The Types Of Content For Social Networks

Every second more than 15 new users join the main platforms to view different types of content for social networks. The average number of users in social media increased by 3.1% in the first quarter of 2021, exceeding 4,330 million users and with a year-on-year growth of 13.1% (Kemp, 2021, p.56).

What influences this success? The variety of its content, with options for all tastes and all markets. That is why today we invite you to learn why the types of content for social networks are important, their characteristics and examples.

Importance of the types of content for social networks

The importance of content on social networks lies in the power of platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Wechat and TikTok; just to name the top 7 (Kemp, 2021, p. 56).

We refer to its power to transmit content, attract a wide audience, generate value for brands, advertise and create connection. The engagement that we establish with the types of content for social networks depends in part on our tastes, but also on a design focused on different purposes:

Informative.
Educational.
Informative.
Advertising.
Marketing.
Entertainment.

Content on social networks is important because of the attention it generates towards its creators, issuers or the brands they represent.

Other reasons for the importance of the types of content for social networks are (Nieves, 2018):

They increase network traffic.
They complement your other digital channels.
They orient the focus towards your brand.
They make it easy to capture leads and record data.
They increase the presence of your brand and trust towards it.
They capture prospects at different stages of the marketing funnel.
Through their messages and the sensations they generate, they help to materialize business opportunities.

However, it is not enough to simply “be” on social networks. To achieve greater impact, you must first determine what your objectives are and then develop a strategy to (Montes, 2020):

Select the platform and formats.
Design the publications.
Organize and monitor the flow of information.
Measure the impact and contribution of content strategies to the achievement of your business objectives.

Different audiences for different types of social media content

Audience analysis will be useful to better understand the psychology of the consumer who interacts with your content.

Different ways of segmenting the audience have been defined. They are categories that respond to different approaches, for example: age range, to whom the message is directed, if it is measured in each of the social networks, among others. We are going to know in detail the types of audience for these criteria.

Types of audience according to age range

This category seeks the segmentation and analysis of the audience in each social network based on age ranges or belonging to generations.

Here is an example:

Hootsuite and We Are Social, when analyzing the profile of the advertising audience on social networks, categorize the audience in their “Digital Report” reports into groups ranging from 13 to 65 years or older (Kemp, 2021, p. 72) .

Depending on the type of network, particular adjustments are made, as is the case with YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest, where the categories of those start at 18 years.

Types of audience according to who the message is addressed to

There are five types of audience to which a message can be directed (Rico, 2016):

Commercial: anyone who can recognize your brand, product or service when consuming your content on social networks.
Potential: it is made up of those who can acquire your product or service.
Primary: audience on which the market study is carried out and to whom the message is directed, regardless of whether they acquire your product or your service.
Real: It is made up of who managed to see or hear your message during the marketing campaign. It is important because it measures the impact of the campaign and the success of the SEO agency’s strategies.
Useful: people likely to buy your products or services during the validity of the campaign. They are also a measure of its effectiveness.

Types of audience by extension or exclusivity

In the different types of content you can also measure the gross audience and the net audience (Comunipedia, 2021):

Gross audience is the sum of the followers you have on each of the social networks, regardless of whether the same person follows you on several of your profiles or channels. It is the number of people who have received the same message, one or more times and regardless of the medium.
Net Audience is the number of followers on each network and no duplicates; that is, it is the number of people who received the same message, discriminated by medium.

Main types of content for social networks

To create quality content on each social network, it is important to consider the particularities of each platform, since each one has its own characteristics. These differences are also determined by your primary audience and purpose.

By developing a content strategy adapted to each network, you obtain several benefits:

You improve the positioning of your brand on each platform.
You align your brand to a specific audience.
You reach your buyer persona more effectively.
You increase the conversion rate.

Here are examples, by platform, of each of the types of social media content:

Facebook

On this platform you can take advantage of various formats as a strategy to give visibility to your company and generate engagement:

Share your own brand images where you elegantly include your logo and visual identity.
Add infographics with data of interest to your audience and topics with the potential to attract traffic to your profile.
Record videos with testimonials from customers or users where they relate their experiences when using your products or services.
Respond to messages, comments and requests for information. This will show the respect you have towards your customers, users or the general public.

The types of content for social networks with the most success in communication strategies on Facebook are:

Images, inspirational quotes and memes.
Stories.
Photo galleries.
Videos.
Branded Content.
Content generated by your users (User Generated Content).
Recommendation lists.
Manuals and tutorials.
eBooks.
Links to blogs, podcasts and other useful content for your users.

Youtube

The types of content for social networks where video is an important element have the advantage of having the preference of the public.

In the case of YouTube, it is the second most used social network, with a potential audience of 2.29 billion people and more than 1 billion hours of video viewed daily (Kemp, 2021, p. 88).

This preference for the consumption of video content is shared on other networks such as Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat. To make the videos more attractive, consider the following characteristics (Sordo, 2021):

Record quality videos, where attractive content is displayed in a pleasant way, always aligned with the objectives of your campaign.
Share videos where your audience can learn about a topic and where your brand is associated with that learning.
Incorporate subtitles, if it is in multiple languages better. This way the audience can understand the video even without the audio.

A growing trend is the recording of short videos using mobile phones, for which the platform has launched YouTube Shorts. They are short videos, from 15 to 60 seconds, in vertical format and associated with the hashtag #shorts.

