Whether you’re stuck for social media content ideas at all, or for some that improve the numbers, this list of social media graphics content ideas will get your gears moving.
Sometimes I think we prefer the hieroglyphics. Maybe we are reverting back to drawing pictures on walls. And worshiping cats. In fact, ancient Egypt understood Facebook before it was mainstream. Or maybe they just understood people.
But the main thing is I think social media content work best when there’s a huge visual strategy in play with it as opposed to without.
Social Media Strategy = Written Content + Visual Aid
Instead of thinking along the lines of what info do I want to post? I think it helps to focus also on …
What kinds of pictures do I want to post?
As someone who is trying to provide stock photos to bloggers, influencers, and small business owners, I, of course, scrolled through some Instagram profiles to see what kind of photos the major influencers are using. And it’s sad to say it, but they use their own photos. Pictures. THEY. Took. Not many people are using stock photos on their Instagram and killing it in the same breath. Not every post at least.
At first I thought maybe stock photos is dead, and I’m in the wrong line of work, but then I heard Jenna Kutcher explain that stock photos perform better on her Pinterest than her own lifestyle shots that do so well on Instagram.
It appears that stock photos do better with a cold audience who has never heard of you, where the lifestyle is featured in artistic stories told by flat lays and the backs of people’s head. But once the audience warms up to you, they want to know more about you. They want selfies. They want YOUR lifestyle, not a generic one.
Either way, at some point, you want to make and use your own images, but before we get into social media graphics and content ideas, I feel pretty compelled to mention something about the purpose and objective with social media.
Social Media Mindset
The idea of social media is truly to be social.
It’s real easy to focus on yourself as a business or a brand, or maybe even “super awesome human,” and try to sell something and FORGET that social media is a social place.
Think of it like a party.
Would you rather go to a party of time share sales people? As the potential customer? OR Would you rather go to a party of super important people who are looking to make actual friends and network?
Don’t be the time share sales person where every word is a conversation trying to land a sale. You don’t need everyone to be your customer. There’s a lot of good asset people out there who can still benefit you without actually buying from you, such as people who know you and have absolutely no idea who else to recommend other than you when they encounter people with buyer’s intent looking for recommendations from people they know.
The objective here is to get to know people, and let them get to know you, and it’s more about establishing trust, the relationship bonds, and getting some shelf space in their brain.
Now would you rather go to a party where nobody shows up? Or the party where urrbody be at? – Remember, you’re actually leaving the house for this question (for you introverts out there). Of course, it’s a metaphor to NOT leaving your house.
Most social media networks are designed to make it fun for the average user so that they spend more time on it so that they trust it to be a source of info for shopping so that social media networks can sell more advertising and make more money. But the heart of it all is to get regular people on it and enjoying themselves. So every research and update is geared toward that objective, and most of them base their algorithm off of what’s performing well because they want the stuff people want front and center.
Honestly, the more time a person spends with you, online or offline, the more you become a comfort zone. The more they trust you. The more they like you. The more they prefer you.
So another social media objective, you want to get engagement and keep it.
And it all circles back to being social.
When you’re at a party offline, are you all, “Hey fun fact everyone. In Ancient Egypt the tomb walls of the rich and powerful were often filled with paintings! This party is so much fun. Did you know Pinterest can increase your blog traffic? I’m just a girl boss building her empire. Attitude is everything. Slay your day. You’ve got this. No you’ve got this. And you’ve got this. Are you sick of your blog traffic not getting the numbers you want? What’s your biggest struggle as a business owner? Oh well what you need is my super awesome bundle to get you started. 50% off sale ends in 15 minutes. 14 minutes and 59 seconds. 14 minutes and 58 seconds….”
Nobody would like you if you were.
But there’s always that blond chick that looks like Barbie, “I’m so glad you could make it. I legit thought nobody was going come and I’d be stuck here all by myself with the appetizers and then have to go on one of those fad diets. So who are you here with? Introduce me! Please?” 2 hours later. “Woo hoo I love this song! Let’s dance!”
And anyone that blond chick acts like that towards love it because she breaks the ice, makes things comfy and inviting, and makes you feel like she wants you to be there and your presence matters.
You can be that blond chick. Even if you’re a brunette. We are really talking a hypothetical character here. I just feel like the best way to convey the personality is a blond chick. Maybe you disagree. If you do, imagine it as the person you feel is best to convey that vibe. That whole, “Walk with me, let me show you where to go, sit down, eat something.” You can imagine Brad Mondo instead of Reese Witherspoon. In fact, Brad Mondo is better.
Social Media Goals: Be Social
Social Media Graphics Content Ideas
Take your own photos
If Content is King, then I’d say Authenticity is its Queen, but I’m honestly getting kind of sick of those words, and I cringed saying it. One way to be ‘authentic’ with your visual strategy is to plan to take some of your own photos. People want to see you. Not Omnicom Group. Nor 123RF.
