Speaker 1: 0:15

Today in this episode, we are going to talk about how to never run out of content ideas and how you can fuel your social media content strategy. Working with literally hundreds and thousands of students over the years, one of the things that I have found one of the reasons that people don't post consistently is they typically say I don't know what to talk about, I don't have topics to talk about. I'm not sure, and a lot of times what happens is that idea in their head comes from a perfectionism standpoint. So a lot of times, people know what to talk about, but they don't really have kind of the I don't know what you want to call it the gusto or the. They just don't have it in them to go out and start doing it. It's a procrastination type thing I have found in many cases not always and the truth is that there are so many things that you can talk about, and I'm going to give you eight sneaky ways that you can come up with content ideas. Some of these you've probably never even heard of, but I'll tell you what they are. They work and they're great ways to get ideas.

Speaker 1: 1:27

One of the key things when it comes to creating content is you have to be in touch with your audience. You have to know what it is that your audience is looking for. You need to know what it is, what are the questions they have, what answers are they looking for and, quite frankly, how you can answer them and solve those problems for them, and content should be highly focused on really fixing one problem for people. Now, I know I'm giving you eight in this video here, but each one of these are ways. This is really, overall, just handling one topic, and that's how to come up with content ideas. So there's many ways you can go about it, but the truth is there's plenty of things for you to talk about. You just have to stop overthinking it and get out there and do it.

Speaker 1: 2:14

So let's dive in, let's go into it. I've got eight ways for you. The first one is you can use keyword tools. Now, this is not new to some of you, but one of the things that will help you is when people go online and they go to Google and they search in a topic that they're looking for and they're looking for information, or they go to YouTube. People are typing in keywords and there is a way for us to get data on what people are searching for, and there's a number of keyword tools out there. One of my favorites is called Uber Suggest. Now there is a free plan where you can get a few keywords, but I have upgraded to the lifetime plan. I bought it several years ago and I've been using it and it's a great way for you to get all kinds of ideas when it comes to what are people typing in in the search engines.

Speaker 1: 3:08

This is a great way to find those keywords and really get the ideas of what's on people's minds, what are they looking for, what kind of information, so that you could potentially put those pieces of content out there and create the content so that when they're looking for it, your video shows up. So this is something that's been around a long time. There's nothing new to some people, but the reality of it is a lot of people that still don't know about it and still don't do it. So keyword tools finding what people are searching for is a big one. There's other ones out there like keywords anywhere. That's been around several years. It's a browser extension that allows you to get search volume on what specific keywords people are searching for. So many others out there answer the public as one of them Actually, I believe Uber suggests actually purchased Answer the Public, but that is a great one as well which it gives you like a flywheel where one topic, but then it gives you a whole flywheel of all different, like kind of around that broad topic. So it's a great tool that will give you a ton of ideas if you're looking to come up with content.

Speaker 1: 4:18

All right, so let's talk about number two. This is a huge one and you might not think about it, but if you've already created content, you can actually repurpose content. Repurposing content is a huge way for you to get new content out there. One of the things that I've learned over the years because I've been doing this online marketing thing for over 15 years now is that I've created content in the past and what's incredible is that you could create something and a year later, you could actually almost create the exact same piece of content, or take that piece of content and repurpose it into another form, and people are not going to remember that you put that out prior to. The thing is that our minds will read something. The way the mind works is we'll read something and we'll actually forget what it is that we read very shortly after. I think as time passes, you forget more and more of what you actually read. So one of the things that we've heard over years and I've heard this many times is that repetition is the mother of all learning. So repurposing and reusing content is a huge way to leverage the work that you've already done.

Speaker 1: 5:33

Now, I've been doing this over 15 years online marketing. I've been in the home business space over 20 years, but the key is that you've got content, and it's incredible, over those years, how many videos and blog posts I've created, and, man, I've gone back to some that I created back in like 2010, 11, 12. And the concept of it was great. I revamp it a little bit, change it up even on my blog, and then maybe do a new video about it, and it's like the content's already done. So it's pretty incredible that once you've been doing this a while and you build up content, you can reuse that content over and over again.

Speaker 1: 6:15

Now, the key to being able to use your content over and over again is that when you create it, you want to keep it in mind. Is this evergreen style content? And what evergreen means is that it could be. The information is valid today and it will be valid in 10 years from now. So what happens is, a lot of times people are creating content that is not evergreen. I'll give you an example.

