A tragedy for the SMM specialist is the lack of social media post ideas. When you’ve told your followers about a thousand ways to use a product, congratulated them on the day ketchup was invented and the professional holiday of drivers, held a contest and even summarized its results, and you still need to post, consider these tips: sharing the places where you can endlessly look for ideas for new social media posts and blog posts.
And we want to talk today about what you can post on social networks, and where you can find more social media post ideas.
Where to get social media post ideas?
The standard approach — brainstorming and others
Methods of generating topics for articles were invented many years ago, and there are many. Brainstorming, unconscious writing, drawing, meditation, sleep and rest, walking in the woods, observing birds and animals, classical music… Everyone finds their own methods for awakening the creative unconscious. You can do it yourself or google something like “how to find a topic for content” and get hundreds of sites where authors have collected different content ideas. If we reduce them to a shortlist based on our knowledge of what goes best on social media, we get options like this:
Inspirational approach
There’s a network you can log on to in the evening and sit up until the first roosters. It’s Pinterest.
This site has such a recommendation system that you can surf through the pics endlessly. But in general, it’s a service not for storing pictures but for storing visual bookmarks. Almost all of the images are linked to the site where they are located. Most often, these are thematic blogs or online stores. Online stores can be ignored, but theme blogs are your helpers in finding ideas for content.
All it takes is patience. How does it work? You write about online marketing. You find an article on the topic by keyword — and you can do a lot of useful things with it. Translate and print with authorship (this is called content curation), take just the title and divulge the topic yourself, make a summary of the article and argue with some of its theses. And the great thing about all this is that the more you keep picture bookmarks on your boards, the more interesting the network will offer you.
Google Trends
Follow the news: react to current events with jokes or helpful material. You can find such events in the trends of any platform (for example, all current events are discussed on Twitter and can be found in the Trends tab).
Google Trends is an excellent way to find out what users are discussing on the web today — firstly, it’s your profession to be aware of high-profile topics, and secondly, you can find newsworthy topics that are relevant to your brand. And from them, you can get ideas for posts.
User surveys
Ask your audience what they’re interested in — that way, you’ll both get engagement and gather ideas for posts, which you convert into a list of topics. Offer to write ideas for posts — or problems with your community’s theme — in comments or responses to Instagram polls.
Discussions
The topics that get the most response from your audience — and therefore engagement in the community — are the ones that bother users. And what bothers people, they actively discuss. This can serve as ideas for posts. It’s pretty simple. Keep track of such discussions in comments in competitor communities, forums, and related sites.
Competitors
Track and analyze your competitors’ publications. You’ll understand which topics work best, which contest mechanics produce the best engagement, and which, conversely, don’t work. This way, you’ll have plenty of ideas for posts of your own that you can publish with a greater likelihood of their popularity.
Old publications
Scroll through your feed, refer back to your old content plan if you had one. You can re-post with updated data. Also, old articles can help you gather interesting comments and questions from users. They can become new publications. Very often, subscribers will throw up interesting topics on their own. You have to watch carefully.
What do I post on social media?
In all of our projects, we use essentially the same approach:
There are times when a business account has an audience that likes and comments but does not buy. Selling content presents products to subscribers, generates interest, and encourages them to buy.
It is important to approach the creation of selling content for social networks creatively: try the formats, see the result, and consider the effectiveness. We use all the content formats suggested in this article in our projects, and we are sure of their effectiveness.
Types of selling content
The main types of content that we classify as selling content:
Discounts
Discounts are an important social media promotion tool for merchandise businesses in highly competitive niches targeting the mass consumer.
Often even a small discount becomes a deciding factor for customers.
When writing discount offers, consider:
Your competitors’ approach to discounts and the specifics of niche pricing, the peculiarities of your business processes, the size of the final profit, taking into account all sales in action.
IMPORTANT: discounts should increase profits through the projected increase in sales, not reduce it by reducing the check while maintaining or lack of growth in sales. Therefore, you should always carefully calculate them and analyze the results.
Let’s consider the options for discount offers.
Time-limited discounts
Every weekend, we can offer customers discounts on a new product that are only valid on those two days. This way, you encourage your audience to buy it now because the following weekend’s discount will be on other products.
