Once you’ve set out your strategy and objectives, it’s time to start generating ideas and slotting them into a schedule. While you’re brainstorming some new content, make sure you keep the following points in mind. 

Think about the platform

You might think that posting the same content across your Facebook, TikTok and Instagram accounts will save you time. And you’d be right. But it won’t be as effective as if you’d posted with the specific platform in mind. It might also mean you run into quality problems such as incorrect image formats or caption character limits. 

Plus, each platform has particular features that could give an extra boost to your content creativity. For example, Instagram has reels and stories. Reels are great for longer-form videos or delivering more in-depth content, while stories are short snippets are updates. Adjusting your content so it fits the specific platform will help you engage with your audience more effectively. 

Think topics and trends

As well as developing content ideas based on the messages you want to share with your audience, take a look at the social media topics and trends that are emerging in your industry. This won’t just help you generate relevant ideas but get involved in topical conversations with your audience straight away. 

Don’t just follow the leader with your content though. If you can take a topic or trend and add your own expertise, opinion or perspective on it, then this will make you stand out from the crowd.

Write in the right tone

Whether you have brand guidelines for your business or not, you need to think about the tone of your social media content. Specifically, you need to think about how you will translate your personality onto each social media platform. 

For example, it’s likely that you’ll write a totally different caption on LinkedIn than you will on TikTok. Yet your brand’s traits need to come through clearly on both. 

Setting out guidelines and examples on how to do this will help you keep your social media messaging consistent across all platforms. This will avoid confusion amongst your customers, even if different team members are writing your posts. 

Don’t forget the extras

When you come to scheduling your posts, don’t forget to add and adjust the extras to fit the platform you’re using. This includes checking: 

• Hashtags: using on-trend hashtags is a great way to get your post seen, but different ones are used on each platform, so make sure you’re choosing the most appropriate 
• Tagging: whether you’re tagging a colleague in an image or a brand partner in a post, make sure they’re linked correctly so they have the chance to share or engage with it
• Emojis: these are a great way to add some personality to a post, as long as they appear correctly, so ensure there aren’t any errors in your caption once it’s published
• Music: depending on the platform, you might need to add music manually. Making sure you have rights to the tracks you use will also avoid you getting caught out by copyright rules
• Links: while URLs are clickable on some platforms, they aren’t on others. Avoid frustrating your audience by making sure this is updated correctly

Vary your post times

Though you might be tempted to schedule posts on the same time and day every week, this could get you stuck in a performance rut. By changing up your post times and frequency, your activity will look more natural to the platform algorithms and make it more likely for your content to appear on people’s feeds. 

It also means that, once you’ve posted regularly for a few weeks, you’ll be able to see the times and days when your audience is more interactive and engaged. 

Remember your audience

If you find yourself getting lost in a brainstorming pot of ideas, formats and platforms, then always return to your audience and their needs. At the end of the day, they’re the focus of all this activity and planning, so the content you’re producing needs to be inspiring, helpful and interesting to them.