40 Organic Social Media Ideas That Are Sure to Drive Engagement
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When it comes to the time of the month to create your organic social media strategy, it can sometimes be difficult to beat the dreaded writer’s block. We all know that social content needs to be exciting, new, something that will grab the attention of your audience and drive engagement, something which is often easier said than done!
There are a few things you can do when coming up with organic content. Some quick wins that can spark inspiration are:
- Take a look at what has worked in the past for you – if your audience liked it before they will probably like a similar post again.
- Keep an eye on your competitors – if you know of a business that is killing it on social, take a leaf out of their book and see how you can create similar content for your business.
- Run a competition – if you’re looking for a quick win in terms of boosting your engagement, it may be worth running a competition across your social channels. However, in order for the engagement and new followers to be beneficial and within your target audience, make sure your prize is related to your business, target audience or industry!
If your content calendar is still looking rather blank, take a look at these organic social media content ideas. Tried, tested and sure to drive engagement.
1. Put the spotlight on your customers
User-generated content has always been a great way to not only showcase your business but to also show your loyal customers some love. It’s a subtle way of pushing your products without being too advertise-y and gives your fans a moment to feel proud or special – what’s not to love.
2. Tap into a trend
Whether you try out the latest TikTok trend, post about a trending Netflix series or add commentary to the Met Gala red carpet looks, jumping on a trend can be a great way to take the pressure of creating something brand new away whilst still driving engagement. As long as you know your audience well, listen to and follow their interests, you can easily put together content that can drive a conversation around topics that they are passionate about.
It can also be quite refreshing from a feed point of view, that all your content isn’t pushing your products. It allows your audience to connect with you better knowing that you have similar interests.
Missguided for example, are great at jumping on the trends that occur within their target audience’s lives to drive engagement and get the conversation flowing.
3. Repurpose your content
Remember that blog you ran last month that did really well, why not turn it into a series of Instagram posts or tweets. By taking a couple of key quotes from a blog post or a short clip of a video you created, you can create brand new content that you can use again and again to engage your audience. Host a live Q&A on a blog you wrote, repost Instagram photos as a monthly round-up or a seasonal collection carousel.
When you just share an amazing piece of work once, on one platform, you’re missing an opportunity to reach audiences who are following you elsewhere. This isn’t to say you should simply copy and paste, but sometimes thinking outside the box can lead to another great bit of content.
Putting together a reading list, watch list or playlist is a great way to not only showcase your business and your employees’ interests, but it also allows your followers to gain an insight into your world – after all your taste can say a lot about you.
A holiday reading list, monthly watch list or a collection of your favourite albums can give you the opportunity to shout out some of your employees and their recommendations as well as maybe sparking some discussion and other recommendations in the comment section. For example, here at Embryo, in celebration of ‘National Read A Book Day,’ we put together our own book recommendations.
5. Tease a new release
Got something exciting in the pipeline, don’t keep it a secret, get a buzz going by sharing a sneak preview. The sooner you can get the word out about a new exciting product or collection, the bigger the buzz around it.
Build suspense and keep your audience guessing with a mysterious trailer, an on-set photo or a cropped or close-up shot.
6. Teach your audience with a ‘How To’ guide
If you’re recently launched a new product or if you find you get a lot of the same questions asked, It would be worth creating a how-to guide, this could be in the form of a blog, a video or even a live demonstration.
An educational or inspirational video like this where you can not only showcase your knowledge but can help your customers will also help to build their confidence and trust towards your business.
7. Brag about your success
Every once in a while, it’s fine to have a little shout about how good you are. If you’ve recently won an award, sold out a product in record time, or even got a great review, make sure you go to town on social and tell people about it.
Sharing your success can be great for attracting new customers as well as increasing trust in your business
8. Ask the audience
Creating a poll on Twitter is an easy way to drive engagement. You can find out so much about your target audience whilst delivering content your followers are bound to interact with. You can use them to ask your followers about what they want to see in the next collection or what their favourite product is, or you can use them to connect with your audience. You can essentially ask anything, jumping on a trend, ask what they’re doing over the weekend, whether they prefer vanilla or chocolate ice cream… the possibilities are endless!
If you’re really running out of content ideas (we’ve all been there!) You can always share an inspirational quote.
Well, there is never a shortage of inspirational quotes online. A quick Google search for inspirational quotes will show you a huge selection, just find one that’s relevant to your brand, industry, or marketing strategy, make it look nice and post! It’s that simple, and as long as you don’t bombard your followers with quotes, they can be great for engagement.
