Putting up social media accounts for your company is more of required now than it is an option. You have to put yourself out there and reach out to your audience.
 

The beginning is always the hardest part. Setting up accounts and making a unified branding can be tricky. However, keeping your accounts updated is more difficult.
 

There’s always a problem on what to post when nothing new seems to come up. Or a problem when something new does come up but you tend to overshare already.
 

But guess what? That’s not too difficult to resolve. All it takes is planning, creativity, and a whole lot of effort.
 

Here are a few tips that you can do to make sure that your company’s social media accounts don’t go to sleep.
 

Plan and Schedule Content

Gone were the days when social media marketing is just a little extra that your company does. Now, you need to make it a part of your year-long marketing plan.
 

If you just started now, it’s not yet too late. There are still many days remaining for this year. Just remember to plan ahead for the upcoming year.
 

Plan appropriate content for the rest of the year. You can create post ideas for holidays and other special occasions – including those of your company’s (e.g. anniversary, crazy day, etc.).
 

You can also join the bandwagon of #ThrowbackThursday or #FlashbackFriday or any other common hashtag that’s both applicable to your company’s niche and can ignite participation from your target audience.
 

Using #ICYMI (In Case You Miss It) on past posts is also a great content idea to share to your followers.
 

The thing is, there’s always a good, ideal post every single day. Just explore the social media world and you’ll realize that the possibilities are endless.
 

Listen

Sounds vague, doesn’t it? But that’s as simple as it gets.
 

Learn to listen from your audience. Ask them what they like to see on your social media accounts by creating a quick survey. If you’re too shy to ask, you can always use third party tools for social media analytics to know which among your posts they responded more.
 

You also need to listen to your team and the rest of the people in the company. They might have an ‘outsider’ perspective on things that the entire marketing team hasn’t thought of.
 

Sometimes, the best ideas – even the craziest ones – are not from the experts that are you and the rest of the marketing team. Sometimes, they’re planted somewhere at the back of the mind of the unexpected (but brilliant) people.
 

Just #Ask

When it gets really quiet and boring around, you can always #Ask. For others, they call this #AskMeAnything or #AskWhateverYourCompanyNameIs.
 

Let someone else from the team handle it – or let anyone who got the best, wittiest answers respond to questions. This can spark audience interest and, at the same time, impose a character on your social media accounts for branding purposes.
 

Do you want your audience to see you as witty? Funny? Creative? Then this is your best chance to interact with them.
 

Remember, they might be asking you through a machine (aka social media), but you are human after all. So never be afraid to ‘humanize’ your social media accounts.
 

Start a Contest or Competition

How else can you spark participation than starting a contest or competition?
 

Don’t think too much and too big. It could be as simple as asking your followers for smart taglines, creative logo designs, etc. You don’t exactly have to execute it, but you can get ideas from them.
 

You can have other forms of contests like trivia contests, anniversary contents, etc.
 

But you might wonder… what about the prize? Of course, people would love prizes! That’s what they’re joining for, right?
 

Again, don’t think too much and too big. If your company have the budget, you can actually give them real, tangible prizes (you might want to save that for your company’s anniversary or during the holidays).
 

But if you don’t, you can simply recognize them by publishing them on your social media accounts. They’ll surely love to have their ideas shared and spread to everyone who follows you. They might not get anything tangible in return, but they’ll love the limelight – and a few additional followers, too!