In this blog, I’ll be sharing with you some of the best social media post ideas to help grow your social media pages organically and to get you those well-deserved business enquiries.
I ant everyone to feel confident and be brimming with ideas to fill up their social media marketing content strategy. So, if you struggle with what to post on social media, keep reading and enjoy!
Imagine you’re looking to invest in a new conservatory, and you come across these two images on social media (illustrations above). They look pretty similar don’t they? How do you decide which company to choose as neither stands out?
So, what do you do? You may look further into their social media business pages, look at their reviews or visit their website to find out a bit more. From the images alone you’re undecided as both companies are offering the same product. This is going to make it hard for any of their potential customers to choose one over the other.
Let’s look at another example. In this scenario, you are looking for new windows and once again you come across these two companies on your social media news feed (images below).
Most potential customers would go for company B as it shows the team. It’s been proved that we are drawn to other people, especially in a service where the employees will be coming to our home.
The reason why B gets more business from their social media posts than their competitors is because they know what their customers want. They don’t just post about their products or services, they showcase the people who make up their brand to demonstrate that they can be trusted, are friendly and approachable.
The 80:20 rule
Businesses who sell, sell, sell soon turn customers off. To get noticed and to keep your followers engaged and entertained split your content into around 80% non-sales and 20% sales.
The 80% can be made up of posts that provide information, make people smile, and anything that showcases your personal brand and values. When you post more of this kind of content, your followers are more receptive to reading your sales posts. And they won’t mind in the slightest as they’ve grown to like and know you.
I’ve created some screen shots to show you and to help explain why they work so well. They are either from my own social media accounts or from businesses I have worked with.
Share successes. On the left you’ll see that the exciting news about winning an award accompanied by a picture of the business owner got 100+ comments. Celebrating your success with your customers is wonderful and gives you an opportunity to thank them too.
Share inspiration. The business to the right shared an inspirational post – ‘why not turn the space under your stairs into a gin/wine store!’ As you can imagine their followers loved this and the post was rewarded with plenty of engagement. 3 Pugs Gin clearly know what their customers’ like to see!
Capturing a moment and a chance to say thank you. The post on the left was a huge thank you to the business I was visiting for reserving a car parking spot for me and they even took the time to put my name on it. They made me feel like a VIP! Over 11k people saw this!
Showcasing a service without any sales talk. The post to the right was a ‘behind the scenes’ moment. This is me setting up for a presentation before the attendees arrived. I tagged in the people involved to get the ball rolling, which resulted in a lot of enagement.
Bring the people to the forefront. As a result of completing my online Facebook course The Last Post pub has transformed its Facebook business page. Along with beer talk and what’s going on in the pub, they talk more about the people in the pub –those who work and drink there. Their posts can often reach more than 3 times the number of their followers – brilliant for organic growth!
Perfection isn’t everything. The post to the right doesn’t have great images, but it captured a moment and that’s why the post worked. 2000+ people engaged with this post. It may have been a fluke, but because the ‘head’ was chopped, people may have clicked on it to see the full picture – this action is recognised as an engagement and Facebook will reward you for it.
Viral posts vs getting business. This LinkedIn post shown to the left above reached over 70,000 people. The aim of this post was to prove a point. I found two popular posts on LinkedIn and repurposed them in my own words bringing elements of both posts to form just the one.
Impressive right? Hmmm, well maybe not. Although the reach was staggering, I didn’t get any business out of it. So, I proved my point – don’t get hung up on going viral – that won’t pay your bills!
Share tips to showcase your expertise. But the post to the right was a video talking about social media tips. It gave some great information about how to create an event. This one did get me business as I demonstrated that I am an expert in my field.
Authenticity: Being honest! The post to the left was an amusing story. It was about a LinkedIn course I ran where everything went wrong. I was honest and talked openly about the day – I’m only human after all. This authenticity clearly resonated with my followers and people loved it.
Raise your profile as an influencer without selling: The post to the right was a behind the scenes look at a documentary I was asked to be in. This is an image of what went on during the day. So much more interesting than me just talking about what the documentary was about.
Have fun! This is me after I delivered some Facebook training to the Museum of Policing in Warrington dressed in a vintage police uniform. As they are a charity, I offered this for free. It’s clear to my followers what I do, what the benefits are and what my values are. Not a sales word in sight!
Celebrating a launch. To the right of the picture above, you’ll see a ‘yay, I’ve finally launched my online course after 12 months of hard work’ post. I wanted to share my good news with my followers. I didn’t give the course a hard-sell, but its awareness got me lots of business enquiries.
Professional AND showing your personality and sense of humour! Showing your fun side is most definitely allowed, even on LinkedIn. And if someone doesn’t like it, then they’re not your ideal customer! Always be you.
This was me in Christmas jumper, when everyone else turned up in suits. I was a little embarrassed to say the least! So I posted about my embarrassment on social media, at least I stood out! Following this post, I got 3 business enquiries.
Camera shy – not a problem: Particularly on LinkedIn posts with text only, can actually perform better than those with a picture, so please don’t worry. These posts above without an image did really well – it was the content that got them noticed.
But it’s worth noting that Facebook posts do perform better with an image and on Instagram you can’t post without an image, so think about what ‘behind the scenes’ pictures would work well. These are better than reaching for a stock photo – as these get used a lot, they don’t grab the attention as much as a unique image.
Social Media Content Ideas – get your creative juices flowing with these:
Behind the scenes photos
- Tips
- Quotes
- Questions
- Snippets from your blog
- Snippets from articles
- Announcements
- Business/organisation news
- Congratulate staff, other businesses, your partners, your customers!
- Anniversary announcements
- Research findings
- Industry news
- Event updates
- New product/service development
- New product/service launch
- Product/services features
- Infographics
- Videos
When writing social media content, focus on providing the following:
Useful information and adding value.
- Content that will appeal to your potential customers.
- Behind the scenes information.
- Share personable pictures of you and your workspace – tell your story.
- Make your potential customers feel they know who you are before they pick up the phone.
Gain customers using Facebook:
Be like The Last Post pub and transform your Facebook account. My online course, made up of small bite-sized videos, shows you how to create a professional Facebook page to attract the right customers. You will have access to over 35 tutorials with step by step guidance – non techy of course – to get you lots of business without even advertising.
There are modules under every section;
Section 1: Setting up a Facebook Business Page from scratch
Section 2: Navigating the settings
Section 3: Setting your page up so it ranks higher in the searches
Section 4. Posting content that works
Section 5. Engaging with your audience to increase your page likes
Section 6. Monitoring and measuring success
Bye for now,
Becs
