One of the things that I get asked the most frequently is what should businesses share on social media, which sparked these 25 social media ideas you can use to connect with your audience.
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3. 1. Business Tips
We all get asked questions all the time in our businesses.
As itโs specific to you and your business, what kind of tips
can you give people?
If youโre in SEO, for example, and thatโs your area of
expertise, can you write down ten tips that you could
share incrementally on your social media presences?
People love tips.
4. 2. Humor/Relatable
So many people try to segment their social presence and say,
โWeโre just a business. We canโt put out anything thatโs not
business-related.โ Iโm just going to throw a massive flag on
that, guys.
People will connect with you around things they care about
way before they connect around your business.
Humor is one of my top engagement tools. Whether itโs
funny memes or you just have something funny thatโs
happening in your life or your business, share that.
If you think about it, what do you engage with? Do you find
yourself drawn more to a sales pitch or more into something
thatโs fun and engaging and entertaining?
5. 3. Inspiration/Motivation
Inspiration is the number one most shared type of content
across every social media platform.
Itโs true on Instagram and, incidentally, I even found this to be
true on LinkedIn.
If youโve ever looked at any of my social presences, youโll see
that I share a lot of inspirational or motivational content. As
entrepreneurs, we need that connection, in my opinion. We
need to me inspired. We need to be motivated.
Today, you donโt even need to be a graphic designer to create
your own visual content. You can use web-based tools like
Canva or some of the phone apps like Typorama, Word Swag
and Legend.
6. 4. Open-Ended Questions
I get some of my best engagement from open-ended
questions.
About two or three years ago I posted an open-ended
question on my Facebook page that said, โPeanut butter and
โฆโ People loved it!
Ask open-ended questions. People love to talk. They love to
answer questions. In fact, if youโre stumped on what open-
ended questions to ask, go to the Google machine, type in
โopen-ended questionsโ and voilร , you will have a ton of
resources and content to generate some ideas of your own.
I challenge you to post the peanut butter question and see
what kind of engagement you get.
7. 5. Offers and Deals
Did you know that getting deals is still the number one reason that people Like brands on
Facebook?
Who doesnโt want a deal? We all love deals. We all love free offers. We all love coupons. We all
love discounts. Share those types of things on your Facebook, Instagram or any of your social
platforms for that matter. Give people a deal.
8. 6. Behind the Scenes/Sneak Peeks
Behind the scenes and sneak peek posts can be easier for someone like a solo-
preneur who doesnโt have a large staff and controls most of their own work
schedule, but that doesnโt mean businesses canโt do this!
Chocolate Johnny does this amazingly well through live-streaming on
Periscope. Thought, technically, you can do exactly the same thing with photos.
Showcase your business on other social media platforms by letting people see
behind the scenes. Whether thatโs your personal life, things that are happening
with you personally or whether thatโs things that are happening inside your
business.
People love to feel like theyโre a part of whatโs happening in your business. I
canโt tell you the amount of people that have met me in person and know
things that are going on in my life. Theyโll reference something that happened
months ago and connect with me around that particular peek into my life
simply because they saw it on social media.
Again, itโs such a great way to let people engage and connect with you.
9. 7. Opinions
You can do this a number of ways. You can give yours, ask for
theirs and/or simply ask for theirs.
You could give an opinion on something in your niche and
then ask what your community, your audience, and your tribe
thinks of it. Again, people love to give their feedback.
Rememberโฆopinions, everyone has one.
Here's
what I
think...
What do
you think?
Let's
discuss...
10. 8. Industry News
We all have things happen in our business or in our space and yet
we sometimes donโt think to share these. The reality is lots of
people donโt have access or donโt slow down long enough to
research and find out certain types of information. Thereโs a huge
value proposition in this.
One, you are educating your community on things that are
happening in your space or in your niche. Two, if you do this
routinely, you will become an industry news or thought leader.
People will come to you because they know you know whatโs
happening.
Mari Smith does this amazingly well. Sheโs a Facebook expert. On
her fan page, she shares tips, resources, et cetera as it relates to
Facebook. People go to her because they know she is going to
have the inside scoop on whatโs happening on Facebook.
11. 9. Fill in the Blanks
I kind of referenced this before with open-ended questions,
but fill in the blanks are great as well.
Itโs a different way to phrase a question and the best ones
only require a one or two-word answer, which makes it easier
for your fans and followers to answer and engage with.
If youโre stumped on what to do for fill in the blanks, go to the
Google machine, type โfill in the blanks questionsโ, and I
promise you will get tons of ideas that you can repurpose
and/or craft that are specific to you in your space.
12. 10. Strike Up A Conversation
It amazes me that so many people donโt do this. When you go to a
social event, donโt you strike up a conversation with somebody? Itโs
exactly the same on social media. Take the time, strike up a
conversation, maybe give your personal take on an issue, ask what they
think.
I have seen Gary Vanerchuck do this on Twitter. I thought it was
incredible. It was just a simple question that, again, was a conversation
starter for him. He said, โHow was your day today, guys?โ and then gave
himself an hour to engage with his followers.
Thatโs a conversation starter, guys. It was a door opener for him to talk to
literally, in his case, hundreds of people.
