Creative block is inevitable – here’s how our social team beats it

You’ve had a good night’s sleep, a very hot fan is within reach, your favorite to-do playlist is ready, a beautiful blank page is looking at you, and you’re ready for your creative mind to spew brilliant ideas all over the place. This.

But, alas, nothing.

It’s the worst feeling ever, especially when you’re forced to provide an entire month of social content yesterday.

It’s a lot. As a social media manager, you are expected to be creative every single day—hell, every hour. And it’s hard AF.

But writer’s block has yet to be normalized in the social media profession. And Hootsuite’s own social team wants to change that, because they, too, have many moments where ideas just don’t flow.

So here, our in-house aces break down what they do when they can’t think of anything, and share their best tips on how to overcome—and maybe even avoid—creative block. After all, even the most experienced creative professionals are not immune from this.

Find inspiration where you expect it most and least

1. Be social

We know, we know. This is a given. (If it isn’t, we have more work to do than we thought.) But it still deserves a mention because it’s probably the most important way for social marketers to draw inspiration.

Braden Cohen, social marketing manager at Hootsuite, says scrolling through your social feeds is just the core of what you should be doing. You should have an endless fascination – dare we say obsession – with social media, and the save button should be your best friend.

Spending a lot of time on social media also helps you identify trends that you might want to use on your channels. Trish Ryswick, Hootsuite’s social engagement specialist, says trends inspire about 80% of Hootsuite’s new ideas, which almost always end well.

Take this Instagram post for example:

When Kim Kardashian visited Harvard in January, the internet was everywhere. Thus, there was a high chance that a jump in trend would bring good results, and it did. The post received 69% more likes and 64% more comments than the Hootsuite average on that platform.

A LinkedIn post linking to the hit Netflix series Emily in Paris did even better, with 78% more likes and 93% more comments than average.

These posts were successful because the team modified the trend to fit the brand and found a way to make it resonate with Hootsuite’s social media audience. This is the key. If you can’t make it understandable for your brand, Braden explains, don’t do it.

Using trends is almost a guaranteed conversation starter and it ensures your brand stays relevant, making Hootsuite the number 1 social content inspiration.

2. Brainstorm frequently and with others

Who doesn’t love a good brainstorm? That’s where the magic happens – as long as everyone feels they can bring all their ideas to the table without judgment.

The Hootsuite social team meets monthly to come up with content for the next month. They do it very casually so there is no pressure (which usually means coming up with ideas) but at the same time they are goal oriented. And while each team member is assigned to specific accounts, when they’re in brainstorming mode, they don’t have to stay in their lane—in fact, they’re encouraged not to.

“We all come up with ideas that could work across all of our channels,” Braden says. “Everyone is doing their part to understand what the idea is and what it could look like in each of our networks, whether visually or in terms of copy.”

But the brainstorming doesn’t end there.

Eileen Kwok, social marketing coordinator for Hootsuite, told us about a paper she shared with Trish called “Creative Inspo”. Basically, it’s a brain dump of all their original content ideas – things like parodies, video styles, and catchy titles or lyrics. Every week they work together to sift their thoughts and bring their favorites to life.

Eileen also believes in being inspired by people outside of work. She says some of her best ideas came to her when she was just chatting with her partner about how her day went.

We are sure that you can communicate. Considering how often your co-workers probably tell you about their “great communication ideas,”sharing thoughts with family and friends can be a nice change of pace—and you can take all the credit.

3. Take advantage of (national) days

This isn’t a cop-out – a National Day calendar can do wonders for inspiration.

“Days of national awareness, appreciation and celebration are great because you know there will be some conversation about them,” says Trish. “And it’s a fun challenge to take, for example, World Pizza Day and talk about your company or industry.”

Pro tip: Hootsuite now has many themed days in our new catalog of ready-to-use content ideas that you can customize and publish with just a few clicks. Try it.

This does not mean that you should have themed days every day. Pick the ones that are most relevant to your brand and place them strategically on your calendar so your audience doesn’t get bored. And if you can drive engagement by not using them at all, that’s cool too, but they’re a great fallback if and when you need them.

For Hootsuite, 2022 has been a year of experimentation — testing and adapting social media posts — to learn about the interests of our audience. With these juicy findings, the social team can focus on other priorities in 2023 and put national days aside for now.

4. Try a change of scenery

You never know where inspiration will come from.

Trish laughs at the fact that she always walks out of the hair salon with a thousand post ideas.

“It inspires me when I am in an unfamiliar place and not doing my usual things,” she says. “I’m in a new place and there’s a reason why I can’t leave.”

When it comes to finding your own sanctuary for inspiration, you can’t force it. But you can actively go to new places or try new things and see where you are forced to use the Notes app on your phone.

Don’t Let Blue Thinking Cloud What Your Business Really Needs

When creatives get the opportunity to express their creativity, they sometimes lose sight of why they’re doing it in the first place: to achieve business goals.

