What's the first step when it comes to creating content that goes viral?
Simple... picking the right content ideas.
Getting this aspect of your content creation process right makes everything else much easier.
So how do you actually come up with these content ideas?
Before answering that question, we first need to discuss something important that a lot of people misunderstand.
Content pillars and the role they play
Content pillars are the topics that you consistently talk about in your content.
For example:
If you're in the self-development niche, your content pillars could be mindset, habits, productivity, and fitness.
If you're into fitness, you can talk about exercise, nutrition, accountability, and so on
You need to choose 3 to 5 content pillars related to your niche.
Having these topics makes coming up with content ideas a much easier process and also makes your entire feed of content fit well with each other.
Over time, people also start knowing you for these topics.
Once you have your content pillars, you can use plug them into different tools and they'll give you a list of ideas you can create content around.
2 tools to help you generate content ideas from content pillars
1. Quora.com:
This is a platform to ask questions and share knowledge that you must have heard about.
Just check out the website and enter one of your content pillars in the search bar and you'll see what people are talking about regarding that topic.
You can actually filter the search results to show questions people are asking about the topic.
These are questions people are actively looking for answers to and you can be the one to provide answers to them with your content.
2. Answerthepublic.com:
This is a social listening tool for content and market research. It allows you to find out what people are discussing with regard to a specific topic on Google, YouTube, or Bing.
Using it is pretty straightforward, check out the website and enter one of your content pillars in the search bar. You can filter the results based on language or location as well.
Can you see how much easier having content pillars makes the process of coming up with content ideas?
Instead of stressing over what you'll be discussing on a specific day about self-development which is very wide, you can focus on your content pillars instead.
The tools we just discussed can be a big help but there's one small problem with them.
The content ideas they provide aren't tested so you have to experiment with them for yourself and see which ones perform well.
This isn't bad but we can do better.
How?
By finding content ideas that have already been tested by other creators and have performed well for them.
This doesn't necessarily mean they will perform well for you but they have a much higher chance of doing so.
When using content ideas from other creators though, make sure you're not being a copycat.
Don't just copy the post word for word but with your brand colors and think you're good to go.
You need to rewrite it in your own unique way, adding your own perspective and experiences as well.
With that out of the way, here are my 2 favorite ways of finding high-performing content ideas.
2 ways to find high-performing content ideas
1. The Instagram Explore page:
Most people don't seem to realize that the Instagram Explore page is a collection of what the algorithm classifies as the best content in your niche.
If you're consuming content from and engaging with other accounts in your niche — which you should, your explore page will show similar niche content because the algorithm knows you're interested in it.
Spend some time going through it and take note of content ideas that keep coming up, these are the post topics in your niche that are currently performing well.
Examine which of these content ideas would be appropriate for your own account based on your content pillars and write them out.
Again, take the content idea only. Don't be a copycat.
2. Inflact:
We already discussed some helpful tools earlier but this is different.
Instead of allowing you to generate content ideas based on your content pillars, this website has a sneaky tool that allows you to analyze the posts from other accounts to find out which brought in the best results.
Here's how to use it.
- Find 3 to 5 accounts with over 5k followers in your niche that post helpful content consistently and get good engagement on their posts
- Go to https://inflact.com/tools/profile-analyzer/
- Enter the first of these accounts and click 'analyze'
- Scroll down to view their most commented and most liked posts
- Take note of the content ideas
- Repeat for the remaining accounts
After doing this, you'll have a lot of content ideas written down.
Check which of the content ideas are appropriate for you based on your content pillars and you're good to go!
With these 4 methods of finding content ideas, you shouldn't have any issues knowing what you should post about for a while.
You'll be able to generate at least 30 high-quality content ideas which you can post for over a month or two depending on your posting frequency.
That's all for now!
Niyo
P.S.: This is a snippet from Chapter 2 of my upcoming ebook, The Content Creation Blueprint which launches next week!
It'll teach you all you need to know about creating content that gets results and actually grows your audience on Instagram in 11 easy-to-follow chapters spread over 80 pages.
Since you're a part of my email list, you'll also qualify for 3 exclusive bonuses and a 50% discount when it drops. Keep your eye on your inbox for more information coming soon!