Take the time to strike up conversations on social media. It's an amazing
way to build relationships. If somebody is tweeting you, instead of
saying just, โHey, thanks for the retweet,โ or not acknowledging it at all,
ask them a question! Simple conversations can be amazing way to build
a relationships.
13. 11. Testimonials
We all know that we should be using testimonials on our websites, yet, we don't do that on social media. Why in the world do we
not do this?
One of the most effective strategies that I used to sell my book when it launched was to take testimonials that people would leave
over on Amazon, create a graphic of those, and guess what guysโฆI put them on my Fan Page! I shared them on Twitter! I shared
them on Instagram!
Instead of saying things like, โGo buy my book,โ or, โGo buy my product,โ or, โGo buy my service,โ or, โHey, Iโve got the best deal going,โ
or, โI know I can help you,โ just let the words of your happy customers speak for you!
14. 12. Open Q&A's
Open Q&Aโs are one of the things that Iโve done on Periscope, Facebook and in some of my closed
Facebook groups.
Every once in a while, Iโll do an open Q&A in one of those closed groups and Iโll say, โHey, Iโm going
to be available for the next hour. Ask any question you want.โ Itโs a great way to provide value and
get some real-time engagement with your followers.
15. 13. Polls
You can use a poll for a number of different things like collecting opinions and/or ideas. This is
really value based. Again, itโs an engagement tool, but itโs also a great way to get great
information.
What should you do if youโre not getting a bunch of comments or engagement on that poll on
your Facebook page? Tweet it! Tweet it over on Twitter or share it on your personal profile. Drive
people to that poll to get people to engage with it. They may not see it otherwise.
16. 14. Caption a Photo
People love photos that elicit creativity. Asking your
fans and followers to caption a photo normally gets
some pretty good engagement as well as
interesting captions!
People seem to love creating captions for funny,
cute, silly, and weird photos. Itโs an easy and fun way
to get some more engagement going!
17. 15. Make Predictions
Thatโs one of the top things on social across the board. People love predictions. They
want to know what you think.
Now, sometimes those predictions backfire on us, but thatโs okay. Predictions are just
what they are. Maybe you see a trend happening and you make a prediction on it. Even
if what you predicted doesnโt happen, people still love knowing what others think.
18. 16. Crowd Source Ideas
Ask other people for ideas. It kind of goes back to when youโre asking for opinions, but be
specific. In other words, maybe youโre getting ready to do a new product or a new coaching
platform or anything of that natureโฆask! Ask people what they think.
Crowd source ideas. You will always, always get amazing feedback if you crowd source ideas.
19. 17. Current Events
This is great because it gives you an opportunity to
capitalize on what?โฆHashtags. It gives you an opportunity
to be found under hashtags that are trending.
Pay attention to what's trending on Facebook and
Twitter and insert yourself into the conversation by
creating posts about that particular trend and leverage
the hashtag.
Now you have an opportunity to get into the feed for
that trend.
20. 18. Highlight Your Customers
So many people donโt take the time to do this. Give kudos to those who are buying your
products and services, may be your top fans, or just pull out a fan on your Facebook
page. Same on Twitter.
Let your social media followers know that you value them. It's important.
21. 19. Tech Tips or Tools
People love tools and they love tech tips.
These tips can be things that will shorten the
learning curve, shorten the timeline of
something or give you a way to do it in a shorter
period of time, or do something that you
couldnโt have done otherwise because you donโt
have the skills. Graphic design, for example.
22. 20. Advice
It doesnโt have to be your advice, but if you have some great advice and you feel like itโs
valuable then share your advice!
You could share something that you learned from a mistake you made. It doesnโt have to end
in a success, although it could be a success.
Share your experiences. Again, yours or others. It doesnโt have to be your experiences.
23. 21. Think Out Loud
This is one of the things that I do quite frequently. Something
will be said on social media and it will make me think of
something else or it will make me spawn an idea or something.
Thinking out loud, whether itโs a rant or whether itโs just a
thought in the moment, should be shared on social media.
Those are as real as they get too, by the way. Thinking out loud.
Some will say, โDo you put a filter on that?โ Thatโs up to you.
Sometimes with rants you might want to step back from it for
ten minutes or count to ten and say, โDeep breath,โ before you
put it out there.
Every rant Iโve ever done has driven tons of engagement. Just
saying.
24. 22. Recommend Others to Follow
You can do this on a weekly basis and in a number of different ways. Do it as a blog post. Put it
out on Twitter.
Whatever the case it, recommendations are huge.
They can be helpful as everybody has people in their niche that they might want to share with
their community.
25. 23. Debunk Myths
There are always things out there that people assume to be true when theyโre not true.
Take the time and say, โGuys, this isnโt true or isnโt always the case because ofโฆโ whatever it is.
Debunk those myths!
26. 24. Share Video or Audio Clips
Now, we see people sharing video pretty frequently, but you donโt hear people say, โYou should
be sharing audio tips or audio clips.โ
Those are just as impactful. In fact, maybe in some cases more impactful. If someone is on their
phone and they canโt watch something, they still might be able to listen to something.
Absolutely share video and/or audio clips.
27. 25. ASK!
ASK your followers what their biggest pain points are. You will get incredible feedback from this.
Plus, if you know what your audience, your tribe or your community struggles with and you craft
your products and your services to address those pain points, when it comes time to sell stuff, oh
my goodness guys, you are in so much better shape because you already know people want it.
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