I can’t tell you how many times I have come across clients who have no idea how to come up with fresh content ideas. “I’m too boring, or I don't have anything interesting to say, or I don't never do anything,” are common. Nothing could be further from the truth. Honestly, it's actually the simple things that people relate to the most and begin creating those relationships with feature clients by helping them get to know you a little bit better. Uncommon commonalities or even common commonalities really help connect human beings. We're all want to see behind the curtain at each other’s everyday life.
So here are a few of my favorite tips for creating content ideas.
1) Gratitude. If you already have a gratitude journal, then this one is going to be easy because you already spend some time thinking of what you’ve been grateful for. This is the best place to find some of the simple things throughout your day that can photograph well, and you can either create a simple caption or tell a story. It can be as simple as drinking a cup of coffee. This is one of my favorites. Every morning I look forward to getting out of bed and making the perfect cup of coffee. I grind the beans and set up the pot. I get out a brightly colored cup that always makes my day even when I’m waking up grumpy. It isn’t long before the aroma of freshly brewed coffee wafts its way through the kitchen and upstairs to my sleepy husband’s nose. You, see? There’s a quick story with visuals that can stand alone or be a lead into your business topic. Everybody loves a good coffee cup photo. Other examples might be your exercise routine, maybe you drink lemon water every day, enjoying time with your family, playing with your pets, going on walks. Those are all simple things that are great content generators.
2) Give simple tips. OK so what I mean by this is when you were working in your zone of genius there are some very simple basic, common sense topics that are huge “a-ha” moments to your clients. Concepts that are common sense to you, are not for others. You have to remember that you are not creating content for your peers (unless you are marketing to them) but to people who have hired you because they don’t know how to do what you do. OK so let’s look at example for me. I had a friend post that her new ring light just showed up. Super excited but also disappointed because it made these ugly reflections in her glasses. She thought she wouldn’t be able to use the light for her selfies! I messaged her with, “I got you!” and sent instructions with photos.
I ended up turning this into a blog post. Guess what? I have had a huge number of views on that post. Turns out a TON of people have this problem! I never even thought to tell anybody that ring lights are terrible for glasses wearers and if you do have one here’s how to use it anyway.
3) Ask your friends and family. Often times we can’t see what we’re good at, but our friends and family is certainly do. Our love ones can give you some ideas and tips for content. Ideas that you just hadn’t thought of before. Sometimes this can work in the opposite direction. My family can come up with crazy ideas that are well, unusable. BUT it can turn on the ideas anyway.
4) Ask your clients or followers. What do they want to hear from you? What do they want to hear more of? What topics don’t they want to hear about? This can be done in the form of polls or just make a post and ask them. What I’ve actually found most effective is to conduct a survey. I use Type Form. I did one introductory survey which was super short, just taking a few seconds to complete and then I did a second survey that had longer form questions. You’d be surprised, even if you only get a few responses, how many ideas you can get. I actually got a ton of new ideas as well as new direction for which way I want to go with my business. And maybe it’s not so much a new direction as it is just plain ‘ole direction.
5) Have some fun with it. Make a list of FUN! Fun about your business or about your personal life that can still be use for your business marketing. You’d be surprised how much response you can get out of a post that you enjoy talking about. I’ve often been impressed with the difference between making a post because I need to make a post and making a post because I’m having a good time. I think there’s just something about how I write and what I put together that is so much more fun when I’m not generating content but just having a good time on social media. And being social!
Get out a journal or even use the voice memo on your phone and start writing ideas. Let it flow. Think about each one of these tips and just free flow your thoughts. Edit out what doesn’t fit and then you can start organizing it into your content plan. Using these tips is how I finally started having direction in my content, building relationships and generating contacts with my clients.
