Social marketing is notable for its fair share of fun aspects, but that doesn’t mean this division lacks difficulty: keeping things creative on a regular basis can feel like a juggling act, and waiting for the muse is simply not an option.

So with that in mind, we’ve gathered a few vital elements that help build creative social campaigns:

Innovation

Marketing campaigns should always try to bring something fresh, even if it’s a small change.

One way to do this is by making room for new categories in your blog, new types of content. One in particular that is quite effective, is event coverage: conferences give plenty of interesting material for blogs, and the attendees are bound to be interested in what you have to say. Make sure you’re using the event’s hashtag when promoting the post.

Moreover, if you want to expand your reach, trying new platforms is a good strategy. Exploring new outlets for your marketing can be a real breath of fresh air. There are endless mediums one can explore, such as podcasts, online magazines, eBooks, slideshares, and webinars — you can consider if any of these is right for your brand.

Quality Storytelling

Top 10s and top 5s are still incredibly popular, and it’s easy to see why, as the list format is concise, easy and quick to digest. If you can break up text with images, even better.

The number alone can make a title more eye-catching. It’s a tried-and-tested method: more than a third of Buzzfeed’s posts have a number in the title.

However, you also don’t want to neglect the long-form articles, as they still have their worth. It’s about a healthy balance between the two: it’s a good strategy to keep the lists coming more often, but the long-form pieces also have their time, place and audience.

Witty Headlines

Intriguing headlines are as old as time, but there’s no denying that websites like Buzzfeed and Upworthy put a whole new spin on them. The result is a new breed of clickable headlines that gets people sharing and commenting.

These websites may be targeted at a different audience, but you can still have them as benchmarks: the art of snappy headlines is one thing to learn from them and to adapt for your own brand.

Different articles need different titles, but there are a few qualities that all great titles should have in common: they should be original, clear, simple, and straightforward.

You can try different exercises to find the best headlines, such as fill-in-the-blank templates. Another great tip is to write 5-10 titles for every piece, and then narrow it down to the best option.

Visuals

It’s no rocket science, human beings are visual creatures, so great content needs to come with great images. The right pictures can give your content the boost it needs, and it can make all the difference in the world: it can be eye-catching and make people click, and stay longer.

You can diversify with different forms of visuals, such as images, videos, gifs, and comics. Memes and infographics have also become immensely popular in the last few years, and there are quick and easy tools online to make your very own.

Contests

The great thing about contests is that they get people involved, they promote interaction between you and your customers, which can only improve your brand and fortify your relationship.

You can choose between the convenient sweepstakes, photo and/or vote contests, to the more time consuming (yet effective) video contests.

Another great advantage of contests is that they bring a human, humorous side of your brand. Caption contests stand out as a particularly funny type of contest: simply post a picture, ask people to submit their best captions and wait for the responses.

Gamification

Gamification and the aforementioned contests are both effective for similar reasons: both show a light-hearted side of your brand while promoting interaction between your company and people.

Plus, people are wired to love competition, and a well-designed game can be a great opportunity to get them to engage with your brand and have a pleasant, fun brand experience.

Gamification is also a fantastic way to encourage customer loyalty. Starbucks is a great example: its gamified loyalty programme consists of earning stars for Starbucks purchases.

Collaboration

The phrase “No man is an island” rings true when it comes to good social marketing.

Collaboration is key to keeping things fresh and creative. Strategic partnerships bring the necessary weight to your brand and can make any campaign seem more interesting. There’s plenty to achieve with good partnerships: they can extend your reach and develop your reputation.

You have many possibilities to consider: you can team up with charities, online influencers and/or other businesses. You can join forces and write guest blogs, guides, record videos or co-host webinars.

Industry Thought Leadership

There’s a popular rule that makes sharing content on social media a lot more productive: it’s called the 4-1-1 concept, created by Andrew Davis, author of Brandscaping.

This method conveys that out of every six pieces of content shared on social media, 4 must be content from other industry influencers, 1 should be your own original, informative content, and 1 should be sales-driven (coupon, product news, press release).