What Should I Post?

Ah, the age-old question… of social media. What should I post? Ask three different people, and you’ll get three different answers.

• The ad agency account executive will tell you to post about your products, to turn your social media into a platform that’s constantly driving your message of your company’s value in front of your customers.
• The web consultant will tell you to do keyword research and make sure that your posts include relevant keywords to boost your search engine optimization across the board.
• And the social media consultant will tell you to post content that humanizes you and your company to your customers, that conveys your company’s culture and makes clients feel like they can get to know you and what makes you tick.

So who should you listen to? Well, to some extent, all of them.

When it comes to posting across your social media platforms, you do need a broad mix of content, and it’s best to tailor the presentation of the content for each social platform (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) so that it can perform best across the various networks.

What should you post? Well, everything mentioned in the bullet points above and more. While it does vary by industry, in most cases, images from inside your business are great. Obviously, well-written, error-free descriptions of your products and services with images when appropriate, links to your blog if you have one (which you probably should) links to external content appropriate for your industry. For example, if you run a bicycle shop, a post linking to an article about mountain biking would be an obvious fit. Be sure to vet al the content you link to. Don’t let someone else’s sloppy content reflect badly on your business.

For quick inspiration, visit the social pages of your competitors. Look at several pages in, and dovetailing with, your industry. What kind of posts do you find there? Which ones appealed to you most? Over the long term, try to think from your ideal customer’s point of view. Who’s your dream client? What kind of content would be most useful to her?

To avoid post paralysis (the sudden inability to think of what to post), take some time over a few days or weeks to come up with a post inspiration list. This should be more than just a list of posts, but rather a list of industry-appropriate types of posts. Some post inspirations work for nearly all industries, such as, “post about a little-known aspect of my industry,” while other’s will be quite specific, such as, “link to an article about ways recycled tires can be used” specifically for a tire store’s social platforms. Your list should be at least 20 items long so that your posts never seem redundant, and the best idea is to think of it as a living document that you’ll continue to modify and expand.

Need more guidance about formulating posts, coming up with your post inspiration list or have other questions? Come to one of our Social Media for Small Business seminars. You’ll learn a lot more about everything discussed here and get one-on-one help drafting your post inspiration list. We’ll even help you set up a free account on HootSuite, the social media dashboard which can also be a fantastic tool for monitoring responses to your social content and customers’ communication with your business through your social platforms.

We look forward to meeting you!