42 Social Media Post Ideas To Boost Your Brand (+ Examples)
Looking for social media post ideas? I’ve got you covered.
It’s important for brands to stay active on social, but I know how tough it can be to keep coming up with fresh post ideas to fill out your content calendar.
To help give you some inspiration, I’ve put together this huge list of tried-and-tested post ideas that can help you boost your social media presence fast.
#1 – Promote your products & services
I like to follow the 80/20 rule when it comes to social media: 80% of your posts should be there to generate engagement, while the other 20% should be promotional.
And the most straightforward type of promotional post is one in which you advertise your products and services.
Share a snap of your best-seller to Instagram, make a TikTok video showcasing a new product you’ve just launched, Tweet about features and benefits… you get the idea. Here’s an example from @Vans Instagram account:
#2 – Share your expert tips
What does your brand know better than anyone else? Make a social media post sharing your expert tips on that topic.
For example, if you’re a pet food brand, you could make a video with ‘5 tips to keep your dog healthy (from a pet nutritionist)’ and share it on TikTok and YouTube. Or if you’re a fashion brand, share some expert advice on ‘how to accessorize this summer’ in your Instagram Stories.
Here’s an example of a YouTube Short we created for Blogging Wizard:
#3 – Run a social media contest
One of the best ways to grow your social media following fast is to run a social media contest. You can use a giveaway tool like SweepWidget to set it up in under 10 minutes.
As a prize, you could offer a hamper of some of your best products, or a free subscription package to whatever service you’re selling.
Then, set some entry conditions based on your social media marketing goals. For example, you could require entrants to follow your Instagram page, like a post, tag a friend, etc.
Once everything is set up, promote your giveaway in posts across all the social media channels you’re active on. You can boost your posts or run paid ads to help them gain some initial traction. Here’s an example of a successful Facebook contest from Butlin’s:
#4 – Share UGC (user-generated content)
Use a social listening tool to find social media posts in which users are talking about your brand, products, or services positively. Then, share that content on your page. It’ll serve as powerful social proof for your brand, plus it also shows your customers that you value their opinions.
Another great way to collect UGC that you can share on your socials is to run a photo-submission contest. Set up a giveaway (see above) in which users have to submit a photo of them using your product to enter. Then, pick your favorite entries and post them.
#5 – Share reviews & testimonials
Post screengrabs of your best customer reviews and testimonials to your social media profiles and pages. Like UGC, this serves as powerful social proof and can help build trust with potential customers.
#6 – Poll your audience
Most social networks have some sort of polling feature that lets you ask a multiple-choice question to your audience. Not only do polls make for engaging social posts, but they’re also a great way to gather insights from your target customers.
For example, if you’re an ice cream brand, you could create a poll with a selection of flavors to choose from and ask your audience which one they’d most like to see you launch.
Here’s an example of a social media poll from Overwatch:
It generated a lot of engagement with thousands of answers and helped the developers collect useful feedback from the existing player base.
#7 – Ask for feedback
If you’re not into the poll idea, you can just straight up ask your social media audience for feedback, just like @SocksAgency has done in this Tweet:
The stats speak for themselves. This simple question got 117 comments, 719 likes, and 15.3k views. And more importantly, it helped Socks gather invaluable feedback on what their audience wants.
#8 – Answer FAQs
Don’t just ask questions in your social post—answer them! Start by making a post inviting your audience to ask questions, and then do a follow-up series of posts in which you answer some of the most frequently asked questions.
#9 – Repost viral content
Most of your social media posts should be your own original content. But sometimes, it can help to repost viral content from other creators—as long as it’s a good fit for your brand. This is especially effective on TikTok and YouTube Shorts.
For example, take a look at artist @JasonDerulo’s YouTube account. Pretty much all of his videos are reposted viral Shorts from other creators, with his own music dubbed over the top.
This may seem a little sneaky (and morally questionable), but it’s proven to be a super effective strategy as his posts often get hundreds of thousands of views.
#10 – Share a link to branded content
If you have a company blog, post links to posts you want to promote on your socials along with a CTA. This can help drive traffic to your website and get more eyes on your content. To get more clicks, include a memorable/important quote from the content in the caption, or just explain why your audience should check it out.
#11 – Repurpose your branded content
Another post idea is to take a piece of branded content, like a long-form blog post, and turn it into a series of short social media posts. You could also do the same with other types of branded content like videos, podcasts, infographics, case studies, etc.
Videos are especially important because they tend to get more engagement.
For example, I published an article on unconventional growth tactics over at Blogging Wizard. We pulled a few of those tips and created this YouTube Short:
Generative AI tools make this a lot easier too. You can feed a piece of branded content to an AI tool like GPT-4 and have it repurposed for you in seconds.
