We’ve previously written about the four pillars of social media content, but now we want to go deeper and expand on that to help you come up with your next social post ideas.
Once you have picked which pillars you are looking to provide in your content, it’s time to decide what your actual posts are going to be — but how do you generate social post ideas?
Inspiration
There are two kinds of inspiration for posts: internal, and external
Internal – These can be factors from inside your business that give you ideas for a posts. Things such as a new house recently on the market, a member of staff taking part in a charity event, or a rebranding. Posts created from internal inspiration are a really great way of connecting with your audience by giving them a look behind the scenes.
External – There are a lot of external places that you can grab inspiration from, including the news, trending topics, upcoming events (local or worldwide), specific days that are dedicated to one thing (our personal favourite, doughnut day!) maybe even the weather!
TOP TIP: As you start looking for sources to inspire you, save websites you visit regularly to a folder in your bookmarks bar so that you can have easy access to them, the next time you’re looking for ideas.
The 5 W’s
Ah the five W’s, a staple of school English lessons in the UK. Just in case you’ve blocked it out, we’ve ordered them in what we think is the most useful way to help produce content.
Who – Who is it you are trying to reach? Are you trying to engage new people or re-engage existing people? Is there a specific demographic that you are tapping into? Deciding the ‘who’ can help you to then decide the rest of the W’s.
Why – These are your four pillars. Educational, Promotional, Community and Entertaining. Deciding the main purpose of your content will help you to hone in on a subject matter.
Where – Where are you planning on posting the content? This is really important to help you make the most of your post. Instagram and TikTok are great for visuals and therefore go hand in hand with anything promotional. Whereas something that needs to be more wordy involving a story would be much better on Facebook or LinkedIn.
When – It’s true that there are certain times of the day when it’s better to post for higher engagement. There are a lot of factors which will affect this time for you specifically. According to several studies, the best time to post on Instagram is generally between 1-3 pm. This is when a lot of people are online, and therefore are more open to interaction. So as well as thinking about what’s in your posts, think about when you’re posting them. If you’re writing a post about local childcare aimed at working parents, posting that at 10am might not have the impact you want it to. Who knew timing was literally everything?
What – The last thing that you will probably decide is exactly what you are going to post. The content is arguably both the least and the most important part of the post. You want to write stuff that people are actually going to read and want to engage with. This might involve humour, sentiment, or even nostalgia. Simply posting a house for rent with a low resolution photo is not going to stop people in their tracks when scrolling through their socials.
Listen in school, kids – it’s useful stuff!
Types of post
We have also put together a small selection of types of post ideas that you can use to generate social post ideas.
A series
A great way to create structure and stability within your social media is to have content that comes out at the same time in equal time increments. (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly are good examples). Of course you can post more than this, but having a topic set and at the same time will bring people back to your page if it really adds value.
Interaction posts
Things like AMA (ask me anything), competitions, and polls will really draw people in. We’ve quite often joined in on a poll on Instagram to be nosey and find out the percentage of people who think the same. We just can’t help ourselves and your audience won’t be able to either.
Tag a friend who
This is another sort of interaction post but one that will drive more people to your post without you having to do much at all. It can be funny and a bit of banter, or it can be linked with a giveaway e.g. ‘tag a friend who would like a free sample of…’. You have to be careful with this one, as on some platforms it doesn’t like you asking people to tag and will inhibit your reach. You can however be a bit clever with it, and ask someone ‘who would you share this massive box of chocolates with?’ and people will naturally respond by tagging their friends.
Sharing other content
You don’t even necessarily have to write a long winded post on a particular topic. You can find and share other accounts, posts, content from other creators relevant to your field. As long as you name them and give the proper credit you are creating content while also helping promote other people too. This could be in the form of sharing content on renovation, posts from a mortgage broker you work with, or even local entertainers.
Video
This one is self explanatory. A virtual tour, a bloopers video from a day in the life of a Lettings Agent, a live webinar with another industry professional. With the popularity of TikTok and the reels feature on Instagram, it’s really worth looking at short form video content, too. You can also repurpose video to generate social post ideas – for example cut a long form YouTube video into little snippets you can use across multiple platforms.
Photo
A good photo can say a thousand words. A photo of room inspirations, a before and after, or a new product are all great ways to show off without saying much at all.
Live Stream
If you have something interesting that you want to announce or share, this could be the perfect way to do it! Especially as you can save live recordings for people to watch later on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. It’s important to be patient with this approach, you’re not going to have a following overnight but consistency is key!
Conversation
Posts that offer your conversation and comments too can build relationships with the people you are trying to reach. It’s worth noting here too, that sitting on a fence is a bad idea. You’re never going to please everyone, but by remaining silent on important issues everyone is talking about, you might end up pleasing no-one. Don’t be scared to take a stance and post about it, it’s bound to open up discussion!
Behind the Scenes
A look into the daily running of or processes behind what you do. It’s interesting, informative and creates a notion that your audience is a part of what you do.
Generate social posts with a little help from your friends
We hope that gets your creative juices flowing but if you’d like some more support, come and join our Facebook group for Estate and Lettings Agents. We’re there to help answer questions, give inspiration hints and tips, and generally chat about what’s been getting us good results!
Come and join us!
Katie Gillingham
Katie is a Freelance Copywriter living in rural Dorset with her daft old Labrador. She first started writing content for the property industry back in 2015, and loves nothing more than bringing brand voices to life!
