Do you struggle with creating content for social media? Maybe you don’t know where to start or you’ve been at this awhile and need a creative jolt. Here are a few ideas to inspire and get your creative juices flowing. You can apply these tips to any type of content—reels, carousel posts, static images, and more.
Quick Wins & Tips
Create a quick win or tip for your audience that inches them closer to their goals or solves a problem for them. Ilise Benun, a business and marketing coach from Marketing Mentor, does an excellent job of this and even has a whole LinkedIn Newsletter dedicated to Quick Wins and Log and Timber Solutions, a log contractor, gives tips on how to minimize log home maintenance with landscaping (see below.)
Never Would I Ever…
What’s one thing you wouldn’t recommend to your clients or customers? For log home contractors, painting a log home is the first thing that comes to mind. You’d never recommend this because it would hide log rot and lead to expensive repairs. Or maybe it’s where not to use your product like in this Instagram reel by Matt Risinger and Sashco Inc.
Playing the Devil’s Advocate
I tend to drive my family and friends up a wall when I play the Devil’s Advocate, but looking at things from a different perspective or showing multiple ways to solve a problem shows you’ve thought of the situation from various angles. (Pun intended.)
The Secret Sauce
Do you have a secret ingredient or way of solving a problem that’s unique to you or your product? Share it. Your audience will start to identify you as the expert and turn to you when they need your advice, product, or service.
I love how Adam Savage of Tested and Mythbusters fame shares favorite tools from 2024 on YouTube in the video below. I just wish I could afford his Sortimos boxes so I could sort and store the kids massive lego collection.
Red Flags
These are things your audience needs to watch out for. Think of them as warning signs.
Show Them How the Sausage Gets Made
Go behind the scenes and show your people how the sausage gets made in other words, show the process behind your product or service. How do the buckets of stain get filled? Who fills the buckets? How do they get to the store?
Highlight Your People
Show the faces behind the magic.
I love all things Disney and follow Disneyland Cast and Community on Instagram. Disney extends the parks’ magic and makes it personal by highlighting different cast members and how they do their jobs. Meet Regan in the Instagram post below, a non-automated personalization specialist; she hand paints ornaments at the parks.
Below is another example from one of my clients, Big Waves, a nonprofit that focuses on gun safety and supporting youth through water polo. At the heart of Big Waves is the community of people it’s made up of—the Bigelow family, donors, board members, scholarship winners and the surrounding communities. Some of the best performing content we have highlights people at the events and the people in the Big Waves community. It’s the people that make the party after all.
Creating content that entertains, educates, and engages doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task. By incorporating a few of these ideas you can connect and engage with your audience on a more personal level. Remember, the goal is to provide value while showcasing ways your product or service can help your customers. Start small, test and experiment to see what works and what doesn’t and make improvements from there.