The most viewed types of social media video content on YouTube include:

Lists, compilations and “my favorites”.
Music trends.
Unboxing and product launch videos.
Tutorials and training videos.
Comedies and parodies.
Challenge videos.
Series.
Video games and animations.
Influencer vlogging.
Hauls or videos where celebrities and youtubers detail the products they buy.

This platform has its own strategy to take advantage of the different types of content for social networks: WhatsApp Marketing.

It is a platform continuously consulted by users, especially when you share valuable content in your groups.

Examples of attractive content on this network:

Those associated with promotions.
News and news.
Contests.
Those that creatively promote interaction with the other channels of the brand.

WhatsApp Business makes it easy for you to develop an entire content strategy aimed at companies and brand positioning.

Publications on this network are aimed at encouraging direct communication with your audience, by sending personalized messages (Bernal, 2020).

Instagram

The most used types of content for social networks on this platform have the visual format as the protagonist:

Images.
Illustrations.
Photographs.
Videos.

The art of telling stories through storytelling strategies is part of the attractiveness of the content on this social network. The use of narration to connect with the audience is a characteristic that it shares with platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and TikTok.

For longer-term content, Instagram has IGTV, a resource that you can take advantage of to promote the positioning of your brand.

The goal is to post valuable types of social media content that keep the audience entertained and connected. Through videos of 10 to 15 seconds (up to 1 hour for verified accounts) you can generate empathy in your followers. Examples of content (Equipe do Instagram Empresas, 2020):

Stories of your brand.
Interviews and testimonials.
Events.
Tutorials.
Tips for your users.

This platform has a different target than other social networks, since it is a network that specializes in:

Professional contacts.
Companies job offer
Interaction between professionals and brands.
Disseminate business content.

The content published on LinkedIn is oriented towards employer branding. It is the largest social network in the world in terms of professional and company profiles, with a potential audience of 745.6 million.

Select types of social media content that make you stand out. These contents are elaborated to connect with the ideal employers. Also to generate interaction with communities of professionals in specific areas. For this they will be useful (Reyes, 2021):

Company pages that highlight the benefits of the employer brand.
Work experiences that are shared on LinkedIn and other channels such as Facebook and Instagram, taking advantage of the hashtag #worklifelife.
Personal and professional profiles where you talk about yourself, the brand, experiences, expectations and skills.
Present projects or articles where you exchange knowledge with your audience.

Adding keywords is part of the strategies that an SEO agency recommends for the types of content for social networks. Together with the titles, descriptions and other SEO parameters, they will help your audience find you.

Twitter

The types of content for social networks like Twitter focus on informative messages that keep your audience updated. This makes it ideal for sharing content such as:

News and novelties.
Pre-launch videos, creating expectation or intrigue (teasers).
Presentations and testimonials about products or services.
Live audio spaces or conversations (@TwitterSpaces).
Surveys.

The analysis of consumer psychology in this social network will allow you to segment your audience. The objective is to select types of content for social networks that can be read or appreciated at a glance (SEOptimer, s.f.):

Take advantage of the power of mass communication through short messages, due to the limitation of characters.
News, videos, content that your followers are motivated to share.
Content that reviews activities associated with your brand live on Twitter.
Messages on topics of interest, taking advantage of the impact of Twitter Trending Topics in your brand strategy.

TikTok

This is a platform with social media content types that follow the style of Instagram and the newest functionality YouTube Short: immediate content.

This social network has had an increase in its number of monthly active users. It has more than 732 million users and 12% of the total audience (+13 years) (Kemp, 2021, p. 127).

The videos, in horizontal or vertical format, that you can share on TikTok to favor your brand’s marketing strategies are:

Videos created with slides that include photo sequences, effects and filters.
Duets where you invite other people to interact in some dynamic.
Funny videos that will make your followers laugh and make them want to share your content with their friends. For example, lip sync or lip sync videos.

All these contents favor the visualization and engagement with your brand. This is increased if you add hashtags or tags that make it easier for the audience to find your videos (Fernández, 2021).

Always measure the influence of your types of social media content

There are several useful quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure the impact of the types of content for social networks. These are 13 KPIs that you can measure on your platforms (Intelligent, 2017):

Number of active followers.
Number of “likes” and mentions (likes, repost, replies).
Increase in followers in a period, for example, daily or weekly.
Reach of your publications (organic, paid, impressions, fans and non-fans) and their ratio.
Check the reasons that motivate the audience to follow your channels.
Interaction with your publications: number of comments and shares.
Impressions of the publications.
Number of tweets, publications, videos or posts.
Post clicks.
Total comments and total interactions.
Captured leads.
Content engagement.
Profitability of content (ROI of marketing).

Finally, just as important as the positive interaction is paying attention to the observations when some content, comment, service or product of your brand is not liked:

The “I don’t like it anymore”.
Losing followers and unfollowers.
Not subscriptions.

Social media types of content are great opportunities to share your brand value across different platforms. Due to its diversity, the types of content for social networks reach a larger audience and keep your brand standing out in different digital media.

Author bio

Nicole Kelly is from Raleigh, North Carolina, US. She is a young graphic designer with a passion for digital marketing and content writing. Actually, as she would say, she loves writing about digital marketing and business topics too! She’s currently part of the DigitalStrategyOne team where she continues improving her skills.