That’s why you need some kind of boundaries.

But boundaries should not be barriers. We are talking about those boundaries that help you stay focused so that your ideas can flourish in all the right directions.

5. Stick to your social strategy

A strong social marketing strategy describes what you are trying to achieve and includes clear plans for how to achieve it. So your ideas should match that.

Through research and analytics, Hootsuite found that social media managers, especially those from small businesses, interacted with the brand on social media far more than any other audience segment. Trish says that it was this data that helped them understand that their strategy should evolve. Now every post is aimed at addressing that audience directly. And this purposeful understanding helps them come up with bigger and better ideas that really convert.

Your strategy should also include content columns (also known as segments) and topics.

Eileen, who manages the Hootsuite TikTok account, says the team has identified four pillars for the platform: educational, helpful, inspiring, and category knowledge. These baskets provide a good direction for content ideas, ensuring the team is not creatively constrained.

6. Be comfortable with pressure from other departments.

Raise your hand if colleagues from other areas of your organization keep asking you to post things on social media that just don’t fit.

Not you? Well, congratulations! We hope you have a beautifully framed award commemorating this rare achievement hanging above your desk.

The rest of us just have to do our best.

So when you have no choice but to fake a smile and say, “Of course! I’ll do it,”try to look at it as a creative opportunity. You may not be able to tie it clearly to your strategy (if you force it too much, it may seem contrived or confusing), but you can improve the content by simplifying the message, giving it the look and feel of your brand, and tailoring it to mimic. content formats on each platform.

“We don’t have all the time in the world,” Bryden says. “But for most content, we’re at least trying to figure out what it can look like so it feels native to every platform.”

It’s also important to know when improving content isn’t worth the effort at all. And it may take your whole being to accept it, but it’s okay to post less-stellar content as-is from time to time.

Not every idea has to be crazy

What motivates you as a social marketer? What worries you?

Is it a rush to come up with something that can go viral? Is it an opportunity to come up with an idea so good that you’ll win a marketing award or be featured in a respected marketing publication?

Unfortunately, not every idea can achieve this. And that’s completely normal. So do what you have to do to come to terms with it because it’s completely normal. Honestly.

7. Post content you’re confident about and content you’re unsure about

Most social marketers were surprised by the results of the post.

“Sometimes what we think will be good turns out to be mediocre because we have such high expectations,” says Trish. “Or it’s testing every box of your strategy, but you’re overthinking it.”

Other times, you do something you’re not sure about and it dominates—maybe, she says, because it feels more organic and authentic. She believes that simple posts (like the one below) and open to interpretation work better with the Hootsuite audience than more specific statements.

So even for ideas you’re not particularly passionate about — ones that seem only meant to fill the empty squares of your content calendar — jump in and post them anyway. No matter how much you think you can predict the outcome of your social media content, you never know for sure. (Thanks, algorithms!)

8. Take risks and learn from them

You know the saying, “Rules are made to be broken”? The same goes for those boundaries we talked about earlier.

“To stay relevant and cutting edge, you need to do things that are a little outside of your typical brand norms,” Briden explains. “And by doing so, it will grab the attention of others and potentially open doors to new audiences.

Hootsuite’s adaptation of the Spotify Wrapped campaign is a perfect example.

It was such a phenomenon in the social world that it seemed necessary to seize on this trend, even if it was not natural, especially visually. But if you change it, it will be less recognizable. In addition, timeliness was critical for the fast to have any meaningful impact.

“The fact that it wasn’t enough ‘us’ didn’t matter this time,”Braden says.

So the team got their way, and in 2022, it became one of the three most effective Hootsuite posts across all channels.

However, had it not been such a success, they would have learned from it, as they have done on many other occasions. That’s why it’s always worth taking risks with new or unique content – and it expands the scope for ideas.

9. Skip the post – everything will be fine

Remember that blank page we mentioned in the introduction. What if it remains empty one day? Maybe… you just don’t post. And you know what else you don’t do? Worry about it.

“At the end of the day, if you don’t do something that enhances a subscriber’s social experience with your brand, it won’t result in a conversion and you could end up doing more harm than good,” says Trish.

She encourages social marketers to ask themselves this question before they hit the post button: If someone sees my brand for the first time, is this the post I want them to see?

No? Well, here is your answer.

Bryden also makes a good point: “Remember, no one is looking only at you. No one follows just one brand on social media.”

In other words, if you don’t post for a day or two, no one will notice – just don’t disappear for too long.

Still need fresh ideas? With Hootsuite’s new built-in content tools, you can get inspired, create, write, and publish amazing posts in an instant. Simply choose a template from our extensive catalog of ideas, customize it with your own words and images (or use it as is), enhance your content with Canva’s great designs, and make sure you get rid of those embarrassing typos with Grammarly edits. Then schedule or publish, all from one place.