Struggling to come up with social media content ideas is very common for today’s business owners. Thinking of what to post on social media can be difficult if you simply don’t know where to start. When creativity and ideas just aren’t flowing it’s too easy to just not bother posting on your social media. But as we all know, not consistently posting on social media will significantly limit your business’ exposure. Instead of throwing in the towel, read on to discover how to find social media content ideas.
To bring the following 5 social media content for business tips to life, I want you to imagine that I work for an accountancy firm and that I’m looking for content ideas for accountants. Obviously, you’ll just need to adapt these social media tips so that they’re relevant to your product or service.
1. Find content ideas by looking at your competitors for example on Facebook
You can find some great social media content inspiration by looking at what your competitors post, you can’t copy it but you can do something similar.
In the ‘search Facebook’ bar, I’m going to type in ‘accountants UK’.
- As regulations differ in other countries it’s key that I select a ‘location’.
- I’m also going to select ‘pages’ as I’m interested in business accounts.
I’ve highlighted where you make these selections in the below image.
In my search for social media content creation, I found a firm of accountants near me, and they have lots of followers.
I’ll take a closer look at IN-Accountancy to see which of their posts are attracting a lot of attention, I’m looking for lots of likes and comments on a Facebook post. I’m not going to copy anything they do; I’m just finding out what type of posts do well and what accountancy-based topics are trending.
- I see that the ‘meet the team’ posts are popular. It seems like potential customers want to see the people behind the brand.
- There are myth-busting posts. These posts are really helpful and demonstrate knowledge.
- Electric vehicle tax is an engaging topic and something lots of customers may be thinking about. Providing answers to questions is great customer service.
- Their videos are engaging and personable – they attract a lot of views.
- They also discuss how to budget. Again, this is really useful for any business owner to learn.
This has provided lots of ideas for social media posts.
2. Search hashtags to come up with social media post ideas
Hashtags provide a wealth of social media content ideas. In this example, I’m going to type #taxtip into the Twitter search bar and see what comes up. Using the Search Filters (top right of screen), I’m choosing ‘near me’ as I’m not interested in tax tips in other countries, and I’m going to ignore the promoted tweets.
This brings up a wealth of ideas for your social media content. I can choose to see the most popular (top) tweets or the latest tweets. The top tweets will be of most use as these are ones people are engaging with.
Here I can see what others hashtags people are using relevant to my #taxtip search and also click through into profiles to see what other content they are tweeting about.
Breaking news stories will also appear on my Twitter feed too. This will keep me bang up to date with what’s trending.
Some Tweets contain links to blogs. You can take a look at some of them and gain inspiration for post ideas from their content too.
Remember, if you quote any information taken directly from another tweet or from a blog then you should give credit to the owner of the content and tag them.
3. Use Google to find social media content ideas.
Google is a great source of inspiration for social media AND it will give you ready made headlines for your posts too. As you know people usually head to the Google search bar when they have a question they want answering. Google will very kindly tell you these frequently asked questions.
For this example, I’ve just typed in ‘save tax’. Straight away Google is sharing with me what others have asked for associated with ‘save tax’.
You may find an article like this one that gives 8 great tips. Potentially you can use this inspiration to create 8 individual social media posts!
A bit further down the page, you’ll see the ‘People also ask’ section.
And right at the bottom of the Google page, you’ll find even more related searches.
4. Find out which ‘Special Day of the Year’ it is for post ideas.
Every day there is something going on. Awareness is being raised through special events, issues are being celebrated on a particular day of the year, annual charity fundraisers, fun days and other occasions. Be inspired and find the ones that relate to your business and create a post around it. Coming up in Autumn we’ve got Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday that accountants could draw inspiration from.
All the Special Days of The Year that are most relevant to the UK are listed on this useful wall planner which is only £14.99 you can purchase one here online shop. Perfect for social media post inspiration.
5. For post ideas check out YouTube
YouTube is one of the top places I go to find post ideas for social media. It works very much like google, people use it to find answers to particular issues, it’s basically a big search engine with a wealth of information.
Now I’m not saying that you should start your own YouTube channel, but you will find a lot of inspiration here.
This is an example how I used YouTube to come up with content ideas:
I’ve typed ‘tax tips’ into the search bar.
This comes up with lots of videos containing “Tax Tips”, the titles of these videos could inspire some social media post ideas. The most popular video will rank at the top, so you know it’s a hot topic to talk about on your social media – like here “Ways to reduce your tax”.
Click through to the YouTube channel to see what other videos they are making to inspire your social media content.
A top tip is to look at the questions people post on the videos and you could create a social media post that answers that question.
Here’s some more content creator inspiration
Now you have lots of ideas for your social media posts I suggest you read this blog, ‘What Is The Best Content For Social Media’ as it contains lots of amazing examples proven to be successful!
Looking for more help with your social media content?
If you find you’re struggling to put time aside to make the posts happen then come and join The Social Flock and never worry about that again.
You’ll be a part of a community that meets up every week online to create and schedule posts for the week ahead. There are webinars full of social media tips and advice, accountability buddies and weekly training vdieos. Find out more and join today.
As ever, if you have any questions, get in touch. I’m here to help you succeed with social media!
Bye for now,
Becs
