When your brand is social-media-friendly, your content ideas might come easily to you. For instance, if you are in the pet industry, that’s a no-brainer. Nobody ever tires of seeing cute animals on social media doing even the most mundane of tasks, like sitting on the couch or staring out the window at a delivery person.

For some brands, it takes a little more digging to create social-media-worthy posts. Rest assured, though, with the right content ideas, any brand can become fun and exciting on social media!

All it takes is a little creativity — and the content ideas below can help you knock your content out of the park. Above all, remember that social media is supposed to be social, not boring or salesy. 

It’s like if you were sitting down with a friend you haven’t seen in a while. It’s going to be a much more pleasant visit if you show them the photos you took on your last vacation — not your encyclopedia of common household pests, don’t you think?

https://www.facebook.com/541879122868760/photos/a.597667927289879/1427933680929962?type=3

Show the People (and Pets) Behind Your Brand

One of the simplest ways to connect with your audience is by showing the living, breathing beings at your company. This method works no matter what kind of business you have.

You can make a seemingly boring topic much more interesting by showing the personality behind your brand. Do you have an employee who loves to rollerskate? A co-owner who grows his own vegetables and runs a YouTube cooking channel? An office dog who brightens up everyone’s day?

These are all perfect content ideas for social media!

Think back to that friend you haven’t seen in a while. What pictures would you show them from your phone? Hopefully, you gravitate to the photo of you standing in front of the Grand Canyon, not the screenshot of a coupon you snapped before grabbing a sandwich for lunch.  

Put On Your Teacher Hat

You have something to teach, so share your knowledge! Sometimes just explaining your product or service is enough to capture your audience’s attention. Examples of sharing your expertise might include:

• How-to videos showing various ways to use your product
• The history behind your product or service
• A live video with insider tips 
• Little-known secrets you’re willing to share 
• Before-and-after photos showing the benefits of your services

Think about the FAQ you get all the time. Turn those questions into answers with engaging photos, captions and videos that your audience will appreciate!

Partner With Micro-Influencers

If you can locate micro-influencers — people aren’t necessarily celebrities but have an established social media following — you can ask them to share your story in their own words. Because micro-influencers already have followers who trust their recommendations, they’ll be more likely to want to buy the products and services those people are using.

These micro-influencers have the potential to expand your reach because they’ll be posting content to their own group of friends and followers. By simply talking about why they love your brand, they’ll help you spread the word and engage with new customers.

Read more: Top 5 Social Media Growth Hacks for 2020

Be Edgy

Give your brand a sassier tone of voice, and you instantly become more interesting. One brand that comes to mind is Merriam-Webster. 

While a dictionary might not be the most exciting product for some — and yes, every English major and editor out there is saying, “Huh? I LOVE the dictionary!” — the brand has become noteworthy for its quippy captions and retorts on social media.

If you start studying now, you might have a full command of these words by 2021. https://t.co/FINAScT6L4

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) July 28, 2020

You’ll need a good writer to sassify your content, so don’t be afraid to hire someone or outsource the work if needed. Rallio has a whole division of dedicated social media strategists who would be more than happy to get edgy on your brand’s page. (We live for this stuff.)

Need more inspiration for edgy content ideas? Check out a few accounts mentioned in this list from Time.com. Notably missing: Wendy’s. 

Sorry, Nick. No dice. https://t.co/bExfIVSyFH

— Wendy’s (@Wendys) July 16, 2020

Put Culture First

Particularly in this day and age, people care about how you treat your employees. We’ve seen brands crumble before our eyes because their workers took to social media to air their complaints — whether about their pay, working conditions or other matters. To avoid this kind of public shaming, you need to:

• Take care of your employees. Make sure they feel supported, heard and recognized for their contributions. A great form of recognition is highlighting them on social media!
• Create the kind of culture where people want to come to work. The details of doing so are beyond the scope of this article. (Again, outsource if you need additional support to create change.) But bear in mind that with a positive employee culture, employees will naturally want to post about your company on social media (more on that below).
• Implement a formal employee advocacy program. Create both a means and incentives for your employees to post about your brand on their own social media pages. Rallio can help you create this program, whether you have one employee or hundreds.

Be a Storyteller

Working on your storytelling skills is one of the best ways to improve your social media. Whenever you have something to post, think about the story of how it came to be. Share those stories with your followers. You’ll be amazed at how much they love them and how much engagement you get, especially with boosted content! Examples of “storytelling” content ideas might include:

• The story behind the 90-year-old grandma who has visited your hair salon every two weeks for 20 years
• The story behind the family heirloom you keep on your desk
• A series of stories highlighting your employees
• The story behind how your company came to be

Content Ideas Don’t Have to Be Boring

As you can see, it just takes a little creativity to take your social media content from ho-hum to exciting. You don’t have to look much farther than your own camera roll to find content ideas worthy of posting on social media.

Of course, we’re here to help if you could use some assistance breathing life into your social media. We’ve performed triage on many different pages before to help them grow their following, engagement and “fun” factor on social media. To learn more, see rallio.com.