Speaker 1: 6:41

So I created a content, a piece of content, a video, specifically a couple of years ago about two or three years ago and it was how to create a Facebook page, and the interesting part was that video actually got quite a bit of traction. But the truth is that video is outdated. Now Facebook has changed the whole signup process and that video really doesn't mean much anymore. Ok, now what you could do is potentially, if it's ranking well, you could link to the new video. That's a possibility as well, but that wasn't really evergreen. Another one was I did a video on YouTube and it was called Facebook Tools for Spying on your Competitors, and I remember I did this video and it's probably been four or five years since I did this video and I put it out there and it got a lot of traction. A lot of people liked it, but it was literally irrelevant in about three months, because the way you find that now is completely different. So it doesn't matter. It's like I created that content. It's served a purpose, maybe for a short period, but it wasn't evergreen style.

Speaker 1: 7:48

So when you're creating content, think about how can you make it evergreen, so that the work you do today will be valid five, even 10 years from now. And if you think like that and you do that, you get that compounding effect that, over time, your content, that you're going to have a ton of it that you can work with. And over the years, I've literally created thousands and thousands of videos. I was looking at my Vimeo account not too long ago and I was crazy. It was crazy how many videos are in there, with all the courses and training and things that I've done over the years.

Speaker 1: 8:20

So number two is your own content, repurposing it. Now, number three, the number three sneaky way to fuel your social media is other people's content. Yes, other people's content. So one of the cool ways is every one of us consume content every single day, all of us. We go online, we hop on Facebook, we hop on YouTube and we're scrolling the feed or we're searching YouTube and we're finding content. But the truth is we're more of consumers and not actually creators, and we want to move into a creator mindset. Now, I'm not against consuming we need to consume but if you are only consuming and you are not creating, then you're out of balance. So what happens is when you see a cool piece of content and that piece of content talks about something that you think can really help your audience, then it's a duty of yours to grab that content and put it into your own voice. Put it in your own voice, take that content, repackage it with your spin, and that is a great way as well to come up with ideas.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Now, one of the things that I do on a regular basis is I actually have and I'm going to show you here just real quick I actually have this on my phone. It's a video, it's a notepad, it's called video ideas. So if I'm out and about and I have video ideas, I can type it on there. Or if I watch someone else's video and I think it's a cool topic, I'll add it to this list so that I have this never ending list of content ideas that I can pull from. There's literally no excuse for me never to not have an idea to talk about, because if you're doing the little things and you're just jotting things down, it's a great way to do so. The cool thing is, if you're watching someone else's video.

Speaker 1: 10:16

One of the things that you can do is let's say, somebody did a video on the five things to whatever the five ways to fix your kitchen sink. Each one of the points that they have in their video could actually be a video all in itself. You could literally create a series of videos from one video that you watch. All you have to do is jot it down, and the cool thing is nowadays, with ChadGBT and AI, you could actually take that video, create a summary of that video using AI and the points are right there for you, and then all you have to do is just AI. People will do a training on that at some point and we'll show you how to do that, but it's really amazing way to get content ideas. So that's number three. So let's dive into number four.

Speaker 1: 11:05

Number four is common concerns or questions that people have in your market. So one of the ways that I get content ideas is just being on social media, just interacting with people. I get asked a lot of questions and a lot of times I'll post something and people will ask questions in that post and those questions are actually great video ideas. So one of the things that you could do is you can pay attention when you're on social media and people are asking questions. Make sure you mark that down. Get your notepad out if you have a phone, and jot down that idea, just those questions alone. Because here's the thing If those people have questions about something specific or a topic specifically, more than likely there are others that have that idea also. So you always want to be thinking in how can I serve my audience better? And when you're paying attention to those little things, so many ideas that I've gotten for videos come from other people asking questions, just other influencers that I follow, and I have gotten ideas based on the questions that their audience is asking. You see what I mean. So there's a huge way for you to get that content all right. So that's number four. Number five is man.

