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As a social media manager, I get asked a lot, “What should I post on my social media accounts.” While there is not a “one-size-fits-all” answer, I can tell you what types of content work best on your social media platforms.
Now, the first thing that I make sure I do for my clients is to create a social media strategy. It’s essential to set goals, understand the market, and create an ideal client profile to know exactly how to deliver your content in a way that speaks to your audience and moves your business forward.
If you haven’t created a social media marketing strategy, read this blog post. This article will help you set up your social media strategy in 5 easy steps.
Once you have the back-end work done, creating content will be a breeze. So, let’s jump into the five types of content that is best for social media. Be sure to read to the end for a special offer.
Value-Added Content
Content that adds value is one of the most important types of social media content that you provide your audience. It’s essential to include as much value-added content as possible because it builds your authority. If you are offering a product or service, the more that you educate your audience, the more they’ll see you as the expert and will be more willing to fork over their hard-earned money for what you are selling.
Now, you’re probably thinking well what kind of content adds value. Anytime that you provide information that educates your audience or gives them information that they can use, you are delivering value.
See the list below for content ideas that provide value:
How-to video
Create and post an infograph
Share a blog post
Provide a mini-training
Host an ask-me-anything live event
Create a freebie e-book
Post about upcoming events
Share a book that you found helpful
Post a solution to a problem
Provide checklists for a particular task
Don’t worry about giving away too much information. When I first started my business, I felt like if I gave away all my knowledge, then nobody would need my services. Think of it like this, a photographer could give me a camera and direct me on how to take a picture, but that wouldn’t make me a professional photographer.
Personal Brand Content
Content that builds your personal brand is another necessary type of social media content that you should be creating for your audience. Now, more than ever, people want to buy from people. Your job on social media is to make connections. When you post about yourself, you are allowing your audience to connect with you.
I’m sure you’ve all heard it before, “you have to build the know, like, trust factor with your audience.” Personal brand content will allow your audience to get to know you. Once they know you, then you can build the “like” factor.
Below are a few ideas when it comes to creating content around your personal brand:
Introduce yourself
Talk about your “why”
Go behind the scenes
Share your favorites
Share about special events in your life
Talk about your goals
Share your hobbies
When working with clients, I get a lot of push back on this type of content. Most clients tell me that their lives are too boring to share. Let me let you in on a little secret, most of our lives are boring!!!
Sharing more about yourself makes you relatable. How would you relate to a sky-diving, globe-trotting, Olympic-training female athlete from Lithuania? You probably wouldn’t. You may be fascinated by her life, but in no way could relate to it. Not many people could.
You build your connections with what you have in common with other people. So if you’re a mom of boys who loves to read and enjoys gardening, chances are you’re going to find other’s that are in the same boat.
Just be yourself, and don’t be scared to share who you are. You have value, and your “tribe” will be attracted to your vibe.
Promotional Content
You have to let your audience know what services or products you offer. You can’t turn your following into customers if they have no idea what you do. You also don’t want to run your audience off if you’re over-promoting.
There is a delicate balance in how much you should be promoting (and how you promote) your offers. The 80/20 rule is always a safe bet. For every ten posts, only two should sell your offer.
Below are a few content ideas to promote your product or service:
Announce Sales
Give your social media followers a “special deal”
Talk about the transformation that your product/service can offer
Give a demonstration of your product/service
Talk about the process of working with you
Provide client testimonials
Give the details of your product or service
Tell who will benefit from this product or service
You can also include a short promo at the end of a value-added post. For example, if you are a hairstylist, you could create a post about “5 Ways to Protect Your Hair From the Summer Heat,” and at the end, you could provide a coupon code to a product that you sell.
Inspirational Content
Have you ever come across a quote or a bible verse, and it was exactly what you needed to hear at the time? Maybe you read a story that restored your faith in humanity or made you want to do something to make a change in your life (or perhaps in the world).⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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The world can be a cruel place, and sometimes we need to be reminded that there is beauty all around us. That’s why sharing inspirational content on social media helps to build genuine connections with your audience.
Below is a list of inspirational content ideas:
Inspirational Quotes
Bible Verses
Stories of overcoming difficult situations
A problem you had and how you solved it
Recognize mentors
Providing inspirational content helps to break up your content and makes your brand more relatable.
Funny Content
Funny Content is any content that lightens the mood and shows your personality (assuming your personality is funny 😜). I personally save this content for my Instagram stories.
If sharing funny content fits your brand, then add more to your social media content calendar. Just be careful when it comes to what kind of content you share. Remember, not everyone will share your sense of humor.
Below is a list of funny content ideas you can incorporate into your content calendar:
Memes
Jokes
Embarrassing stories
Funny videos (TikTok videos are popular)
Funny Facts (especially if they relate to your brand)
Now Let’s Recap
When choosing which type of content to share, aim for sharing more value-added and personal brand content.
Promotional content should make up 20% of all the material that you share. You can always include a promotion at the end of educational content.
Lighten the mood and make your brand more relatable with inspirational and funny content.
Now, you’ve made it to the end and I hope that this article helped bring some clarity to the types of content that you should be sharing with your audience.
Special Offer
Looking to build a strong foundation to make posting easy and effective? Then check out my course POSTING WITH PURPOSE.
In this course, I teach you my four-part framework for posting to your Instagram account.
You will learn to:
Plan – set goals, create an ideal client avatar, understand how to use different types of content, how to create content pillars, and how to create a content bank.
Create – In this module, you learn how often to post, how to write engaging captions, and which image formats are best for your posts.
Optimize – Now that you have a great post, let’s get it in front of as many eyes as possible. Learn my proven hashtag strategy and how to create a hashtag bank. You’ll also learn how to check your analytics to know the best day and time to posts.
Track – In this last module, you will learn how to check your analytics to see what is working and how to make adjustments moving forward.
Looking for more tips and tricks to make social media easy for your business? Then follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
