Get out of the content rut: How to gather content ideas

It’s no secret that social media is a powerful marketing platform in 2021. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn provide unique opportunities to communicate messaging about your products and services to a range of audiences. In fact, statistics support this, with 83% of B2B marketers utilising social media as a tool for advertising and 57% of consumers following brands to learn about new products and services (Source: Sprout Social).

The first obstacle to face when deciding to develop a social media presence is producing a content schedule that effectively communicates your business’s offering. You might be wondering:

• How do I translate my businesses key messages for social media?
• What should be my main pillars or themes of content?
• How will I source new content for a sustained period of time?
• Where will I source the imagery?

The following tools are useful for helping to answer these questions and decide how to best communicate on social media.

BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a tool that enables the user to monitor the social media environment without trawling through each platform for hours on end. Ideal for researching content ideas and the latest buzz terms or trends, the platform indexes the top content in any industry niche or can help generate popular keywords relevant to your business. This can help you to decide what streams of content are going to add value to your social media presence. A no-commitment 30-day free trial is available for new users, with varying price points from $0 to $299 a month thereafter.

Sprout Social
Sprout Social is an all-in-one paid social media management platform that can take care of analytics, scheduling and engagement. While a great platform for these features alone, what makes it relevant to content planning is its hub for up-to-date information, industry trends as well as tips and tricks. The Sprout Blog provides an abundance of templates from brand audits to strategy checklists, it’s an excellent resource for social media marketers just starting out.

Missinglettr
For businesses that create purposeful long-form content such as blog posts and case studies, Missingltter is a powerful tool that uses AI-powered analysis to develop social content from these longer articles. Able to work across multiple platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, this includes a mix of both visual and written posts. With the ability to set up network-wide content dripping for periods up to a year, it takes the hassle out of content planning.

Bonus Tool: Grammarly:
After you’ve written content, Grammarly is an excellent tool to ensure the messaging is grammatically correct. After you upload text, Grammarly’s technology detects spelling, punctuation and syntax errors, acting as a personal editor. Adversely, the available browser extension tracks and edits for you as you type. With a free starter plan, this tool will be integral to your social media.

The first step towards a successful social media presence is effectively planning your content. We hope that these resources help you develop key messages for socials, however, if you’re still feeling overwhelmed and want to put your marketing on auto-pilot, ask us about our affordable social media management packages.

Don’t forget to read our collection of marketing tips on the Optimum Marketing website, including the next step in your social media development process.