52 Effective Social Media Post Ideas and Examples to Fill Your Calendar

52 Effective Social Media Post Ideas and Examples to Fill Your Calendar For a marketer, theres nothing worse than struggling with a creative block. When youre pressed to create on a deadline, but you just cant think of something original to post, or an original concept for your next campaign, its easy to fall into despair. In fact, thats probably why youre here. Its okay though. We all need some inspiration now and then to help us shake off the rust and get back to creating awesome stuff. If that sounds like something you need, scope out this enormous list of social media post ideas. Theres inspiration here to cover every social network, too. So, no matter where your audience is most active, youre sure to find something you havent shown them before. 52 Effective Social Media Post Ideas and Examples to Fill Your Calendar via @But First, Here Are Some Free Social Media Resources If youre going to succeed on social media, you need the right tools. These freebies will help you do something with the inspiration youll get from this post: Social Media Calendar Template: Plan all your posts ahead of time. How Often to Post On Social Media Infographic: Learn exactly how to map out your posting schedule. Social Media Strategy Checklist: Build out a comprehensive strategy for your social media content. Not Sure Which Social Media Network to Choose? Before posting to any social network, it's worth considering how each one is used. Here's a quick reference sheet: How Do You Actually Put These Ideas Into Practice? If you're searching for social media ideas, you might be experiencing a few different problems: Lack of creative inspiration. Sometimes, you just don't feel like you have anything kicking around in your head. Constant fire drills to find content to share. You might also be scrambling day-to-day to find enough content to share. Content that isn't getting results. In this case, it might be time to try something you haven't thought of before. Sound relatable? Keep these solutions in mind: Plan Ahead With a Social Media Calendar The best way to keep social media posts organized is on a calendar. In fact, that's why we've included a free calendar template in this post. Here are some of the benefits of using a calendar: They give your team full visibility into your social media schedule. They make it easier to plan posts ahead of time. And make sure you're posting at the best times. They make it possible to plan content + social promotion in one place. No more switching between tabs and tools to map out your publishing schedule. Recommended Reading: How to Effectively Organize Your Social Media Editorial Calendar (Free Template) Plan Cohesive Campaigns The best way to drive a message home is to build a complete campaign. Oftentimes, brands struggle to keep up with their social posting schedule because they're too reliant on one-off posts. This makes staying organized difficult. Plus, it's tough to always be writing posts on the fly without much thought ahead of time. So, plan campaigns. These can be around: Campaigns to promote events. A series of posts promoting a single piece of content. A string of branded posts carrying a consistent message or hashtag. Recommended Reading: 24 Creative Social Media Campaign Examples to Boost Your Inspiration Schedule Ad Hoc Posts In addition to your planned campaigns, mix in some ad hoc posts. These are spontaneous one-off posts that aren't necessarily connected to a broader campaign, but still reinforce your overall brand message. Leaving some flexibility in your schedule makes it easier to react to trending topics and hashtags, which you can capitalize on for added brand exposure. With these three tips and all of the following ideas, you should have no trouble staying inspired and keeping your posting schedule ful. And Now, 52 Content Ideas For Businesses to Post on Social Media There's an endless possibility of content to share on social media. But these are the types of content that your audience will appreciate. 1. Your Company's Blog Posts Does your business have a blog? The best way to get your blog  seen is to share it on your own social media platforms. You know it's relevant to your business because  it came from your business.   Be sure the content you're writing for your business blog is valuable and will connect with your audience. The best way to do this is by writing actionable content such as "How to" posts. Recommended Reading: The Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts 2.  Posts Showing Your Company's Culture What better way to showcase your business then by sharing a culture post? A culture post is an image or article that highlights what your business is all about. It could be a behind-the-scenes image of your employees doing something quirky or an article about how your business does something a certain way. 3. Industry News In raw numbers, news articles get more social shares than any other type of article. Most businesses that produce content are focusing on deep long form content rather than as-it-happens breaking news. Create a list of news sources in your industry. This could include trade publications or websites. Then, find those sources on Twitter and follow them. When they share something interesting, retweet it to your followers (or share it on another social network, like Facebook or Google+). 