Let’s take a look at this situation when we are all sitting around a table with our colleagues and staring at a content calendar for next month. We all feel shocked because the calendar is blank somehow. You may think “Will the internet never cease?”
After a few minutes of silence, someone of your co-workers finally asks:” So…anyone have any ideas?”
This is such a scary moment for people who feel obligated to fill all silences with their mindless chatter. We believe that it is a nightmare for you as well. A blank content calendar not only highlights the wildly swift pace of time but also make a panic at the thought of workload for the next month.
However, that only happens in the case you’re doing it wrong. Brainstorms will be so much fun and productive events once you get the right strategies.
Here in these articles, we mention several methods to help you start your social media brainstorm effectively. Let’s try these and see what will happen!
1. Review top performing posts or content
The perfect place to find inspiration once you’re feeling uninspired is the content that you already have. What carried out effectively? Ask your team if they have any ideas for the way to replicate that success within the coming months.
Reviewing top-performing content also allows you to reduce inefficiencies. Moreover getting to see which posts worked, you get to see which posts didn’t work and may avoid related posts in the future.
2. Investigate your competitors
The second greatest place to search for inspiration is the feeds of your enemies. What are they doing that you’re not? What kinds of posts are successful for them? My personal favorite is: What are they doing that you can do better?
You might go so far as to perform a comprehensive gap analysis. However, even a quick scroll via the feeds of one or two of your major competitors is often enough to start the brain rolling.
3. Go seasonal
In the world of social media, there’s a “holiday” with a hashtag for every single day of the year. Discover which holidays are coming up in your content calendar and determine which of them make sense for your brand to “celebrate” online. Then discuss the interesting or unique methods in which to celebrate.
For instance, in March 2018, Hootsuite determined to celebrate #nationalpuppyday by updating and sharing an older blog post known as 8 Dogs That Are Better at Instagram Than You. It took relatively little effort and time to publish, however, continues to be a giant hit on our social feeds (although it’s no longer #nationalpuppyday). In an ideal world, every day could be #nationalpuppyday.
4. Review your targets
Does your group have a mission and/or a vision assertion? Now could be an excellent time to pull that out. Generally, all it takes is a reminder of why you’re here to get the ball rolling.
Another good thing to look at is the official targets you set once you created your social media strategy. Ask the group to consider what kind of content they think will help to achieve those targets. Even just having the top of mind once you’re throwing ideas around is helpful. That method you may also reject ideas that don’t allow you to obtain these targets.
5. Keep an inspiration folder
See something you want on the web? Bookmark it or save it in a folder on your desktop so you’ll be able to return to it when inspiration is running low.
The objects you save don’t need to be related to your brand or viewers at all. Maybe you just like the framing of a certain headline, or the vibe of a certain photograph, or the tone of the writing in a certain article. Keep all of it. Inspiration can come from wherever. And in case you liked it, there’s probably a good reason for it.
6. Ask your audience
Let’s see an example from the Hootsuit blog. Since they publish content for social media professionals, they make it a point to invite their social group to their brainstorming sessions. Then they grill them relentlessly about what sort of content they want to read next month.
Even in case, you don’t sit next to your audience, you still have access to them—on social. Ask them what they’re keen on seeing on your channel in the coming months. Or, you just need to see the comments on your posts to find clues.
7. Read the news
So maybe we’re not all the perfect at maintaining with industry news. There are a million things to do in a day, after all. However, if there’s ever a time to get caught up, it’s right before your social media brainstorm.
Take this time to note down any news that impacts your brand or your viewers. Is there something you can publish to deal with this news? For example, when Facebook introduced main changes to its algorithm in 2018, we revealed a list of actions brands could take to mitigate the effects of the change.
8. Review trending hashtags
This goes hand in hand with reading the news, however, it’s also its own thing. Review trending hashtags to see if there’s any that make sense for your brand to engage with. Ask for input from your group about the way to get artistic with the details. Just make sure you understand what the hashtag is about and if it’s brand-appropriate before jumping in.
9. Play music
Some individuals get their greatest work finished in silence, however, silence could be extremely uncomfortable for others. My fellow introverts in the room could find it impossible to interrupt the silence at the beginning of a brainstorm session with an idea of their own. Why don’t we stop being silent together by putting on some tunes?
We should keep the volume low. It should be high enough just to banish all intimation from the room.
10. Do “sprints”
Not only runners or software developers need “Spriting”. We do it in an artistic writing class too! It’s an enjoyable exercise that carries over well to brainstorm as the objective is similar: getting your brain warmed up.
You should try preparing a theme and write it on board in your meeting room. Set a timer (between three and five minutes, or longer in case you think it is going to be helpful) and ask everybody to begin writing whatever comes to mind.
11. Accept all ideas—at first
One of the most essential parts of your productive social media brainstorm is to make it a safe space for everybody to speak up and contribute. Depending on your group, that will mean leaving the critiquing of ideas until later.
There’s nothing more intimidating in your group social media brainstorm than having your idea immediately rejected. And for what? Some of the greatest ideas arrive after a bunch of unrealistic, terrible ideas are thrown out there.
Our suggestion? You should take down all the ideas submitted in your social media brainstorm—even the crazy ones—and then make a separate session with yourself or a couple of core team members to “refine” your list.