Common types of photos that are super easy to shoot on your own:
♥ Flatlays
♥ Coffee Mug + Vibe in the Background
♥ What Inspires You
♥ Things in your hands with a pretty background (like photos, notes, products you love, etc.)
♥ Selfies (of course)
♥ Pets and Family
♥ Still Life
♥ Work in Progress – or What you’re working on
♥ Show & Tell
♥ Things that make you happy
Plus add that Lifestyle is ALWAYS TRENDING…
I personally do not understand this concept too well on account I’m a little on the autism spectrum, so it’s a real wonderment for me. But it appears, typical humans are incredibly fascinated by watching each other live. I think part of it is “life ideas,” like that travel blogger went to The Island of that Place, and I want to go there too. But I also think part of it is Identity based, like “I’m a farmer’s wife, so I want to follow people who live just like me,” but also, social based, “I’m a farmer’s wife so I want people to see me hanging out with all the farmer’s wives at the farmer’s wives table.” Plus aspirations vibe, such as “I want to surround myself with luxury vibes to motivate me to make more money.” Which that one is something Estee Lauder did (those are not her words though). And then sometimes we like to watch the person who is doing everything wrong so we can feel more content with ourselves.
My sister hated cats most of her life, and then in her 40’s, she gets a kitten, and now she’s a cat lady sharing cat memes.
If ever you are stuck coming up with ideas for things to photograph, Instagram flat out tells you what people like via popular hashtags. So ideas that people love…
- #MyLife – whatever it may be like #MomLife
- #Love – whatever it is you love
- #Vibes – Like #FallVibes #CozyVibes
- #Mood – Like #MondayMood #TodaysMood
- #Nature – a picture of outside
- #Amazing – If you think it’s amazing, you should take a picture of it.
- #Inspiration – Photos of things that inspire you
- #OOTD (outfit of the day)
- #Food
But you can do so much more with creativity and be more you.
Examples… Nicole Knepper, writer at Moms Who Drink and Swear, she has a thing where she took a photo of her drinking out of a coffee mug, and then put that on a coffee mug and sent it as a gift to her friend. Her friend then took a photo of her drinking out of that coffee mug, put it on a coffee mug, and sent it to Nicole. Then Nicole took a picture of her drinking out of that coffee mug, put that one on a coffee mug, and sent it to her friend. They’ve been doing this for years sharing their photos on Facebook every so many months.
Patti Ford, who used to have a blog called Insane in the Mom Brain, did a blog post about visiting some kind of medieval festival, but she was constipated that day and crampy, and she gathered photos of where the universe was mocking her, some was signage from the festival that had poop jokes, some were of people and situations… Many had her profile with her pushing out her tummy, rubbing her lower tummy, and making frown faces at the camera. Then she made a t-shirt that showed a bloated stick figure and says “I didn’t poop today.” which is a parody of another t-shirt design.
The Bloggess, Jenny Lawson, has photos of her strange hobbies including dressing taxidermied varmint in cute outfits.
But you can go beyond just photos and get into…
Make a Collage
Stack photos with a transparent background and illustrations together in Canva or Photoshop.
Get ideas (and examples of what I’m talking about) on my Pinterest Board Collage Design Inspiration
The most popular use of collages I see with business owners and female entrepreneurs are Vision Boards and Mood Boards.
But some other ideas to Collage…
♥ a description of something
♥ juxtaposition of contrasting themes
♥ a mood
♥ a look or style
♥ a political statement
♥ current events
♥ literature
♥ a song
♥ irony
♥ metaphor
♥ pop culture and how it relates to _______
One of my favorite terms to look up on Pinterest is Surreal Collage Art.
Typography Posters
One great way to provide a visual aid without having to take photographs or purchase any illustrations is to harness the power of Typography Posters and Design.
You can make so many artistic and awesome things with just text and shapes.
Ideas include:
♥ Quotes
♥ Event Flyers
♥ Brand Identity using words that describe your vibe
♥ Motivational Verbs
♥ Message (like Wake the Fuck Up)
♥ Poetry
♥ Word Maps
♥ Big Word and related words
♥ Imagery Words / Symbolism like Ho Ho Ho for Christmas, or CTRL ALT DEL for the vibe that associates to the computer freezing up.
♥ Allusion – Allude to something famous as if you are in that story but your words
♥ Metaphor – Similes and metaphors that are weird, funny, or relateable
♥ Oxymoron – Act Naturally
♥ Personification – Give non human things human characteristics, like quote an object in your house.
For ideas on techniques, take a look at my lookbook and cheat sheet for ideas, and also search term Swiss Style Posters.
