What Should I Post? (and other questions that kill creativity)

The dreaded question, "What should I post today?" is a creative killer. It stops momentum, breeds anxiety, and often leads to generic, uninspired content. As a business owner, you know your brand better than anyone. Instead of searching for random ideas, tap into the wealth of knowledge and passion you already possess known as your brand. Your social media should be an authentic extension of your business, not a generic feed filled with recycled trends and last minute thoughts.

5 Ways to keep the feed fresh and creative:

1. Start with Your 'Why': Before you begin to post, define your purpose. Are you looking to build brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, generate leads, or engage with your community? Your objective will dictate the type of content you create. For example, if your goal is to build community, you'll focus more on interactive polls and Q&As than on sales-oriented posts. Mix it up, don't always post something you are educating with, or asking for business every single day. A variety of content that strongly conveys your WHY will keep your audience engaged.

   
   

2. Repurpose, Don't Reinvent: You're already creating valuable content. A blog post can be broken down into a series of social media posts, a customer testimonial can become a video, and an FAQ from your website can be turned into an infographic. Look at your existing content such as photos, videos, blog posts, and customer review and find new ways to present them. This is an easy way to make sure that your content has a cohesive theme. One of the best ways to repurpose is to break up a long form video like a podcast into short 15 second clips that really make a point about your brand or product. Something that helps the client or customer come to trust what you are pitching or selling.

   
   

3. Show, Don't Just Tell: People connect with people, not logos. Take your audience behind the scenes. Introduce your team, show the process of creating your product, or share the story behind your business. Humanizing your brand builds trust and makes your content more relatable and engaging. People want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. Taking a potential client behind the scenes and showing them how you operate and the faces that are there to make sure the client's problem is solved, can only help the know, like, and trust of your business.

   
   

4. Listen and Engage: The best content often comes from your audience. Pay attention to the questions they ask in comments and messages. What problems are they trying to solve? What topics are they most interested in? Use their feedback to create content that provides genuine value and answers their most pressing questions. This can easily be accomplished by a simple "customer question of the week". Every week post a question that resonates with your intended audience and your brand's answer to their problem. If you stick to a scheduled post each week, you already have 4 posts for your month. Now find other areas that your audience is asking questions and try to incorporate them into stories and short video answers. You will soon be viewed as the trusted source for information.

   
   

   

   Taking a few steps to plan before you post will make your social media authentic and powerful.

   
   

5. Know When to Delegate: If the pressure of creating daily content is overwhelming and taking you away from core business operations, it's time to consider outsourcing. Work with a social media management company that will collaborate with you to develop a strategic plan. They can translate your business goals and unique brand voice into a consistent content calendar, freeing you to focus on what you do best while ensuring your social media presence remains authentic and effective. It is scary to give up the creative control to others, but in the end your time working on the company is too valuable to waste trying to come up with creative hooks and caption fonts for your video. Let others free up your time so you can get the next big client, deal, or partnership and take your business on the path to success.