16 ways to spice up your website and social media with some alternative ideas for content
OK, I’m not going to beat the same old drum. Content is important. It gets your message out there and it helps to optimise your site. Enough said. But ever get bored of writing blog posts and looking for yet another angle to say the same thing?
Maybe it’s time to spice up your website and social media a little…. content doesn’t have to be just about the written word. There are plenty of ways of getting your message out there that can be just as, if not more, creative.
Here’s a list of alternative content ideas to try out on your website to get you noticed. These should all be sharable in some shape or form on social media. (In my next blog I’ll explore content ideas to create and share directly on social media – no website required).
Visual content
- Infographics – Pack a ton of information into one image. Put it into your website and create an embed code for encouraging sharing on social and other websites. Great for getting more shares (and can go viral). You can outsource to a graphic designer or have a go at creating your own with templates on places like Canva, Piktochart, infogr.am.
- Post a presentation on Slideshare and embed on your site. Tip – Include a written transcript of your bullet points / key message alongside the slides to help with optimisation.
- Data Visuals – Charts, graphs, trends – they explain the story so much better and are great for sharing.
- Video – It’s huge! It now accounts for around 80% of internet traffic. DIY or professionally produced? Video doesn’t have to be polished to work. From vlogs to demos to live streaming. You could even create a using still images rather than live action.
- Story telling – Use software such as Playbuzz to visually tell a story. Fun to create and watch.
Audio content
With easy-to-use tools like Audacity, you can record yourself reading your e-books, blog posts or musings out loud and then host the audio on a service like buzzsprout or Libsyn. Popular audio content includes:
- Podcasts – One-off or a series. Record your musings, your teachings, your advice or interview someone influential. Here’s me being interviewed..
- Audio Blog Posts – Narrate and record your most successful website posts into a podcast and embed it on your site alongside the blog. It’s a handy way to help your audience listen to the articles instead of reading them.
- Audio Books That e-book you created earlier? You can record yourself reading it out loud, then embed it in a blog post.
Downloads
Usually in the form of a pdf, they make great lead magnets or value-added content for your loyal supporters. A great platform to illustrate your expertise. Popular downloads include:
- Worksheets – Turning actionable advice from guides into printable materials for note-taking, brainstorming or ideas creation.
- Checklist – A type of worksheet that helps your audience follow a step-by-step process to achieve a desired outcome. They’re actionable and a resource that users can utilise repeatedly.
- How to Guides – Create something interesting and suitable to your target audience. Whether it’s a guide on social media marketing or a guide covering how to use your product/service, it can easily be shared on your social channels.
- Create a step-by-step decision guide: What should I do if….scenario. This can be text-only, an image, or an interactive tool.
- E-Books – While they do take more time and money to make, you can outsource the process to a freelance writer. An easy way to start an e-book is to select existing blog posts that flow logically together to repurpose your existing content.
Interactive content
The content of the moment. These can be hosted on your website then shared on social media or shared straight to social.
- Quizzes – We all love a good quiz. They can be fun quizzes, personality quizzes or a more serious format – perhaps used to reinforce some learning from your article. Buzzfeed is a goldmine for quizzes. Other software for creating quizzes includes Playbuzz -see below. Here’s a recent quiz we created with one of our clients.
- Polls / Surveys – These can take the form of simple one-question polls with multiple choice answers (just on social media) or longer form surveys using something like Survey Monkey.
- Playbuzz offers the following types of content generation– Polls, quizzes, flipcards, video, triva, list, stories that can then be embedded into your website.
A diverse content marketing strategy will pay off through fresh content on your site helping with optimisation, engaging your current audience and drawing in new clients. There are more free tools than ever to help you create diverse content. You just need some time and imagination. And of course, you can always engage someone like me to help you along…..