Social Media

Discover 10 powerful types of social media content that can rapidly boost your brand’s growth. Learn strategies to engage your audience and enhance your online presence.

Social media posts can help people learn about your brand, become more popular with customers, and do better for your business.

But there’s so much on social media, so it’s hard to know which posts will be noticed and enjoyed by the people you want to reach.

That’s why we created this list of 10 different social media posts. You can use it on your social media accounts to get the results you want.

Different Types of Social Media Content

1. Short promotional videos

Social media marketers are still focused on shorter video in 2024, and many have been increasing investments in these areas:

• 67% plan to spend more on short videos.
• 31% will match their spending.
• 33% intend to invest in short video over any other type of content.

This trend isn’t surprising, as short videos offer the highest return on investment (ROI) for social media marketing, according to HubSpot’s 2024 Social Media Trends Report Examples of short videos include TikTok videos, Instagram reels, and short YouTube clips.

A short promotional video is a social media post that talks about one of your products or services. It usually takes five seconds to three minutes.

For example, Instagram has short video reels. It can be as short as 15 seconds or as long as 90 seconds.

Here’s an Instagram reel from Puma that promotes their new athletic wear. and received more than 4.7 million views.

Not every organization will have Puma’s marketing budget. But even a small business committed to social media can make reels work for them.

Check out how local fitness club Kin Culture uses Instagram reels to promote their weekly running club.

Both reels worked because they’re visually engaging. And they provide the viewer with information about the brand and what it has to offer.

Live video became increasingly popular during the pandemic, allowing people to participate in meetings remotely. Platforms like Twitch and other popular live-streaming platforms allow people to interact with their favorite creators in real time.

According to 57% of marketers, live video has the second highest return on investment (ROI) of all social media content categories.

Despite having a lower ROI than short videos, long videos are still popular. Those that do are expensive, and those that expect high quality. However, many viewers have a short attention span and may not finish watching it.

If you want to make a longer video, don’t worry! You can recycle any long video into multiple short videos. This helps you get the most out of your resources.

The benefits of a short videos

1. Best and Visible Explanation

Short videos are generally popular with social media algorithms, increasing the chances that your content will reach a wider audience.

2. Good for advertising campaigns

Short videos work well for social media advertising campaigns. They can help you reach new audiences and achieve your goals faster.

3. Possible increased engagement rate

Shorter promotional videos are perfect for a short attention span of audiences. Their short length increases the likelihood that viewers will watch the entire video, share it or engage through comments.

Pro tip: Use Social Analytics to gain insights into how your social media content is performing on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

2. Behind the scenes videos

Behind-the-scenes videos give an insight into how your business works, helping to build trust and confidence. Because people are naturally curious, these stories grab their attention, generating interest, comments and messages. These videos can showcase employee target audiences, product lines, or teasers of upcoming product launches.

You can also add humor by sharing funny moments from office life, like Storefries does on Instagram.

The benefits of behind-the-scenes videos

1. The Best Story

Behind-the-scenes videos help brands tell their stories better by showcasing journeys, challenges and successes behind the scenes.

2. Increased engagement with your audience

These videos can strengthen the connection between your audience and your brand by highlighting the human side of your business, which builds trust.

3. More Anticipation

Use behind-the-scenes videos to promote new products, store openings, or upcoming events, to generate excitement for your launch.

3. Tutorials and how-to videos

Tutorials and how-to videos explain how to do something. Think back to the last DIY video you watched on YouTube—it’s an instructional video.

These videos help you share knowledge with your audience and show that you are an expert in your field.

For example, the culinary company Tasty creates informative and engaging educational videos on its TikTok platform.

And recognize how well videos can work as longer pieces, especially if the event is long or involved.

Benefits of tutorials and how-to videos :

1. Potentially Better Engagement

Learning videos often encourage repeat viewing and sharing as people return to the material to investigate. This keeps them engaged and connected.

2. Increases control

Sharing the tutorial helps you build credibility by demonstrating your expertise to your target audience, which in turn builds trust.

3. has long-term value

The tutorials and design videos are evergreen, meaning they remain relevant and useful over time. This allows them to remain distracted and engaged, resulting in long-term benefits.

4. User-Generated Content

User Generated Content (UGC) is content created by customers, fans, and other users that businesses often share on their social media channels.

Because UGC comes from users, it acts as a personal recommendation about a product or service, making it more credible to other potential customers.

One of the most impressive examples of UGC comes from Apple. Their #ShotoniPhone campaign asked iPhone users to post their best photos on Instagram and Twitter. Apple then selected the best images to be used in advertising campaigns around the world.

Here is an example of follower #ShotoniPhone from Germany.

Reviews and certifications are another form of user content generation (UGC) that businesses can use, although creating this content may require more effort

For example, skincare company Purito Seoul showcases consumer feedback to promote its sunscreen range.

The Benefits of UGC content

1. Shows social proof

UGC is created by real users, making it more relatable and credible than content created by brands.

2. Increases brand loyalty

UGC encourages audience participation and gives users a sense of community. This can lead to brand advocacy and long-term relationships with customers.

3. Cost – effective

Because users create content themselves, the cost of social media development for businesses is low.

5. Influential marketing

Influencer marketing is when a brand teams up with an influencer to create content that promotes the brand’s products or services.

note: Influencer marketing is a paid strategy. But it’s important to talk about it because it can help your social media efforts tremendously.

There are many reasons why brands use influencer marketing, but it can be especially good for increasing sales. Users often make purchasing decisions based on what influencers post.

Here’s how Ice Spice teamed up with Dunkin’ to promote the company’s America Runs on Donuts campaign:

If you can’t afford big celebrities for your social media, try to find smaller influencers in your niche. Building a relationship with them can be mutually beneficial.