Speaker 1: 12:24

Another key is off of number four, but social media groups that is such another great way to do it, namely Facebook groups are a great way for you to get content, ideas, and when you go into that group and there's discussions happening on certain topics, that's another way to monitor those. Those all the comments. I'm in a ton of groups and there are some that I actually frequent on a regular basis and I'm a lurker. I don't always comment on things, but I do pay attention to what's going on, especially in my space. So all the major players, all the major things. I tend to pay attention to what everybody's doing, so that I have my ear to the ground and I know exactly what's going on in the space, and that is one of the ways that I'm able to tap into what's going on with my particular audience. Social media groups are a great way to do that, and look particularly in those groups.

Speaker 1: 13:24

If there's a piece of content that somebody posted maybe the admin or someone else and you found that content got really big engagement in the group, that's a key. That's a cue for you to hey, maybe I should create something similar to that, because it's already proving that there is engagement on it. So why not take that idea and put your own spin on it? Now, very careful, I just want to warn you do not copy what other people do, but use it as an idea to use that similar framework. You can talk about the exact same topic. Just don't copy it word for word. Put it in your own words, but you can still come up with the same conclusion. So that's number five social media groups a huge one. And then, of course, while you're in those groups, any direct interaction that you have with people in there is a great way for you to find out content, ideas as well.

Speaker 1: 14:21

The biggest thing I'll tell you is just have that notepad on your phone or somewhere that you can jot ideas down, because, if you've ever, I don't rely on my mind. I just don't. The busier I get, the more I am. I rely on a couple things A calendar, number one, and I rely on my notepad to write ideas, because we've all been there as entrepreneurs, we have these ideas million dollar ideas and we're like, oh, that's good, but we don't write it down. Then the next day we're like, dang it, what was that? I forgot? We've all been there. You can't rely on your mind. You got to put stuff down. So when you're in groups and you're doing that, make sure you write it down, all right? So I already talked about this, but this is number six.

Speaker 1: 15:03

A huge thing is YouTube, my gosh. I've already talked about that, but the truth is this is such a huge one and one of the things remember how they all tie together. But when you're on YouTube and all of us spend time on YouTube, we'll all watch videos, and the best ways to get content ideas is my gosh the comments. So many people ask questions in the comments. As a matter of fact, a lot of times, the creators of the video will go in and they will interact with the questions. People will ask a question, they will go in and answer that question. So not only do you have the question, but you also have the answer, and, of course, this applies to all social media, but this is another great one. So YouTube is huge.

Speaker 1: 15:49

If there are influencers that you follow on YouTube, make sure that you are checking out their latest videos, their topics. You can go to their channels. You can sort their channels. Go to the videos tab and you'll see three or a couple little tabs up top which show you the oldest video, the most popular video and the newest videos. So if you click on the most popular and you go and it shows you the ones that have gotten the most views and the most engagement, my gosh, that's proven ideas right there for you. Like it couldn't get any easier. And those are topics that are proven to convert and get engagement. Okay, so that is a huge way. Youtube is such a valuable resource and I think a lot of times people just don't think about it enough. They overthink it so much that they don't realize that the simple solution is literally right in front of them. So make sure that you're checking out other influencer channels. It's a great way to get content ideas. And, again, you want to make sure you're checking comment sections. That is a great way to get content ideas. Huge Alright. And, of course, related videos. When you're watching the video and you get to the very end and it has a video on there, that's such a great way for you to get additional content ideas. Related videos are huge Alright, alright. So number seven, and we're gonna get into number seven.

Speaker 1: 17:21

This is one that hardly anybody ever thinks about, but Amazoncom how many of us buy stuff on Amazon? Oh, my gosh, it's right around here. We're right around Christmas time. I buy all kinds of stuff on Amazon. Not just that, but all throughout the year, and we all buy stuff on Amazon. But did you know? All the reviews that they leave on products are also great ways. People leave reviews. They're great content ideas.

Speaker 1: 17:48

Not only that if you find your favorite books on Amazon, amazon will give you. What they will do is a lot of times give you a preview of a book. So what you do is you look at the preview and it will show you the table of contents, and the table of contents of a book is Right there, a huge amount of content ideas. You could go to the table of contents. So let's say you have your favorite book and you love that book and you want to talk about it, you could go into the table of contents and, just with the titles, that should spur ideas in your head and now you've got a whole bunch of ideas that you can use to create videos. Now let's say you go to your favorite book and you look in the table of contents and there are 12 chapters. Literally, you could have 12 content ideas right there, just based on the titles. Now, of course, if you've read the book, you could go into a chapter and read a chapter Literally, grab your highlighter and you could just highlight points in the chapter and though where those could be video ideas, and you could go off in all different kinds of directions right there. So Amazon is actually a great way to get content ideas and not a lot of people think about that. All right, so if you really like that one, make sure you leave me a comment and tell me, because I'd love to know that.

