Content: What should you be writing about on Social Media?

Your content should be used to clearly tell your story and promote your key messages.

You should also consider the role of the content and how it will be perceived by your audience/customer. What is the objective of each piece of content?

For example you might want the content to:

• inspire
• educate
• help
• reward
• inform
• entertain
• persuade

There are also a number of different types of content that you can use when writing content for social media. You should identify as part of your strategy what content you are wishing to use.

I use the following on my social media channels across the different platforms:

Original Content

I create and share original content and communications that I have created just for my social media feeds. I have different content that I produce for each of my social media channels. As an example, this might include a Facebook Post Series, Instagram Stories/Videos and images and infographics. I often run a number of planned “Campaigns”.

In addition to this there will always be “in the moment content” and conversations – which will just happen in the NOW without being planned out.

Promotion and Sharing of My Own Content

I share my blog posts and product announcements etc on social media on a regular basis. These will often include different content and different images, but they are all for the purpose of sharing and promoting my own content.

I will also cross-share my social media feeds.

Sharing Other People’s Content (that is relevant to my audience)

It is not possible to create all your content yourself. Therefore, to ensure that you create and share interesting content for the benefit of your audience you may choose to share other people’s content (sometimes even the content of a direct competitor if it is really good and really relevant).

You should curate and share relevant content to fill out your social media feeds. This is particularly useful for Twitter where posts only have a lifespan of 15-20 minutes (unless they get a lot of engagement).

User-Generated Content

Instagram is particularly good for sharing UGC. Reposting customer-made content and crediting them in the posts, makes your customers feel valued.

This can be done in a number of ways – you might repost content featuring your products (and/or do a shout-out), or you might promote your brand or service by running a photo competition or content created using your product (think about what is appropriate for your brand and business).

Trending Topics

As well as “in the moment” content you can also plan ahead to create content that aligns with trending topics. This might be in relation to upcoming events or awareness days or content using regular trending topics or hashtags.

Other types of Social Media Content

Other types of content that you might want to consider using (that I don’t personally use that often) include:

• Infographics
• Livestreaming
• Video Content
• Testimonials

Need help setting your social media campaign goals and planning your social media content? Why not grab a copy of our Social Media Planner.