What kind of social media content generates the most engagement?

1. Introduction
2. What is social media content?
3. Does engagement even matter?
4. 3 Types of social media content to try
   • Social media content #1: Video
   • Social media content #2: Text-based posts
   • Social media content # 3: Images
5. How do you create social media content?
6. Conclusion

Introduction

Let’s face it – Social media content is the only kind of content that we consume today. Newspapers, books, arts and crafts: all of these have a limited audience. But social media has a varied and humongous audience across the globe. So much so, that from news organizations to small apple orchard firms in Himachal Pradesh, everyone is creating social media content to get maximum engagement, customer retention, likes, and whatnot.

Because we all have different reasons for consuming content on social media, here is a blog for you that will discuss the diverse types of social media content that generate the most engagement with examples, best practices, advantages, and disadvantages.

What is social media content?

Pretty much everything that you see on your social feed: things like memes, GIFs, Infographics, Survey/poll, images, videos, text-based posts, influencer collaborations, webinars/ AMAs, quotes, and the list is endless.

But this does not mean that anything should be called social media content. The content you post should reflect your/brand’s values. It should be able to drive engagement, awareness, and ultimately conversions. Isn’t that the point of any digital marketer’s role? 

Does engagement even matter?

Oh yes! According to HubSpot, social media marketing has a 100% lead-to-close rate than traditional marketing methods. This has been especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, where from e-commerce to ed-techs, everyone optimized on social media engagement.

3 Types of social media content to try

Social media content #1: Video

80% of marketers say that video has helped increase their sales directly. Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes it, and Live Streaming is key to nailing videos these days. Live Streaming helps bring in the human, rough on the edges, and relatable factor to the forefront. That is the reason why consumers prefer this mode of social media content consumption.

The video content can be in various formats/types like:

1. Explainer videos
2. Promos
3. Social media ads
4. Video testimonials
5. Facebook/IGTV live videos
6. YouTube Shorts
7. TikTok type videos
8. Video stories
9. Livestream content

Advantages of Videos: Video content is easy to make and more engaging than images. Product updates for the typically boring sectors, such as manufacturing and how-to videos for technical stuff, can be great social media content if curated on videos.

Disadvantages: Videos like promos, social media ads, and even explainers, to a certain extent, can increase the marketing budget that your finance department may not approve. On a larger scale, the cost can be a real trouble when videos have to become top-notch.

Best social platform for video content: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Vimeo

Social media content #2: Text-based posts

Text-based posts are a really important way of engaging with your audience on social media. Besides audio-visual social media content, text-based posts are critical in developing a distinct brand voice and tone. After all, long before social media even came into being, traditional marketing strategies depended heavily on text. With time, its importance has only increased. 

Text-based content allows you to engage most directly and simply with your audience. And with audio-visual bombardment on social media, a simple text post can stand out and create impact.

Types of Text-based content:

1. Blogs
2. Testimonials + Reviews
3. Quotes
4. Ebooks
5. Quizzes
6. Surveys/polls
7. Announcements
8. Contests

Advantages: Written content can help build credibility and brand value/awareness. Text-based posts like Ebooks have less competition in the market. You can create your niche in them. Likewise, quizzes, contents, announcements, and reviews are creative ways of generating engagement around your text-based social media content.

Disadvantages: Text-based content is traditional and the oldest marketing hack. Competition can be a problem in some verticals like blogs.

Best social platform for text content: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest, and your website.

what’s your drive thru hype song? there are no wrong answers

— McDonald’s (@McDonalds) February 7, 2021

Social media content # 3: Images

Ask yourself, would you read a 1000 word article or see an image that explains those words exactly. For a majority, the answer is quite obvious. Images are the second most popular type of social media content and the reason why Instagram is so popular in the first place (think about it).

Types of image-based content:

1. User-generated content
2. Regular images
3. Infographics
4. Memes
5. GIFs
6. Gifographics
7. Image posts

Advantages: Images are easy to consume and engage with. In fact, for most people scrolling randomly through their news feed on social media, the chances of image-centric social media content catching their attention are the highest. Smartphone cameras and free editing apps can help you do wonders most cost-effectively.

Disadvantages: Once amateur photography attempts exhaust, a professional photographer/camera/setup may be required, which can be an expensive affair. Besides, editing software can also be costly. For graphics and design elements for image-based social media content, hiring resources is essential. It can also increase the overall budget.

Best Platforms for image content: Instagram( even though the competition is toughest here), Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn.

Example: Joy Cho is one of Pinterest’s biggest influencers. With a following of 15.2 million followers, take a look at her image-based social media content. Even the simplest of which get a thousand likes.

How do you create social media content?

There are two ways of doing this. One way of doing this is hiring a team of professional designers or outsourcing your work to freelancers if budget is an issue. But, if you are a digital marketer who can don many hats and have a team to help, perhaps you can try the DIY approach.

Conclusion

These are just some of how you can create social media content for engagement. As social gets updates with new features every day, the way of content creation also changes daily. If you are interested to learn more about content creation, marketing on social platforms, and digital marketing as a whole, apply for our PG Program in Strategic Digital Marketing today.