30 Effective Social Media Content Ideas

October

9

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How To Come Up With 30 Social Media Content Ideas For Your Social Media Calendar in 30 Minutes or Less

You’re on a tight schedule and under pressure to get the next piece of social media content created for your business’s blog page or social media platforms.

You sit and stare at your computer screen and you draw a complete blank!

You don’t have much time before your next meeting, so you need that stroke of genius NOW!  But what do you do when no ideas for social media content come to you?

Every content creator should have a list of ‘go-to’ sources of inspiration for new content ideas.

Below you will find out how to come up with 30 content ideas in 30 minutes or less!

When you need good content and quickly, you will never be without ideas again!

How to Come Up With 30 Social Media Content Ideas for your social media marketing in 30 Minutes or Less:

1. ANSWER THE PUBLIC

answerthepublic.com is a great source of social media content ideas

Visit Answerthepublic.com and enter a keyword to generate hundreds of content ideas in seconds based upon real search terms. This one site will generate a mammoth pile of ideas for you.

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2. BUZZSUMO

buzzsumo

Use Buzzsumo to find top content in your industry. Buzzsumo is a powerful online tool that allows you to quickly find out what content is popular on social media platforms. It’s one of my first go-to tools whenever I want to see how popular a particular topic is.

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3. GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER

google-keyword-planner-tool

Use the Google Keyword Planner to uncover other keywords and topics and you can write about.

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4. WEBSITE ANALYTICS

website-analytics

Look through your website analytics to find out which topics are most popular with your audience.

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5. GOOGLE TRENDS

google-trends

Visit Google Trends to find trending topics.

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6. GOOGLE ALERTS

google-alerts

Set up Google Alerts for keywords related to your business and niche.

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7. REDDIT

Reddit

Visit Reddit to find trending topics.

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8. UBERSUGGEST

UBERSUGGEST is fast becoming a go-to tool for social media content ideas

Use Ubersuggest to find keywords suggestions and variations based on a particular topic.

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9. FACEBOOK GROUPS

Facebook Groups

Join a Facebook group in your niche to see what your target market is talking about.

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10. YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWERS

social media followers

Ask your social media followers…ask what they want to know and/or learn.

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11. SPY ON YOUR COMPETITION

Use tools like AHREFS to spy on your competition

Visit popular websites or blogs in your niche to see which topics they are writing about: find one that jumps out at you, and then spin the title to create your own, original content.

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12. HUBSPOT’S BLOG TOPIC GENERATOR

Hubspot's Blog Ideas Generator

Use HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator. The Blog Topic Generator is a HubSpot tool that generates a list of article topics based on the keywords you input.

For example, if you fill in the fields using keywords SEOcontent marketing, and social media, Blog Topic Generator will generate potential topics such as “10 Signs You Should Invest in SEO”, “What Will Content Marketing Be Like in 100 Years?”, and “15 Best Blogs to Follow About Social Media”.

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13. TELL A PERSONAL STORY

tell your story

When in doubt, tell a story about something that happened to you. It could be a success story. Or maybe tell your audience a story about a mistake you made.

How did you learn from it? How did you get to be where you are today?

It could be a recent story or one from the past. If you want to master the art of storytelling then this article by Quick Sprout may be of help.

Personal stories are great because they make your content unique. While people may have similar stories, the details of yours won’t be the same as anyone else’s.

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14. SPROUT SOCIAL

sprout social

Use a social mention platform like Sprout Social to listen in on social media conversations: Find out what topics are really of interest to your target market.

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15. GOOGLE SEARCH

Do a Google search for a popular keyword in your niche: See what others are writing about the topic and add your thoughts to the conversation.

 

google search

Look at all the suggested topics that come up when I type in “email marketing.”

These suggestions could all be topics to cover.

In addition to the search suggestions, you can also check out the related searches at the bottom of the page:

google related searches

If you’re not sure what to search for to generate these suggestions, start with content titles you’ve already posted.

The reason why this is such a good strategy is that you know the topics will be relevant to your audience.

Plus, you can assume these new titles will be SEO friendly since you sourced them through Google.

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16. YAHOO ANSWERS

Yahoo Answers

Have you considered using Yahoo Answers to find questions you can answer on your blog?

Yahoo Answers has become a very popular network for knowledge thirsty question-askers and knowledge soaked answer-meisters, and they are all potential visitors for your site.

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17. MIX

Mix.com

Mix is a social content curation site that allows you to collect articles, and content about specific interests or topics that you like. When you curate and add to your collections, your content is shared with friends and made discoverable to others on Mix who share similar interests.

Go to Mix.com to find interesting content selected by friends and like-minded people.

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18. CREATE LIST POSTS

creating a list post is a great tactic for creating social media content

Compile current blog posts into a resource list: For example, you might create a post called Top Resources for Facebook Marketing, and include links to popular Facebook marketing posts.

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19. HASHTAGIFYME

Hashtagify.me

Find top hashtags in your niche using a tool like Hashtagify.me

Hashtagify.me is essentially a free hashtag discovery tool that helps you identify the most popular hashtags used on Twitter, unearth the influencers who are using those hashtags and understand usage trends regarding those hashtags.

The site is easy to use and offers several useful features. First thing you’ll want to do, of course, is to search for the keyword for which you want to discover hashtags people are using or type in an existing hashtag you know people are already using.

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20. FORUMS

forums

Visit an industry specific forum and read through comments and questions.

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21. QUORA

Quora is a place where anyone can ask and answer questions about pretty much any topic you can think of.

People use Quora to ask for advice for their personal and professional lives, to get recommendations for products and services, to ask for strangers’ opinions on different subjects (both personal and professional), and much more.

Visit Quora to find what questions are being asked around the topics you are interested in.