Speaker 1: 19:08

Okay, and here we go. This is the last one and then we'll give a little summary here. But the last one is your life. What goes on in your life every single day? Okay, every one of us have a story. We have things that we go through every single day. We have fun things, we have sad things. We have all things that happen in between, and those life Experiences can also be great life lessons that you can share. So, for instance, just going throughout regular life, there have been situations in my life good and bad where I've looked at that as an opportunity to share and Really give some great information on that, where I could really Share my experience and then potentially help somebody else in that particular situation. And but the thing is that when you're using the experiences in your own life, there's a cool thing that it does it not only shares lessons, but it also creates a bond between you and your prospects, the people who are viewing your content, and it creates a bond because they can look at you and think I can relate to him or her like I get it, and when that bond is created. That's a huge thing.

Speaker 1: 20:24

So some of the best content you could create are your own life experiences. I was just looking this morning at a, a lady. I used to knew her and her husband many years ago in the online marketing world. I just stumbled across her YouTube channel and I didn't realize this, but several years ago they got divorced and but she had created an entire YouTube channel all about helping divorced women. So she took her story, her life experience, and turned it into a mission to help divorced women move beyond the divorce and I thought, wow, that is a super cool way to not only create content, but you're also helping other people go through a negative experience like that. So it is a super cool way to take your own life, your own experiences, and turn them into incredible pieces of content that can help people in a massive way. So, again, it creates the relatability and you have this huge, diverse mix of content that you can include in there.

Speaker 1: 21:29

So it's great to share business stuff absolutely but you really want people to connect with you on a personal level too, and the only way to do that on social media is to let people in a little bit, give people a little window into your life. Don't always share just the positive stuff. Share the negative too. Now, I'm not suggesting that you go on social media and air your dirty laundry. I'm not suggesting that you go on there and air a massively negative experience and give every single detail. But you could go on and talk about hey, I went through a divorce, it wasn't fun, and here are some of the things I learned, without getting into all the details he did this and she did that, and blah, blah, blah. You don't want to know. Stay away from that. But you can share the impact that experience had on you, whether positive or negative, and so it really is a great way to get out there, help people and then also be relatable to them.

Speaker 1: 22:24

Let's just recap what our eight sneaky ways are to fuel your social media content. Number one is keyword tools. Lots of them out there. Find some that help you get the data of what people are searching for in your market today. Number two is your own content. Remember, when you start creating content, you can repurpose that content over and over again. It's such a great way to do it.

Speaker 1: 22:49

Number three is other people's content. Such a great way to get ideas. Take what they're saying and put it into your own words. You don't have to copy them. You can take what they have created, put your own spin on it and really go out there and share great information, especially if you're getting your information from trustworthy sources. Number four are questions. What are the common concerns that people have? One of the great ways is just monitoring interaction on social media. Of course, that leads us to social media groups, where there are specific groups on specific topics that really resonate. There are groups on there. I've seen many different groups over the years, from my students, from affiliate marketing to keto recipes to all in between. Those specific groups are on those specific topics. Go to these groups, find out what they're talking about, and that's a great way to get ideas. Number six is YouTube, the never-ending source of content, ideas, amazon, huge one. A lot of people have never thought about Amazon and its impact on how you can come up with ideas.

Speaker 1: 23:59

Number eight is just sharing your own life. Share your own life with people. If you have a negative experience, share it from a positive viewpoint. I'm not saying, go out and share negative just to be negative, but share the negative experiences. Then talk about how you're going to press beyond it, how you're going to learn from it and grow. Also, make sure that you're sharing positive experiences as well. Share those positive experiences, because that's a huge one. Your life, mixed in with the business stuff, is such a huge thing. I hope you guys got some value from this. If you did, make sure you comment. Let me know. I'd love to connect with you. Head over to my blog at markharvardcom. Check me out there. Leave a comment, share this, tag somebody if you think they'll get value from it. I appreciate you. Have a great day and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye-bye.