Get Inspired By Others

1. User-Generated Content (UGC)

UGC is any content created by people, rather than by the brand itself. It can be in the form of text (such as reviews or tweets about your brand), images, videos, testimonials, live streams, or blog posts.

UGC is becoming a key element in  creating an effective social media marketing strategy. A consumer survey found UGC was 9.8x more impactful than influencer marketing. Unlike conventional branded content, UGC feels more like a personal recommendation from a friend. Better yet, UGC is much more cost-effective than paid advertising channels. In fact, in most cases, it is free.

Don’t use just any content that tagged your brand. Instead, consider using a brand hashtag your customers can use and choose the best content to share on your social media channels to get the most out of UGC. Ideally, the content helps value-add to both your branding and your audience.

If you’re finding it difficult to keep track of all your mentions, social media listening tools that allow you to monitor your brand mentions are a great way to streamline this process. Learn more about social media listening here.

A wonderful illustration of a brand using UGC is this post from nail polish brand OPI, where they reposted a nail artist’s video who used their products.

Source: OPI

2. Industry Peers/Competitors

Don’t be afraid to take some inspiration from your competitors’ social media pages. Look at the best performing ideas on their pages and see what works. Find a way to personalise the content for your brand and improve on it.

You don’t always need to reinvent the wheel with social media marketing. Whatever works for your peers will probably work for you as well. Follow your competitor’s pages and save the posts that resonate with you the most for the days when you run out of new ideas.

You can also take inspiration from businesses outside your industry. Large companies are an especially excellent source of ideas, since they have bigger budgets to test different strategies.

3. Community Spotlight

Once in a while, shift the spotlight from your brand onto the members of your community. Take this opportunity to show off your most devoted fans to your audience. You can share anything from a simple quote to an in-depth interview on how your product or service has improved their life.

Highlighting your community not only helps strengthen the sense of community around your brand, but also shows your audience that you care about their experience with your product or service. For more ways you can build and maintain a community around your brand, read our article on social media community management.

In this post, sports apparel brand Gymshark shares an inspirational story from one of the brand ambassadors.

Source: Gymshark

4. Employee Spotlight

Show your employees some love by highlighting them and their efforts on your social media pages. In this digital age, consumers appreciate the chance to get to know the faces behind their favourite products and services.

For example, you can use your social media to introduce your audience to your employees or even a new hire. You can also use it to bid farewell to one that is leaving the company to pursue other ventures.

In the TikTok video below, Australian candle maker Sent Studio introduces a new intern to their followers.

Source: Sent Studio

5. Consumer Spotlight

Turn your customers into brand ambassadors by showcasing them and how they use your product on your social media pages.

For example, see how Perfect Keto shares a recipe hack from one of its customers.

Source: Perfect Keto

Your audience is more likely to resonate with a fellow customer that shares similar experiences to their own.

Every month or so, pick a customer and celebrate their relationship with your brand. Try to avoid making the post about the brand and instead keep the emphasis on the customer. If possible, write the post from their perspective as if they were writing the post themselves.

6. Social Media Followers

Make use of your follower list by looking at some of your followers’ pages for post inspiration. Most times, your followers will follow other pages similar to yours. Better yet, they may share content related to your niche.

By looking at what your followers post, share, and engage with, you may get a clearer picture of what their interests are. This way, you will be able to curate your posts to cater to their specific interests. Sometimes, what they are interested in seeing or reading is not what you may expect.

7. Asking Audiences

Who better than the people you make content for to tell you what to post? Next time you are stuck in a rut, ask your audience directly what content they want to see on your pages.

Tools like Instagram stories make it easy to ask your audience questions, but if possible, you can make a dedicated post asking your followers what type of content they enjoy, maybe even the type they don’t. This will help keep your content on track and also generate more ideas for future content.

8. Social Media Comments

It is always a good idea to read the comments your audience leaves on your posts. It is especially great when you are not sure what your audience’s sentiments are towards your current content and need ideas on what to share on your page.

There are two types of comments to look out for when taking inspiration from your comment section: comments making suggestions and comments asking questions. In case you notice a recurring question among commenters, it might be worth considering making a dedicated post to answer it. Some members might also give you valid suggestions on what to include in your content to make it better.

The question posed by a commenter could inspire a post on freezing pizza dough for followers who enjoy homemade pizza but don’t have the time to make it from scratch.

Using Tools

1. Google Search Suggestions

What’s the first thing you do when trying to learn about something? Most likely, Google it. And so do your followers.

A quick and free way of generating ideas is to look at Google’s suggested keywords. Simply type in a word or phrase related to your niche and Google will suggest related keywords to complete your search query.

Google generates these keywords based on what other users are frequently searching. This makes them the perfect tool for discovering what your audience is looking for. You can use these keyword suggestions to create social media content that applies to your audience’s needs and desires.

Ideas related to social media marketing generated by Google

2. Topic Generator Platforms

Platforms like HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator can give you content ideas in a matter of seconds. Simply enter a word or phrase related to your niche and the platform will generate post ideas you can work with.

Below is an example of ideas generated for a phone case company.

Other ideas generated for the above query were The Next Big Thing in Phone Cases, Phone Case Explained in Fewer than 140 Characters, and This Week’s Top Stories About Phone Cases. Assess each idea carefully and if you think you have value-adding content that will interest your audience, you can add them to your content calendar.

3. Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is a tool that shows you the most shared posts on a topic. Content that is highly shared often performs well and shows that they resonate with the target audience.

To use Buzzsumo, simply type in a topic and the site will generate the results in a flash. You can see how you can take inspiration from the top shared posts.