But influencer marketing might not be right for everyone. Consider your audience and budget before incorporating that into your social media content marketing strategy.

The Benefits of influencer marketing

1. Increase coverage

Influencer marketing helps you expand your reach on social media by tapping into the influencer’s follower base.

2. Access to manufacturing specialists

Partnering with influencers leverages their expertise on engaging content that connects with your target audience and meets your goals.

3. Potentially more sales

Partnering with influencers to pitch your products or services can increase sales. Those who follow influencers tend to trust their recommendations, which leads to more purchases.

6. Live streaming video

Adding live video and streaming to your social media content plan can increase engagement in real time and allow you to connect directly with your audience.

You can use live video to host special events, share new findings, answer customer questions, or collaborate with influencers and industry experts.

For example, Airbnb held an ongoing discussion about creating welcome spaces using YouTube.

The benefits of live and streaming video

1. Sense of urgency and uniqueness

Only live content features, it encourages more users to listen due to its unique and timely content.

2. Programmed for Social Media Algorithms

Social media platforms prioritize live content, and notify your followers when you go live. This increases your reach and engagement as more people are able to see and interact with your stream.

3. Allows You to Collect Feedback

Live video allows you to engage with your audience in real-time, making it a valuable way to gather data. Ask for feedback, which could help grow your products, services, or future events.

7. Q&As and AMAs

Host live Q&A (Q&A) or Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions to give your followers a personal connection and showcase your expertise.

You can hold these meetings in a variety of ways:

• As a live video on Instagram
• As a comment-based Q&A session on Reddit
• As a live-tweet thread on Twitter

After you do a Q&A or AMA session, you can repurpose the content with screenshots or clips.

Reddit is known for hosting AMAs featuring cultural figures. GIVEN. one of the most famous and memorable. He used the platform to promote a new show on Apple TV.

Pro tip: Planning goes a long way with Q&A- and AMA-type posts. If you don’t have a social media content plan yet, follow this guide to creating a social media calendar.

The Benefits of Q&As and AMAs

1. Generate engagement

Q&As and AMAs are inherently discussion and question-driven. This creates more opportunities for high-quality engagement in this social media content.

2. Most Transparency

Hosting Q&As and AMAs shows transparency by opening up your work to questions. This transparency helps build customer confidence, especially when the conversation involves the CEO, owner, or founder.

3. Allows real connection

Addressing customer comments, questions and concerns directly shows that you value their opinions and are genuinely interested in what they have to say. This creates a strong bond with your audience.

8. A simple photo and carousel

Sharing images allows brands to quickly convey ideas and evoke emotions for their audience.

Images are a great option for smaller businesses that may not have the budget to share with expensive influencers or create extensive video content.

For example, Palette uses images to promote its wine-tasting events and highlights its brick-and-mortar store to encourage signups.

The Benefits of photo and carousel

1. Easy to produce

With powerful cameras on mobile phones, anyone can create images for social media. Additionally, tools like AI Social Content Generator can help create social media posts filled with images, captions, and relevant hashtags that fit your brand.

2. Visually appealing

Images and graphics with eye-catching colors that match your brand identity can grab users’ attention as they browse their feeds. This visual appeal can also encourage users to stop scrolling and click on your content.

3. Allows you to test

Experimenting with color, language, and design changes in your images can determine what resonates with your audience the most and drives the most engagement

Pro Tip: Use the AI Social Content Generator to create social media posts effortlessly. This tool generates posts complete with images (or videos), captions, and hashtags relevant to your brand.

9. Infographics

Infographics are visually appealing and informative, helping to increase engagement.

It is easy to navigate, allowing the audience to absorb a lot of information quickly. B2B companies often use infographics to simplify complex information such as strategies.

For example, here is an infographic we shared on LinkedIn that shows how to create an SEO audit.

If your infographics are particularly valuable, they can attract backlinks (if published on your website) to boost your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. In addition, media coverage can be collected, which helps to increase brand awareness.

You can create infographics with tools like Canva, Visme, and Miro, making the process of creating content for social media quick and easy.

The Benefits of Infographics

1. Eye-catching

Infographics combine information and graphics, making them more shareable. This can increase your social media reach as it attracts attention and engagement.

2. Simplify complex information

Infographics simplify complex information or insights by breaking down data, statistics, or concepts into easy-to-understand visual representations. This makes them a valuable tool for effectively communicating complex ideas.

3. Easy to repurpose for other campaigns

Infographics are versatile, allowing you to use them in different ways in different campaigns. For example, you can embed them in email campaigns or landing pages, increasing their usefulness and extending their conversion rate.

10. Memes and GIFs

Not incorporating memes and GIFs into a social content strategy? Using timely memes and GIFs on social content allows you to capitalize on trends, showcase your sense of humor, and engage your audience.

Wendy’s is known for being a funny brand on social media. They often participate in trending memes or create their own.

The Benefits of Memes and GIFs

1. Highly Sharable

Memes are often humorous, prompting people to rush to share them. This creates a significant opportunity to reach a wider audience for your social media content, and in some cases can even grow.

2. Makes you present

Being made aware of online trends and incorporating them into memes and GIFs helps you connect with your audience’s latest interests.

3. Can say more with less

Memes and GIFs allow you to express ideas and emotions quickly and effectively, making them a powerful way to communicate on social media.

Manage Your Social Media Content with Storefries

There is plenty of other social content you can add to your content calendar, so feel free to experiment, and see what resonates with your audience. Additionally, use Storefries Social to streamline all your social media efforts.

This tool helps in scheduling posts, managing and responding to messages, analyzing performance specifications, and much more.

Try it out today!