This can be a significant discount on an item or category of items that last only one day — it’s like we’re saying to subscribers, “Buy at this price now or never.”
Run long-lasting promotions for major purchases this way. This approach works well in the furniture niche. For example, you can run a month-long discount on kitchens or bedrooms in the furniture niche. For other niches with a high average check, that’s okay, too.
These types of purchases are not made spontaneously; you have to prepare for them. It would be foolish to lose a customer because you run a promotion from the 15th to the 18th, and their salary comes on the 20th.
A good example of situational marketing is a holiday discount. Most purchases are made just in time for the holidays, so you can’t miss out on the major ones: Halloween, New Year’s Eve, Christmas, Fourth of July.
You’ve been promoting an event for a long time — attracting participants, warming up with useful content, and closing on a sale. And now the audience is here, so sell!
Create a good short-term offer and get results.
Narrowing your custom audience to a specific segment works well. So people will recognize themselves as the hero of your publications, will associate their needs with your product. And then it will be quite easy for them to make a decision about buying your product.
Discounts on individual products
Most often, these kinds of discounts are done as a joint promotion with a manufacturer or distributor of goods. They allow you to attract a new audience, increase demand and increase profits and therefore are beneficial to both the supplier and the seller.
Discounts at the peak of the season? Such a move won’t just fulfill your sales plan. It will seriously strengthen your customers’ loyalty to you.
This technique is often used to promote a new item, to increase sales of best sellers further, or — on the contrary — when selling items in low demand and take up space in the warehouse or on display.
When selling new products, don’t forget to collect feedback so that you can then use it in a warm-up to generate demand and increase sales at full value.
Discounts for targeted action
When you have an additional task, such as promoting a mobile app, inviting to an event, subscribing to another social media account or messenger, use this format.
This way, you can kill two birds with one stone: increase sales and increase the effectiveness of another marketing channel.
Early booking discount is suitable for tour operators, event organizers, narrow audience merchants, and several other niches.
This way, you can get the money you need to produce a product or organize a service in advance.
In addition, you actually form a preliminary list, which allows you to estimate the demand for the product.
The task of an offer with a big discount is to attract buyers’ attention and make them go to your site. After all, their choice may not stop at the super discounted model but at a more expensive option from your assortment.
Special discount formats
Show the discount amount not in percentages like most competitors, but in absolute numbers. This way, the user will clearly see the amount they will save.
Combining a discount with elements of engagement and warming up
If the standard discount approach is losing popularity, shake up your audience in an original way. Choose a question so that it’s close to the business topic, but it’s not too complicated or special.
Promotions
Promotions are special offers where the emphasis is not on reducing the cost of goods but on obtaining an additional bonus. Often such ways of stimulating sales work better than discounts because they help to increase the average check and/or free the warehouse from goods of low demand.
A gift to the main product
Offer customers two items for one price: for example, the more expensive item on the check. This method attracts those who want more items at a better price and increases the average check.
It is better to use this format to increase sales of low-priced goods.
This is a variation of the previous promotion, but there is a difference. It’s better to hold it when the goods in the check are relatively expensive, and the price of the items is about the same.
This is another kind of 2-for-1 promotion, but with an emphasis on the presale of related goods or services. Customers are often looking for a comprehensive product of several items.
The gift will be an interesting offer for subscribers at a low cost. At the same time, you’ll make money on the sale of the main product at full price.
Incentivize a purchase by offering the customer to get “something else.” And the gift can be a product from the company’s assortment.
This is a variant of an intangible gift. We offer additional client services for the purchase of “here and now.”
An additional incentive to make a purchase decision can be a time-limited advantageous offer: for example, participation in a raffle or the next promotion.
The customer is interested in getting even more value, and we increase the likelihood that he’ll come back to you again.
Cashback for a purchase
A purchase bonus can also be arranged in the form of a cashback, similar to bank settlements. This technique can be used if customers react weakly to the words “discount” and “bonus.”
Free shipping or installation is an effective marketing tool that also often becomes decisive in the choice. It’s essential for selling large items: furniture, refrigerators, washing machines, and other large appliances.
