We all know it – coming up with content ideas for social media can be a challenge. You may have a lot of ideas at the start, you have reached that sweet spot of cruising blissfully unaware that the dreaded ideation block is looming in the distance until… it becomes difficult to keep up with demand.

Creativity fatigue is a real thing. Fortunately, there are some useful methods that can help you come up with new, engaging content for your social media. In this blog post, I’ll suggest five ways to generate content ideas for your posts, so that the next time you find yourself staring at a blank monthly content plan, struggling to keep your sanity, you’ll know what to do.

1. Repurpose old content into new

Recycling isn’t only great for your rubbish, but your content too. With so many different content types available, why stop with just one? Check your post analytics, find your best performing content, then repurpose it in another format, expand on things, change some things up… go wild! This is especially useful if you have amazing older content that’s evergreen and probably hasn’t been seen by any new followers yet.

Similarly, find your worst performing content and think about why it hasn’t performed well. Maybe you can salvage the original idea, but change it to follow the winning formula of your best performing content? Sometimes that’s all it takes.

2. Join Facebook or LinkedIn groups discussing your niche

Facebook and LinkedIn are full of groups discussing topics within your niche and it’s a goldmine for finding your target audience’s possible desires, fears, pain points and FAQs. Join some of the groups and spend some time reading the posts and the comments underneath. I guarantee that you will fill your content ideas sheet pretty quickly.

3. Listen to your audience and clients

This one might be a bit obvious, but you would be surprised how often we forget our current audience and clients in search of new content ideas that would attract new audience and new clients. Your current followers and clients might ask things in your comments, they might want to know how something works in your DMs, they might send you queries via the contact form on your website, or they might even raise questions at your physical shop.

All of the above-mentioned things are ideas for your content and they are one of the most valuable ones, because they come directly from your target audience and your ideal clients.

4. Try the trusty AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic is arguably one of the most recommended places to farm content ideas from, but I still meet people who don’t know about its goodness, so I thought I’d mention it anyway. Essentially it’s a search listening tool that many a marketer has used for keyword research for SEO purposes, but it has also become very popular to generate social media content ideas.

It’s super simple to use, just follow the instructions on the website and you’ll be generating hundreds of content ideas in no time. What’s great is that you can choose a specific country (if geography plays a role in your business) and even a language. Bear in mind, though, that it only allows 3 free searches per day (with the free account), so don’t try to search for every single phrase that is connected to your niche all in one go and don’t waste it on checking who’s talking about you online. 👀

5. Use AI

Remember the promise that scientists gave us all when they said that robots will make our lives easier in the future? Buckle up, cause that future is already here. AI copywriting tools have recently cropped up everywhere and, since the majority of them are in beta, you can use them free of charge (up to a point) to generate some sweet new content ideas.

Sure, AI “copywriters” will not replace regular copywriters anytime soon and longer texts written by them are rather lifeless, but they can, nevertheless, be useful in brainstorming social media post ideas, especially when you have exhausted all your other options.

I personally sometimes use Notion’s AI beta, but it’s not so easily accessible to everyone, as it has a waiting list. The options you could explore are CopyAI and the ever popular ChatGPT.

And there you have it – that was five things you can use to generate content ideas. Don’t forget that this list is by no means exhaustive and that there are quite a few more ways to get your creativity back to its sparkly self again, but this is a good place to start when you’re close to tearing your hair out (ouch!).

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