20 Social Media Content Ideas to Boost Your Online Presence

Every content creator knows consistency is critical.

Regularly producing high-quality social media posts is challenging, though, and it's normal to lack inspiration now and then. Creative droughts might even create stress: you can't go too long without posting, or the algorithm will slowly stop showing your content, leading toward a slow fade into social media obscurity. 

Luckily, you don’t always have to start from scratch when it comes to content creation. All you have to do is put your own spin on these common social media content ideas to create captivating, authentic content that stands out from the crowd.

Importance of Planning Social Media Content

If you’re new to content creation or experiencing a creativity lull, it might feel like organizing a content calendar is too much work — but planning your social media content allows you to ensure your content aligns with your personal brand while remaining varied and engaging.

Here are more reasons to plan your content: 

• Content quality — Planning ahead gives you more time to carefully craft engaging social media posts, develop images, and proofread your captions to present a polished online presence, instead of rushing to finalize a post.
• Goal alignment — If you have any goals for your content, like earning more followers or improving your reach, knowing what you’ll post helps you ensure that content aligns with these goals.
• Content variety — Even the most loyal followers want varied content in their feeds, and planning helps you diversify and avoid duplicate content to keep your audience engaged and interested.
• Less stress for you — Keeping a regular schedule prevents you from realizing you’ve gone days without posting. You can limit some stress by organizing your content around your schedule or at least deciding in advance when to post.

20 Social Media Content Ideas

If you need some help deciding what to post on social media, here are twenty content creation ideas to kickstart your creative process.

1. How-To Videos

Your followers are always eager to learn something new. Whether you want to show your audience a new product you’ve been loving or demonstrate a new way of doing things, you can create an instructional video. A concise video demonstration is far more effective in illustrating how something works compared to written guidelines. Teaching viewers something is also a great way to earn their trust.

2. Live Video 

Live video on platforms like Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, TikTok, and various other social media outlets is a great way to engage with your audience, address questions, and let your followers see the human side of your online presence.

3. Sneak Peeks

Pique the interest of your social media audience about an upcoming surprise by offering a sneak peek and encouraging your followers to guess what it is in the comments. This is also a great way to hint at future collaborations if you primarily post user-generated content or work with big brands.  

4. Ask Me Anything (AMA)

Organizing an AMA session allows you to interact with your followers and respond to questions about yourself or the content you produce. Curious audience members might wonder where you live, what your skincare routine is, or how you landed your current job. 

5. Product Reviews

If you’re a business owner, sharing product reviews and client testimonials on social media platforms is a great way to connect with your customers. Most customers are eager to gain insights into others' opinions, so consistently distribute reviews about products related to your brand across all your social media channels.

For example, creators who focus on gaming content might review new computer monitors or keyboards to offer insights that their audience — likely other gamers — value learning.

6. Inspirational Quotes

Share positivity with your followers in the form of inspirational quotes. By sharing inspirational quotes on Pinterest or Instagram, you can motivate your audience or help them feel connected to you with a positive message. 

7. Blog Posts

If you have a blog, you can post snippets from published blog articles to your social media. Extract smaller portions from blog posts, like catchy paragraphs, to share across your social channels. This will encourage viewers to read the full post and give you a new type of content to mix into your feed. 

If you don’t have a blog, try sharing pieces that reinforce your brand or messaging — like a blogger’s newsletter or a news article — to demonstrate your values and interests to followers. 

8. Behind-the-Scenes

Your followers might be naturally curious about what happens behind the scenes of your life, so offer them sneak peeks. Post brief "day-in-the-life" video logs of you living your life on Instagram Stories, Snapchat, or TikTok. 

9. Surveys and Polls

When creating content for social media, keep the conversation going with your customers. Surveys are a great type of interactive social media post. 

An interesting survey or poll can boost engagement and provide valuable insights about your audience’s preferences, like what content they prefer seeing or wish you’d post more.

10. Infographics

Engage your audience by conveying information in an easy-to-understand format: infographics. An example of this might be sharing statistics on fast fashion’s environmental impact to raise awareness and promote sustainable shopping. With this post, you can simplify a complex idea, share relevant statistics, and teach your followers something about your brand (which, in this example, is sustainable fashion). 

Sharing relevant and engaging info is a great way to increase the likelihood of likes, shares, and comments, and make you seem more trustworthy within your particular niche. 