4. Curated Content Content curation is simply sharing the content of others in your niche. Sometimes the things you want to share with your audience have already been written. So rather than spending the time crafting an in-depth post, you can quickly share one that's already been written (by giving them credit of course.) At , we use our handy-dandy Chrome Extension tool to help with our content curation. Here's an example of a post we shared from Kissmetrics: Recommended Reading: How to Schedule Your Social Media Content Curation for Massive Growth 5. Question Posts Not everything you share on social media  has  to be a blog post or article.  Get your audience talking and engaging with one another by asking a burning question. For example, you could ask "What sort of content should I blog about next?" It's the best way to know what your audience  really  wants to read. Asking a fun question or creating a Twitter poll is a good way to get your audiences' insights. 6. Product/Company Videos Visuals are eye-catching when your audience is  scrolling through their news feed. It’s been proven time and time again that visuals help improve engagement, but what about videos? Research shows that videos have a 135% greater organic reach compared to photos. That’s a crazy high number. Take advantage of this organic reach opportunity by sharing videos about your company or a new product you have. 7. Customer Reviews And Testimonials Does your company have dedicated fans!? Let their voices be heard and share their thoughts on your social media. You can do this by retweeting their kind words or creating a graphic with their testimonial directly on it. Don't forget to include their name/handle! 8. Quick Tips And Advice Aside from sharing an entire 'How to" post giving in-depth tips and advice, you can share a few tips that you think are the MOST important. Sharing a simple tidbit is an easy way to share valuable information with your audience. Here at , we call them "Pro Tips." 9. Memes or GIFs Aside from sharing images to your social media, you can use memes and GIFs when publishing your content. This adds a fun spin to your plain post and will be too irresistible for your audience to scroll past. â€Å"GIFs are a great way to showcase your brand’s personality, stay trendy, and have fun† -HeyOrca. Memes and GIFs are becoming extremely popular among top companies.  At , we’ve recently started using memes and GIFs on Twitter and have found that they receive far more likes and retweets than regular images.Just remember to keep the meme or GIF relevant to your company and audience! 10. Contest Posts Encouraging people to participate in a social media contest  that is related to your brand will boost engagement with those who  are already followers and can help you increase subscribers by requiring those that don’t follow or like your page yet to do so in order to participate. Be clear about your objectives and exactly how you want your audience to participate for the best outcome. Define easy, simple rules before you launch your contest. 11. Holiday Posts No matter where you live, holidays are a big deal. Show your holiday spirit by sharing a holiday-related post on your business page. Whether it be an image, video or article your audience will appreciate that your business has real people that also get excited about holidays! Starbucks is known for getting exceptionally excited during Christmas season: 12. Photos From Company Events We discussed sharing culture posts that showcase your company's personality, but you can take that a step further by sharing photos from a company event. If your business hosts a charity event or fundraiser, a great way to spread awareness is by sharing it on social media. 13.  Post An Answer To A Commonly Asked Question Are you receiving the same question over and over again from your audience? Instead of constantly responding to this question one by one, solve it once and for all by sharing a post with the answer. Make sure to "pin" the answer to the top of your social media page so that your audience can easily see it. Here's how to pin posts on Facebook and on Twitter. 14. Share Infographics Infographics are a fantastic way to show a step-by-step guide, especially on Pinterest. (Hello! DIY) Infographics allow you to share  a ton of information with the use of visuals. They make boring statistics look appealing! Whether it be your own or a curated infographic, your audience will be drawn to the visual aspect and be sure to keep reading. Recommended Reading: How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way (+84 Free Images) 15.  