Buzzsumo results showing the most shared posts on social media marketing in the past year. 

Using Data and Analytics

1. Facebook Insights

Before looking at what others are doing, look at what works and what doesn’t work for you. Facebook insights give you a summarised glimpse of how your content is performing in terms of likes, shares, and comments.

Study your top performing posts, figure out what made them successful, and see if you can replicate that in the future. However, avoid replicating the same ideas repeatedly, as your audience will quickly see through this and potentially get bored with it.

To access Facebook insights, go to your page, tap More at the top of your page, and finally tap insights.

2. Instagram Insights

Similar to Facebook, Instagram also offers an insight into how your posts are performing with your audience. Some of the information you can get from your insights includes accounts reached, accounts engaged, and follower growth.

By analysing your insights, you can see what is working and what isn’t. Take inspiration from your more successful posts to create more content that your audience will love.

To access your account insights, go to your profile page where you will find the insights button under your bio.

3. Twitter Analytics

Twitter analytics summarises your performance in the last 28 days. The analytics include vital information, such as profile visits, follower growth, and impressions. You can also view how much engagement your account has received, including likes, retweets, and clicks.

To view your Twitter analytics, click on the analytics button present on each of your tweets.

Interesting Events

1. Trends

Taking part in trends is one of the easiest ways to stay relevant on social media. Keep an eye out for the latest trends and hop on the ones that align with your brand.

To learn what’s trending, analyse your feed or look at the trending reports generated by some apps like TikTok. Common trends you can take part in include memes, sounds on TikTok, and niche specific trending types of content. Don’t jump on a trend without doing some research first to avoid any backlash.

If you have the resources, you can also create your own brand challenge for your audience — this creates some fun for your customers and also helps to increase engagement as well as potentially increase your reach.

Below is the perfect example of a page participating in a very brand-appropriate trend.

Source: Nandos UK

2. Company News

If you have something to say to your audience, why not use your social media page to say it? Do you have a new partnership, product, or event? Announce it on your social media. This is an effortless way to broadcast your announcement with minimal budget, effort and time needed, while getting eyeballs on your announcement. This will also definitely get your audience excited and get the hype going.

Below is a great example of NutriBullet announcing a sale using the company Instagram page.

Source: NutriBullet

This can also be a great opportunity to share any positive press your brand has received recently. Getting your brand featured in reputable press outlets and publishers will help to improve visibility and build your reputation.

3. Behind The Scenes

Occasionally, give your audience a glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes. Your biggest fans will especially enjoy seeing what goes into the making of their favourite products. Some of the behind-the-scenes content you can share can include packaging a product, your design process, or a summary of the entire production process.

Luxury brands like Chanel, Dior, and Hermes are great examples of how to capture behind-the-scenes shots of your production process.

Source: Dior

4. Calendar Events and Holidays

Holidays are a wonderful source of inspiration for content ideas. Figure out a way to make your brand be a part of your audience’s holiday calendar. Some ways you can do this include suggesting what your followers can gift their loved ones from your product range and showing them how to use your product during the celebrations.

There are many fun holidays in a year that are great opportunities for you to share relevant and timely content that relates to your brand, product or service, and your industry. At the beginning of every year, look through the calendar and mark down dates that are most relevant for your brand.

In the post below, cosmetics brand MAC uses the hashtag #MACHalloween to give their audience inspiration for Halloween makeup looks using MAC products.

Source: MAC Cosmetics

Being Brand Focused

1. Games/Challenges

Social media always has fun new games and challenges that anyone can participate in. If the trending games don’t align with your brand, you can create your own games for your followers to take part in.

Encourage your followers to engage with your challenges by offering incentives such as discounts, free products, or even cash prizes.

2. Repurpose Your Content

If you have multiple social media channels, you can share some of the content you have posted on one channel onto another.

For similar platforms, such as TikTok and Reels, this is as easy as reposting the content. However, for different channels, such as YouTube and Instagram, you may need to edit the content to fit the platform better. This will help you save time and maximise each content piece you’ve created.

Repurposing old and existing content can also help you save some resources. People rarely remember all your content clearly, so you will also help your followers by resurfacing old posts in a different format. The possibilities are endless if you have evergreen material.

3. Your Brand Story

Every brand has a story, and most times, an interesting one. Look for opportunities to share your brand story with your audience to give them a deeper understanding of what drives you to do what you do.

There are many ways to tell your story engagingly, including video, audio, text and more. You may need to tell your story more than once, since your new followers may be unaware of it. For this reason, it may be necessary to tell it in different engaging ways that keep it interesting for your old audience.

Get creative and you’d be surprised at how one brand story can be told in a thousand ways.

In the post below, a loungewear brand founder shares her story of how she founded her company.

Source: L.DROBE

Ending Thoughts

Creative blocks are a normal part of every creator’s journey. However, with all the tools available today, you can overcome it by taking inspiration from others and even from your own older ideas. Make use of these 21 tips and you will be able to generate content consistently for a long time.

If you want to learn more about creating content for social media, we host a wide range of digital marketing courses, including Social Media Marketing, here in Singapore. For advanced learners, we also offer an Advanced Social Media Marketing course that is perfect for taking your social media marketing skills to the next level.

We also hold a Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing Programme, which covers the following five modules:

• Digital Marketing Essentials
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Digital Advertising
• Social Media Marketing
• Digital Marketing Analytics with Google Analytics

Upon completion of these modules, learners will attain a Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing. These courses are WSQ-accredited and eligible learners will receive up to 90% subsidy.