11. Podcasts

If you have a podcast, you can reach a wider audience by sharing snippets of it on social media. Select soundbites relevant to your niche, invest in good audio equipment, and consistently release promotional posts for your episodes to grow an audience and establish yourself.

If you don’t have a podcast, consider sharing podcasts you enjoy that align with your content. You might catch the podcaster’s attention, but either way, your followers will appreciate the recommendation. 

12. Repost and Repurpose Content

Go through your past content and find posts that performed well. If enough time has passed, you can repost or repurpose content from one social media platform to another. For instance, repurpose a TikTok video as an Instagram Reel. 

13. Celebrate National Days

Tap into trending conversations by creating posts around national days — designed to celebrate and raise awareness about various topics, whether that’s something like #nationalpuppyday or the anniversary of an important event. It’s a good way to engage your audience with relevant and timely content, and potentially reach a broad, receptive audience.

14. User-Generated Content (UGC)

If you’re a creator, you can team up with brands to create user-generated content — sponsored content that appears authentic but showcases a brand’s products or services. You don’t need a large following to become a UGC creator, so it’s a good way for you to hone your creative skills, build relationships with brands and audiences, and get paid regardless of your follower count.
If you’re a brand, working with creators, especially those with smaller but engaged followings, helps you reach a wider audience without the strain of creating more in-house content. Reach out to creators who have mentioned your brand to see if you can repost what they shared or if they’d be interested in a contract for making more content.  

15. Create Image Scrambles

Image scrambles are posts where you jumble up or zoom in on a picture, making your audience guess what it is. They’re a clever trick to spark some interaction on your social channels. You could even turn them into a contest and reward the follower with the first correct guess. 

16. Host An X (Twitter) Chat

X (formerly Twitter) conversations center around specific hashtags. Anyone wanting to join the conversation searches the hashtag to see what people are saying.

When hosting chats:

• Pick hashtags that mirror your brand or trending topics.
• Find a day and time that suits your schedule for these recurring chats.
• Think up a few kick-off questions. 

17. Post Day-Specific Hashtags

Post day-specific hashtag posts, like motivational Mondays or transformational Tuesdays. Consistently sharing these can create a buzz around a specific day of the week when your followers can look forward to a particular post. This gives your audience something to look forward to each week, which keeps them engaged and motivates them to interact with your account.

18. This or That

Playing games is another way to connect with your followers. Ask your followers “this or that” to highlight trends, pose questions, and increase engagement. 

19. GIFs and Memes

Sharing GIFs, memes, and emojis adds a playful and unique twist to connect with your audience, especially if you're catering to a younger demographic. You can use GIFs on all your social media platforms, like Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

20. Influencer Partnerships

Collaborating with like-minded creators or brands can help you expand your audience, create diverse content, and increase your reach. Providing influencer marketing for companies exposes your content to their audience and reinforces your personal brand.

Tips For Innovative Content Creation

A consistent content calendar is the first step to better engagement. It creates excitement and trust, encouraging regular interactions and loyal followers, but it’s not the only consideration for a successful content strategy. 

1. Create Striking Content

Use eye-catching visuals and subtitles to boost engagement and better convey your message. Try not to use jargon or ramble in videos to avoid followers losing interest. Plus, engaging content is easier for your audience to understand and remember. 

Using multiple tools to capture and edit content can complicate brand consistency since each platform has different features and capabilities. Use one comprehensive tool like Captions, a user-friendly AI-powered tool to edit your content and automatically add captions to your TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube videos. 

2. Connect With Your Audience

To start building an audience on social media platforms, take the time to research and understand your desired audience's interests and tailor your content to meet their needs. Connecting with your audience helps build trust and a genuine community while fostering long-term loyalty and interest from your followers. 

3. Measure Your Results

Track key metrics such as engagement (likes, shares, comments), reach, clicks, conversion rates, and follower growth using analytics tools provided by social media platforms or third-party applications. While you may or may not have a broader content strategy, it helps to understand your content’s performance so you can make informed decisions about what to post next.  

Create More Engaging Content With Captions

Craft high-quality content with Captions to boost your social media engagement. You can add captions to your videos in one tap, fine-tune video quality, and add royalty-free AI Music. Use Captions to up-level your content and build your following.