In the 21st century, having a robust social media presence is a near-requirement for a successful brand. Consider this: In 2015, Facebook influenced more than half of consumers’ purchasing decisions — both online and offline. That number was up from 36% from 2014, exhibiting the continuing growth of social media’s impact on consumer mindsets.
Further, a social presence is also becoming vital to customer-service efforts. According to referral-marketing software company Ambassador, 33% of today’s consumers would prefer to contact a company via social media rather than over the telephone, and 71% of consumers who have a positive customer-service experience on social media are likely to recommend the company that provided the experience to others.
An ever-present challenge for brands’ social media managers, though — coming up with fresh ideas and content for posts. The next time your business hits a wall in the social-media-creativity category, consider one of these 25 popular post ideas that are likely to get some attention and boost engagement among your followers, along with some helpful tips for making some of these posts as effective as possible:
- Give new-product/service announcements — When your business unveils a new product or service, be sure to let your followers know with a social media post. This can help build excitement and spread the word about your new offering.
Tip: To build suspense and anticipation for a new product launch, consider teasing the announcement ahead of time by dropping hints about the upcoming excitement. But be sure not to give away too much info before the big reveal — so there’s actually something left to reveal.
- Share product-usage ideas — Especially of your brand’s product or service is a versatile one with multiple applications or possibilities for use, let your followers know with a post presenting all the options.
Tip: Showcase all the different ways your product can be used with photos and short descriptions, making it as easy as possible for potential customers to visualize the use you’re trying to convey. - Answer consumer questions — If your consumers ask a particular question about your product or service regularly, consider a post that clearly and exhaustively answers the FAQ. (Note: Such a situation may also offer a marketing insight — that your product manual or other usage instructions may need to be modified to address the common inquiry.)
Tip: Present the commonly asked question toward the beginning of your post, then follow that up with your detailed answer to the question. - Ask your customers a question — Alternatively, brands can use their social media outlets to seek their followers’ opinions on a potential product or service, a product feature, or even an interest-spurring hypothetical.
Tip: An interesting question — especially one that might spur a variety of different opinions — is a great way to spur a conversation on social media. For businesses looking to maintain a highly professional image, it’s best to stick to industry-related topics. - Showcase company culture — Any image or video that gives followers a sense of what your business and company culture are all about can help build a rapport with consumers. Good examples are posts highlighting company parties and outings, training sessions, awards ceremonies, charitable efforts, and the like.
- Share behind-the-scenes photos and videos — In the same vein as the company culture posts detailed above, businesses can let their followers see how their product is made or what kinds of skills go into providing their service with photos and videos that give them special access and let them see behind the curtains at the business.
- Share customer photos — When your customers post great photos featuring your brand, re-post them to your accounts to show your product or service in use and to show some appreciation to your customers for sharing photos highlighting your brand.
Tip: To help keep yourself alerted to shared photos featuring your brand, start a brand-specific hashtag that consumers can use to tag photos with your offerings depicted.
- Share consumer reviews and testimonials — When customers say good things about a brand’s product or services, the brand can amplify the positive impacts by sharing the shining review or testimonial on their social channels. Companies can do this by simply sharing the consumer’s positive post, or by creating and sharing a graphic showcasing the consumer’s comments.
Tip: On the flip side of this coin, when companies become aware that customers are sharing negative sentiments about their brand, it’s important to respond to such posts or reviews with attempts to resolve the situation and, whenever possible, steer the conversation offline (and away from the public forum). - Offer exclusive promotions, discounts or deals — One great way to reward your followers for their interest in your social pages — and a way to spur interest (and shares) — is to offer social media-exclusive coupons, deals, etc.
Tip: When you do run promotions, be sure to share the offer across all of your social media platforms for added exposure and to increase the potential for more sharing by followers. - Post short videos — According to HubSpot, statistics show that social media posts containing video get nearly 50% more views than non-video posts, and video posts on Facebook see roughly 65% more engagement than posts without video.
Tip: While professionally produced videos are great, the videos shared on social media don’t even have to be lengthy and highly produced — short and simple will do the trick. - Go live — The live video features on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat are a great way to grab attention on the platforms, as those scrolling by often tend to be more tempted to tune into live and in-the-moment action.
