We’re all searching for content all the time. What’s interesting? What’s trending? What’s engaging? But also, what’s right for your brand?
If you think a piece of content could be interesting, relevant, informative, engaging, and/or entertaining to your audience or the audience you’re working to build and reach, why not try it?
Don’t be afraid to try new things! As long as you’re not lying or being offensive, or spreading negativity, test new things. Always.
This is especially important when you’re creating a new page. This is exactly when you are doing nothing but testing and trying out ALL your content to see what will grab attention. But, it’s not just meant for new pages, this is also the best way to gain channel growth.
“You cannot buy engagement. You have to build engagement.” - Tara-Nicholle Nelson
If you’re wondering how this is good for growth, here’s a comparison for example: If you keep following the same daily routine, everyday, aren’t you going to get bored at some point? Especially at work. Do you want to get to work, have the same meeting every morning, then write the same types of posts, schedule, check off your daily list, end the day, sleep, wake up, repeat? Does that sound exciting?
One additional example: would you watch a movie over and over, everyday, even if it’s your favorite movie, and never get tired of it? We all have our favorite movies that we say, “I could watch that anytime!” about. We can quote movie lines, hell we can quote entire scenes that we love. However, if this was the situation, how long would it take for your favorite movie to turn into the one you’re the most sick of? Because there’s no variety!
Now think about that situation with your audience and your content. Are they going to stop on every single piece of content you post that pops up on their feed when nothing looks different? Or are they going to easily scroll when they feel like they’ve seen the same thing before? Most likely, it’ll be the latter.
Our point is, you need to switch up your content to keep your audience engaged and continue to reach NEW people and grow. Switch it up, play with features and new ideas. Keep your audience a little on their toes and keep reaching new eyes.
However, it’s not just about trying new content. It’s also about figuring out where to take content from. Are you worried about running out of good content or are you overflowing with so much that you don’t know what to do with it all?
The second is obviously a great problem to have. The first, not so much.
Thankfully, you can take content from just about anyway as long as it fits your brand and you’re using it correctly.
Do you have a blog or article section that gets added to regularly? Your site will be your greatest asset. On your website, you should have a ton of great information that you can use to share socially. Think about social media as your new form of “word of mouth,” how would you talk to your friends about the brand? What information would you find useful, informative, or exciting to talk about? Use THAT for content!
What about videos in saved files or on YouTube that you can share? Anything new and original, you can make “social friendly” and share on your other platforms.
On the other side, having no content or running out. This is never a great situation, but you can make it work while you’re working to create new original posts. Do you work on following other accounts that make sense for your brand? Following hashtags? Also, keep tabs on your “tagged” posts! Look at who else is talking about you online and you get User-generated content (UGC).
Simply make sure to credit and tag when you need to. For example, sharing a post and in the caption, make sure to add #repost from @(tag), and boom! Content.
UGC isn’t the only way to go though. Other ways to create content when you have none include testimonials and even old content that you can recycle.
Recycling content can sometimes have a negative connotation associated with it. But, we aren’t talking about literally posting an old post and not giving your audience an actually newer piece of content. Recycle and redesign! Adjust the design and start creating a slightly new look to your content, edit the caption a bit, and see how it does! This is also a great way to test out how well a new design style will do. Thinking about a revamp? Always a good time to test.
Overall, our biggest point is that you can truly find content anywhere and everywhere. You just have to know where to look, what to look for, and make sure it’s right for your brand. However, it may sound this way, but to be clear, this should NOT be misunderstood as, “anyone can do social media.” No. Content strategy and development is a true testament to how good of a social media manager, director, or specialist is.
Now, to end off, we have a simple statement that I think can truly encompass social media and content.
Any content can be content, but not all content is good content. You can create content out of anything, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to do well or be engaging.
With that being said, if you find yourself struggling or unsure if your content is truly good content or if you’re simply making sure you have content to post, let’s chat! Validity Communications is happy to set up a free consultation to find out your needs and thoughts. We can perform a fully platform audit and take a look for you.