10. Behind the Scenes
Your social media channels are the perfect place to post videos or photos that show off the inner workings of your company. Give your followers a sneak peek into the day to day workings of your business. Take them behind the scenes of a photoshoot via Instagram Stories, take them to an event via Reels or show them the day in the life of an employee with an employee takeover on Twitter. Behind the scenes, content allows a more unpolished, look of your business which your audience will find really easy to connect with.
Another idea is to share articles that you think your audience will be interested in. It could be interesting industry news, articles to help start a conversation with your community or even just something you think they will find interesting. If you can add your insight or opinion to the post, this can make a great piece of content that will position you as a thought leader in your field.
12. Create Infographics
If you’ve found some interesting stats or you’ve come across an article that you think has some interesting facts, a great idea for a post is to create a branded infographic to showcase these. Especially on LinkedIn, you can ask your community for their thoughts on the stats and if they are results-based stats, ask if have they seen similar patterns.
You can also use infographics on Pinterest or Instagram to explain processes to help your customers understand your business, product or industry better.
13. Host a competition
Social media competitions can be a great tool for both growing your online presence and social media engagement. It allows new customers to find you and allows you to give back to your loyal followers.
14. Celebrate a national holiday or an awareness day.
If it’s relevant to your business, posting about a national holiday or an awareness day can be a great opportunity to post about how your business gives back to a local charity you could run a themed competition or promotion, or simply just post a celebratory post.
15. Run a challenge
A good way to boost your audience engagement and push brand awareness is to challenge your social media audience to undertake a task or series of tasks. It can be as simple as sharing a photo of them doing something or it can be a series of challenges, a 7-day challenge for example. GymShark grew its social media audience rapidly when it launched its fitness challenge https://twitter.com/gymshark/status/1208462205957619715?lang=en
16. Give advice
If you know any hacks or top tips that can help your audience, share them. They don’t have to be product focused necessarily, but any tricks or secrets that you can share to make your followers’ lives easier, share them. From how to save money to unexpected ways you can use your product, the possibilities are endless. Take a look at OTTYs new year, new habits sleeping tips https://www.instagram.com/p/CnEdc3nsLtx/
17. Highlight your best-selling product
With your target audience right in front of you, social media is a golden opportunity for you to post about your best-selling products. Think video tutorials, reviews, lifestyle photos, and promotions. Anything to help promote your best sellers and their value.
Sharing your brand story, why it was created and when, is a great way to help your audience understand why they should use you as opposed to any of your competitors. Use this opportunity to perhaps introduce yourself as the founder, to connect with your audience. If you don’t feel comfortable in front of a camera, see if there is someone else in your company that does. Having a face to connect to helps to build trust within your audience.
If you’re looking to boost your business in other areas, consider promoting your newsletter on social media. Be sure to let your audience know what they can expect from signing up. The benefit of promoting your newsletter on social media is that your audience is likely already engaged and interested in your content, so pushing your newsletter is the clear next step.
20. Go back in time
Throwbacks aren’t anything new on social media, yet brands and personal profiles alike continue to post them. A throwback post can celebrate how far you’ve come, poke fun at old fashion choices or simply reflect on things that have changed.
21. Create a round-up
Similar to a throwback post, a trend that occurs especially over the new year period, is a round-up or year-in-review post. You’ll see a lot of these on TikTok or on Instagram Reels, but these don’t have to be limited to the new year. As a business, you could create a monthly round-up or even a weekly round-up to show all the things you’ve been doing. This kind of post is not only nostalgic but also gives your audience an insight into the inner workings of your business.
Don’t be afraid to re-post other brands’ or other creators content if it inspires you. As long as you credit the original creator, it can be a good way to build relationships with other businesses or creators which can lead to collaborations and further support down the line. It’s important to note that this shouldn’t be done when it comes to competitors’ content, but sharing and tagging other brands within your industry is great.
23. Add some comedy to your channels
Don’t be afraid to utilise GIFs and memes, especially on platforms like Twitter. We’ve all seen when brands jump on a trend too late and it doesn’t have the desired effect. Time is everything when it comes to this kind of post. However, if it suits your business’s tone of voice, it can be really good for allowing your audience to connect with your brand. If you have Twitter, you’re probably aware of the Ryanair account, which not only responds to customer tweets with witty responses, they jump on trending GIFs and memes to push their updates. https://twitter.com/Ryanair/status/1608741428657639424
Office outing, visited a webinar, hosted a charity event? Share it on social media. Creating either a TIkTok or a Reel and tagging relevant attendees can not only boost your brand awareness but can help to engage your community. You can also share images on your channels or even live post on your Instagram stories or on Twitter to keep your followers engaged in real-time.