Free shipping is best offered when you reach a certain purchase amount so that logistics costs do not lead to losses. In addition, if a person is a little short of the minimum order, he is likely to buy something else to take advantage of this option.
Don’t forget to give a “reason” for the current promotion. After all, although people buy on emotion, they want a rational explanation for the current conditions. Do you have the 33rd item in a particular category sold? Make a promotional offer in honor of it.
Product reviews
Reviews are essential for warming up (they help us remove objections) and selling (they show the product face).
The technique is quite simple: we choose one product (or category of products) and present it. This can be either a text description or a short video with a demonstration.
The reviews can be combined with discounts and promotions or created separately from them.
Choose the product you’ll be talking about all week. You can review each of its features in a separate post and include that product in the selections.
Talk about additions to the range or announce them by suggesting pre-orders.
Show how to use your product in the real world. And if you give variation, great! That way, potential customers can try it on and see how it will fit into their reality.
Tell your subscribers why everyone should have this exact product and offer to buy it right now.
People tend to believe in famous personalities. They want to be like them. They want to “try on” their lives. This format is most often used by big brands, which choose famous people as their ambassadors.
But there is another option: to monitor the publication of stars in social networks and events from the star chronicle. You can always find the right shots there.
Product selections
Product selections are a way to present several products at the same time and allow users to buy them: follow a link to a landing page, an online store, or write a direct message.
The choice of criteria by which selections can be assembled is endless and depends only on your creativity and assortment.
Selections can also be in text + image or video formats.
Selection by a certain principle
Customers are bored with the classics, and you have stale bright goods? We gather the corresponding selection, think out and announce the reason and let’s get to the sales!
Customers bored with the classics, and you’re stuck with a bright product? We gather the appropriate selection, think up and announce the reason and let’s move on to sales!
Show the richness of your assortment with your own eyes. Then everyone can find exactly what they need.
Holidays are coming soon, and everyone will buy gifts? Or just want to please and pamper yourself, but not to empty your wallet?
Make life easier for your subscribers by offering them a ready selection of options. One post can include items up to $100/200/500.
You can find several products with a common attribute and collect them into a selection: this works for the sale and gives users interesting information.
Help customers overcome the difficulty of choosing — give them a ready-made solution. For example, a selection of furniture for a baby’s nook would include a table, chair, and shelf in the right style, while a ready-made bow for a formal outing would include a dress, shoes, and a bag.
Tops
Do you have an obvious sales leader? There’s a reason for that! Surely this product is very easy to use and ideal in terms of value for money. So tell as many of your potential customers as possible about it.
A kind of top, which presents the sales leaders in one single category.
Another kind of top, where we focus on the best deals on products in the range.
Comparisons
Product comparison is another type of selection, where the reason for the presentation is to compare products with each other. Comparisons can also be made according to different criteria.
This type of selection in the form of a game helps users choose favor of a particular product. Talk about the pros and cons, features, and uses of each and bump them together.
The “want/can” format works great for selling inexpensive analogs of premium products. Show the original and the product of your range, which can replace it.
Presentations
Presentations show the product face to face and create a desire to buy. Most often, they present new items in the range. But not only.
When a new product enters the range, it’s a great excuse to announce it to your subscribers. You may find someone who wants to buy it right away.
When a product is new and moves out of the line, it’s the last chance for users to buy it.
Announcements
Prepare for the premiere of a potential bestseller in advance: prepare your audience for the premiere with a chain of warming posts indicating the timing of the premiere and the features of the novelty.
This format is suitable for businesses that work by appointment — these are many areas of the service industry. Event planners can also use it.
So that was a selection of 42 social media post ideas. And just in case you want more themed options, here is a selection of our articles for you!
By months:
Social Media Post Ideas for September
Social Media Post Ideas for May
Social Media Content Ideas for June
Social Media Content Ideas for July
Social Media Content Ideas for August
October Social Media Marketing Ideas
By events:
Black Friday Social Media Post Ideas
By niches:
Real Estate Social Media Post Ideas
Social Media Post Ideas for Insurance Agents
By holidays:
Social Media Posts Ideas for Labor Day
Friendship Day Social Media Post Ideas
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