5 ways of coming up with content ideas!
As a freelancer, you are in charge of your own social media content. When creating a strategy for your social accounts, consistency is king. But staying consistent means you are going to need content. 5 posts per week that say. But how in the hell do you come up with that much content? I’m sure you have periods in which coming up with content ideas can be a true struggle! Well, let me help you out. Here are 5 ways of coming up with content ideas to make your life a little easier and stay consistent!
Ask your audience
Whether you own a blog, have a YouTube channel, or share business-related content on your Instagram account. Content is created for marketing purposes and is created for your audience. That’s why your audience is very valuable. What are they consuming the most? What are they enjoying the most or more interested in?
While you can dive into your analytics and analyze what types of content perform best, more on that later! I’m more of a fan of asking my own audience. Hold polls, ask them questions, ask them for feedback and slide into their e-mails and dm’s to find a sense of what their needs are.
Most people find you more personable when you directly ask them questions and create content they long for. Don’t forget, the customer is king!
Recycle
There is nothing wrong with recycling older types of content. Some stuff is just too important not to mention twice. Remember, when we create content for social media your latest followers might have never even seen your older post in the first place!
While copy-paste would work for some types of content, it doesn’t work for all. Especially if some of your older posts need an upgrade! In the blogging-sphere, bloggers often recycle older posts and upgrade them with new information. You might even find yourself disagreeing with your older post or some new development has taken place which affects the topic of that post.
Scroll down your timeline and find your most valuable posts that can be recycled or need an upgrade! But don’t do this too often! Nobody likes a broken record that keeps repeating itself over and over!
This is how I plan my Social Media content!
Be inspired by others
I always tell my friends in need of content ideas to let themselves be inspired by others. How? Follow a bunch of accounts and brands related to yours and see what they come up with! Bigger brands and businesses mostly have entire marketing departments responsible for their content.
As a freelancer or one-man-business, you might not always have so much time on hand to brainstorm and research. Learn from bigger brands and let yourself be inspired. Take it a step further and sign up for a couple of topic related newsletters and get fresh ideas every single day into your inbox!
Now be aware, I’m not advocating to bluntly copy-paste their ideas! See them as a source of inspiration and make it your own! Nobody likes a copycat!
Google Trends & UberSuggest
I’m going to let you into a secret. You don’t need to be coming up with content ideas by yourself!
When you are thinking of stuff to post, you might want to take a look at the latest trends. What is hot and what is not? Many content creators spot and predict new trends and immediately jump on them. The best thing? You don’t need to be a trend watcher to spot and predict new trends!
Google Trends is an excellent tool that analyses the search behaviour of all google users! Just type in a topic and you’ll immediately be able to see what’s trending!
Other useful tools are ExplodingTopics.com and Neil Platel’s UberSuggest.
If you just read Neil’s name for the first time ever… make sure you check him out! He is a digital marketing giant and my biggest inspiration! He has a great platform and offers great insights into the world of digital marketing, he’s got a great podcast too! Make sure you check him out if you want to learn more about digital marketing!
Understand your Analytics
I’ve shorty touched on this topic at the beginning of this article. But now I’m going to tell you exactly why your analytics are so important!
The digital world has made it possible for us to collect more data from customers. The trick of digital marketing is to collect that data, analyze it, and use it to our advantage. Analyzing how our content performs on different platforms gives us more insight into what our audience likes. When you are coming up with content ideas these analyses can come in handy. What type of content attracts what type of demographic?
Based on these analyses, you will be able to narrow your range of content. Once you’ve got a good sense of what types of content/topics people react to, you can now dive deeper into these topics, explore them thoroughly and let yourself be inspired by this newly found direction!
There are of course many ways to get ideas for your content but I’m sure these 5 will already bring you pretty far!
Don’t forget that consistency is king when you are putting out content for your own business or if you are trying to establish yourself amongst your followers. I often find myself getting ideas at the most random times and always write them down. There is only so much you can remember, right?
Now that you have come up with content ideas, it is time to create a plan. What comes when? Using a Social Media planner can be very handy at this stage of the process! Automize your Social Media content and take away some stress surrounding your posting habits!
These were 5 ways of coming up with content ideas! Do you have any other ways of coming up with content ideas? Let me know and write me at [email protected]
Make sure you check out a brand new episode of The Freelancer Talk podcast every Tuesday!
Cheers!
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