04: Find Inspiration for Your Social Media Content

BOOST YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME WITH THESE INSPIRING CONTENT IDEAS

Hurray, you made it to step #4! A round of applause is in order. 👏 But the hard work isn’t over yet. 

Creating content takes skill, time, and a whole lot of effort. So how will you decide what to post or share on social media?

Our recommendation: Never sit at your computer staring at a blank document. That’s the fastest way to kill your creativity and immediately lead to writer’s block. At the very least, pour yourself a glass of white wine first. But, no, wait, there’s more to it than that. 

If you know your brand, understand your audience, and have a clear strategy in place, you can create social media content in less time. 

And ICYMI, check out the first three steps to creating an effective social media strategy:

• 01: Create Social Media Marketing Goals
• 02: Create Buyer Personas to Attract the Ideal Customer
• 03: Learn How to Conduct an Audit of Your Social Media

Now, read on to discover the best places on and offline to find inspiration for your social media content.

01 Follow Influencers in Your Industry 

Whichever platform you spend the most time on, make an effort to seek out other public figures and brands in your niche and follow what they post. You can even turn on post notifications on platforms like Twitter or YouTube to be alerted as soon as their post or video is live.

To find influencers and public figures, search trending hashtags that are relevant to your brand and see who is using them. Follow those accounts that are most relevant to your brand. You’ll likely get a plethora of social media post ideas based on the types of content these folks are posting and sharing. 

In addition to searching trending hashtags across various social media platforms, use LinkedIn to search for influencers by job title and industry. 

02 Explore Google Trends

Want to find stories and terms people are paying attention to? Explore Google Trends to see what’s trending across Google Search, Google News, and YouTube.

You can also search key terms to see how they’re trending, find related topics, and even compare search terms. Want to narrow or expand your search? Google Trends allows you to further refine your search by geography and timeframe.

03 Check Out What’s Trending on Twitter

With new ideas and perspectives constantly emerging, Twitter has become a hotbed of activity. Social media platforms are dominated by what’s trending and, thus, a great place to start your search for new content ideas.

Note that your Twitter’s Trending feature will only show results for your specific country.

04 Leverage AI-powered Content Creation Tools

Fight the blank computer screen and writer’s block by using AI-powered content tools that help you get the job done faster and at scale. These tools use artificial intelligence and machine learning to create content from scratch or rewrite existing content into new formats.

By letting AI take on your easy tasks, you have more time to create the original elements of your content that will make your brand stand out.

AI tools like ChatGPT get you most of the way there but will require a human to polish the content and take it across the finish line. 

To get the most useful answers from ChatGPT or other AI-powered content tools, you’ll need to give the tool as much context as possible. The following prompt will help you fill in your own information:

I want you to act as a social media expert. Brainstorm 5 inspirational ideas to post on Facebook for the following brand: 

[brand name], 

[insert main value proposition, insert details on products or services you offer, insert your target audience, insert your brand voice values].

05 Learn from Others’ Success (including your competition)

Social media networks often share success stories from their own platforms that can provide you with inspiration and ideas for your next social media post. Along with success stories, case studies provide valuable insights that you can apply to your own social media plan.

To find brands that are at the top of their social media game, check out

• The Shorty Awards
• The Webby Awards

Similar to following influencers within your industry, keep an eye out for what your competitors are doing. This will give you a sense of how other creators are using social media to scale and grow their following. As your scroll through your feedback, ask yourself:

• Which posts are people engaging with?
• Do types of content do the audiences seem to prefer?

Make note of what you observe and use it to kickstart your creativity. 

PRO TIP: Use Forekast to discover unofficial holidays and popular events, or sign up for their newsletter to receive weekly roundups. Let Giphy inspire creativity by finding trending and interesting GIFs to share.

Regardless of where you draw inspiration from, you’ll want your business to be unique and stand out online. Where do you turn to for content inspiration? Let us know.

Read the first three chapters of the six-step social media strategy guide

01: Create Social Media Marketing Goals >>> 02: Create Buyer Personas to Attract Your Ideal Customer >>> 03. Learn How to Conduct an Audit of Your Social Media