30 Types of Social Media Content You Can Use for Marketing

September 10, 2021 (Updated: May 4, 2023)

3D social media icons on a black background

Did you know many companies and organizations post on social media at least once per day? Following this strategy keeps your brand and content circulating in front of followers all the time. But after a while, your audience may get sick of the same old thing. Finding fresh social media content ideas helps attract viewers’ attention and gets them excited to see what you’ll post next.

30 Types of Social Media Content

Here are 30 different types of social media content you can use to help plan your post strategies and calendars:

1. Animations

Animations combine some of the best features of GIFs and videos. They’re short like GIFs, lasting only a few seconds. Animations also include small motion clips and moveable text. Like videos, this type of content features images of actual people or custom illustrations. Adding animations to your feed is more dynamic than sharing regular images alone. They may take less time to film, edit, and upload than a full video. Animations are also an easy way to re-purpose longer text-based content into shorter, easier-to-view pieces.

2. Articles

If you have a knowledge base or another type of publication, share links to your articles on social media. If a newspaper, magazine, or journal does a write-up about your company, you can share that too. Article promotion is popular on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These platforms let you copy and paste the link directly into a post and then share additional information about the article in your own words. Platforms with stories, like Instagram, also have options to let people “swipe up” to view article content if your account has over 10,000 followers.

3. Behind-the-Scenes Content

From the TV show Unwrapped to the Picture Picture segments on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, everyone loves a good behind-the-scenes look at a topic of their interest. The building and creation process is interesting, and you can use that to your advantage on social media. Share behind-the-scenes content in images, infographics, and videos. Topics could include showing your team getting ready for events or creating a mini-documentary on how you make your products. This kind of content is popular on platforms with short-form video options like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, or Snapchat.

4. Blog Posts

Blog posts are often shorter, more relaxed, and more timely than other articles on the internet. If your company has a blog, share that content on social media after you publish new posts. Timely shares help gain engagement and readership. Sharing blog posts shows that your brand interacts with trending topics online and encourages your internet community to share their thoughts and opinions in the comments.

5. Client Feedback

When your followers, customers, and clients have something nice to say about your business, you can let the rest of your community know about it. Promoting the good feedback you receive encourages others to use your services. In fact, 90% of people are more likely to pick a brand over the competition if it gets a good recommendation from a friend, family member, or stranger. Use quotes, screenshots, or even videos of the customer to share their reactions. Sharing feedback helps your clients feel recognized by the business and may encourage others to leave positive feedback if they’d like to be featured too.

6. Company News

When something good, fun, or exciting happens at your company, share it with your audience on social media. Company news includes any announcements from things like the first day of work for a new team member to securing a partnership with a new client. Headlines may also include policy change announcements, press releases, job listings, new product releases, and construction activity in your stores or facilities.

7. Contests

Contests are incentive programs that reward followers for being a part of your online community. Giveaways also help attract new followers. There are multiple ways to run an online contest. Ask followers to complete a simple challenge and upload proof on their own profiles. Other options include word games or guessing games for your audience to solve. Rewards for contests may include a prize pack or a product discount. Before you start an online contest, check your platform’s legal requirements to make sure you’re following user guidelines.

8. Employees

The people who work with you are another wonderful source of social media content. Showing your audience the people who work on your team helps them see your brand as more personable. Employee content helps your audience put faces and names on the people who make your goods and services a reality. You can feature your staff on social media in a variety of ways, including:

Curated staff content, like playlists
Employee social media takeovers
Employee spotlights
Photos of team members at work
Quotes about team member jobs or the company
Videos of team members at work

9. Events

Advertise for both your in-person and online events on social media. Use your social platforms to attract guests to webinars, product launches, author talks, and town hall sessions. Facebook makes sharing events easy with its built-in calendar features to allow people to mark their interests and attendance. On other platforms, you may make simple images and videos with the date, time, and description to share event details with followers.

10. Evergreen Content

Evergreen content stays relevant for a long time. Within these pieces, your team covers a well-established topic that doesn’t include timely references. Because this type of content doesn’t change much, it’s perfect for sharing any time and still providing value. It’s most common to create evergreen content for informative articles and web page content. Link to those pieces on social media for a quick and easy post.

11. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Are there certain questions that you get from customers all the time? Use thos inquiries as social content! Developing FAQ content helps your brand in two ways:

It provides easy-to-share topics for social media
It acts as a customer service tool and prevents your team members from answering the same questions repeatedly

You can use many methods to share your responses, including images, videos, and written content. You may also choose to use a feature like Instagram stories to solicit questions through sticker interactions, then include your responses in a story thread.

12. GIFs

You use GIFs in other forms of brand communication, so why not use them in your social media posts? GIFs are funny, quick clips of moving images that reference pop culture items like song lyrics, movie quotes, and TV shows. Facebook and Twitter have integrated GIF keyboards that allow you to search for these images based on your desired keywords. Platforms with story features also have GIF searches to help you spice up your content. For those looking for a customizable option, some sites let you create your own GIFs from images and videos, like Giphy and imgflip.

13. Giveaways

Giveaways work like contests, except people may get more than bragging rights if they win. It’s usually easy to enter a giveaway because companies pick a winner at random, without any skill involved. That’s much different for the audience than, say, spending hours on the phone trying to win a concert tickets contest on the radio. For giveaway prizes, consider event tickets, free merchandise, or a pass for free services. As you do with contests, check your social platform’s terms of service before running a giveaway.

14. Guest Takeovers

A social media takeover is a marketing strategy where a person who’s not on your regular media team creates and curates content for your profile. These promotions run for a defined period, such as a few hours or an entire week. Other team members, influencers, or celebrities often serve as takeover subjects. To maximize the benefits of your takeover, you might tie it to an event, like a product launch. You may also use takeovers after a new hire in your company as a “meet-the-team” initiative.

When conducting a takeover, prepare your guests before they get access to your accounts. Give them tips on how to stay on brand, follow your guidelines. and any abide by any legal requirements. As long as they agree to follow the rules, most guests have some creative freedom to make the takeovers more interesting for your audience.

15. Industry News

If something big is happening in your industry but not necessarily with your company, you can still share that information with your followers. For example, the CopyPress team is very excited to share information about Google’s new Helpful Content Update on LinkedIn. Industry news posts are a prime way to share valuable information and set your brand up as a thought leader. They’re also an excellent tool for encouraging community discussion.

16. Influencer Content

Influencer content may have got its start with celebrity endorsements, but it’s still popular today thanks to social media. This type of content is so popular that over 17% of companies spend more than half of their marketing budgets on influencers. Find an influencer who fits with your brand image and have them create collaborative content to share on your channels and on their own. This tactic helps you reach a wider audience, get help with content creation, and create new partnerships.

17. Infographics

Infographics are fun, visually interesting ways to share a lot of complex information at one time. Marketers use this content to show statistics or information you can break into smaller chunks. Traditional infographic layouts are usually vertical, which makes them good for Instagram or Snapchat stories and Pinterest.

18. Live Videos

Live video is a real-time option for engaging with your audience on social media. Most platforms offer the choice to “go live” with your videos, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. According to a Vimeo and New York Magazine survey, 80% of respondents said they’d prefer to watch a live video from a brand rather than read a blog post. Maybe it’s because, with live video, viewers can react to the content as it happens. Live videos may be popular for press conferences, product launches, event previews, or live demonstrations.

19. Market Data

If your company collects data, conducts surveys, or works with statistics, you can turn this information into social media content. Share links to the studies themselves if your company publishes them online. Other options for sharing market data include making infographics, videos, articles, and blog posts.

20. Memes

Both text- and visual-based memes are popular content options for brands. Depending on the format and content, they may offer some pop culture references or social commentary. Most memes appeal to an audience’s sense of humor, and using them may help your brand seem relaxed on social media. People like to share memes, which generate engagement for your pages.

You can use memes that already exist or edit existing memes to suit your brand. But before you share anything, it’s important to understand the history and context of a meme. Some graphics have double meanings that could come across as rude or offensive when used in marketing.

21. Polls and Surveys

Story features, especially Instagram stories, make sharing polls and surveys online easy. Instagram’s platform uses question, poll, and reaction stickers to get people to vote on or respond to your content. Ideas for polls and surveys may include asking viewers, “What color should we use for our next product?” or “Which service should we discount for a flash sale?” You can also link to polls and surveys in your posts. Create that content in form software, like Google Forms, and host the originals on your website.

