Steal This: 7 Types of Social Media Content
by Jason Unger, Founder
Insights / Social Media /
Photo by Tracy Le Blanc via Pexels
For as long as Digital Ink has existed, we’ve enthusiastically shared how we approach our work with you, dear reader.
Whether it’s the Tools We Use, code snippets to make your website work better, or inspirations for your next design, we’re an open book.
Today, we’re sharing the 7 different types of social media content that we create as part of our digital marketing services.
Like all social media content, it’s important to optimize what you publish depending on the platform and the audience. Some types of content work great on specific social networks; others don’t.
Here’s a look at the 7 types of social media content we create, and where it works best.
Single Image, Large Text
This is a classic format that works well on pretty much every platform.
Essentially, you’ve got a square image with either a background photo or image, your logo, and no more than a handful of words … in a large font.
The meat of the post comes in the caption, where you can really be informative about the topic and, depending on the platform, include a link to learn more.
View this post on Instagram
Use cases: This works great on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook; it works OK on X (Twitter), but if you are limited by the number of characters, you may have to create a thread – which is less usable.
Open Graph Image / Website Link
If you’re creating content on your website, then you have to make sure it’s optimized to be shared online. That means a well designed open graph image available on the page you’re sharing.
Sometimes all it takes is a good headline and share image to get your content clicked on; if it’s appealing on first glance to a social media user, they’ll click to find out more.
(Having trouble with your open graph content? Here’s how to fix your social media share images.)
Use cases: Links to your website are great on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn; they don’t work well on Instagram at all, since you can’t embed clickable links.
Photo Gallery
Everyone loves photos! They’re an easy way to show off your personality and don’t require a ton of design to create.
Obviously, good photography is important; you’ll have much lower engagement if the photos you post are low-quality or aren’t visually interesting.
Use cases: Photo galleries work great on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn; X limits the number of photos you can attach to a post to just 4 images, so it’s less engaging there.
Videos
Whether it’s a webinar, educational series, or highlight clip, videos are a nice change of pace from your traditional static content.
They obviously require a bit more effort to create, from the writing and scripting to the shooting and editing, but if you’re repurposing your content, then usually coming up with things to talk about isn’t that hard.
Website redesigns are both exciting — and intimidating! Redesigns are big projects involving a lot of stakeholders and moving pieces.
Make sure to set your expectations (and schedule!) appropriately, so you’re prepared to tackle the job efficiently and effectively. pic.twitter.com/Sw8EybkB6E
— Digital Ink (@dgtlnk) November 17, 2023
Use cases: Videos work well on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube; they can work very well on Instagram, but it usually requires additional work to crop or trim your video for the expectations of the audience there.
Post Carousel
When you have a lot of information to share, you have to make it digestible. No one reads online, and if it looks too difficult to comprehend, your user is moving on.
As the meme says, “I ain’t reading all that. I’m happy for u tho. Or sorry that happened.”
Using a Post Carousel can be a great way to share a little bit more information than you might otherwise, but do it in a way that’s accessible and easy to read. Essentially, break up your ideas onto multiple slides, like you might in a PowerPoint presentation, and let the user control how they interact with it.
Sometimes your content is visual, like when we’re suggesting fonts to use, and sometimes it’s not – but be sure it’s readable in bite-size chunks.
Use cases: This format is great on Instagram; not so much on X and Facebook. It can be great on LinkedIn but requires exporting your images as a PDF and uploading it to LinkedIn as a “Document” so that it shows up as a carousel rather than an image gallery.
Testimonials
This is more of a category of content than a content type, but any post where you can get all of the necessary information into one image is worth using.
We love testimonials because they’re easy to read, show a person’s face, and require no caption for additional information.
View this post on Instagram
Use cases: Testimonials works great on every platform: Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram. They’re especially powerful on Instagram, where they’re likely to stand out amongst all of the photos and videos.
Animated GIF
Last, but certainly not least, is the classic animated GIF. Sometimes your GIF actually needs to be an MP4 or MOV, but the general idea is that this content should be 5-10 seconds, visual, and easily looped.
View this post on Instagram
I don’t know who would let his team publicly post this, but more power to him. He seems like a cool guy.
Use cases: Use this format to show off your work, announce some good news, or make fun of your boss on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or X.
Steal these Ideas!
None of these formats are rocket science, but there is definitely an art in knowing what content to create, how to repurpose it for different platforms, and how to mix it up so you’re not constantly promoting the same format over and over.
Be sure to follow Digital Ink on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X) and see how we do this day in and day out.
About Jason Unger
Jason Unger is the Founder of Digital Ink. He built his first website on Geocities, and hasn't looked back since. Digital Ink tells stories for forward-thinking businesses, mission-driven organizations, and marketing and technology agencies in need of a creative and digital partner.
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