What To Say On Social Media When You Don’t Know What To Say
We totally overthink what to say when it comes to social media. There’s something about typing something out, re-reading it and then second guessing it that stops everyone in their tracks. Here’s what I want you to keep in mind the next time you do this: It doesn’t matter if you sound goofy. People like to know who they do business with and being yourself (assuming yourself isn’t a total butthead) is key to building a small business. Even large companies like YO! Sushi and Red Bull have refused to take on the typical corporate stance and use their social media profiles to flaunt their brand personality. In businesses like ours, you are your brand so simply being yourself is all it takes to give your business some personality.
Being yourself in your business is important but what do you do when you just don’t know what to say?
1. Promote other people’s content (OPC)
One of the traps that many people fall into is thinking you have to always be posting new original content that you created. It is far easier and effective to curate great content that your audience will love in addition to your original content. What blogs does your ideal client read? You could share a post you liked from one of those blogs. This gives your audience content they love and helps you build relationships with other people who cater to your ideal client. You’ll see that I do this all the time on Facebook and Twitter. No sense reinventing the wheel!
2. Ask questions
Asking for your audience to give their input gets them involved with you and can help you figure out what they really care about. Here are some ideas of questions you could ask:
- I’m not sure which of these topics to write about this week. Which would you like to read about: Facebook marketing or Twitter marketing?
- It’s <insert holiday/event>. How are you spending your day?
- More and more brides are shopping for their dresses with their fiances. Are you keeping your dress under wraps until your big day?
Asking questions works particularly well on Facebook but it can work on other networks as well. Give it a try!
3. Give people a glimpse into your life
It’s social media, that means being social and getting to know people. What better way to let people get to know you then by sharing little personal tidbits? My brother just came to visit me from the US and I posted about how excited I was to see him and shared a photo of us as kids. Little things like this go a LONG way.
Amy Porterfield was talking about her experience with this on her podcast. She had just gotten a puppy and no matter what she tried, couldn’t get him to stop peeing all over her house. She asked her Facebook fans if anyone had dealt with a puppy who they just couldn’t potty train and what to do and got an insane amount of comments with different suggestions for her. People like being able to relate to you.
4. Share something inspirational
Fact: everybody loves to be inspired. You could share an inspirational quote that you love, an article you read or a wedding shoot that inspired you. Quozio is a great little tool to make images for your quotes like this one.
5. Share something to make people smile
You know when you’re having a rough Monday morning and you stumble on a hilarious video or meme that makes you giggle? Share that! It’s even better if you can tie it into your business.
6. Your content of course!
I said it before and I’ll say it again. Social media moves pretty fast. If you don’t share your content more than once, people might miss it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52UxIgsC_0g
Did you write a killer post last month? Share that bad boy again! If you use WordPress there are plugins like Tweetily that help by automatically tweeting your old blog posts for you.
Take one of these ideas and go implement it today. Which one will you use?
