As we know, different platforms serve a variety of audiences, and the ideal posting time for each network will fluctuate frequently. The industry, target market, and analytics will ultimately dictate the cadence of a social media calendar. Generally, Hootsuite recommends posting at least once a day on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, and at least three times per week on Instagram. That’s a lot of content to create!
But no pressure, right? Although a huge chunk of content can be reformatted, rewritten, and repurposed for different platforms, you still need to regularly come up with unique, fresh material. We encourage businesses that often struggle to cultivate new concepts for posts to contact Forge Apollo’s social media managers. We’ll take your business’s promotional strategy to the next level with our cutting-edge tactics, making us a top choice for social media marketing in Philadelphia.
7 Original Social Media Post Ideas
Posting once a day on all your networks is rather ambitious, particularly for a small business, but it’s undoubtedly not impossible. In other words, if a social media team finds posting every single day a challenge, that’s okay! Remember that post quality is always more important than quantity.
Our marketing strategists at Forge Apollo prove that it’s certainly possible to reach an audience while avoiding floods of irrelevant and redundant messages in their feed. Look no further if you’re searching for excellent social media post ideas for your small business. We have seven innovative content recommendations (plus three bonus insights) that are sure to boost online engagement in the new year.
Monday Post Idea – Meet the Maker
There are a variety of simple and catchy hashtags that can help viewers get to know the team. Some frequently-seen examples are #MeetTheMaker and #ArtVsArtist. While the former is rather open-ended, the latter typically features several visual assets alongside an image of the content’s creator.
One imaginative strategy that’s easy to apply to almost any industry is an “Anatomy of…” graphic or video post. Depending on the resources available, execute this post using a personal photo asset, graphic design, or clipart image. The premise is simple: outline key characteristics, credentials, and attributes that make up a job title within your company.
This tactic can also be helpful in recruitment and hiring processes. It creates a helpful infographic that illustrates the qualifications and traits of an ideal employee in that sector. Take a look at these original designs for inspiration:
Or this creative take on staff member stats by @futuregroupchat:
Tuesday Post Idea – Employee Recommendations and Reviews
Business owners choose their cherished employees for a reason. What is it about the staff that makes them essential? The chances are that an audience will find the team charming and interesting for similar reasons.
While keeping employee privacy rights in mind, highlight team members and their accomplishments. What makes them noteworthy, entertaining, or unique? What contributions do they make to the work environment and culture?
A simple, low-profile way to feature staff is by showcasing their favorites and interests. Adapt this concept to any industry – favorite books, movies, shows, games, hobbies, publications, freelancers, etc., are possibly valuable subgroups to market research. It even allows opportunities to connect with influencers and leaders within a niche – make sure to tag the accounts of every brand recommended!
A brand that strives for better community outreach and connections allows Forge Apollo to be their liaison to improved networking. Our dependable resources present countless opportunities for building relationships within local neighborhoods and groups.
Wednesday Post Idea – Live Takeover or Guest Cameo
Speaking of tagging other accounts, perhaps it’s beneficial for someone to do the social media manager’s job for the day! Allow another employee or other relevant guest to “take over” the brand’s social media marketing for a few hours. Live videos are quickly gaining popularity in online video streaming and present an authentic, unscripted perspective of a brand’s personality. Despite a trending surge of aesthetic, precisely-curated Reels, unedited Live videos continue to gain traction on social media, particularly Instagram.
Take this further by reaching out to industry leaders for collaboration in these feats. By doing this, you’re engaging valuable users from their audience (which should ideally align with your targets) in addition to the typical user base. Not only do such public figures have a plethora of knowledge and industry insights to offer, but collaborating with them facilitates increased views and improved public presence. And good news: influencers are typically charismatic and comfortable on camera, meaning there’s less pressure on the manager to perform.
Thursday Post Idea – Incorporate Non-Branded Content
Despite popular belief, profiles should not be all about the brand. Citing inspiration, naming sources, and featuring other creators should also be included in a social media agenda. After all, it is social media, right? Showcase respect and appreciation for others frequently in stories and posts. Luckily, there are some ways to do this while still promoting an individual brand message!
Believe it or not, you don’t have to make all your content – don’t be afraid to repost! Many networks (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.) feature a button that encourages direct sharing by copying the same post to the user’s own profile. This curated content allows the posting of material (with credit) that’s already been created by someone else to educate and engage a niche.
Friday Post Idea – Caption This
Ever had a top-notch image to post and no clue what to caption it? Although it may seem trivial, don’t underestimate the value of a killer caption.
We all struggle to find the perfect caption for our posts from time to time. One way to overcome this obstacle is through user-generated responses. Not sure what to caption a post? Ask the followers! Most effective with strong, vivid imagery and a rewarding incentive, “Caption This!” posts give audiences the chance to briefly be the brand’s social media manager.