Illustrations and SVG’s
So many types of pictures can be created using Illustations and SVG’s (and sometimes accompanying text). You do want to look at the social media platform you are on and make use of how they let you upload graphics and what is popular among other users to do.
Ideas:
♥ Quotes
♥ Infographics
♥ List on an image like “My 5 Must Haves for Fall” with icons and text
♥ Horoscopes / Astrology Signs
♥ Personalities and _______ like Myers Briggs Personality Types by Coffee
♥ Click for Your Thing video (like 15 images that flash quickly and you hit pause for your word)
♥ Bingo like Walmart Bingo
♥ This or That Question/Vote (which one are you?)
♥ The first 3 words you see are (your week, your day, your year, dot dot dot).
♥ Pie Chart (that’s not realistic, or it can be, but it can also be a relateable made up one)
♥ Random Fun Fact that is Industry Related for You
I love Planoly’s Instagram account for ideas on Instagram Content. Some things I’ve noticed about them:
♥ They do a 9 pic grid in matching colors averaging about one a week
♥ They do regular content that seems to be classified as Tip Tuesday, a random photo that matches the color scheme, a carousel guide, one or 2 fun game like pics, and a couple quotes and at least one or two videos.
Illustration / Photo Stories
What I mean here is the idea of mixing illustrations with a little more than one or two words of text. Instead, it tells a story. So to speak. With illustrations to help. In multiple pictures.
These are almost like Mini Blog Posts as Told by JPGs.
So places you could do these “stories,”
♥ Instagram Stories
♥ Instagram Carousels
♥ Facebook Stories
♥ Facebook multiple images though you can’t be certain they’ll be viewed in the correct order
♥ Facebook Video
♥ Pinterest Stories
♥ Google Stories
Types of Stories you can Share: Short…
♥ Lists like 3 ways to blah blah
♥ How-To
♥ Q&A (like expert Q&A)
♥ Comic Strips
♥ Compare and Contrast
♥ Descriptions
In those types of stories, you can do…
♥ Industry Tips
♥ Soft Social Tips like 3 Ways to Show Kindness
♥ Top favorite blog posts on your blog for a specific topic
♥ Top favorite products for a specific topic
♥ Features of a product
♥ Testimonials
♥ People or Business Spot Light
♥ A Twitter Thread
♥ Compilations of things that tell a story like news headlines plus facts plus tweets plus video footage…
♥ Critical Analysis of Memes, Pop Culture, and Current Events
Call to Action
Just remember, every social media post should end in some kind of question or call to action because the idea is to increase engagement, get to know people, etc.
AS a social media user…
When you’re scrolling through the feed, you kind of want to know two questions on some kind of subconscious level…
- What does this person want me to do?
- What does this person want me to feel?
The first question, “What does this person want me to do?” is more like an offer. What is your offer? What do you want them to do? But also, what do you want them to invest? Things like, “answer this question,” is an easy offer, no money, just thought and time. Click here, that’s asking for more, especially if there’s a price tag for the promise.
But also, that first question is more like people are scrolling at a rapid pace, and they aren’t thinking as critically as they do offline, so you want to guide them into their next step or they will just keep scrolling.
But keep in mind some places have a negative keyword situation happening. For instance, Facebook is not a real big fan of “Don’t forget to like this status” or “Share the love so your friends know this too.” Rachel Miller’s Unofficial Banned Word List for Facebook. So you what you want to do is guide with the next step in a way that does not sound salesy or spammy.
The second question, “What does this person want me to feel?” is really simply answered when you provide emojis. It’s the craziest thing. If I tell you “I just spilled coffee all over my shirt,” and I follow it with sad face, people know to respond with a sad face and maybe encouragement. If I follow it with instead a laughing emoji, people know to respond with a LMAO and maybe a story of the same happening to them.
But even the more obvious things where we know how we should feel, like a photo of your kids and you saying how much you love them, we know HEARTS! But if you add hearts to it, then it reminds us we should do hearts. Like the emoji triggers the engagement options in our brain.
Evergreen Things Humans Love
Overall, things that humans like and has worked for centuries that you can incorporate into your typography or your photos or your illustrations and social media graphics content ideas…
♥ Literary Devices: Masterclass Link and Prep Scholar
♥ Basic Essay Styles
♥ Egyptian Hieroglyphs often used images of living creatures, objects used in every day life, and symbols, and they frequently showed a story of what happened, what they want to happen in the afterlife (in tombs), and honored the gods & pharaohs (celebrities). Life hasn’t changed much in 7 thousand years.
♥ Definition of Art from Oxford Languages includes, “producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.” Because people like pretty things and things that make them feel.
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I love your post! So informative and fun, you do a great job. Thank you.