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So you have your social media profiles and blog all set up. The tools are in place for you to start feedings those machines with great content, but where do you start?
Generating content ideas for your website’s blog or social media profiles can sometimes seem like an overwhelming task. Everyone understand the importance of blogging and content for your business but one of the hardest parts of the process is finding out what to talk about.
In this blog, we’ll be discussing some of the platforms, processes and tools, you might consider when generating your content and blog ideas.
What Should I Blog About
It’s a question we hear a lot as content marketers, what should I be blogging about?
The short answer: You should be blogging about your industry, answering your customer’s frequently asked questions, offering a behind the scenes look at how your business operates, and sharing your industry knowledge. Sometimes the best content is right in front of you.
Blog About Your Industry
Sharing your thoughts, theories, or perspective on your industry is a great place to start when trying to figure out what to blog about. You’re a savvy entrepreneur and have a lot to say about your chosen industry, don’t squander that perspective. Use it to create blog posts and social media content that your customers and competitors will look twice at.
Answer FAQs
As a business owner you undoubtedly get a lot of questions about the services or products you provide to your customer base. Use those questions to help spark both blog and social media content. The truth of the matter is that if one customer had a question about your product or service, others will have it as well. Be proactive and give those looking to have their questions answered, the answers you know they’re already looking for.
Behind the Scenes
Providing a glimpse into how your business operates and functions is a great source of content ideas. We use the example of a local Food Truck business in this week’s Strong Coffee Marketing podcast and suggest a look inside the food truck with a video during a lunch or dinner rush. Using your smartphone you’re able to capture people’s attention with something that might seem trivial to you and your co-workers.
Share Your Knowledge
Sharing industry knowledge is arguably the bedrock of content marketing and is one we often miss. Creating content around the knowledge you already have in your particular industry starts your journey to becoming an authority in your space. When you become an authority in your industry people, or customers, are more likely to turn to you for your service or product. Here’s a great example of sharing your knowledge. Be helpful in the knowledge you share and try and help potential customers looking for a trustworthy knowledgeable business to help with their problems.
Tools to Help With Content Ideas
We all use tools to help make tasks a little easier, so why not look for the proper tools when trying to come up with content ideas for your business’s blog or social media feed.
There are a number of tools out there to help with the generation of content ideas. Here are some of the ones we like to use at Strong Coffee Marketing:
RSS Feeds
Staying informed is not only a great way to keep on top of the latest trends, news, and ongoings in your industry, it’s also a great way to help peak some content ideas. RSS feeds are simply a way to get the latest published content from your favourite websites, blogs, or news sources.
To help bring all the new information from your favourite industry blogs and website, those who subscribe to rss feed usually user a rss feed reader, something like Feedly. Here’s a great tutorial on how to set up an rss feed and how to customize it to your needs.
BuzzSumo
It’s not always easy to find those really hard hitting articles or blog posts out there. Sometimes you have to dig a little bit deeper – that’s where BuzzSumo comes in. The tool takes your search query and shows what articles have been shared the most in a defined time frame. Read more about BuzzSumo is past blog post and find out how you can use this tool to your content marketing advantage.
Reddit is a social news website and forum where news stories and images are curated and promoted by site members. The site is made up of hundreds of sub communities known as subreddits. Each subreddit focuses on specific topics such as politics, technology or music – there’s a subreddit for almost anything.
This is a great place to find new content, ask questions, or contribute to the conversation when it comes to your industry. As we talked about sharing industry knowledge as a potential content idea generator, Reddit is a great avenue to take.
Social Media
We use social media to chat with our friends, to find interesting news and entertainment articles, and to vent our worldly frustrations, so why not use for content idea generation. Whichever platform you might use to keep in touch with the internet there is surely a community for your industry. Find them and start following and participating in the conversation, you’ll be surprised at the with how helpful it can be.
Generating content ideas doesn’t have to be a struggle every time you sit down to write your blog or social media post. With a little knowledge and some helpful tips there are plenty of way to get those brain waves rolling.
