We’ve all been there. You know you should be posting consistently to social media, but you just don’t know what to post. You’ve already tried all the suggestion in the posts from social media “experts”, but they all seem the same and you still need more ideas. So where are you supposed to go for new ideas?
Today I’m sharing 6 places to look for content ideas that you may not have thought of before and showing you how to use them for content ideas.
Be sure to bookmark this post for the next time you are in need of content ideas or inspiration.
Pinterest Trends
Pinterest trends allows you to see how popular different topics in your industry are at the moment and historically. You can look at national trends, or type in specific keywords to compare trends.
Pinterest trends will also show you the demographic information of people searching Pinterest for those keywords, give you additional keyword suggestions and display popular pins around the content topics.
This insight can help you strategically plan content around things your ideal audience is actively searching for.
Pinterest Trends is found in the Analytics tab of your Pinterest Business account.
Answer The Public
AnswerThePublic listens into autocomplete data from search engines like Google then quickly cranks out every useful phrase and question people are asking around your keyword.
It’s a goldmine of consumer insight you can use to create fresh, ultra-useful content. The kind your audience is actually looking for.
How it works
You type in 1-2 keywords, select your country and language and hit enter. AnswerthePublic will then show you results for that keyword around questions, prepositions, comparisons, and related searches. This is all pulled from actually human search data on Google.
These searches are great starting points for social media posts, emails, blog posts, videos and more.
Follow Relevant Hashtags
Niche hashtags can be a great place to look for fresh content ideas. Choose hashtags that are relevant to your industry or your target audience. When you come across a content idea or topic you want to make your own, create a Collection you can save the posts to to come back to when you are looking for inspiration. Remember, there is nothing wrong with being inspired by someone else’s post. But you have to make it your own and not copy their content. That is a big NO NO!
Better yet, dive a little deeper into the posts that inspire you and look at what questions are coming up in the comments. Instead of creating content inspired by the original post, create content that answers the questions in the comments.
Add Yours Prompts
When you open up your Reels creator, you will see an icon that has a backwards arrow. That is not the undo button. That’s the Add Yours button.
You can use this to create content using the Add Yours sticker, OR you can use it for research. Which you click that button, you will see Add Yours ideas. Take a look and see what topics are featured and how many times each sticker has been used. The more uses, the more popular the content.
There won’t always be relevant ideas, but think outside the box. For example, in the screenshot above of my Add Yours suggestions, I love the “Who’s Most Likely To…” example. You could use this as a content prompt to talk about what you were or would have been voted most likely to in high school. How relevant is that now? How have you changed? Encourage your audience to share theirs in the comments.
Content doesn’t have to be complicated. And these content idea sources aren’t going to create the content for you. You have to think outside the box about how you can put your spin on something else.
LinkedIn News
When you head to LinkedIn, there can be a lot to look at. You may have even missed the news section. In the top right corner of your LinkedIn homepage, there is a list of the day’s top professional news stories and conversations.
Adding your take on a trending topics can be a great way to increase reach, credibility and thought leadership. Remember, just because something is trending on LinkedIn, doesn’t mean you can only talk about it on LinkedIn. Take the conversation to Instagram or write a blog post about it.
Facebook Groups
Similar to the comments sections on Instagram, look at what questions are always being asked in relevant Facebook groups. Are people expressing the same frustration or are they looking for more help around a certain topic? Take that knowledge and run with it to create content you know people are hungry for.
This goes for groups on LinkedIn, Reddit threads, and other industry forums.
What places have you had success finding content ideas and inspiration?