9 ideas for social media content (to boost visibility and engagement)

The day has come to post something on your social media.

You’ve been putting it off for a while now, so you take a seat in front of the screen and wait for inspiration to come your way… and you wait… and wait…

Alas, inspiration fails to come knocking and you end up posting a picture of a bestseller with a catchphrase, a few hashtags, and voila – published.

So what’s the big deal?

There’s no difference between posting that and not posting at all.

And that’s because there’s no consistent strategy behind this type of content (so it’ll most likely yield no results). Plus, since it’s always the same, your followers will eventually find it boring.

And that’s why you’re getting fewer and fewer likes. 😉

Well, fear not! Today we’re here to fix the matter.

This post is going to give you more than just a few tips to spice up your social media publications.

And we’re also going to cover a few key points that’ll make it all worth it.

Ready to go viral? 😉

👉 Social media content: The first thing to do before creating it

Later in the post we’ll give you a few ideas about the type of content you can create for your social media.

But we’d like to stress something first.

We already mentioned it once in the introduction, but it’s so important that we simply can’t let it go unnoticed.

Publishing “just for the sake of it” with no clear objective, won’t help you get more sales in your online store.

Not sales or even more followers, for that matter. 

That’s why it’s so important that you’re clear on these two points before you even think about creating content:

1. Who you’re addressing: that is, your buyer persona. You need to know what kind of content they consume the most and, above all, what social media platforms they’re on. For example, if you’re targeting teenagers, it’s almost a must to create an account on Snapchat. 
2. What you aim to achieve (your goals): it could be reinforcing your brand image, boosting post engagement (the number of reactions and comments), or attracting traffic to your website. 

If you’re at a bit of a loss, you should read this post on social media marketing before moving on.

👉 9 types of content that work well on social media

Now that you know your objectives and which social networking sites you’re targeting, here’s the next step. 

Decide what to publish.

And, as we told you, uploading the typical product photo with a caption on top just won’t cut it.

Here are a few ideas to spice up your feed. 😉

✅ 1. Social proof

Seeing customers using some of your products instills more confidence in potential clients than anything else.

That’s what is known as social proof.

And social media is the perfect place to post this type of content.

If you own a clothes store, for example, you can ask your followers to take a photo of themselves wearing one of your items and to tag you afterwards (tell them to add your shop’s hashtag too).

In exchange, you could even offer them a little discount.

✅ 2. Reviews and product comparisons

These are two types of content that work very well if you want to trigger a purchase decision in people at the consideration stage of the customer journey (at which point they are seriously considering making a purchase).

For example, are there any smartphone models selling particularly well right now?

Then make a video analyzing their strengths and weaknesses (internal storage, camera resolution, etc.) and share it on your social media. 

✅ 3. Offers and promotions

Selling on social media is possible – if you know how. 😉

And a strategy that always works is to create a post to let your followers know about an offer you’ve just launched.

It’ll also make them eager to know everything you’re publishing so they don’t miss any future bargains.

If you don’t want to settle for the classic discount, here’s another post with some ideas for promotions.

✅ 4. Tutorials

Some of your products may be difficult to use or assemble.

If this is the case, your followers would definitely thank you for a tutorial every now and then.

This is something IKEA does a lot, for example, as you can see in this video where they show you how to assemble one of their beds.

✅ 5. Humorous content

Funny content comes in handy to drive engagement among your followers.

This category includes memes, viral videos, and even content starring your own employees (we’ll talk about this later).

Don’t forget, however, that they must always be related to the products in your online shop.

It’s not about posting kitten videos just because (unless you own a pet e-commerce 😉 ).

Just so you understand, if you sell sports equipment, it would certainly make sense to share a video of people falling over while skiing.

✅ 6. Your company’s everyday life

There are more and more online shops using social media as a way to “open their business doors” to the public.

That is, to show who’s behind your brand and how you work.

Some relevant content includes:  

• Someone on your team’s birthday
• New members introducing themselves
• Examples of how you do the packaging or how products are wrapped to avoid breakage

This type of content helps you create a stronger bond with your followers (because they can put a human face to your brand) and gain their confidence and loyalty.

✅ 7. Contests and raffles

Contests are always a good option if you want to improve your brand image and gain more followers.

Here’s a very detailed step-by-step guide on how to create a Facebook contest, though these tips apply to every social media platform you’re on.

✅ 8. Questions for followers

This type of content has two main goals.

• To establish a community around your brand and generate more engagement.
• To help you get to know your target audience better.

Don’t overcomplicate things.

It could be something as simple as “Sandals: with or without heels?”

Most social networking sites have some functionality that allows you to post questions, either in the form of surveys (as on Facebook) or as part of Instagram stories.

✅ 9. Blog articles

In a content marketing strategy, creating posts is just as important as promoting them so they reach the widest audience possible.

And this includes your social media followers too because if they’re part of your audience, they should be interested in your blog posts. 😉

Therefore, apart from getting more visits to those posts, you also get your followers to subscribe to your email marketing list and turn them into customers (which is what this is all about at the end of the day).

👉 Tips to make your social media content even more successful

We said at the start that we wouldn’t settle for just a few ideas on content.

On top of that, we’re going to give you some key tips to get even better results out of your posts. 😉

Let’s go over them.

✅ 1. Use different formats

Publishing different types of content isn’t enough; you should also alternate between different formats.

So, apart from images, you can play around with:

• GIFs: It’s much easier to draw the attention of users scrolling down their newsfeed if you use a moving picture. In other words, a GIF. Pages such as Giphy offer you endless options.
• Infographics: People tend to share this type of content a lot, so it’ll help you gain visibility. Besides, you don’t need to do anything out of this world. Here’s a very simple example by Lola Market, an online shop that shared this infographic on their Instagram profile.
• Videos: Videos on social media are a very powerful tool to generate engagement and get followers to share your content. If you haven’t thrown yourself into video marketing yet, you should check out this guide. 

Try different formats to figure out which one works best with your audience.

✅ 2. Schedule your content

When it comes to feeding your social media feed with new content, the biggest possible mistake is to “go with the flow”.

If you start thinking about your next post five minutes before it’s due, you’ll end up posting the first idea that comes to mind and all your carefully planned goals go to waste.

The same rules that apply to your blog’s editorial calendar also apply to social media – the more you organize your upcoming posts, the better.

✅ 3. Use helpful tools 

One last tip – and this one has more to do with productivity.

Feeding your social media, even if you only manage one or two accounts, is time consuming.

And, unless you’ve hired someone to take care of this exclusively, you should optimize your time as much as you can. 😉

So here are a few tools that could help you:

• Hootsuite: This tool helps you manage and automate posts on different social media platforms at the same time.
• Social Mention: It keeps track of everything users say about your brand or products (essential if you’re running a branding campaign).
• Canva: This one is quite a straightforward editing tool that allows you to create flashy images and infographics even if you’re design-illiterate.

In terms of social media tools, there are thousands of them, but these should be enough to get you started. 😉

👉 Success lies in varied content

Let’s face it – if you’re always posting the same old stuff, your followers will eventually get bored. 

And if they’re less responsive, the algorithm will detect it and give your posts less visibility, which can lead you into vicious cycle you never want to find yourself in.

So put these tips into practice and add variety to your social media profiles to see for yourself how your strategy starts to pay off. 😉