Content creators and marketers know that nothing can be worse than having to struggle with a creative block, especially when pressed with deadlines, and you’re unable to think up something original to put up.
That’s probably why you’re here. And that’s okay though. Everyone needs a little inspiration and boost now and then to shake off the rust and get our creative mojo back.
If this sounds like what you could really use right now, we have some tips on how you can be more creative with your social media posts.
Most of these are easy to create and can be completed in a matter of minutes. We’ve included a few helpful examples from other brands to better illustrate our points.
Don’t be afraid to try something twice if you find one that you really like, and that works well plus gets the most engagement from your audience.
In addition, won’t you like to tap a fraction of those 2.5 billion internet users that flock on social sites? Even if you’re only focused on the local market, there are over 4.4 million social media users in Singapore. Read on if that’s the case.
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Run a Giveaway or Contest
The power of ‘free’ is irresistible.
An occasional giveaway or contest is one of the most creative and impactful social media post ideas when you want to increase brand awareness, spike your follower count, and increase engagement from your followers.
Polerstuff used giveaways on Instagram and increased engagement by asking followers to tag two of their friends they want to enter to win together.
Data from Tailwind suggests that social media accounts that run giveaways or contests regularly grow 70 percent faster than those that don’t do it. Similarly, 91 percent of Instagram posts with mover 1,000 comments or likes are related to a contest.
All you need to run a contest or giveaway include:
- The prize (something related to your brand like a free product or access to a membership package)
- A creative way to enter such as a hashtag, or user-generated content asking people to post about your brand
- Terms and conditions to cover you legally
- A point of contact for people to reach you like a telephone number or email address
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Promote Other Relevant Articles, Brands & Photos
You can do this by sharing, retweeting, repining or regramming posts from other social media pages, not just your own.
Let your followers and fans also do the talking, as this makes them see that you’re part of the industry’s conversation.
Not all content on your social feed must be from your brand.
As a rule of thumb, brands should strive for the 80/20 promotion rule, such that 20 percent of your content is promotional, while 80 percent is engaging and entertaining content.
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Bite-sized Video Clips
Video is one of the most consumed content types in the digital age today, in fact, it is a must-do for any modern brand. Businesses understand they essentially need to have video in their content marketing strategy.
However, there still are businesses that see investment in video as being complicated, expensive, tedious, and out of their reach.
When you take into account the fact that video content is shared more than other types of content, it means you need to think seriously on creative ideas for your social media posts to incorporate videos.
Bite-sized, snackable, and vine-style of video clips are all the rage on major social media platforms today.
A popular example is the Tasty Buzzfeed video clips; they’re short, sweet, to the point – and oh so engaging!
These don’t need much editing and can be shot in a few seconds, plus they’re shareable, and keep followers entertained.
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Repurpose Your Content
Sometimes all you need to do to get more content is repurposing your old posts and new pieces.
There’s a lot of time and effort that goes into planning and creating any type and piece of content, so it only makes sense to squeeze out as much as you can from every video or article you create.
According to Buzzsumo, 50 percent of articles receive eight or less shares on social media. This is a sobering statistic.
Find new ways to promote your blog posts or videos besides the original format.
Honda, in the example below, created a Twitter Moment to celebrate the year-long restoration of its first automobile import into the U.S.
Some creative ways include pulling out interesting quotes and creating share-friendly images from them using free graphic design tools like Canva.
Videos can be repurposed into snackable, sneak peek clips that give previews of longer videos.
Repurposing gives you even more content to post to your social feed, and breathes new life into what was otherwise ignored or old content, while entertaining your followers.
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Co-marketing With Another Brand
Teaming up with another brand on a piece of content or campaign is a definite win-win situation.
When you co-market with other brands on content such as eBooks, webinars, or special promos, each brand will get exposure to the other’s audience.
Using social media to co-market is easier as it helps both brands in syncing their efforts.
The brands you can partner with can be those with similar target audiences, and that aren’t your competitors.
Co-marketing exists in offline sphere extensively. For example – ecommerce merchants tying up with printing dropshippers for adding that creativity to their products. This opens up avenues for the latter at the same time.
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Go Live
There’s just something about a live video that compels followers to watch, like, comment, and share. In fact, it is said that people spend thrice the amount of time watching live videos whether on Facebook or YouTube than pre-recorded ones.
Clever marketers and brands use live streaming to answer FAQs, teach their audiences, show how something is done, explain a concept, or simply show off their brand personality as Buzzfeed did in a Facebook Live video.
They created a live dance party complete with different styles suggested from and voted by members of the audience.
You can be vlogging from your car, or carrying out a cooking session, while responding to people in real time.
This, in turn, establishes a personal and humanised connection with your followers, and you can also repurpose the content as you go along.
Whether you’re vlogging from your car or conducting a Q&A session, responding to people in real-time establishes a more personal connection with your followers.
Summary
Be it promoting your product, raising funds for operations or rolling out a monthly offer, people want something novel and creative all the time. The social media community has a distinct style and flavour.
If you already have a bunch of followers, they’ll always be hungry for new content from you, so you need to have multiple ideas in your back pocket.
These creative ideas for your social media posts are useful for brands both big and small.
If you or your brand need even more help coming up with consistently creative ideas for your social media audiences, reach out to your friendly social media agency and see how they can help.
Sam Zaman –
Sam Zaman loves to write on technology and related stuff. E-commerce, mobile and internet marketing equally drive her interest. Likes gardening and experimenting with new recipes. An avid reader and absolutely mad @bout donuts She has long been associated with Mofluid.