You’ve probably heard how beneficial social media is for brands. With more than half the planet on social media and the average user bouncing between seven different accounts in a month, it’s a rich opportunity to find new customers and keep your existing ones engaged. 75% of marketers say that social media marketing efforts have increased traffic to their websites, and 90% say they’ve increased exposure. Yet one of the most challenging parts of maintaining a social strategy is developing new ideas for posts. How do you keep your social media posts fresh and original and avoid recycling the same old stale content?This is where creative social media fits into the picture.
Social media is a busy world with a lot of people talking. When you take a creative, unique or even quirky approach to promoting your brand, it makes your target audience more likely to stop scrolling and pay attention. But obviously, when you have a business to run, coming up with new creative social media content isn’t at the forefront of your mind. Luckily a creative agency’s social media strategy can focus on finding the most effective ways to connect with your audience.
Anchor is a digital creative agency based in Brisbane. We take a strategic, solutions-focused approach to all we do, including creative social media services. If you know your posts need spicing up but are unsure how or where to begin, this article explores some fairly simple methods you can use to get started.
Benefits
Creative social media content attracts new followers and makes the ones you have more likely to keep following your page. It helps build your brand identity and helps promote the personality of your company rather than just what you offer. It’s a way to put more content out there in the world to be liked, shared and clicked on, which helps your website’s SEO rankings. If you make your content entertaining enough, it can get some decent shares, which is a low-cost way to boost your brand awareness and sales even further.
Why You Need It
The more unique your social media content is, the more likely users are to take the time to engage. When you’re competing for their attention not only with other businesses but also with friends, family and public figures, it helps to be different. To engage users, you need to be engaging. Every engagement provides information about the kind of people interested in your company and your products, and it’s information you can use in future campaigns.
Examples of Creative Social Media
Once you start looking into ideas for creative social media posts, you’ll discover the opportunities are endless. Here are the ten easiest and most popular ways to get creative on your social accounts.
Create a daily, weekly or monthly series
Instead of making a series of scattered one-off posts, you can try making a series based on a similar theme. That way, you can create a sense of suspense and give your followers a reason to tune in again for the next instalment. Your series can consist of highlights, tips, articles, informative posts on a particular topic, or anything else that suits your business.
Create bite-sized video clips
Video is always a winner. It’s 1200% more successful than other forms of content, generating more shares than text and pictures combined. Yet you don’t have to make a feature film to reap the benefits of video on your social account. Bite-sized video clips are relatively quick and cheap to make, can be shot on a phone and are perfect for drumming up engagement on sites like Instagram and Facebook.
Run a contest or giveaway
Instagram accounts that run contests grow up to 70% faster than those that don’t. It’s hard to resist the lure of winning prizes, particularly when all you have to do is like, comment or tag a friend. Competitions and giveaways are a powerful way to grow your account, as long as you choose prizes related to your brand. Giving away products that have nothing to do with your business tends to attract people who want to get something for free but won’t stick around to follow you.
Repurpose your content
When you have an effective, well-thought-out piece of content, it makes sense to get as much use as possible. There’s nothing wrong with sharing the same post or video across different platforms. The followers you have on Twitter may not be the followers you have on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. With every fresh re-purposing, you have the opportunity to potentially reach an entirely new audience.
Team up with another brand
When two brands unite, they find new followers. Brand collaborations are an increasingly popular and budget-friendly way to grow on Instagram, up to 25% cheaper than other forms of advertising. When undertaking a joint social media marketing campaign, it’s best to seek out brands in your industry who aren’t competitors.
Go live
There’s an immediacy to live video that’s compelling. It’s a way to make your followers feel like they’re in the moment with you. People spend three times longer watching Facebook Live videos than videos that aren’t live. One popular form of live video is the Q&A, in which you encourage your followers to fire questions at you and answer them one by one.
Develop how-to guides
People love to feel like they’re learning something. How-to guides are an excellent way to solve a viewer’s potential problems while encouraging them to check out your company and your website. Offer good advice, and prospective customers will see you as an authority in your field. They’ll also have a great reason to hit the ‘share’ button and boost your reach. Video, which attracts high levels of engagement, is also an ideal format for this kind of how-to creative social media content.
Make memes
Across the world, 91% of people prefer brands to be funny, and 72% would choose a humorous brand over the competitors. Memes are all over social media these days, and by using them right, you can liven up your social posts and make users laugh and share. The funnier, the better, but don’t overdo it or share a meme that’s irrelevant to your target audience. A meme that’s no longer current is also likely to fall flat.
Share what’s happening behind the scenes
A candid peek behind the scenes puts a human face on what’s happening in your business and makes you more relatable. You can give particular employees the spotlight or share some pictures or videos of a recent social event. It’s an easy, low-cost way to show another side to your business.
Conduct polls
Posing a question and encouraging your followers to vote on the answer is a terrific way to drive engagement and get to know your target audience better. A poll can help people feel their opinions are being heard and acknowledged and also help you give them what they want. Don’t forget to respond to followers’ comments to show them their opinion matters to you.
How Anchor Digital Can Help Improve Your Social Media
If you’re seeking a creative agency’s social media strategy to help spread the word about your brand, Anchor is the answer. Our experience and commitment to staying at the forefront of new developments in the industry have established us as a leading agency for social in Australia.
As a digital creative agency, social media is one of the areas we focus on as we drive brand awareness and conversions. We pay attention to and implement solutions at every stage of your customer journey, from the initial point of contact to repeat purchases. Our social media marketing solutions focus on every aspect of your campaign. We can audit your social media strategy to see what’s working and what isn’t, craft a creative social media strategy, and manage your social media accounts. We can also handle social media advertising for you, using services such as Facebook Ads pay-per-click.
We never try to lock you into a contract. Instead, we count on quality work to motivate you to engage us again. Drop us a line for a creative social media strategy that makes a striking first impression and leads to more followers, engagements, and sales.
