Introduction
Social media for small businesses. <heavy sigh> Consistent posting can give your company an amazing vehicle for customer connection and word-of-mouth marketing. Assuming that what you’re posting connects with them in the first place, that is. Today we’re going to talk about our “3 List Method” for figuring out what the heck you should be talking about on your social platforms.
The Rule of Five
Before we talk about the method, I want to talk about the goal. By the end of this exercise, you should have 5 different topics that you can talk about ad nauseam that are useful and/or entertaining to your followers, and help promote your business. Why five? Because five gives you just enough variety to be interesting, but not so much variety that your followers lose the plot of your overall message. Got it? Let’s get going.
List 1: All Your Expertise
Grab a piece of paper and start jotting down everything in which you have any authority. This could be about your business, in your personal life–whatever. Are you a parent? That goes on the list. Have you been teaching yourself guitar for the past 5 years? Put it on the list. Do you own a tree removal company? …you get the idea.
List 2: What Are You Willing to Talk About?
Next–I want you to transfer anything from the first list that you actually want to talk about to a second list. (Just because you’re an expert in waste management, that doesn’t mean you want to talk about it with the patrons of your Etsy shop that sells enamel keychains, you know?) This is also an okay place to add in anything that you’re currently learning about, that you think your social media following might be interested in learning about too. For example, maybe you want the fight scenes in your comic book to look realistic, so you’re taking a class in martial arts. You could add that in here.
List 3: Five Things
Before you do anything else with list two, take a look at your business objectives & customer problems. Then look at list two, and choose 5 things from it that align with those. For example, say you work for a company that sells popcorn, and this was your second list:
- I work for a popcorn company
- I’ve been a runner for 25 years
- I review movies for my local newspaper
- I’m a mom to three kids
- I read fifty books a year
- I’ve collected Beanie Babies since the 3rd grade
- I’ve lived in seven different countries
- Christmas is my favorite holiday. People come from all over the city to see my house lit up for Christmas.
- I’ve started a new workout and healthy eating plan and it’s been going well for the past 3 weeks.
How could you turn five of those bullets into relevant topics for a popcorn company’s social media presence?
- You could talk about your popcorn products, have testimonials from those who have enjoyed your popcorn, show production lines, etc.
- You could talk about the movies you review, or movies in general–because what better pairing is there with popcorn than a movie?
- You’re a mom with three kids? What are some popcorn-based activities that you do/could do with your kids? (Cooking, counting, etc…)
- Christmas crafts with popcorn!
- You’re trying to eat healthier? Show people how popcorn could still feature as part of a healthy diet.
These are things that would be easy for you to talk about, would be on-brand for your company, would align with your goals of getting the word out about/selling your popcorn, but would also be interesting to your audience. They could keep you going for a while–but if after a few months you want to swap one out (maybe Christmas is no longer relevant)--no problem! Just don’t change all 5 all at once.
Conclusion
Stop wondering what you’re going to post next–or posting about way too many topics. Let the “3 List Method” lead you to a focused, interesting content plan that will engage your audience and help you fulfill your outreach goals.
Having trouble getting started? We’d love to help you make a plan for your social media content. Contact us today.
