For those moments right after your set up your social media account and then wonder what you should talk about? What will you ever post on your wall? How will you know what to share and get ideas to keep it fresh? This list holds your answers. These idea starters should help you keep a steady stream of diverse posts going to your colleagues, friends, clients, and potential customers.
THE BONUS: Many of these same content ideas are excellent ideas for writing blog posts, content for your newsletters, and press releases. Regardless of how you’re marketing these content ideas can be the kick start you’ve been searching for to get the conversations rolling.
- Industry news: share what’s happening in your industry and/or the industry of your current/prospective clients
- Industry advances: share announcements that may impact your clients or your own industry
- Industry changes: share news of laws, regulations connected to your industry, deadline reminders or changes, etc.
- Testimonials: share the firsthand of experiences of those who have used your services
- Shortcuts for doing things more efficiently, e.g. time savers
- Photos of you attending live events, conferences, of your clients, of your products, with colleagues at events or at your office, of your office setting
- Recommended programs you’ve used and found to be beneficial to your business. Tell them why the program has been impactful to you.
- Recommended reading lists or individual books are popular with your DIY learners
- Recommended training of your own or created by trusted colleagues or any training that you’ve taken that your industry or colleagues could benefit in taking
- Recommended products of all sorts whether this is mentioning the product and why you like it or doing a full review of the product
- Recommended podcasts that others should listen to and follow regularly
- Links to your own website and/or single web pages. It’s acceptable to direct people to specific places on your website, not everyone must come directly to the Home page.
- Highlight one of your services, products, or programs and share a bit about this
- Case studies or statistical data are important details to share to backup the information you’re sharing and will resonate with those methodical types who want to know the sources behind the information
- Links to interviews whether they be written, audio, or video for those leaders in your industry that would be of interest to your clients and colleagues
- Links to Experts that you’ve interviewed
- Your interviews: always share the links to interviews where you are the feature guest
- Your blog post links to the posts you’ve written
- Blog post links written by others and the reason you believe colleagues and clients should pause to read this post
- How-To steps for doing something
- Personal message or note to your followers sharing what you’re doing, working on, or anything in the moment
- Business Anniversary/Birthday announcement so others can join you in celebrating this business milestone
- Any business milestone moment that is notable so others can celebrate with you
- Announcements of any awards, honors, acknowledgements, or accolades that you’ve recently received
- Announcements of participation in events, conferences, or training courses completed which demonstrates connection to your industry and a commitment to continued education in your industry or niche – all benefitting and enhancing the services you provide to your clients
- Press release news announcements should equally be shared with your colleagues and clients
- Contest info: whether hosting a contest or giveaway or as a participant of a joint venture promotional giveaway where many colleagues participate to bring lots of giveaways to one site
- Upcoming event news whether is an event hosted by you, an industry event, or an event of interest to your clients and/or colleagues
- Links to your favorite thought leaders in your industry or your client’s industry…could be social media site links or their website
- Business specific motivational words can move to inspire and spur others on; choose these intentionally and specifically to the interests of your clients and industry or create your own inspiring words from excerpts from your blog posts
- Extend invitations to sign up for your newsletter, list, or to get your free giveaways so your connections can find new resources to data and information you’ve been sharing
- Share a link to one of your published newsletters so someone not yet subscribed can get a feel for your writing style and what is shared in one of your newsletters and include an invite to sign up
- Invitations to schedule 15-minute laser session or 30-minute consultation with you as a pink spoon offering of your services or as a get-to-know each other call
- Live online sessions where you answer questions from your social media connections for set period of time
- Post a Call Me time where for a limited time period anyone can call you at the phone number shared to ask one question or for a 15 minute laser session completely free; set a time limit that you may be available to pop-in calls for a 2 hour period. If the line is busy to try again that you’ll take as many calls as possible. When the period closes then schedule consultations – free or paid – your choice.
- Free Kindle eBooks at Amazon in your industry or of interest to your clients. Since these are limited time free downloads most will be grateful to know about these types of announcements.
- Joint venture promotion opportunities that those in your industry or clients may wish to participate in, e.g. speakers needed for conference or event, calling all [fill in the blank] so they can collaborate on a book or promo event highlighting their specialties
- Job postings/service postings on behalf of others seeking services or support; helping to push those posts out will reach more eyes that may be seeking clients and you become the connector between two people
- Recommend Facebook/LinkedIn Groups that you like and find active and worthwhile to your clients and colleagues
- Invite people to your own Facebook/LinkedIn Group if you host a group that is industry specific or related to one of your programs, events, or courses
- Invite people to your hosted events, webinars, or online happenings
- Ask questions that require a simple answer
- Surveys are good ways to take note of what interests your clients and industry connections
- Identify the FAQs that are often asked of you and pick one of those questions to answer; if one has wondered the answer chances are that more have as well
- Share how your service, product, or program can solve a problem someone is having
- Share a story as a way to teach, inform, announce, or invite
- Talk about the journey of building your business or serving your clients; others will appreciate this behind-the-scenes glimpse into your business and getting to know you better
- Use video to share a snippet of you discussing something from a how-to tip to a system you like or any topic relevant to your clients or industry
- Talk about recent lesson you’ve learned and help others learn along with you
- Crowdsource answers to question; getting others to weigh in with their thoughts is a great conversation starter
- Use Theme Days with your content, e.g. Throwback Thursday, Wish Upon a Star Wednesday, Tips Tuesday, Sky’s the Limit Saturday or whatever theme works for you. Followers will look forward to these planned topics.