Start A Conversation With A Leader In Your Industry Cross-promote yourself by getting your name out there, the best way to do this is to start a conversation with somebody in your niche. Twitter is a great way to start up a conversation that your audience will see. Find an industry leader's Twitter handle and make the first move! This presentation from Jay Baer explains the importance of connecting with influencers (and how to find them): 16.  Links To Free Resources Who doesn't love free stuff!? Whether it be ebooks, white papers, or other downloadable content, your audience will appreciate the free resources. Put together a content bundle, or a downloadable infographic so your audience can use it for reference. (Psst! You can get all of our bundles for FREE here!) 17.  Podcast Episodes Sometimes reading content can be time-consuming, so give your audience's eyes a break and share a podcast episode. Or even better, start your own! We recently started our own podcast  and have had great success with it! We cover topics and challenges our audience faces. If you decide to start your own podcast, check out this post to help get you started. Recommended Reading: How to Start a Podcast (Authentic Advice from Someone Who's Done It) 18. New Job Listings Is your team expanding? Let your audience know! Who better to work for your company than a dedicated fan who's watched your company grow? Or maybe they have a friend who would be interested in working for you. Be sure to list what positions are open like Built Visible does in this example: 19.  Hiring Announcements And New Team Members After posting your job listing, you're likely going to find the right candidate.  Once you've found the right candidate(s), take it a step further and show them off to your audience! Let everyone know that you're excited to have them be part of your team 🠤â€". 20. "On This Day In History" Posts The Huffington Post shares "on this day in history" articles everyday. Take this approach and use it in your own social media strategy. Find something interesting that happened in your town or city and let your audience know! You can also share "National Day" posts. Check out NationalCalendarDay.com to find things like National Coffee Day (and tons of other days you probably never knew existed), and create some posts for ones relevant to that day. 21. Event Promotion If an event happens and nobody hears about it, did it really happen? You can create an Event Page on Facebook to make your event feel more personable to your audience. Then promote the heck out of it on your social media channels! 22. Live Videos Live videos have become huuuuge on social media  recently. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram AND Snapchat have options for going live. Find the right platform that works best for you and where you will get the most views from your audience. Try to make it a weekly video. For instance "Tip Tuesday" or "Fun Fact Friday." This way your audience will be sure to tune in on those days. 23. Promote Email Sign-Ups If you want your audience to attend a webinar or demo (surprise!) you'll need to let them know by promoting the sign-up link on social media. Promote signup forms for webinars, demos, email newsletters, and so forth. 24. Image Scrambles You'll have your audience scratching their heads in no time when you post image scrambles. Image scrambles can be  posts where an image is scrambled up or zoomed in so your audience has to guess what it is. This is a great way to get engagement from your audience. What is this a picture of? Answer: It's an orange crayon! Recommended Reading: The 6 Types of Social Media Content That Will Give You the Greatest Value 25. Inspirational Quotes Okay, I know. Inspirational quotes can be  cheesy, but if done correctly they can be effective. At , we use quotes from industry leaders that we know our audience will relate too. Find quotes from leaders in your industry or testimonials from your audience  that will resonate with your target audience. 26. Company Accomplishments Believe it or not, your audience cares about you and they want to see you succeed. Share your successes with them on social media and celebrate together! Whether it be  awards you've won, reaching a certain number of customers, etc. let your audience know! 27. Host A Twitter Chat What is a Twitter chat?  It’s a conversation around one unique hashtag. This hashtag allows you to follow the discussion and participate in it. Twitter chats are usually recurring and on specific topics to regularly connect people with these interests. When hosting your own: Decide on a clear and brief hashtag that represents your brand. Choose a day and time that you can consistently hold Twitter chats. Come up with an appropriate topic and questions. Plan and promote your chat via Twitter. 28. Ask For Customer Feedback Not sure how your audience will respond to a new feature, event, or your next post? Find out how they will respond  before it happens by getting customer feedback. "Would you be interested in a social media event?" "Would you like if we created a custom label feature?" "Would you like if we wrote a blog post about email marketing?" You can even do this via Twitter poll to get your answer. 