Inspiration running low? You could be overlooking one of the best resources you have: social media. Social media gives you access to a ready audience, search tools and other businesses’ content to inspire you – so what are you waiting for?
Here are five ways you can use social media to come up with new content ideas for your blog, website or third party platforms via press and advertising.
1. Find out what your customers are searching for
This is my number one tip because the best content is often inspired by tapping into your customers’ needs and/or pain points. Sometimes the best way to gain insight into this is to find out what they look for on social media. There are two ways I do this:
- Check search data in blog analytics. What search terms are customers using to arrive at your blog? Keep an eye on these as many customers find you by asking questions – e.g. ‘What makes a good masseuse?’ This can provide instant article topics (as well as indicating your SEO is on form!)
- Keep an eye on relevant hashtags on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter – for example #spaday if you’re a spa – to find out what your customers are saying about your kind of service. If there’s a common question floating around – e.g. ‘What should I wear to a massage?’ – think about making some content based around this.
2. Check out the competition
What are your competitors writing about? Which posts tend to get the most engagement? Taking a look at their content successes and failures can not only inspire ideas for your own content, but also tell you more about what kind of content your audience responds best to – saving you from making the same errors as your rivals.
3. Ask the audience!
You’ve got a ready audience just waiting to give you inspiration – why not ask them their opinion on one of their known pain points? E.g. for a spa a good opener might be: ‘What were your best and worst massages?’ This can spawn a ream of new content ideas (‘What makes a good massage’ / ’10 massage mistakes your current masseuse is making’).
4. Do a quiz or survey
Finding out where your audience’s interests lie can be key to discovering how you can make your product or service appeal to them. Many people love talking about themselves, so consider doing a quiz or survey based around their likes and dislikes, e.g. ‘What kind of spa-goer are you?’ or ‘Take our survey on your spa experience!’ This exercise has the dual purpose of driving audience-engagement and intelligence gathering for new content.
5. Run a competition
Who doesn’t love a competition? Give away one of your products or a service and in return ask your audience for information, which could in turn generate ideas for content. E.g. ‘Tell us what kind of facial you like best to win a free skincare consultation with our expert dermatologist!’
The competition itself can be used as content – not only can you write an article about the competition, you can do a follow up article on the winners. You can also use the competition to link together your social media platforms, by directing people to enter on one specific site: e.g. ‘Like our Facebook page to enter’.
