The best way to avoid being stuck is to create a social media editorial calendar that will allow you to have posts ready long before you need to post them. But what types of posts will fill the spaces on that calendar?
Outlined below are 17 of the most effective follower-capturing and like-inducing post ideas that are sure to increase the interactions across social media. Let’s get started…
Create a Poll
One post type that is driving a lot of interaction across business social media platforms is polls. These polls can cover a whole range of topics and can create a real sense of community and/or fun across your social media channels. You can ask a simple question, like ‘who is looking forward to summer?’ with creative answer options. You can also ask multiple-choice questions, like ‘what is your favourite thing to do on holiday?’ this plays more to people’s desire of wanting their voice heard.
Hold a Giveaway
A quick way to build up followers on social media is to be known for posting about giveaways. These don’t need to be specific to your business, you might partner with other local businesses and have them donate something to be given away. The best way to approach these types of posts is a hook designed to get likes and follows for both you and the partner business. You might be surprised how many people publish this type of post and fail to have a call to action to increase their page or profile followers.
A Caption Contest
A fun way to drive engagement across your profiles is to post a photo and then ask your followers to caption it. Everyone loves a good caption contest. The best way to get engagement on these posts is to use the right photo. It could be something funny or odd happening in the photo or something that might remind them of a recent holiday like sunset across the ocean – whatever it is, make sure it’s sticky.
Create a Highlight Video
One of the special weapons in your content arsenal is video. You don’t have to create long ones either, even short snippets of events and special occasions at your business will tend to drive interactions. One effective way of doing this is to create a summer highlight video of guests enjoying your business. You will find that guests pay attention to your social media channels because they want to see if they made the final cut, and it is a cheap way of creating authentic promotional videos for your property.
Feedback From a Guest
Taking the time to highlight positive feedback from a guest is an incredibly powerful post type to use on social media. This type of social proof is invaluable and can be as simple as a share or retweet. It will additionally drive more reviews of your business from other guests, as there will be some people that will leave a review simply hoping that you might highlight their feedback. Be sure you don’t overdo it with this approach though, as it can come off in a negative, self-promoting way.
Promo Posts are OK
Your social posts don’t all have to be memes. It is completely okay to occasionally post something across your profiles that is specific about increasing bookings or selling a service. A good rule of thumb for these kinds of posts is to only do them for about 5-10% of the total number of posts you have on your profiles. This will ensure you don’t drive guests away from paying attention to your business online.
Create How-To-Tutorials
People often access the internet to find out how to do something, and there is no reason why you can’t teach them something. The best way to approach these kinds of posts is to think about all the how-tos that relate to your business and provide sound information. These posts can be written, they can be an infographic, they can be a series of images or they can be a video. You can even mix and match and put different ones on different social media profiles.
Tell Your Guests About Awards & Events
The more you use social media profiles to create a human face for your business the more people will want to interact with it/you. If you support charities or your local community, make sure you post about this on your platforms. You can create good publicity for yourself and promote worthwhile organizations at the same time. Win-win. The same approach should be taken if your business has won an award or been recognised in some way. People like feel-good stories so awards or charity-related posts tend to perform well.
Post Followers Content
People love to feel special, and an easy way you can do this on your social media is by posting some of your followers’ own content. Some businesses use their bios to highlight specific hashtags to use for their content, and others do it by looking out for good content that their followers are posting. The rule with this type of post is to always include the original posters name/link to ensure that you do not take content that you do not own. Sometimes it’s better to ask first, let common sense be your guide.
Show off Your Team
There is no better way to create a friendly and interactive environment on social media than to highlight the members of your team. This allows your guests to see everyone that works for you and it showers attention on your staff. There are a few ways you can approach this, you can create a team profile post where you share information about your team members along with a photo. You can also share important team milestones such as marriages, promotions and kids being born. You can highlight a team member that has recently completed some training. Take a page out of the ‘employee of the month’ recognition handbook and start incorporating these type of posts.
Kids & Pets
Social media goes bananas for animals and kids, so why not take the time to post photos of your guests’ pets and kids (with permission of course). This should create greater interaction across your businesses profiles and will likely result in a higher number of followers. A word of caution, if you are going to create these types of posts, always ask permission and explain the use before proceeding with this type of thing.
Value-based Posts
Another highly effective type of post for social media is content that plays on values. Inspirational quotes or philosophical memes. This might seem like strange ideas for a business, however, you can use your operating values and principles as the basis for the quotes you might utilise. You can also use a theme for quotes, such as family holidays or summer activities to guide what you post. These posts can reinforce the values of your business/brand and demonstrate to your guests that your property is more than a place for them to sleep.
Repost content
There is nothing wrong with reposting content that has been used previously, this is particularly true if you’re a new business. People don’t spend all their time on social media (at least not yet), they only do so during certain times. To maximise the impact your profiles have you should repost content. This will allow you to increase your output and reach your guests more often. This usually has the result of increasing your followers and the number of interactions with your followers.
Have Your Followers Make a Decision For you
Having guests that feel invested in your business is a fantastic way to ensure that you have a reliable source of revenue each year. A way you can do this through social media is by proposing business decisions to your followers and have them provide the answer for you. The best way to approach this is to check your guests feedback for possible additions to your business. There will usually be more than one item being suggested. Take those options and ask your followers (within reason obviously) which one they would prefer you do. This is fun for people and makes them feel empowered in the decision of something that may actually happen – be sure to follow up after.
Ask Questions
A simple post that can increase engagement across your social media profiles is one where you simply ask a question. There is no rule on what types of questions you ask, just make sure it is one that your audience will want to answer. Try to hit a nerve. You can choose topics like the weather, popular TV shows, upcoming movies or new music. The aim of your social media use is to make sure your audience is engaged and interacts with you. Questions drive this effectively and won’t need too much work from your side to set up.
Show behind the scenes
Showing your followers who they are dealing with by taking them on behind-the-scenes tours of your business demonstrates transparency and can create more connection. You can do this by creating videos that show the operations behind the various elements of your business. You can also create a series of images that show all the hard work that goes into creating a fantastic experience for people who come and stay with you. These posts are another opportunity to show a human face and a unique tidbit.
Create a Themed Series
Creating a series of posts in alignment with a theme can help you generate more interesting content. For example, you may want to start creating posts about summer holidays in September and October so that this will encourage guests to book for their holidays. You also might choose to create a series of posts around the native animals in your local habitat. The best approach for themed posts is to work out how many you are going to create and then set a specific time for them to be uploaded. There is no reason why you can’t run multiple themed series at a time, but we sure not to overdo it or confuse people.
Whatever approach you decide to take on social media, the driving principle behind it all should be creating content that your followers and guests truly want to see. You should always keep an eye on what your followers interact with the most, give them what they want. This knowledge will guide you in terms of the best type of content to load to your profiles, helping you create a following for your business that will in term produce loyal guests that will return to your business year after year.
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