How to Find Blog Content Topics Using Your Social Media Accounts
Content development can easily be one of the most challenging aspects of creating and maintaining your online presence. Anyone who is involved with blog content development knows that one of the hardest parts is coming up topics to develop blog content in the first place. One place that people often don’t consider for getting ideas is social media (i.e, your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. accounts). You don’t want to carbon copy what others are sharing, and you want to use social media for many other things, but content ideas can be an extra benefit if you know where to look.
Remember that because of the content’s connection to social media, you will definitely want to share and market the posts after they are written as well (as always)—this is kind of the specialty of content marketing firms, like us here at Miami SEO. Blog posts are not over once you finish writing and publish them; they can really help to build up your site and online presence if they are promoted right. This makes the struggle with coming up with content ideas worthwhile.
What are your page visitors excited about?
Have you shared a piece of content recently that got a lot of likes or perhaps stirred up discussion more than usual? If you are following the general guidelines that anything you share is relevant to your brand or business, than this is a really good place to look for new content ideas. Look at your analytics to determine what’s getting the most attention. Below is a screenshot of Facebook Analytics from KISSmetrics that show you which posts are more popular than others:
Let’s say for example that you shared a post that you found on Tumblr, which is tied to your business. See what users are saying about the topic and what your own page visitors are commenting, from there you can get some amazing ideas for content to develop yourself.
Get page visitor participation.
People who are coming to your social media pages are not only active participants in your company, they are also usually your primary blog audience. Think of questions you can ask or ways to get this comment of people involved. If you find there is information they really want to know or that they want to explore a certain aspect of your company, develop that content. This is often a great place to start for “How-to” pieces or other information-centered blog posts.
You may even want to consider hosting a poll to simply ask your social community outright. Twitter just recently announced a new polling feature where you can get “instant public opinion,” which you can learn more about here. Below is a screenshot of how the free service works from Twitter CFO Anothony Noto:
Hashtag it up!
Hashtags have become commonplace in the social media world, and I think that this is a great place to start to look for inspiration. Do you use certain hashtags over and over again? Do you find that people in your industry tend to use certain hashtags as well? Follow those hashtags and see what people are talking about and what kind of content is associated. You always want to take an original spin if you like something, but this can be a great place to get ideas.
Gain access to guest bloggers.
Speaking of page visitor participation, why not use your social media audience to seek out guest bloggers for your site? This is particularly great on sites like LinkedIn and Twitter. For one, the content will literally develop itself (since someone else is writing it), and secondly, it gives your readers a new voice and unique position on topics they are interested in. Seeking out influencers to write can be a strategy on its own, which you can learn more about from our marketing agency, but even asking for guest bloggers can be a good way to get the ball rolling.
On a very basic scale, you can simply update your status to ask. The screenshot below shows how someone might use LinkedIn to find writers:
Who do you admire?
For most brands or businesses, especially companies that are on the smaller side, there are generally larger businesses that tend to do social media and content development really well. It is absolutely encouraged to admire those people and get blog content ideas from the things they post. Be sure to pay attention to how their page viewers react, and also keep in mind that you will always need to take an original spin on whatever it is that they do well (this can also end up being really good for your SEO, because if people like a piece of content and there is a different angle or a different spin on the same topic, you are likely to rank higher as well).
FAQs?
Another great way to use social media is to see if there are questions you get frequently asked over and over again. A lot of times you can sole this pattern by using it to inspire a blog topic. There are a couple of ways you can go about it. For one, if you are getting multiple questions over and over again, you can definitely make an entire post answering “The Top Questions of 2015”, for example. Another way to go about it is using each individual question to inspire an informative piece for your readers. With the latter you can get multiple posts and many ideas for content development if you pick carefully and get created.
I recommend creating a spreadsheet with all of the questions you see on social media. Have your social manager update it each day, and then send that spreadsheet to content creators (and your sales team for that matter) at the end of each week.
Always see what is trending.
It is important to keep up to date what is going on in your industry, but also what is going on in the world. Make sure that you keep an eye on top post and what is trending on social media. Many times you can incorporate these current events into content development (so long as they are relevant, or can be approached relevant to your business somehow). On a platform like Reddit, you can find trends in your industry, which should be even more beneficial to you than some of the generic trending topics Facebook and Twitter offers (although those are still important). Below is a screenshot example:
Comment and interact with other users and other blogs.
When we think of content development, we do not tend to think of reaching very far outside of our own pages, however, this is a mistake. By commenting on others posts and following their feeds as well, you can get a lot of inspiration and end up in conversations or gaining insights where you were not expecting. Pay attention to what other people comment and find relevant. Many blogs (even this one) tend to ask users if they have comments or ideas to share at the end. See what they are thinking. Did you miss out on a new platform or tool that you can incorporate into your next post? Did you neglect a huge aspect of a topic on your own blog that someone particularly liked on his/hers? Did they mention how much they loved certain aspects of their list post but not others? Use this information to your advantage and create content that responds to the audience of others as well (after all, they may be heading to your page for content soon if you regularly interact).
The Takeaway
Blog inspiration and content development can come from so many places. We already interact so much on social media that it makes sense that this can be a primary source for information gathering if you look in the right places. Remember that being an active member of your community goes a long way, not just for user interactions, but also for developing future blog content.
What did you think of these ideas for social media blog content development? Have you tried any of these approaches yourself? Let us know in the comments section below.
About The Author
Jason Hawkins / http://www.themiamiseocompany.com
Jason Hawkins is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Miami SEO Company. He has over ten years of experience in search engine optimization, conversion rate optimization and lead generation. His core responsibilities include identifying ways to increase value of services rendered, training staff on advanced SEO topics, and A/B testing internal processes to consistently improve client return on investment.