25. Do a ‘How it’s made’ video
If you have a product that has an interesting creation, create a TikTok or a Reel to show it. Not only is the process of how something goes from an idea to a product interesting to customers, but showing the process can also allow more trust and authenticity in the quality of your products.
26. Engage with your audience.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a great way to engage your audience on social media, is to be social. Reposting and sharing your followers’ content with relevant comments can do wonders for your engagement, Share an interesting article, some user-generated content or even sharing a customer’s question and giving the answer all help to build trust in your business.
Although your social channels should focus on brand content rather than promotional content, running the occasional social-only promotion for your followers can be a great way to build loyalty within your community. Offer social-specific discount codes that your followers can use on your website.
28. Case study
If your business has worked on something you’re proud of or you have a success story you want to share, create a case study and share it on your social media channels. Whether you share it on Linkedin as a long-form post or create graphics that highlight the key elements and share a link, a case study is a great way to allow your audience to gain trust in your business.
29. New team members
Similar to the behind-the-scenes content mentioned earlier, people love learning about the human side of a company. Introducing team members on social media is a great way to build relationships with your audience. Whether you share a photo or a video to introduce them, allowing your audience to get an insight into what is going on is a great way of connecting with them.
30. Company shout out
Been to an event recently, read a cool blog post, bought a new organiser, or received a gift in the post? Take the time to make a special mention to the people and brands that have helped you or inspired you. Showing appreciation, especially on channels like LinkedIn, is a great way to build connections and in turn, grow your audience.
31. Podcasts
Podcasts are a booming business at the moment, everyone either has one or has listened to one. If you have one, you should already be shouting about it on social media, sharing video clips and promoting episodes. But if you don’t have one, sharing your thoughts on podcasts you’ve listened to recently can be a really good way to start a conversation. It can be as simple as sharing the link to an episode you found interesting or sharing a video clip and adding your thoughts. Be sure to tag the podcast hosts in your post.
32. Recruitment
Your business is growing – that’s great news! If you’re looking to hire new people to join your team, make sure you’re posting about it on social media. Your audience is likely to be like-minded people, interested in your brand and industry – a great source for potential employees.
33. Series
A trend i love is when brands create a series of posts that keep their followers engaged and coming back for more. This could be a challenge, weekly tips, regular interviews or even weekly goals. When your followers know that on a weekly basis, they are going to get educating or inspiring content from you as a series of posts, they will keep coming back for more. Proving value as a business on social media is key to breaking through the oversaturated channels.
34. Unique products
Does your business have something unique that no one else has. An unusual product that gets people talking or something that ties in perfectly with current trending topics. Make sure you shout about it on social media. Your unique selling point is exactly that so make sure you make it clear on social.
35. Interactive content
Interactive content on social media is excellent for building brand awareness and engagement. Creating LinkedIn or Twitter polls, and sharing interactive stickers on your Instagram stories are all tools you can use to not only learn more about your audience and their opinions on things but to also improve user engagement,
36. Video, Video, Video
We are seeing more and more video content on all social media platforms since the rise of TikTok. The Instagram algorithm favours video content at the moment, so a sure way of increasing your engagement on the channel is to include more videos in your strategy. This could be anything from tapping into a trend to showcasing your products, the possibilities are endless.
37. Influencers
If your budget permits, using influencers in your organic social strategy can help boost your brand to a whole new audience. If your product or service fits their niche, you can use their influence to push your product to a new, interested audience which could not only give your organic channels a boost, but you could also gain a huge return on investment.
38. Ask me anything
90% of customers use “authenticity” as a way to pick which brands to support. People no longer want to connect with soulless brands, they want to know more about the people behind the brand. An effective way of giving your audience insight is to hold a Q&A or ‘Ask me anything’ It’s a chance for you to show some personality, and make people realise that you’re not just a brand.
39. Hold a takeover or an interview
Social media is all about building connections with like-minded people. Giving an influential figure in your industry your social media channels for the day to run a takeover can be a fantastic tool for brand awareness. You could also use your channels to video an interview you conduct with someone in your industry. Interviews help your company to focus on building and maintaining relationships with people in your space and provide interesting content for your followers.
40. Highlight your community
Highlight things that you and your customers care about on your social media channels. If you do any charity work or donate profits to a worthy cause, talk about it. This makes your brand more real for customers and shines a light on the community you care about.
If you’re looking for help with your organic social strategy, paid social or even other avenues such as Pinterest ads, get in touch! We’ve got plenty more ideas where they came from and we’d love to hear from you!