Usually featuring a compelling photo or video, the post’s accompanying text requests that viewers caption it themselves. Following this CTA is typically a disclosure regarding the accompanying reward – something along the lines of, “Best caption gets a $10 gift card!” For added engagement, creators may even use a voting system so their followers can decide the winner (“The comment with the most likes wins!”).
Saturday Post Idea – Image Scrambles and Puzzles
This post can be especially beneficial for brands that rely heavily on visual assets. Puzzle posts challenge the viewer to look at the image more closely, like in an image scramble where a photo is rearranged or zoomed in to create something abstract. The audience must then decode the picture and guess what it is in the comments.
A fundamental concept in the photo world, macro photography (high-quality close-ups, often of small objects) allows brands to promote original artistic works while increasing the amount of time spent looking at the post.
Forge Apollo boasts a fully-equipped film studio and a specialized team of experts that’s prepared to turn your content into an aesthetic vision. Contact us for superior quality cinematics, personally crafted to represent the brand image and indulge followers.
Sunday Post Idea – Create an Emotional Escape Room
A combination of mandatory social isolation and modern technological advancements has created the newborn demand for virtual escapes from reality. All types of industries can potentially benefit from AR and VR tech – the creative applications for these features are seemingly endless.
Find an interactive way to incorporate a brand-affiliated getaway. How can the viewers escape from their daily routine, if only momentarily? With the skyrocketing popularization of ASMR videos, anyone can take their audience engagement to the next step simply by creating a pleasing sensory experience.
Forge Apollo effectively implemented an AR campaign with client Breathless Resorts by bringing viewers to a tropical beach paradise using a digital headset. Our immersive environment was a roaring success! Watch the video below and then learn more here!
3 Social Media Tips for 2022
Afraid of overusing the above content ideas? Small businesses can refer to the following suggestions for keeping posts authentic and pertinent throughout the year.
1. Sleep in on Weekends
Weekends are a notoriously unpopular time to post on social media, and for good reason. Saturday and Sunday have universally low interaction rates throughout the day across all sectors, from finance to healthcare.
Not to mention that worldwide tension due to geopolitical issues (a global pandemic being just one) has led to a more significant societal focus on self-care and mental health awareness. To sum it up – take care of yourself first! It’s becoming more and more apparent to audiences that one cannot pour from an empty cup – so use a weekend day to catch up on sleep, reorganize the office, host a craft, or take a mini-vacation. The customers will thank you for it!
2. Utilize the New[est] Instagram Features
These days it seems that Instagram is changing its platform features faster than we can learn how to use them – specifically Reels and Story functionalities. These capabilities can become overwhelming quickly, but staying up-to-date on these effects and filters can take content to the next level. Refer to Later’s list of hacks for some fun Instagram Story ideas!
Users now have even more creative freedom and connectivity with these constant updates: the addition of the “Add Yours” interactive sticker, the ability to utilize high-quality backgrounds, and the modification of external links in Stories, to name a few. Instagram regularly edits, adds, and adapts its posting features, focusing mainly on video content functions due to its rising popularity online.
Companies that require a skilled partner agency to utilize new social features for business pages are encouraged to reach out to the strategists at Forge Apollo.
3. Avoid Performative Activism
Societal and cultural issues have effectively saturated the social media space on almost every platform. Nowadays, viewers are not impressed by the demonstration of basic compassion and modest donations. Brands want their followers to know (or at least think) that they’re charitable and considerate of marginalized groups.
In short, posts will frequently shout out causes and organizations solely to gain clout instead of showing genuine support to a cause. Those who publicly showcase their opinions regarding hot-button issues but don’t actively confront them engage in performative activism.
Those that support a cause openly shouldn’t stop at simply bringing awareness to it – this isn’t considered effective advocacy and makes a company appear shallow. Wholeheartedly supporting a cause doesn’t require a public broadcast. Although brands are encouraged to partner with nonprofits, make donations, host fundraisers, and find other ways to uplift these campaigns, they shouldn’t stop at announcing awareness.
Stop stressing over creative content ideas. Forge Apollo can help.
Our marketers remain up-to-date on the latest trends and techniques to optimize any digital strategy. If you’re struggling to compose posts consistently, it’s time to contact us for customized content creation and management.
Businesses need to be creative in order to stand out on social media in the digital age. With the over-saturation of messages on the web, it’s easy to blend in and fall behind on current trends. Standing out by persistently presenting fresh ideas expands and retains an audience, ultimately resulting in higher sales.
Make 2022 the year your brand dominates the online space by partnering with the Philadelphia social media and video marketing agency Forge Apollo.
