What do you mean by me needing to figure out what content I want to post on my small business’ social media accounts?

How do I plan content? How much content do I need?

Do I need to create all the content I post?

What are the types of content I should post?

Where do I find content to post?

These are just a handful of the content questions we receive from clients. If you’ve been reading about or learning social media, you’ve likely heard the word “content” quite a lot and are trying to figure out the whats, whys, and hows of it. So before you can effectively build any type of content calendar for your small business, you’ve got to determine what your content is going to be and where it will come from.

Why You Need a Plan for Content for your Social Media

First of all, it’s important to know that there are 2 main types of content:

• Original content you create
• Content created by someone else and (re)shared by you

Note: The second type of content above is often called “curated content”.

Second, within those 2 types of content, there are 3 formats that content comes in:

• Articles and blog posts (links)
• Photos and graphics
• Video

Why It’s Important to Create Original Content for Social Media

Original content is content made by you or someone on your staff. It can be in the form of something written like a blog post, a photo or graphic, or a video. The goals with original content creation are to demonstrate your expertise and knowledge, personalize your marketing and outreach, and share the story of your small business.

Why It’s Important to Curate Content for Social Media

For small businesses, time is almost always in short supply. Creating your own original content typically takes a lot more time than curating pieces of content published by other sources. Additionally, finding and locating content created by people outside of your organization that supports your mission, beliefs, and practices reinforces all that you say, do, and suggest for your clients. Lastly, since this content is to be published on your social media profiles, it’s important to balance promotional content with non-promotional content. You want people to engage with what you post to your social media profiles, and engagement leads to greater reach. Generally, posts that directly promote a brand don’t get as much engagement as non-promotional content.

Think of it this way: Would you be more likely to click on a post that’s selling a product or service, or a post that has a funny (and relevant) video or meme graphic, or helpful educational article that answered one of the questions you have?

Examples of Content for Social Media

Combining original and curated content with the 3 formats content can come in, you’ll end up with a list of potential pieces of content like this:

• Photos of you and people on your team along with stories about you all
• Behind the scenes photos or videos of you and your team at work
• Blog posts written by you or members of your staff
• Industry news published by 3rd party sources
• Customer testimonials in the form of graphics, photos, and videos
• Answers to FAQs in the form of blog posts, videos, and graphics
• Relevant and complementary meme and video shares (e.g. A veterinarian’s office shares a viral funny dog video)
• How To and informational blog posts by 3rd party sources
• Upcoming events
• Local news
• Cross-promotional pieces of content from brand accounts that are relevant and complementary to your small business
• Quotes, tips, and statistics in graphic form

Understanding more about what is meant by needing a plan for your social media content will guide you in creating and curating content, and help you to understand more about the balance and mix of content that’s best for your small business’ social media strategy.