Content Ideas Generator
Generates a bank of 30 specific content ideas mapped to the client's pillars and platforms, plus 5 evergreen series, or a blog topic list with briefs. Ideas must be specific to the client's industry and audience, not generic social media advice restated.
Use When
- We have run out of things to post and need a bank of ideas mapped to our pillars and platforms.
- We want a few recurring series the team can repeat every week without starting from scratch.
- The client needs blog or article topics with short briefs, a target keyword and buyer stage, sorted into SEO drivers, authority builders and thought leadership.
- A slow month, launch or season needs new angles from ideation frameworks rather than recycled posts.
Do Not Use When
11-content-calendar for putting approved ideas on dates with owners and production cues.blog-writer for writing a chosen article in full.playbook-viral-content-design for engineering a single piece for shareability.- Stop before presenting trends, statistics or competitor examples as fact without a source; mark unsourced ideas as hypotheses.
Required Inputs
| Artefact |
Source/provider |
Required? |
If absent |
| Client name, industry, country/city and primary goal (awareness, community, sales, recruitment) |
Client brief |
Yes |
Default the market to Uganda/East Africa; ask for the goal before generating. |
| Target audience (demographics, interests, location, key concerns) |
Client or audience research |
Yes |
Stop and ask; ideas without an audience situation are generic. |
| Active platforms |
Client or channel plan |
Yes |
Ask; platform minimums cannot be set without them. |
| Content pillars with percentages |
10-content-pillars output |
Yes |
Route to 10-content-pillars; label any working mix provisional. |
| Brand tone (3 words) |
04-brand-voice-intake |
No |
Take tone from the client's recent posts and flag it as assumed. |
| Upcoming campaigns, launches and seasonal dates; any trend, statistic or competitor example used |
Client; traceable source |
Conditional |
Use the Uganda/EA seasonal hooks; mark unsourced trend ideas as hypotheses. |
The full intake list is in the social idea build method.
Workflow
- Confirm whether the brief is for social post ideas or a blog/article programme; for 15–25 blog topic ideas with 200-word hybrid summaries saved to
docs/blogs/topics.md, follow blog and article topic briefs instead of the 30-idea social table. Route to caption-writer if finished copy is wanted.
- Inventory the supplied facts, pillars, platforms and sources; stop if the goal, audience or active platforms are unknowable.
- Apply all 8 idea generation frameworks from the social idea build method, each contributing at least 2–3 ideas.
- Fill the 30-idea table (number, idea title, platform, content type, pillar, 2-sentence brief) against the platform, content-type, pillar and category distribution rules.
- For each idea, name the audience situation, narrative job, emotional or practical tension, proof/source need, choice or CTA, format/readability risk, and the learning signal it can generate.
- Build 5 evergreen series (name, concept, frequency, posting day, first episode idea) tailored to the client's industry, platform mix and tone.
- Check the set against the quality standards and the
anti-ai-slop gate; correct any generic, unsourced or mis-distributed idea and rerun the distribution count.
- Deliver the table and series with the source register, hypotheses and the next approval step for
11-content-calendar.
Distribution minimums
| Rule |
Minimum |
| Ideas per platform |
Facebook 5; Instagram 5; LinkedIn 4 (if active); WhatsApp 3 (broadcast or Status); TikTok 4 (if active); YouTube 2 (if active). With fewer than 5 platforms, redistribute so every active platform has at least 4. |
| Content types |
At least one each of image post, short-form video, carousel, Story or Status, poll or question, text post, WhatsApp broadcast, Reel or TikTok. |
| Pillars |
Proportional to the percentages: in 30 ideas a 40% pillar gets about 12, a 20% pillar about 6. |
| Categories |
Educational, entertaining or relatable, promotional, behind the scenes, social proof, community, seasonal or cultural hook, UGC prompt. |
Outputs
| Artefact |
Consumer |
Acceptance condition |
| 30-idea table |
Client lead; 11-content-calendar |
Every row has a specific, vivid title and a 2-sentence brief saying what the content looks like and why it will work for this audience; minimums met. |
| 5 evergreen series |
Client lead; production team |
Each has a brandable name, 2-sentence concept, frequency, posting day and a fully described first episode. |
| Blog topic list with briefs, when requested |
blog-writer; 12-website-content-plan |
Built with the blog topic-brief procedure; each topic carries keyword and buyer stage. |
Evidence Produced
| Evidence |
Format |
Acceptance condition |
| Idea-to-source register |
Inline table |
Every trend, statistic and competitor example traces to a dated source or is labelled a hypothesis. |
| Distribution count |
Table: platform, content type, pillar, category, framework |
Shows each minimum met, or the gap named. |
Capability and Permission Boundaries
Read and search only; analysis is read-only. Publishing, spend, live account changes, outreach and personal-data processing need explicit, action-specific client authority. Featuring a customer, partner or influencer idea needs their consent before production.
Degraded Mode
Without confirmed pillars, audience or active platforms, return the narrowest qualified result and mark the affected checks not assessed. A framework-led idea bank for the known platforms can still be delivered, labelled provisional until the pillars are approved.
Decision Rules
| Condition |
Action |
Failure or risk avoided |
| The brief asks for blog or article topics rather than social posts |
Switch to the blog topic-brief procedure and its companion references. |
Forcing article topics into a social post table. |
| A client uses fewer than 5 platforms |
Redistribute proportionally so every active platform has at least 4 ideas. |
Thin coverage on the platforms the client actually uses. |
| A cultural or religious occasion does not genuinely connect to what the client does |
Leave it out; handle Martyrs Day (3 June) respectfully and never promotionally. |
Forced, inauthentic or offensive seasonal content. |
| A seasonal date varies (Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, harvests) |
Confirm the year's date before briefing, or mark it not assessed. |
Greetings on the wrong day. |
| An idea rests on a trend, statistic or competitor example without a source |
Label it a hypothesis and name the evidence needed. |
Presenting unsourced claims as fact. |
| An idea features a customer, story or result |
Use only real, consented material; never invent customer stories, results, permissions, cultural facts or platform behaviour. |
Fabricated social proof. |
Quality Standards
- All 30 ideas are specific to the client's industry, audience and location; no generic filler or restated social media advice.
- Every active platform receives its minimum allocation and all content types are represented across the 30.
- All 8 idea generation frameworks contribute at least 2 ideas each.
- Pillar distribution reflects the percentages provided in the content pillars input.
- Seasonal hooks use Uganda/EA dates, not US/UK calendar defaults.
- Evergreen series are named, specific and immediately actionable, with the first episode fully described.
- British English throughout; the set passes the
anti-ai-slop ship gate, and a blocking factual, cultural, safety or permission defect stops release.
Anti-Patterns
- Generating a list of hooks without a job, audience situation, proof or next action. Fix: add the missing narrative and measurement fields or narrow the idea set.
- Writing ideas before the goal and audience are known. Fix: stop and obtain the missing brief fields.
- Using US/UK calendar defaults for seasonal hooks. Fix: use the Uganda/EA occasions table and confirm variable dates.
- Restating generic series formats such as "Ask [Brand Name]" unchanged. Fix: tailor all 5 series to the client's industry, platform mix and tone.
- Adding a price, result, quotation, platform limit or cultural claim without a traceable source. Fix: verify it or qualify/remove it.
- Chasing a trend directly. Fix: show what the trend means for the audience, keeping the brand current without being reactive or superficial.
References
