Let’s face it, not every day in the office is exciting. As much as we want to generate captivating content for our audience, sometimes it feels like a stretch. So what can you do to avoid a slow day or writer’s block? Build your social content library.
How to Create Your Social Content Library
Here are a few ways to feature your organization:
- Employee spotlights. Your customers want to know the people behind the brand. In fact, building those personal relationships is crucial to your organization’s future success. You may want to include a photo of the person, their position at the company, favorite aspect of employment and what their personal hobbies and interests include. Allow your audience to know the individuals within your company and how they contribute to the overall culture and success.
- Videos. Do you have someone in your office that enjoys the limelight or is creative with video? Perhaps you can charge them with creating a weekly video post. Taking a simple approach, the video could feature an office tour, commentary from a loyal customer or an update pertaining to local happenings. Photos and videos are gaining traction in the social media arena. By adapting and planning your social content around this trend, you will be better able to intrigue your audience.
- Photos. Staying with the visual trend, take advantage of your organization’s events, seminars, golf and volunteer outings. Photographing your employees, members or clients is an easy way to build your photo library and show what your company is doing to benefit others. With a quick feel-good caption, you have a great visual to tell your story.
- Interviews. Consider industry experts, within your organization or not, that can provide insight on hot topics and issues relating to customer concerns. By providing information your audience can’t find anywhere else, you have created a value-add for your customers. (We feature interviews here all the time.)
- Trivia. Use trivia as an opportunity to share your message. Whether you provide a giveaway or not, trivia is a great way to engage your audience and share statistics about your industry. This doesn’t have to be a hard sell for your company – make the trivia fun and engaging. Often times your customers will enjoy the competition to guess the right answer.
Turning the Focus of Your Social Content Library Outward
On the flip side, let’s consider options for engaging your audience:
- Questions. There is no doubt about it, people love to share their point of view – and social media is no exception. Build your social content library with questions that engage your audience. Remember, not every question has to relate directly to your brand. For example, if you are in any way related to the food industry, you could ask customers where they will be dining this weekend or what their favorite holiday recipe is. Don’t be scared of their response — this is your opportunity to interact with your audience!
- Promotions. A great way to reward your audience and customers, promotions such as coupons, giveaways, etc. are a fun way to engage your following. Here you will want to tie your promotions to your product to ensure a connection to your target audience. If you are a retailer, the promotion could be a simple call to action — e.g. the first ten customers today will receive a free necklace with any purchase. If you are a non-profit, you may wish to work with members and business partners to provide gift cards.
- Audience submissions. Request your audience’s participation. Ask them to submit a photo of them with your product or where they were traveling and saw your product. For example, I was just on vacation in the Dominican and saw a John Deere tractor pulling a surf rake. Raised as an Iowa farm girl, I thought that was pretty cool, so I took a picture. If John Deere had a “Where in the world is John Deere today?” post, I would have uploaded it then and there.
- Contests. In the spirit of competition, turn your post into a contest. Which customer lives the furthest away, who is using your product in the most unique way or who loves your product the most? This doesn’t have to include a giveaway. You can simply feature the story a week later through your social media outlets.
- Surveys. Going with the thought that your customers want to be heard, why not consider posting a survey through Survey Monkey or putting together a poll on Facebook? This is a great way to get free feedback from customers who are truly interested in your brand. After all, they will be getting the link from your social media outlet.
No matter the size or type of company you work for, the importance of building your social media audience is ever-increasing. Although at times it can be a challenge to fill your page with thought-provoking content, by building your social content library you will be ready to post when writer’s block or a hectic day strikes.