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22. LINKEDIN GROUPS

linkedin groups

Visit a relevant Group on LinkedIn group to find out what people in your industry are talking about.

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23. TWITTER TRENDS

twitter-trends

Twitter is a great resource for staying on top of the latest industry news and events – and if content marketing is a key area of interest, it can be a great option for tracking the latest trends and connecting with relevant influencers. You can check out the trending topics in your Twitter sidebar.

To help with this, the team from SEMRush recently conducted an analysis of the best-performing tweets posted within the last three months which used the #ContentMarketing hashtag.

They used the data as the basis of the below report, which looks at related hashtags, key topics, tweet trends and influencers.

The insights could help you glean more info about the emerging content space, by tapping into the key tags and voices, and staying on top of relevant trends.

You can read SEMRush’s full report here,

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24. NEWS HEADLINES

See what’s happening in the news: Write about a current news story as it relates to your niche.

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25. FACEBOOK

Look through your Facebook newsfeed to see which topics are consistently popping up in your feed.

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26. GOOGLE AUTO-COMPLETE TOOL

google auto suggest tool

Using Google Autocomplete can be a powerful tool for performing keyword research. It’s a great place to start for the early stages of content development and implementation of organic search strategies.

Since the Autocomplete function shows a list of related keywords based on popularity, it’s an ideal way to kick-start your keyword planning for SEO. But most importantly, it can give valuable ideas of quality long-tail keywords.

Google Autocomplete is great for finding long tail keyword ideas

Long-tail keywords are incredibly useful when fulfilling content gaps, but also offers many possibilities in terms of high-value blog posts and educational content within a brand’s niche.

Note: Search by using Incognito mode, or sign out of your Google account. It will give an anonymous, hence an unbiased Autocomplete result.

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27. COMPETITORS BLOGS

Visit a competing blog and look for a list of their most popular posts (you can often find such a list in the sidebar). Use this as a starting point for your own post.

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28. PINTEREST

Pinterest is a great source of social media content

Start typing a keyword into Pinterest’s search box to find popular searches (it will automatically populate the search box with the most popular searches starting with the letters you type in).

As a blogger, I’m always looking for new blog post ideas. Pinterest is fast becoming a key tool of choice for me when I am looking for inspiration.
 
Not only is it an awesome discovery tool, but Pinterest also shows me what my target audience is searching for and pinning. This helps me:
  1. Discover blog post ideas
  2. Create content my audience actually wants
  3. Find keywords for my blog posts to help with SEO on Pinterest

Let me show you what I mean. One My target audience are owners of small and local businesses and people looking to start their  own business. I go to Pinterest and start broad. I type the word “small business” in the search field.

PINTEREST SEARCH SUGGESTIONS

The first place I look for blog post ideas is in the search suggestions box. This is actually where I found the inspiration for this post. Pinterest is showing me that my target audience is searching for blog post ideas, the 2nd keyword on the list.

Pinterest search

 

For more ideas, I just hit enter and start by searching for “small business”. Pinterest populates that top bar with words and phrases that people are searching for related to small business. I see one of the most popular searches is ideas. This means there are a lot of people looking for ideas for their potential new business.

Using Pinterest to search for content

If there are more suggested keywords, you can click the right arrow to scroll through more topics.

I’m going to dig deeper and click on “owner”. I was able to find “people” in this list. I could write a blog post on how to start your new business whilst still working full-time.

<img decoding=” />PRO TIP: The other great thing about using this approach to find content ideas is you’re learning what keywords your audience is searching for. Use the keyword in your blog post, your image titles, your pin description, and your board description to boost your Pinterest SEO rankings. This means when people search for that keyword, your blog post has a higher chance of being at the top of the search results.

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29. INDUSTRY MAGAZINES

small-business-magazines

Leaf through an industry magazine to see what inspires you. If you are a small business owner, here are 3 magazines I recommend for sources of great content…

1. Inc.

INC Mag If you were stuck on a desert island selling widgets and had only one magazine to consult from, I would recommend Inc. hands down.

This magazine is chock-full of amazing statistics, case studies, interviews and reviews about small business owners and startups who have found success and why.

 

 

2. Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur magazine is a must-have for anyone looking to start a small business. Entrepreneur’s target is more narrowly focused than Inc’s but that’s what makes it so great.

Within this magazine you will find every pain point imaginable to starting and running a profitable business (economy, work/life balance issues, co-founder discord, death of a co-founder, production issues, supply chain problems, to name just a few).

 

3. Fast Company

Of the three magazines reviewed here, Fast Company is certainly the edgiest and hippest.One aspect of Fast Company that I enjoy much more than the previous two publications on this list is their long-form feature stories.

Fast Company’s featured stories tend to be much more content-rich and just plain longer in general than its counterparts.

 

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30. WORDSTREAM

Wordstream Free Keyword tool

Use WordStream’s Free Keyword Niche Finder tool to find popular subtopics based on a general keyword search.

Similar, in many ways, to the Google Keyword Planner, this is one of the more user-friendly keyword research tools on the market.

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So, there you go – a list of how to come up with 30 social media content ideas in 30 minutes or less so you can pull it up the next time you find yourself wondering what to write about! I hope it helps!

If this post has resonated with you but you still have some questions about social media content and might be in need of help in finding ways to generate your own content ideas, then why not take advantage of a free strategy call? You can book one by clicking here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the author, Andrew Wallis

From two decades in the corporate world to finding my freedom in fitness, I'm known as Braveheart—a Personal Trainer turned marketing maestro for Fitness Professionals. I'm all about unlocking potential and empowering Fit Pros to grow their businesses. 'Finding Your Freedom' isn't just a mantra; it's a collective journey I embark upon with my clients.

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