29. How-To Videos Aside from going live, you can create simple and short how-to videos explaining how a feature or tool works. These videos will give your audience an inside look and make them more likely to try out your tool after seeing how it works. Recommended Reading: How to Get Started With Twitter Video Marketing How to Do Facebook Video Marketing the Right Way How to Make a Video Content Marketing Strategy to Boost Your New Series 30. Product Reviews User reviews are proven sales drivers, and something the majority of customers will want to see before deciding to make a purchase. Many people read online reviews before deciding to buy something (I'm guilty of this too!) This is a great tactic if you're working in e-commerce. Try sharing reviews of products you carry. Or, you could review a tool that your company uses or integrates with to help drive sales. 31. Images Or Videos Of Your Product The best way to show how something works is through visual representations. You would never buy a car without test-driving it first, just like you wouldn't buy an online tool or product without seeing how it works first. Give your audience a firsthand look at how your product works, and maybe even throw in a cool tip they might not know if they didn't see the image or video. 32. Twitter QA Sessions Sure you could do a Twitter chat, but your topic has to be relevant PLUS there's a great deal of planning involved. By simply hosting a Twitter QA session, this allows your audience to ask a variety of questions. Your audience can finally get their burning questions answered and you can interact with your audience in a new way. Check out this post  from Passion Digital on how to host a QA session. 33. Spotify Playlists If you want to share music or whole playlists with friends, posting a Spotify playlist is the way to go.  Sharing music with friends is a time-honored way to discover new bands, talk over your music tastes, and learn a bit more about the bands that you love. Spotify has fun and useful playlist sharing features. You or a friend can build a playlist packed with your own music or music you’ve discovered through Spotify’s massive music library, and you have the option of sharing that playlist directly with others by passing around the playlist URL or Spotify link. Let your audience know what you're listening to and get them inspired! Get your audience pumped! Share a @Spotify playlist and let the world know what your office is...34. User-Generated Content We know you have super fans out there! Don't be afraid to show them off by posting fan-worthy content. Here at we send out 'swag' to those that grab our attention on social media or leave killer product reviews. Those people often share pictures of themselves decked out in our swag, and it's so awesome to see! I LOVE my new swag. Thanks, @! #happybirthdaytome pic.twitter.com/JNkXCvhs41 Amanda Huggett (@AmandaHuggett) October 10, 2016 If a fan shares anything noteworthy about your company, give it a share! 35. Posts Showing Off Your Company History Has your company been around longer than microwave popcorn? Then you have some history to share! It's always fun to see how far a business has come and where they started. Sharing a quick tidbit or piece of history is sure to intrigue your viewers. At , we are a start-up company, which means we're constantly changing and evolving (and even getting a new space!) New office decor arrived at @today!Thanks @jnhartford 😊 pic.twitter.com/UpvrgfznpH Ashton Hauff (@ashtonhauff) March 23, 2017 36. Company News Announcements Speaking of sharing your  history and getting a new space, let your audience be in the loop! Getting a new space? Launching a new product? Just have big news in general? What better way to get the word out than by sharing the news with the people who care. Make it fun and make it big! Get your audience as hyped about the news as you are. 37. Create a Regular Series Here's a great way to use live video on social media: create a weekly series or show. There are a few ways you can do this: Use a traditional talk show format. Have a guest each week. Paste does this well, hosting musicians in their studio to perform on Facebook Live: div class="fb-video" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/PasteMusicAndDaytrotter/videos/10156378216834529/" data-width="770" data-show-text="true"blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/PasteMusicAndDaytrotter/videos/10156378216834529/" class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"a href="https://www.facebook.com/PasteMusicAndDaytrotter/videos/10156378216834529/"Rainbow Kitten Surprise live at Paste Studio NYC/apWatch Rainbow Kitten Surprise live at Paste Studio NYC!