Having trouble getting started with posting on your social media channels? Here are some ideas to get you started.

A common question I hear from small businesses in regards to social media is “I don’t know what to post or share”. The worst way to manage your social media marketing is to sit down and try and think of new posts each day. This will take you longer, often results in creative block and can lower of the quality of your posts since you will often just post anything to get it done. Always remember the 80/20 rule – 80% education, inspiration & adding value and 20% about you.

It all starts with your audience – Firstly you need to determine what your audience wants to see from you. Everything you create should always be about them and their needs –not you! For example if your audience is tradies, you might share content related to sport, cars or fishing. Subjects that will be of interest and that will resonate with them. It doesn’t and should not be all about your business.

Review your data
Before you can create content you need to know what is working. This means reviewing your social media insights each week. Look at your posts and see what content got the best results. Consider reach, engagement, comments and shares as good indicators of what resonates with your audience. Do more of what is working and less of what is not.

Plan in advance

The most effective way to do social media is to plan your content in advance. Spend 1-2 hours each week and plan what you are going to share over the week. Creating a simple content plan that shows the text, images, link, hashtags, channel and day makes it much quicker & easier to schedule and will also be easy to review to ensure you have a good mix of content which is the next point.

Mix up your content

Nothing is more boring or will turn people off then simple sharing text posts. Mix up your content. Share images, videos, infographics, quotes, quizzes, animations, memes (although don’t overdo memes) – you get the idea. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and ask would I find this interesting or entertaining?  If you are putting people to sleep then you are wasting your time. Just make sure it is suited to your audience.

File content for later use

Over the course of your week, you will no doubt come across content that might be of interest to you audience. When you see this file it. A simple way to do this is using an app like Pocket or Evernote or even just create an Inbox folder to drag this content into. It will help when it comes to time to work on your Content Plan.

Curated content

Curated content is content that you ‘curate’ or share from other sources. There are plenty of sources to find this including speciality websites like Buffer, DrumUp or Feedly. These sites allow you to select categories that are relevant then it sends you content from other sources which you can share to your audience.

Other great channels to find content include You Tube, Industry bodies, Reddit, Quora, Slideshare, industry influencers, complimentary businesses in your networks.