Almost half of Gen Z are ‘constantly online’ and most millennials not far off, making the number of people who are live on social media at any one time globally staggering.
In order to grow and gain loyal customers, brands need to be likeable, useful and original in their social media content.
Here are some creative ideas for all kinds of businesses to grow their social following and subsequently their businesses…
⁃ Create ‘how to’ content. You can make ‘how to’ content into YouTube shorts or Instagram reels, using quick visuals to come up with a specific end result. If you sell a product, show your audience how to use it, both the ‘regular way’ and creative ways. If you are a service provider, you can share process that you undergo. For many industries, this type of content can help rapidly test to find out what your audience wants to see or learn about.
⁃ Start a series! We all know the classics, ‘Throwback Thursday’ and ‘Sunday Funday’, but how about create your own daily or weekly series. This will make your content original and will aid with your social planning process, making it simpler as you already know your format and theme. Educational series also work really well on YouTube.
⁃ Use user generated content (UGR). This is content created by people instead of your brand and should come from real, unpaid customers. Did you know that customers are 2.4 times more likely to interact with user generated content vs. brand content? Using user generated content can help you promote product without it seeming like a hard sell.
⁃ Curate content from others. As long as you make sure it’s relevant to your business and in keeping with your usual tone and brand voice, you can use others content and curate it to be relevant to you and your clients. A great example of this is industry news.
⁃ Embrace memes! Humour is always in style, give your audience a giggle! Using new or trending memes can also help you gain new followers.
⁃ Launch a challenge to boost engagement, get some great user generated content and subtly promote yourself too. Some businesses and organisations have much more obvious challenge ideas than others, such as Nikon who host a monthly photography and videography challenge, so you may have to think carefully about a challenge idea that works for your business and industry, but if done right it can really work and help you fill up your content calendar.
Small businesses can also:
⁃ Leverage AI for social content ideas. ChatGPT for example can generate ideas for you when you feel like you’ve hit a creative wall. Other AI content tools can help you get the ball rolling too, such as OwlyWriter, which can help write social media captions in a specific tone, write posts based on a link or can generate post ideas based on keywords or topics.
⁃ Feature your customers. Share testimonials or transformation stories from customers, as it can go further than just talking about yourself. If you can get clients to give video testimonial, even better! Try to keep social media videos under 60 seconds for the best results.
B2B business can:
⁃ Share case studies, testimonials, success stories and before and afters. B2B clients are looking for a result, and a good one, not the hope of one. If you can’t mention your big clients by name, try pulling together statistics into averages and sharing this content as it will still prove your successes.
⁃ Help your community. Give money or volunteer time to local charities or non-profits and talk about it. Sponsor a fundraiser or event and try to show that you are involved with the community. This increases your likability and can strengthen the ethos of your brand. If you support an event, put clips together into a reel, TikTok or YouTube short to let customers know what the impact of their contributions was.
⁃ Post your research to help build credibility within your industry, especially for new companies. This is also a great way to target and attract your ideal audience.
⁃ Share your company culture. Why should someone consider working with you? Offer benefits to your team members which they value and show why your organisation is such an amazing place to work or business to be involved with.
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