5 Places To Find Great Content To Fill Your Social Media Calendar

by | Mar 2, 2018 | Social Media | 0 comments

We are fresh into 2018 and if you have not started filling up your social media content calendar for the year, it is time to get started.  With that being said, trying to plan out an extended calendar with fresh and exciting content that your audience will find both entertaining and valuable can be tough.

Below are 5 places to find valuable content your audience will delight in

Follow What People Are Discussing on Social Media

Social media is a great resource to turn to for inspiration as it offers a treasure trove of potential content for you to tap into.  Below are some great sites to check out:

  • Reddit – This website offers so much when it comes to great content ideas. Delve into their mini communities called subreddits and you will quickly see that pretty much every industry and niche has one associated with it.  Subscribe to all the relevant subreddits and you will constantly be on the cusp of what is trending in your niche.

Here are a few ways to get in on the conversation:

  • Search for current discussions involving industry topics.
  • Answer frequently asked questions.
  • Find questions you think you could offer a better answer on.
  • Quora – If you are not familiar with Quora, it is forum where you can post a question about anything and anyone can answer.  As a business, you want to find what questions and challenges your audience has and create content around it.

Here are some ways to do this:

  • Customer pain points: If you come across one that is coming up constantly, you can use this to generate content.
  • Do a keyword search for terms related to your niche. Any questions that have a lot of upvotes and answers are the key ones to interact with since they are seeing the most engagement.
  • Look for questions that you have already answered in one of your blog postings.  Write a helpful response and include a link to your content.  Once again, be sure your response offers information of value and not a shameless promotional link to your blog.
  • Twitter – Twitter is a great way to stay on the pulse of what is trending and popular.

Here are some ways to find great content:

  • Twitter Lists – Within the platform you can create different lists and fill them with people who are putting out valuable content in your niche. This can be from influencers, competitors, news sites etc.  You will have no shortage of new material to reshare or re-purpose and your feed will be filled with both relevant and timely content.
  • TweetChats – These are events that are scheduled on a regular basis where people from all parts of the world gather to have a conversation on a certain topic over Twitter.  These serve as good places to get new content ideas since they usually involve lots of questions, answers and opinions.
  • Pinterest – This site is so much more than food recipes and diy tips. Type a keyword into their search box and you will be overflowing with so many topics and boards all relevant to your search term.  Bonus tip: take a peek at the re-pins.  The ones with high numbers tells you this is a topic many people are interested in.
  • Instagram – So with this one you would start by doing a good old-fashioned Google search to find which are the best accounts or hashtags within your niche.  Come up with a nice list of potential accounts and visit each one.  Be sure to look at not only the number of followers they have but the level of engagement you see among their audience.

Keep a Pulse on the News

As we move into 2018, online sources are continuing to be the single most widely used source of news.

Source (Marketingcharts.com)

With so much always going on in the news, there is a lot to take inspiration from no matter what your industry is. Topics of controversy can sometimes lead to great conversation pieces.  Facebook is especially helpful with their “trending topics and news” section that shows up to the right of your news feed.  Keep an eye on it and run with anything that could be used as content, that way you can ride the wave of peak interest.

Connect with Influencers

Connecting with influencers is one of the hottest marketing trends and for good reason. Influencers are those people who have built up a reputation for their expertise and knowledge around a particular topic. By connecting with these highly valued individuals, you are being given access to their audience while gaining key insights about your industry. This becomes a mutually beneficial transaction since you will be able to bounce ideas off each other as well as revisit old ones that you can expand upon.

TED Talks

If you have not listened to a TED Talk, it is time you do.  There are so many amazing inspired thinkers sharing great stories and ideas. If you visit their topics page, you are bound to find videos related to your industry. Share the video with some of your own commentary or think about highlighting what the key takeaways were.

Your Customers

Customer questions and feedback can give you great insight into their pain points and experiences with your brand. These are things you can create a post or blog around. Forums and community groups are another great place to find additional feedback.  Just pop your “industry/niche and forums” into Google and check out the most popular ones for ideas.  Once you have chosen a topic to write about, be sure to share the link to your post which will help drive traffic back to your website.

Final Thoughts

Coming up with fresh and exciting content can be challenging for any brand. Creating a go-to list of content sources will give you quick and convenient access to valuable content that can be shared across your social accounts.  So that you are ahead of the game, set aside time each week to schedule your social media content for the upcoming week.  You will not only find this is a great time-saver but it goes a long way in achieving consistency which is key in cultivating a successful social media presence.

About the Author: Denise Amara is the Senior Marketing Director of Autogrammer.com, the ultimate social media scheduler and planner for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Denise has over 15 years experience working in marketing with the last 10 focused in the digital realm. She is passionate about helping clients make social media management more efficient and effortless.