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10 great social media post ideas (FREE cheat sheet download)

Published by Anina Heyns at 7th June 2019

Creative block is not just something suffered by writers. If you run a business and try to keep a handle on your social media activity, it can be a daunting task to know what to post each time.

It seems easy enough: taking a few photos and writing a few updates. But before you know it, a month has passed and your Insta page is looking a little sad and out of date. Hey, we’ve all been there.

Fear not. We are here to help you stay inspired in telling your brand story on your social channels with 10 easy social media post ideas (and how we can help if you get stuck).

1. Promote a blog article

Blog articles and social media posts go together like Netflix and chill. Blog articles exist to improve your search rankings, drive traffic to your site, show off your expertise and build relationships. Social media posts can highlight when you’ve published a new post, or it can feature quotes or statistics from the article. Your blogging and social media schedule should work together, and it’s a good idea to get a copywriter involved if you don’t have time to write engaging, original articles yourself.

2. Take them behind the scenes

Customers love to see what you get up to behind the scenes, so give them a glimpse into your company culture. A culture post could be an image, video or blog article that tells someone more about what your values are, or about the people who work with you. Perhaps you can show how a product is made, how staff members are being trained, or which of your products/services an employee loves the most – e.g. our receptionist’s favourite facial treatment.

3. Curated content

For those days you just can’t come up with anything original yourself, see what others are getting up to. Called curated content, keep an eye out for industry news and create a list of expert sources for your industry, such as an industry publication. Then follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn so you’re the first to know when they share new content, which you can post about on your channels with your own comments. Just remember to always credit your source!

4. Product or company videos

Photos are great but if you want your social media post reach to skyrocket, you must include some video content in your feed. Social media videos generate more than 1,200% more shares than images and text combined. Plus, it’s predicted that 80% of all web traffic will be driven by video by 2021. Make use of video marketing to create company culture (e.g. meet our staff) or product demo videos. Don’t forget about the ‘live’ function of Instagram and Facebook, where you can share video footage as it happens.

5. Testimonials or customer reviews

Word of mouth remains the most powerful form of advertising so don’t forget to feature your biggest fans on social media – your customers. This could be done through testimonials or by inviting a customer to review your product. A time-saving way to do this is to have an image template design, which you can then easily populate with a quote from a customer.

6. Tips & tricks

How-to videos or articles remain popular – see tips & tricks as the mini version of this content type. Think of a list of quick tips/hacks/advice you can share with your audience – which relates to your product and service – and you will not only appear helpful, but also teach them about your business.

7. Giveaways and collaborations

Who doesn’t love a freebie? You can smartly use giveaways to drive traffic to your site or encourage sales – especially around a calendar event. You could also collaborate with a like-minded business by combining products within a giveaway. Not only will a combined prize appear more attractive, but you could also use each other’s social media followings by sharing across various channels.

8. Free resources and infographics

Need to share a ton of advice or information? That’s what infographics are made for. Using engaging and impactful designed visuals, you can share boring statistics in an interesting way, show a step-by-step guide or how-to. Another way to win at likes is to offer a free resource (look, we’re doing it at the bottom of this article!) such as a downloadable e-book/guide, which your audience can use for reference at a later stage.

9. Meet the team

Your people are your biggest asset so use social media to show off their accomplishments, whether it’s an industry award or promotion, or them sharing insights about your product or service. Invest in quality professional photography of yourself and your team and you will always have something great to post. What’s more, photos with faces or human elements perform so much better than random stock images.

10. Promotions and sales

You know how we talked about blogs and social media posts being best pals? Well so are promos and landing pages. Instead of dangling a carrot and sending someone to your homepage, a landing page allows you to a) list very specific products and product features in one place (without overwhelming someone with ALL the info on your website), and b) you are able to capture a customer’s information on a form, offering the incentive in return. When you have someone’s contact details and permission to contact them, you can further boost sales through email marketing.

We hope this list has you feeling inspired and ready to start sharing all the great content and ideas you are no doubt sitting on! For even more inspiration, we’ve created a list of 70 ideas of content you can post on social media at any time.

>DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE CHEAT SHEET HERE

Don’t know where to get started? The best plan is to choose what you want to post, put these ideas into a monthly calendar, write the posts and prep the images, preschedule them to post automatically and get back to building your business. Keep in mind when using any of these ideas, to always keep it relevant to your business / industry.