This blog post has been authored by Stand Out Online Member Jane Daly, BScN, MBA, Digital Lifestyle Creative | Driven Women Entrepreneurs
I know it can be difficult to come up with quality content, so I’ll share 4 ways you can get inspiration to create great content, to never be stuck for content ideas again.
1) YouTube
YouTube is the second largest search engine online, after Google. One way to tap into that power is by looking for what the most common search topics are in your industry, and create content around those. There are different ways you can do this.
First, you can go to the YouTube search bar and type in a common industry word/phrase, and see what pops up. What will show in the dropdown list will be related searches that people have made around that word or phrase. So, for example, if I type in “marketing” in the YouTube search bar, I find “marketing strategies”, “marketing strategies for small business”, “marketing mix”, “marketing plan”, and a bunch more terms.
Now, if you’re into marketing, then these are all topics you can use to base your content around, since you know these are terms that people have been actively searching for.
Another way you can look for people’s search terms is by using a Chrome plug-in called TubeBuddy. It allows you to look for search terms in a similar way, but it actually shows you things like most recent search terms, and just how popular each search term is. So, you can know which terms will actually get you the most hits (if you’re creating content for your YouTube channel, for instance).
Another way you can find quality content ideas on YouTube, is by researching what the thought leaders in your industry are talking about on *their* channels. You can search for popular thought leaders or popular influencers in your industry, and check out their most recent or most popular videos. You can bet that *they* have already done the keyword research before creating their own videos, so the content they are covering is popular and also heavily searched.
Now, important thing to note here, is that I’m NOT saying you should copy their content. I’m just giving you tips on how to find quality content *topics* that you can talk about for your own audience.
2) Books
And if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably got a bunch of books in your house related to your industry, either actual books, Kindle books, audiobooks…you get my point. Most business owners, as you also should, like to continue learning, and one great way to do this of course is through books. So, if you’re ever struggling for content, try flipping through any industry books you have lying around, and see what topics jump out at you that you could talk about with your audience. Chances are, you could generate multiple topic ideas from just one book.
3) Facebook Groups
A great way to generate content ideas is by searching through other Facebook groups. Join large Facebook groups in your industry, and see what the common topics are in those Facebook groups. You can also search the group for “how to” statements, to see what topics people often need help with, and create content around that. See what type of things people are needing help with. Find the posts that got a lot of engagement, and create content around those topics for your own audience.
Some groups even use hashtags to organize their posts, or organize their content by “Popular topics in posts” (you would see it on the right-hand side of the group), so if you click on any of those, it will pull up a list of related posts on popular topics, and you can leverage those topic ideas to create content for your own audience.
4) Thought Leaders
This is a really great way to generate topic ideas for your own content. Thought leaders, or influencers, are aaaalways creating content for their own platforms. Not only that, but they have entire teams helping them with their market research and social media, so they’ve already done the heavy lifting for you. Meaning, you already know that whatever they are creating content about is a topic that is popular, and likely to get them a lot of views and engagement.
So, why not leverage the same topics to create content for your own audience?
Now, again, I’m not saying to copy, you absolutely do NOT want to do that. But you can totally talk about the same topic and share your own thoughts, ideas, or opinions on that topic.
If you would like even more social media content ideas, or even more strategies to help you attract leads & clients online, I’ve written an entire e-book that will help you do just that!
It’s called DIY Digital Marketing Secrets and you can grab your FREE copy right here!
https://bit.ly/DIYMarketingSecrets
Helping small business owners grow their business & increase their revenue through effective & affordable digital marketing solutions & education.