Any blogger or social media expert knows the influence that social media can have on an audience. Powerful social media in the right creative hands can promote blog content and drive site traffic. But getting to the powerful, creative posts – that’s the hard part. What sets you apart from the 93 percent of other marketers using social media for business? Thankfully, there are ways to cut through the all the noise. Here are 5 tips to keep content from getting stale when developing a social media strategy:

1.) Photos are worth a million likes: Adding multimedia your posts is the smallest, but most effective change you can make. Facebook posts with photos have the highest interaction rate among users – around a whopping 87 percent. Let your company’s voice be heard through personalized memes and pictures.

2.) Stay up to speed on current events: The news can be your best source of inspiration. It’s the easiest way to start a conversation with your followers on Twitter or Facebook. Using current events can help combat writer’s block and give you a new perspective.

3.) Subscribe to daily newsletters and alert services: This goes hand in hand with current events. Subscribing to SmartBrief newsletters is the biggest help when it comes to digesting daily news. They collect content every day – at least 10 articles – around one topic. It’s pretty likely they will have a newsletter for your industry. Talkwalker or Google Alerts create an alert for your industry, which is another easy way to pay attention to the trends. There are plenty of content ideas just waiting in there.

4.) Get involved: Don’t just retweet what others are writing! Connect with industry-related groups on LinkedIn, get involved with relevant Twitter chats and start conversations on Facebook. Chances are, you’re likely to get noticed for your activity.

5.) Pull from your experience: You may not realize it, but your experiences can make the best topics. You’re in this industry for a reason, you’re an expert. Use those experiences to shape what topics you talk about or what questions you ask to engage an audience.

Now it’s your turn. What ways have you found to shake up your social media routine? Let us know!