What do Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have in common?
They’re not just social media platforms. They also happen to offer different types of social media content.
It’s what keeps them interesting.
And addicting, right?
Users know if they want professional content, they can visit LinkedIn. When they want to find out what’s happening with friends and family, they head over to Facebook or Instagram.
As users, we have expectations for the types of content we’ll see on each social media platform.
Yet, as marketers and businesses, we sometimes forget. We resort to an all-promotional, all-the-time strategy. And then we wonder where we lost our audience.
Here’s some help to find your way back, with tips on creating different types of social media content across each platform — to the delight of your followers, customers, and community.
(Not sure if you’re hitting the right audiences on social? Check out which social media platforms may be best for you.)
The Types of Content to Use on Social Media
Facebook has been around for a long time, so we’ve been able to experience its unique evolution of content. Today, it’s a space to stay connected with those you care about most. Heck, at one point, that language was literally part of their tagline.
As such, it’s a good idea to post business content that’s in line with what people expect when they log in, like:
- The latest goings-on in people’s lives
- The photos or videos from special (or even ordinary) events
- The highlights or milestones they are celebrating
- And, yes, even the challenges they are facing
How can you apply this concept to business-related posts? You think about what’s going on behind the scenes.
Perhaps you have a fundraiser your team is participating in or hosting. Maybe you want to feature an employee every month and highlight interesting facts or stories about them. Or there’s a special award or recognition you received.
There is a lot of potential with Facebook content. And it doesn’t all have to be casual. You can, of course, balance it with posts about your products or servicess. For the most part, however, you will likely see better engagement with the kind of content people expect on this social media platform: candid, personal, and genuine.
Contrary to Facebook, LinkedIn is solely focused on professionals. Rather than a place to see the latest in someone’s life (though you do occasionally see it on here), LinkedIn skews toward fact-based, value-based, educational, research, or career-oriented content.
That’s why some of the most popular types of content on this platform are statistics, reports, research, white papers, and infographics. By and large, this audience comes here for information they can use in their professional lives — whether that’s in a current role or advancing their career to another level or opportunity.
It’s okay to balance your professional content with a little personal content (try sharing some of your Facebook content to LinkedIn, for example) now and then to see how it engages people. Concentrate most of your efforts on topics that your followers can use in business-related activities when using LinkedIn.
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Twitter is like a hybrid between Facebook and LinkedIn. On the one hand, Twitter offers the casual nature of Facebook but with the professional side of LinkedIn. Many posts (known as tweets) share helpful articles but with personal commentary.
For businesses, this can help lend a human element to what is usually a faceless business entity, which audiences typically respond to positively. It gives brands the opportunity to show who or what they support while also adding legitimacy and expertise to the business.
The type of social media content on this platform is personal mixed with professional.
It’s probably no surprise that the most widely used type of content on Instagram is visual. Photos, graphics, illustrations, videos…if it’s visual, it’s being used on Insta.
You don’t need to be in a visual industry, either. Plenty of service-based organizations are finding success on IG if their audiences spend time there. (Here’s a quick article on how to tell if Instagram is the right fit for your business.)
If you don’t have a large library of visual assets, then consider whether creating graphics would appeal to your target audience. Funky designs with inspirational quotes are always popping up on this platform, and videos are quite popular with viewers looking for entertaining and engaging content.
Polls, surveys, and contests also make regular appearances on this platform, especially in the Stories feature – which displays content for 24 hours and then disappears (from the Stories section, anyway).
Want to develop a winning content marketing strategy for your organization? Then take up the Advanced Content Marketing Course. Enroll now!
Give It a Try, What Do You Have to Lose?
Now that you have some ideas on the various types of social media content being used on social media, it’s time you try them out. You may not change the world overnight, but by testing out new ideas you can get a feel for what your specific audience really wants to see from you.
Want to learn more about how to leverage the different types of social media content in your marketing efforts? Check out Simplilearn’s Advanced Social Media Certification course today. If you are looking to expand your digital marketing skills across all channels, Simplilearn’s Post Graduate Program in Digital Marketing, in partnership with Purdue University and co-created with Facebook, has everything you will need to achieve success in this exciting field!