Tip: For a tactic that regularly harnesses the draw of live video, consider a weekly live video along the lines of “Tuesday Tips” or “Friday Fun Facts” that might draw a recurring audience on a set day and time. - Share memes and GIFs — Especially for brands looking to convey a fun and playful personality, sharing funny memes and GIFs offers a great way to grab attention — and can be especially effective when the content of the memes or GIFs focus on industry-related topics.
Tip: A word of warning — businesses looking to maintain a professional reputation should employ these sparingly, as over-posting them can convey a lack of seriousness.
- Deliver company news — Any time you’ve got good news to share about your company, such as a significant employee promotion, a prominent new hire, a new company offering, a company-wide philanthropic effort or similar, share the positive info on social media.
- Share interesting and helpful articles — Especially when an article that’s intriguing or particularly helpful to the target audience is shared on a company’s social media accounts, it can help the brand build trust among followers and establish itself as an expert in the field.
- Share industry news — Likewise, when local, national or world news is likely to have an impact on a brand’s particular industry, the brand can position itself as an expert in the field by sharing the news on social media, perhaps even with some added insights from company experts.
- Share your company’s blog posts — Of course, no article helps elevate a company’s position of expertise more than one written by a representative of the company itself. Whenever your business posts a blog article, consider sharing news of the post on your social accounts, too.
Tip: The blog posts shared on social media don’t necessarily have to be new ones — especially if current events or trends make an older post relevant again, don’t hesitate to reshare/recycle it.
- Share links to useful tools — Do you (or does someone at your company) make frequent use of an online, industry-related tool or resource? Or have you discovered a new one that’s especially helpful in your line of work? Chances are, if you find the tool helpful, your followers might, too. Don’t hesitate to share such resources on social media — doing so will not only lead to grateful followers, it’ll help further establish your brand as an expert in your field.
- Utilize influencers — If your brand has developed a relationship with an influencer who has sway in your field, consider having them (or paying them) to take over your social feed(s) for a day (or longer) to mix things up — and to familiarize the influencer’s followers with your brand.
- Announce events — Staging a special event at your business? Make the announcement and share details on social media — and even accept RSVPs or gauge interest among followers by creating a Facebook event that’s linked to your brand’s page.
Tip: As with the new product launches mentioned above, teasing your event announcement ahead of time with hints and clues can help build anticipation and excitement for your event. - Hold a photo contest — Ask users to share their photos of themselves using your products or services, and encourage added engagement by putting up your brand’s offerings as prizes. Tip: Online vendors like ShortStack can help by assisting marketers in staging contests — and collecting leads along the way. No coding experience or expertise is needed, and marketers can choose from a wide range of contest templates.
- Offer a tutorial: Nobody knows more about how to use a brand’s product or service than the brand itself, and a video tutorial or link to a how-to blog article offers a great way to educate consumers on the offering — while establishing the brand as an expert in the field.
- Make industry predictions: With a crew of in-house experts in your field, your business likely has plenty of insights to offer regarding the way the winds are blowing in your industry. Be bold and make some predictions about changes you see coming on the horizon and trends you see developing, then share them on social media.
Tip: The closing of an old year — or the start of a new one — are two great times to look ahead and offer predictions for what the coming year might hold. - Bust myths: Are there any common misconceptions that plague your industry? Set the record straight with a social media post — and position your brand as an expert in the field in doing so.
- Commemorate industry history: When the anniversary of a landmark event in your industry arrives, mark the occasion with a social media post celebrating the day. Another twist on this type of post is to post birthday wishes to industry pioneers when their big day is being celebrated.
- Post “caption this” photos: This type of post encourages engagement by asking followers to add a humorous caption in the comments — and is especially effective when the photo is inherently interesting or funny.
Could your brand use some expert help getting more attention and influencing potential customers on social media? At The Brandon Agency, our fully integrated marketing firm boasts a team of marketing specialists who can cover adding additional interactivity to your website, and lots more — including web design, brand strategy, creative, interactive, social media, analytics, SEO, conversion rate optimization and more — all in one place. To get started with help ranging from a simple website analysis to a comprehensive strategy tailored to boost the performance of all of your marketing campaigns, contact us today.
Ed Lammon
Managing Editor of Agency Content
Ed Lammon is the Editorial Director of Blog and Long-Form Content for Brandon. A native of Enterprise, AL (home of the world’s only monument to an insect), Ed is a 1998 Journalism graduate of Auburn University (War Eagle!). When not working, he enjoys travel, hiking, telling dad jokes, and hanging out with friends and family (particularly around campfires, at concerts and at tailgates).