/pPosted by a href="https://www.facebook.com/PasteMusicAndDaytrotter/"Paste Music amp; Daytrotter/a on Wednesday, April 11, 2018/blockquote/div 38. Repurpose Blog Graphics Creating new visual content for every social media post can be resource-intensive. So, why not create blog graphics with social sharing in mind? To do this, create versions of your blog graphics correctly proportioned for your chosen social network: Then, create social media posts (or even entire campaigns) around those posts, reusing their inline graphics: 39. Share How-To Videos Social media is great for sharing quick videos showing people how to get something done. Here's a fun example from the DIY Network: 40. Share Your Company's Financial Earnings For large publically traded companies, your followers might be interested in knowing how you're performing financially. So, consider creating an engaging GIF or video to accompany your earnings page on your website, or a blog post announcing your quarterly earnings. Here's an example from Home Depot: 41. Share a Case Study On One of Your Customers Do you have a customer that you know has had success (thanks to your company or product)? Get them involved in a case study! Then, share it on social media: 42. Share a Survey Check out this example from Case Study Buddy: 43. Promote a New Product or Event Here's another example from Case Study Buddy: 44. Share a Fill-In-The-Blank Post Asking your audience to finish a sentence can be fun, and it definitely encourages engagement. Think something like this: "What's your favorite ___________________?" "Fill in the blank: my favorite thing about [YOUR BRAND] is [ANSWER]". "When I need to [SOLVE PROBLEM], I use [PRODUCT/TACTIC]". Get creative with it, and see what you can come up with. 45. Share a Statistic This tweet from the Twitter accounts shares a snippet about Starbuck's marketing strategy that people might not have known: 46. Reshare Your Top Performing Posts You don't always have to reinvent the wheel. If a post did well once, what's to say it won't do well again? In fact, according to research from , there's data backing up the idea that it might even do better the second time around: The easiest way to identify top performing posts and automatically reshare it is with . Use social analytics to discover your best-performing posts: Then, use ReQueue to create an intelligent queue of social posts to reshare automatically:47. Promote Your Partners Add some positivity to your audience's feed, and shout out a company you work with that's killing it out there. Wow, what a lovely post to read. Thank you @Sally_Newm for nominating me and for everything you said. I honestly appreciate it so so much. Thanks @rustybrick for pulling all these together, it is a lovely idea and really shows how much our industry value each other. https://t.co/ir9nazs4kD - Samantha Noble (@SamJaneNoble) April 30, 2018 48. Share Some Interesting Industry Research In a lot of industries, having the latest knowledge and research is key to maintaining a competitive advantage. Tap into that by sharing stats and snippets of industry research reports, either ones you've created yourself, or ones you've curated around the web. 49. Use Paper.li to Share News Roundups Ever since Storify closed its doors, marketers have been searching for a replacement. Paper.li is a great stand-in, making it possible to create custom social media-driven online newspapers. By creating an account, you can curate content from different social media networks, and present it all in one place. Here's a look at how it works: 50. Preview a New Product or Event Everyone loves being first to see new stuff. By consistently sharing previews of new products or features, your audience will know to go to your social channels to find your latest developments. This example from NAMM, a major musical instrument expo, uses a GIF to promote an exclusive events: Have you always wanted to attend #SummerNAMM? Heres your chance! The Make Music Experience – an all-day, all-access pass for the prosumer audience to trial the latest music and pro audio gear from top manufacturers. Buy your tickets ($10 advance) here: https://t.co/V13CQfEXNf pic.twitter.com/MirrnacX9M NAMMShow (@NAMMShow) April 4, 2018 51. Get Creative With Emojis Love them or hate them, emojis can add fun and flash to your social media posts. Make sure you're using them appropriately, and in conjunction with other guidelines, by following this infographic: 52. Give Away Something Free Who doesn't like free stuff? By offering your audience an incentive to take action to get a freebie, you can drive some strong engagement, and help promote your products. Here's an example from PlayStation. In exchange for pre-ordering a game, fans can get a free customized theme for their console, which the video demonstrates: Pre-order the Spyro Reignited Trilogy and snag this dynamic theme for your PS4! pic.twitter.com/D8tGAsqoS5 PlayStation (@PlayStation) April 12, 2018 What Will You Post On Social Media? Phew! That was quite the list we ran through. Hopefully, you can implement these tactics into your own social media strategy, but those aren't all the things you can share with your audience. Do you have something you like to share on social media? Let us know down in the comments!