The average person doesn’t think much before writing on social media.

But the average person is not a business, like yours, with a reputation to build and defend.

People will rant and lol and post weird pictures and sometimes even get into verbal fisticuffs.

And often, the “words” they use are not even words. Welcome to English as defined by texting (note the ironic “lol” above).

You are not the average person. And while I probably don’t have to tell you that insulting people and ranting is not the ideal way to build your social media business presence, you might wonder what you should post on social media.

What You Post is All About Your Business Branding

Remember that everything here is just a guideline, a collective brainstorm.

What you post on your Facebook timeline and in your Twitter stream will largely depend on the nature of your business. Do you sell jewelry, or do you run seminars?

And it will depend on your audience and how you want to connect with them.

That will define your creative approach to building a rapport with your present and future customers.

This is called “branding”. Everything you say or do in the public eye creates what your business stands for.

Write Your News

The most obvious thing to write on social media is news about your business.

If you are running a new seminar or just got into a new product line, chances are that many of your followers will be interested.

Do you have a sale coming up?

Are you planning a customer appreciation day?

Will you be sponsoring a charitable event?

Let them know.

You don’t have to dry about it. “News” doesn’t have to be boring.

You could get the message across with a meme, an explainer video or even a cute cat video.

Be creative, be engaging and involve your audience in your news.

If you post non-stop about your products and services, you will bore people – this is “social” media, not commercial media. But some company news is a good idea.

Claim Your Bragging Rights

The second most obvious thing to do is to brag.

If you just landed NASA as a client, post about how thrilled you are.

After all, that brings you great credibility, and you want to be credible to your customers and potential customers.

If you get an amazing testimonial, let the world know. I love posting “Another satisfied client” posts.

If you’ve just been accepted as a TED speaker, tell your followers that you will let post the URL to watch it on YouTube as soon as it is available.

As with company news, a little bragging goes a long way. Much bragging will drive followers far away.

Drive Traffic to Your Website

Now that we have the obvious, what else can you or should you write about?

You should let your followers know if you create content on your website.

Let them know several times. Not several times within an hour, but on Twitter and Minds, it is worth sharing your content over the next few days.

You can pre-schedule for different times of day to reach different segments of your followers.

It’s worth posting 2-3 times on Facebook and Instagram, a few weeks apart. You might want to post to several on-topic groups on LinkedIn and Facebook.

A few years ago, I created a blog post full of memes about my niche.

I could post each meme as a separate post on various social platforms, each linking to my same content.

Even if somebody happened to see the same link to my same content, each post looked different and added new value because each meme was different.

If you create content on other websites, such as guest posting, share those as well. Whatever you write holds your reputation.

The more places your audience engages with you, the better. More engagement means a growing customer base.

Get Them Motivated

One thing that goes over well is motivational quotes.

If you can find some interesting and inspiring quotes that relate to your niche and interest your followers, turn them into pictorial sections and share them.

They do exceedingly well on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. They do well on smaller networks like Minds and MeWe, too.

In a blog post on speechwriting tips, I included quote boxes with quotes from Martin Luther King and Winston Churchill.

As with the memes mentioned above, I could post multiple times about this article because I had more than one image. And people love motivational quotes almost as much as they love memes.

Tell Them How to do it

How-to information is always welcome. It’s possibly the most boring type of content.

You likely won’t make them laugh. But it’s useful, and they will keep reading if they feel you are bringing them value.

People love to learn how to do things better. They love secret shortcuts.

They grab the latest hacks. Useful information will never go out of style.

If your tips relate to your product, that’s ideal. But that’s fine, even if they only relate to a similar topic.

As long as they interest your followers, the tips will be appreciated and help solidify your bond with them.

What’s New with Your Customers?

Have you seen some news related to your customers? Share it.

This works well if your target market is well-defined – if they are as much of a niche as you are.

It works if you sell products only to expectant mothers, such as dentists or people in a small town.

Post news related to the target market, even if it has nothing to do with your business.

It’s part of the bonding process; it lets your followers know you are on the same team.

You are human like them. You have an interest in things beyond just selling your product.

Share news about clients, allies, suppliers, or anybody in your professional or business network. They will appreciate it; again, it is part of the bonding process.

I love sharing news about clients. In some ways, I consider this a bit like bragging, as it shows potential clients what we can do.

Some clients let us write a mini-review or announcement of their book on our blog post.

Notice that when we do this, there are multiple images. Why? You guessed it, so we share more frequently on social media without boring our followers.

If you have shared news about Customer X three times in the past year, Customer X will perceive you more as part of its team than if you shared nothing of theirs.

So don’t be shy to share content and news from other businesses and people in your network.

By sharing, I mean creating your own original post. And I also mean share their posts with your followers. And don’t just share their posts; comment on them, too.

Engage with their content if you wish them to engage with yours. Indeed, never forget comments when building your arsenal of social media content.

A Bottomless Pit of Social Media Writing Ideas

There are many other creative things you can write on social media. You can run contests.

Or ask followers to respond to polls. You can involve them in naming your next flavor or designing your next poster.

The possibilities are endless.

These ideas are a good starting point and should help anyone suffering from social media block.

But they are just a start, a base you can build. Don’t be shy to explore your own path.

As long as it does not involve ranting or insulting, your ideas are probably all good ones.