#12 – Share relevant curated content
Aside from your own branded content, you can also share links to other relevant content (like recent industry news) on your socials. Missinglettr’s Curate tool is great for this. It automatically crawls the web and pulls in a list of high-quality, niche-relevant content that’s sure to resonate with your audience, and lets you automatically share them to your socials in a few clicks.
#13 – Share a case study
Case studies are examples of people already using your products or services. Ideally, they should show your brand in a positive light. Ask your existing customers to share their success stories using a branded hashtag, and then, repost your favorites to your brand’s social media accounts.
#14 – Highlight your brand values
Social media is a great place to establish your brand identity. So naturally, you’ll want to make sure you’re highlighting your company values in your posts. Here’s an example of what that might look like in practice from vacuum manufacturer Dyson:
In this post, they highlight their commitment to achieving gender equality in engineering. At the same time, they give us a glimpse at how their engineers work together to pioneer cutting-edge technology.
#15 – Do something charitable
Speaking of highlighting your brand values, why not share a post to highlight some good your brand has done in the world? Maybe you’ve raised money or awareness for a particular charity or cause.
Here’s an example Tweet from retailer Savers, in which they highlight the millions they’ve raised for charity Marie Curie:
#16 – Leverage employee advocacy
Run an employee advocacy campaign to get the people who work for your brand involved in your social media efforts. You could ask staff to share their positive experiences on social media. Or, just like and share your posts from your brand’s official page to help boost its reach and engagement.
#17 – Host an AMA (Ask Me Anything)
AMA’s are posts in which you invite social media users to ask you questions, and then answer them. The best place to do this is on Reddit—there’s a dedicated subreddit specifically for brands and celebrities to post their AMAs.
#18 – Promote a sale
Email is the channel most brands use when they want to announce a sale or special discount offer, but why not announce it on social media too?
#19 – Get involved in a challenge
Every once in a while, a viral challenge will sweep across social media. Capitalize on the hype by getting involved in the next one. If you’re lucky, your attempt at the challenge could go viral and get you thousands of new followers.
#20 – Start a branded hashtag challenge
Starting a hashtag challenge is simple. Create a video that shows a specific action, like a dance, date, trick, or some other feat of athleticism (think trick shots, bottle flipping, etc.). Then, challenge your audience to share their own attempt and remind them to tag their videos with your branded hashtag.
A good example of this comes from Converse. They started a very successful branded hashtag challenge on TikTok, in which they challenged users to customize their shoes and share their creations using the #ConverseAllStar hashtag. And it went super viral.
#21 – Announce an upcoming product launch
Planning to launch a new product later in the year? Start building momentum early by announcing it on social media, then post about it again when it gets launched. Here’s an example from McDonalds:
#22 – Offer a sneak peek
Give viewers a sneak peek of your next product to generate a buzz ahead of launch day. This works especially well for artists—you can leak a preview of your album/track to give your audience a taste of what’s to come.
#23 – Celebrate a milestone
Just made your thousandth sale? Hired your hundredth employee? Reached 10k followers on Instagram? Celebrate the milestone with a social media post.
Here’s an example from Starbucks. In this Tweet, they celebrate the 20th birthday of their iconic Pumpkin Spice Latte.
#24 – Start a debate
Like pineapple on your pizza? Think the milk should go in the tea before the water? Share your controversial opinions on social media to start a debate and watch as the engagements roll in. Because nothing gets people talking quite like controversy.
Dominos offered a masterclass in this strategy when they Tweeted this gem:
#25 – Give away a freebie
Who doesn’t like free stuff? Make a downloadable resource to give away to your followers for free and share the download link on your socials. Even better, gate the content behind an opt-in form so users have to sign up to your mailing list to get it. That way, you can retarget them on email later as well as social.
#26 – Share an inspirational quote
This is a super easy post idea for when you’ve hit writer’s block. Just look up some inspirational quotes from famous historical figures or thought leaders in your industry, and then share them to your socials.
Quote videos typically perform quite well. Especially on TikTok and YouTube. These are quite easy to create.
Here’s another example from Blogging Wizard:
#27 – Make a meme
Memes are the love language of the internet. So why not create your own version of a popular or trending meme and post it to your social media accounts? Not only do these types of posts get lots of interaction, but they also help to humanize your brand.
These are fun to create. I’ve done a few for Blogging Wizard. Here’s one that was fairly on point:
#28 – Post something funny
You can’t go wrong with comedy. Share a hilarious story, a joke, a pun, or just a funny observation. If you can get your audience laughing along with your post, you’re winning. Here’s another example from British bakery Greggs:
#29 – Challenge your audience
People love a challenge. So, make a post challenging your audience to do something, and there’s a good chance you’ll see an uptick in engagements. Here’s a great example from Lay’s Twitter account, in which they challenged users to tell them a potato joke.
#30 – Straight up ask for engagements
Sometimes, the best way to get more engagements on your social media posts is to just ask for them! That’s what British bakery chain Greggs did in this tongue-in-cheek post, where they ask for a billion likes.
