So, you’ve got a couple of social media profiles going, you’re growing an audience, you’re committed to making this work, to attracting the right people, and growing a community. Those are all good things but when the rubber hits the road and your social media content goals meet the cold light of day, you may suddenly realise that the social media machine can gobble up content faster than a 15-year-old can make a pile of toast disappear!
Tips on Creating New Social Media Content
If you’re not careful, you can end up spending all your time feeding the insatiable appetite of the social media content machine, leaving no time for all the other stuff that needs you! Eeek!
How can you sort this without reducing your social media activity to zilch? I will give you some real-life solutions that really do work.
Plan Your Social Media Content
It sounds very grand but if you’ve thought ahead about what you want to share and when (even if it’s only headline themes to start off with), then you’ll only have to do that thinking once – not every week. Put an end to the panic of not knowing what on earth to say every Monday morning and conserve your mental energy too!
Make the Most of What You’ve Already Got
All businesses have much more content than they realise. Do a quick audit and I can guarantee you’ll reveal stacks of stuff just waiting to be shared without you (or anyone else) having to create anything new. From reports to training presentations, marketing materials to website copy – it’s all reusable stuff.
And while you’re at it – why not get a bit creative and think out of the box? How about asking staff for their stories – or at least for 2 or 3 fun facts, or get the low-down from some of your suppliers and write about them. People love hearing about people!
Get Your Customers to Do the Hard Work
While we’re at it, let’s think about asking customers to help out too! Asking them to send in photos or videos – either just for a mention or for a contest. They will supply you with a mountain of goodness to share down the line. (By the way, in posh marketing circles this is known as UGC, user-generated content.)
And how about a quick interview (on paper or video), testimonial, or success story related to what you sell? That’s got to be some of the most powerful marketing matter known to mankind.
Don’t forget that any conversations you (or your staff) have with prospective customers – and the questions they ask – can also be a goldmine. This is the stuff that real people want real answers to!
Recycle Your Social Media Content
Yes, the green revolution hit social media too! But it’s not just a trend – it makes so much sense! You can write a blog then break it down into multiple forms of content.
Some Ideas for Recycling a Single Blog
- Quotes – share them as they are or make image quotes
- Create a video around the blog and share on YouTube and Facebook
- Create a live stream from the blog and share on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or YouTube
- Create a presentation from the blog and share to SlideShare
- Create images from the slides and share to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn
You get the drift! Create once – do the thinking and work once, then simply cut up, tweak, and re-purpose rather than having to create something new all over again.
Use Scheduling for Best Efficiency
Using software to schedule sharing takes a lot of the headache out of content creation because, when used with a bit of planning, it allows you to think and get it sorted ahead of time. No more creeping realisation that you’ve not shared anything for 3 days because it’s just been too busy! (Just please remember to go in and engage as well.)
There are a gazillion different scheduling tools but popular ones include Buffer, AgoraPulse, Hootsuite, Edgar, and Sprout Social. Oh, and don’t forget that much of your content can be used several times over on Twitter – tweets go past so quickly it’s rare that anyone would see the same one go by twice!
With these tips, you can keep your social media content fresh and engaging for your audience, with less work for you.
How will you keep your social media beast’s ravenous appetite for content topped up?
