5 Quick Sources of Social Media Content

As social media manager, I spend the majority of my day writing content for client social media sites and blogs.  Most of our clients send us information about their business, which helps us with the process of developing content. However, there are also a good number of times when we need to rely on outside sources to help us write their messages.

Over the years, I’ve found a few resources that help us when we’ve hit a wall with content.  I hope you find the sources listed below as valuable as we do.

Brownielocks. Ever wonder how people know that it’s “National Take Your Teddy Bear to Work Day?” Well, there’s a day, week, and month for just about everything!  Brownielocks is the most comprehensive source I’ve found for finding these ‘holidays,’ which are searchable by month and year.

On-This-Day.  Want to make a relevant historical reference? Check out the data found in on-this-day.com. You can search by music history, miscellaneous history or famous birthdays. For example, we used the following message in April for our New York City-based luxury apartment client: On this day in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in New York City!

Seriously Amazing.  This Smithsonian-powered site offers a variety of fun questions related to art, culture, history and science.  Check it out if you’re looking for something compelling to help drive engagement.

Twitter Search.  Twitter offers the largest range of up-to-the minute data on just about any topic imaginable. Simply go to Twitter.com and type a keyword in search.  For example, when we’re looking for information for our client who offers medical billing services, we’ll type the words “#EMR” or “EHR” in Twitter and find something that’s relevant and worthy of sharing.

Pinterest Search. Whether your brand is highly visual (think interior design) or more business-centric (think accounting), you can often use Pinterest to get a few ideas.  Once again, you can type a keyword into the search tool and instantly scan pins, pinners, and boards.  I love using Pinterest to search for ‘write the caption’ or ‘yay or nay’ posts for our client who offers products for African safaris. I can also use the site to find something fun or entertaining for our client who offers accounting services.

These sources should help to enhance your social media content or fill a nagging gap in your messaging. I still recommend that the majority of content come from you and your business – in your voice. A good balance is necessary to keep your content from getting stale, so I encourage you to use these and other tools as a supplement to your efforts, but not as the backbone of your efforts.