#31 – Weigh in on the latest drama
Another day, another internet drama. Don’t be afraid to get involved in dramas when it makes sense—just make sure to keep it tasteful.
A good example of this is the Colin vs Cuthbert drama from 2021, in which there was a court case between two rival British supermarket chains over the ‘Colin the Caterpillar’ cake, which quickly devolved into social media hilarity.
Brands from up and down the UK weighed in on the drama with funny remarks using the #freecuthbert hashtag, including this Tweet from the RSPB:
#32 – Make a holiday-related post
Everyone remembers the ‘big’ holidays: Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Hanukka, Easter, etc. But did you know that there are hundreds of other, lesser-known holidays, on pretty much every day of the year?
If you can’t think of something to post, just find out what international holidays that day coincides with and post something about that. If it’s something related to your industry, like in this example from Lay’s, even better!
#33 – Share some internal data
Another post idea is to share some internal data from your brand. For example, if you’re a software company, you might reveal the number of monthly active users or the average amount of time people spend using your app each month. If you’re a retailer, you might share your sales growth year-over-year. You get the idea.
#34 – Collaborate with influencers
Influencers have a lot of organic reach, and an endorsement from an influencer with a following that closely aligns with your target customers can provide a significant boost to your brand’s social presence.
You can find influencer partnership opportunities through databases like CreatorIQ or Upfluence, or just reach out to them directly on social. Get them to share a sponsored post promoting your product/services, and then repost it on your own socials for social proof.
#35 – Collaborate with other brands
Aside from influencers, it’s also a good idea to collaborate with other brands. Join forces to create social content and share each other’s posts on your respective pages. It’s a win-win situation: Each of you gets to reach a whole new audience and increase your social media presence.
Just make sure the brand you partner with is a good ‘fit’. They probably shouldn’t be a direct competitor, but should be relevant to your niche with a similar target market and follower size. Here’s a great example from @LetsRockHQ and @Sendible:
#36 – Share a behind-the-scenes photo
Post a snap of your office, boardroom meeting, HQ, etc. on Instagram or LinkedIn to give viewers a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes at your brand. This can be a great way to show off your company culture while also driving engagements.
#37 – Reveal exciting news about your brand
Just secured a major investment? Acquired a company? Started a new partnership? Released a product update? Make a social media post to let your followers know about it. In particular, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook and good places to share these kinds of posts.
#38 – Make a day-in-the-life video
Share a video post on socials like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube in which you let viewers look over your shoulder (or over one of your employee’s shoulders) as you go about your day. Give them a glimpse into what a typical day in the office might look like and what your brand achieves on a day-to-day basis.
#39 – Utilize trending sounds
Trending sounds are snippets of audio that are commonly used in short-form videos on sites like TikTok and Instagram Reels. For example, a trending sound might be a snippet from a popular song or dialogue from a movie.
New sounds start trending every week, and using one almost guarantees your videos will reach a wider audience. So, get involved. You could create a lip-sync video, meme, dance, or anything else you can think of.
#40 – Share a business process
Let viewers see behind the curtain and give them a glimpse at something your brand does. For example, if you’re a retailer, let viewers in on your product design/development process. If you’re a service provider, show them what your workflow looks like when working with a client. If you’re a game developer, share the process of making your game. You get the idea.
#41 – Share ‘how-to’ content
Social media content isn’t just to entertain, it’s also to inform. So, why not share ‘how-to’ posts to educate your audience about your brand, products, or services? For example, if you’re an SaaS provider, you could make a video series showing users how to use different features of your product.
#42 – Advertise a job opening
Get your HR team involved and advertise a job opening on social media. Not only will this help with your recruitment efforts by allowing you to reach a wide audience of potential applicants, but if the job opening goes viral, it can also help boost your brand’s social media awareness.
For example, chocolate brand Cadbury shared a social media post announcing they were hiring a ‘Cadbury Chocolate Taster’ last year.
Unsurprisingly, it went super viral, racking up hundreds of thousands of views on and over 27k likes on Instagram alone.
Final thoughts
There you have it—42 social media post ideas to help boost your brand.
While these content ideas are a great jumping-off point, it’s important to remember that every brand’s audience is unique. What works for you might not work for someone else, and vice versa.
So, it’s up to you to figure out what types of posts resonate with your specific audience. And the only way to do that is to try different things out and carefully track the results. Then, use those insights to inform your strategy going forward.
Of course, it also helps to make sure you’re consistently posting at the times when your audience is most active—this will boost engagement and reach. You can use one of these social media scheduling tools to help with that.
If you’re planning to post contests and giveaways, check out our roundup of the best social media giveaway tools, as well as these giveaway ideas for small businesses.
Related Reading: 22 TikTok Video Ideas To Inspire You & Engage Your Audience (+ Examples)
