I am going to ____.” Watch the comments roll in!
- How I Work:
What does a day in the life of an employee at your organization look like?
- Favorite Things:
What brand of coffee do you drink at work? As long as it’s relevant to your buyer personas, it might be relevant social content.
- Controversial Content:
Be cautious, but don’t be afraid to start a debate.
- Throw-Back Thursdays:
How did your office, staff, or product look in the past?
- Life Balance:
Work is stressful. It’s something we can all relate to, and it’s something B2B brands can address on social media. How do your staff, especially parents and students, maintain balance in their lives?
- Team Member Tuesdays:
Profile employees with fun photos, bio notes, and interviews!
- Sock Photos:
It may seem too weird to be true, but people love sharing photos of their fancy socks!
- Random Tips:
Share random work or personal-related tips, which will probably do much better in a video format.
- Ask for Advice:
Would your prospects choose a blue or green popsicle on the hottest day of the year if given the chance?
- Random Tip Solicitation:
What do your Facebook fans wish they’d known months ago? Or earlier today?
- Recurring content:
Create a weekly series, which could be “share photos of your dog Days” or “random facts” days, and stick to this posting schedule.
- Quotations:
It only takes a few minutes to create a custom, shareable quotation image in Canva or another design tool.
- Profile Your Customers:
Link to their websites, social media, and much more.
- Favorite tools:
What are the graphic design, social media, or productivity tools that are integral to how your company operates?
- Mystery Photos:
Offer a prize to the first individual to guess which of your products or staff is featured in a confusing or obscured image. Always check social media network terms of service before running a contest, though!
- Challenges:
If your photo gets 100 likes, could you convince your boss to buy the entire team donuts? It’s certainly worth a shot (and it’s worked exceedingly well for the IMA team in the past).
- Lists:
What are your team’s top ten favorite flavors of your product? Share with the world.
- Company celebrations:
Is today your 3rd anniversary, or your 21st birthday? Share your milestones, especially with images of your staff celebrating.
- Website testimonials:
Every so often, share what your existing client base thinks of your brand.
- Employee accomplishments:
If your Operations Manager finishes her Master’s degree, complimenting her on social media can lend a human element to your brand.
- Industry Shoutouts:
Make a habit of routinely calling out, complimenting, and linking to thought leaders and collaborators in your industry.
- Humor:
Using humor in marketing can be really tricky. Make sure your joke can’t possibly offend any of your prospects, and post away.
- FAQ:
Repurpose content from your website and provide pithy answers to questions you know your prospects have!
- eBooks:
Can you really share an entire eBook on social media? You can on LinkedIn. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ are the perfect candidates for links to eBooks in Slideshare
- Weird Holidays:
Did you know that April 7th is national beer day? I bet your prospects would love to know, too.
- This or That:
Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts. Starbucks or Bongo Java. Which do your audience prefer? Binary polls can incite a Facebook riot of comments, shares, and likes!
- Post Cats and Babies:
This isn’t appropriate for every brand. But as Sellfy points out, it’s one of the “worst kept secrets of social media engagement.” Often, it will work like a charm.
- Creative Boards:
What are some of the colors, trends, textures, and concepts that are inspiring your creative staff? Bonus points if you link to a collaborative board on Pinterest!
- Stats:
Everyone loves to sound smart. Sharing original or new research can give your prospects and clients something to cite.
- Graphs and Charts:
You can create a custom Excel graphic (be sure to customize it until it’s brand-appropriate and pretty) or better yet, take screenshots of your white papers or case studies!
- Forums and Discussions:
Is an industry discussion blowing up in a LinkedIn group or Quora? Go ahead and post it for your nerdier prospects, especially if your brand is actively engaged in the discussion.
- Event Social Media:
Is your organization engaged in a conference or another offline event, like a hosted networking night? Share images, spotlight attendees, and curate key findings.
- Recipes:
I bet your prospects wouldn’t hate it if you shared your Marketing Director’s famous 5 alarm chili recipe. Bonus points if you curate staff recipes on Pinterest.
- Crowdsourcing:
Why not get your audience involved in creating your new product name, concept, or logo? You can even offer a prize for winning concepts.
- Staff baby photos:
This concept can quickly get ridiculous, but if one of your employees took a truly ridiculous shot as a baby? Go for it.
- Professional Development Resources:
Are you aware of great places online to build your skills, exceptional professional orgs, or just networking tips? Share away!
- Confessions:
What would you do differently if given the chance?
- Vine or Instagram Videos:
Honestly? There can never be enough Vine or Instagram videos on social media, especially if they’re downright clever.
- Sponsorships:
If your brand’s name made it on the back of sports team jerseys or on the wall at a charity event, be sure to share.
- Caption contests:
Ask your followers to create a clever caption for a cartoon or image of your staffers.
- Great deals:
Did you just find a great deal on a product that compliments your own?
- Templates:
Have your office Excel whiz build a smart tool for budgeting, calculations, or other necessary operations.
- Future Predictions:
Share your ideas on how your industry will change next year. You could possibly incite a riot of comments!
- Expert Quotations:
Make the most of any thought leader interviews you’ve done by sharing their thoughts on social media.
- Product Comparison:
Create a handy-dandy chart that compares your products by major purchase criteria.
- Tutorials:
Create a screencast or video showcasing how your product can be used, or related life hacks.
- Podcasts:
Link to your company’s podcast as a way to offer even more multimedia content to your social media followers.
- Social proof:
User-generated content can affirm your brand’s value to your leads.
What are some of your favorite off beat ideas for social media content? Share your wildest successes in the comments!
image credit: mike licht/flickr/cc
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