Why You Should Steal Content Ideas From Other Industries
Everyone in your sector is copying everyone else in your sector, which is exactly why none of it stands out. The fastest way to fresh content is to borrow a proven format from a business that has nothing to do with yours, then translate it into your own voice.
Dave Smith
# Why You Should Steal Content Ideas From Outside Your Industry
Here's the thing about looking at your competitors for inspiration: everyone in your industry is reading the same advice, copying the same formats, and posting the same tired stuff. If you run a plumbing firm and you only ever look at what other plumbers are posting, you'll end up sounding exactly like every other plumber. Which is fine, if your goal is to blend in. It usually isn't.
The businesses that stand out on social media almost never get their best ideas from their own sector. They get them from somewhere completely unrelated, and then they bring that idea home and make it their own.
Your competitors are a trap, not a template
There's a comfort in watching what other businesses like yours are doing. It feels like research. It feels productive. And to be fair, a quick look at a competitor's comment section can teach you what your shared customers actually care about.
But the moment you start treating their feed as a checklist — "they posted a team photo, so we should post a team photo" — you've stopped thinking and started imitating. You're always a step behind, and you're competing on the exact same ground as everyone else.
The interesting move is to look sideways instead of straight ahead.
What "stealing sideways" actually looks like
Imagine you're a local accountant. Accountancy content tends to be, let's be honest, a bit grey. Tax deadlines, regulation changes, the occasional motivational quote about "planning for the future". Worthy, but forgettable.
Now think about how a good independent coffee shop posts. They show the person behind the counter. They explain why they switched bean suppliers. They post a slightly grainy photo of the first flat white of the morning with a caption that's basically just a feeling. It's warm, it's human, and it makes you want to walk in.
There's no law that says an accountant can't borrow that energy. "The face you'll actually be emailing at 9pm in January" is a far better introduction than "Meet our team". The format came from a coffee shop. The substance is pure accountancy.
That's the whole trick. You're not stealing the topic — you can't, it won't fit. You're stealing the *approach*: the angle, the tone, the structure, the reason it works.
Where to actually look
A few places that consistently pay off, none of which will be in your niche:
- Big consumer brands doing small things well. Watch how a supermarket or a clothing brand handles a complaint in the comments, or announces something boring like new opening hours. They've spent fortunes working out how to sound human at scale. You can copy the playbook for free.
- Creators in hobbies you happen to enjoy. If you follow someone who restores furniture, bakes sourdough, or reviews walking boots, pay attention to *why* you keep watching. That mechanism — the satisfying reveal, the honest opinion, the running series — works just as well for your business.
- Industries that are structurally similar to yours but sell something different. A dog groomer and a barber have almost identical content opportunities: before-and-afters, regulars they adore, the satisfying transformation. Neither competes with the other, so you can borrow shamelessly in both directions.
- The stuff that stops your own scroll. This is the easiest research there is. Next time a post makes you pause, don't just like it and move on. Ask yourself what it did to earn that half-second. Then nick it.
How to bring an idea home without it looking pinched
Borrowing an idea isn't copying a post word for word — that's just plagiarism with extra steps, and people can smell it. The goal is to translate.
Strip the idea back to why it worked. Was it the honesty? The behind-the-scenes feel? The fact it answered a question you didn't know you had? Hold onto that mechanism and throw away the specifics. Then rebuild it using your own world — your tools, your customers, your daily reality.
A "what's in my bag" video works for a beauty creator because the products tell a story. The exact same format works for a tradesperson showing what lives in the van, or a mobile hairdresser unpacking their kit. Same skeleton, completely different flesh. Nobody watching would ever connect the two.
If you're staring at a blank screen wondering what on earth to post this week, this is genuinely one of the fastest ways out of the rut. You don't need a brilliant original idea. You need a proven idea from somewhere your customers aren't looking, dressed up in your own voice.
The voice bit matters most
A borrowed idea only works if it still sounds like you. The format can come from a coffee shop, a supermarket, or a sourdough obsessive, but the words have to be yours — the way you'd actually say it to a customer standing in front of you.
This is the part that trips people up, and it's where having a clear sense of your own tone of voice does the heavy lifting. (It's also, for what it's worth, exactly what Aunty Social is built to hold onto — so a good idea from anywhere still comes out sounding like your business, not a recycled template.)
So stop scrolling your competitors hoping for a spark. Go and watch the businesses that have nothing to do with yours. The best idea for your next post is almost certainly sitting in someone else's feed right now — it just hasn't been translated into your language yet.