22. Press Mentions

If your company makes the news, share the articles with your customers. If you’ve received positive coverage from a newspaper, publication, TV, or radio station, link back to the story and thank them for the coverage. This is good advertising for both organizations and it’s good PR for your organization. The more good news your brand receives, the better your brand image may be in the eyes of your audience.

23. Previews or Teasers

Who doesn’t love a sneak peek at something new or exclusive? Give previews of upcoming news or product launches to let people know something big is coming before it happens. Make sure your team has company permission to share any previously unreleased material to protect the individuals and the organization from potential legal action. You can share previews on any platform and in any medium. Depending on the type of announcement you make, you might use photos, videos, or stories.

24. Product Photos

If you’re trying to get people to buy your products or use your services, show them what you offer through social media. Sharing product photos on social media differs from using the plain, basic photos you would in an eCommerce store product listing. Make the photos fun by taking your products outside or setting them up against a cool background. This strategy is popular for image-based sites like Instagram.

25. Quotes

Quotes serve as easy-to-create filler content when you’re devoting time to other bigger social media projects. Use quotes from your articles, words of wisdom from your senior staff members, or inspirational quotes from literature or celebrities. Quotes are also a fun way to share tips and advice in your niche. Pinterest is a great place to share quotes, especially if you create custom image designs for them. You may also share text-only quotes on sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

26. Stories

What started with Snapchat and spread to Instagram is now available on most social media sites: stories. You can use stories to share just about anything, like feed posts, quizzes, or thread content. Almost anything you put on your social feed is something you could also incorporate into a story. These features are unique because the content stays live for a maximum of 24 hours on most platforms, making them seem exclusive.

Image via Instagram by @mallatrobinson

27. Tips and Tricks

TikTok’s popularity reminds most social media users of how much they love tips, tricks, and hacks. Other apps like Snapchat and the story features for most platforms are fun places to share short “hack” videos. You might show people new ways to use your product or how your services can help them in certain situations. Longer tutorial videos on YouTube or an image series on Instagram are also good options for tips and tricks.

28. Twitter Conversations

Try running an interactive Twitter chat for your followers. Brands, sports teams, and other business account admins often create hashtags for this type of event in order to attract participants. Next, they encourage followers to send questions using that hashtag and compile them for interviews or to make other social content. You may also run a Twitter conversation more like a hosted live event where people can talk about your topic in real-time. When hosting a Twitter chat, be sure to monitor the hashtag content to remove spam or potentially offensive content.

29. User-Generated Content

Getting other people to do your work for you is one perk of social media marketing. If you have fans and followers that use your products, share reviews, or post photos and then tag your account, take advantage of that. Contact the original poster and ask permission to use their content on your feed.

If they consent, give proper credit when you share the information. Depending on the platform, proper credit includes tagging the original account and mentioning the contributor by name. You can do this by using the available “share” features native to apps like Facebook or using third-party reposting software for apps like Instagram. In most cases, the original post has to be public for you to share it on your brand’s profile.

30. Videos

Did you know that social media users watch an average of 16 hours of video online per week? Video content is popular on almost every social media platform, but especially on sites and for features like:

Reels for Instagram
Social feeds
Social stories
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

Most platforms allow you to share video content through links. Some, like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram, allow you to take videos right through the apps themselves. Facebook and YouTube, among others, allow for video uploads to their sites. You can share information like advertisements, product demonstrations, interviews, and event recaps through video.

Social Media Content Is Just One Type in the Pyramid

Social media content is great for timely, engaging updates that encourage interaction from your audience. But it’s not the only content type you can use to prop up your strategy. If you’re looking to create a more robust marketing plan that uses a variety of channels and content types, download our eBook on the Content Marketing Pyramid. This resource walks you through the different types of content you can include in a marketing strategy and how they all work together to get your audience interested in your brand and move through the marketing funnel straight to sales.

“CopyPress gives us the ability to work with more dealership groups. We are able to provide unique and fresh content for an ever growing customer base. We know that when we need an influx of content to keep our clients ahead of the game in the automotive landscape, CopyPress can handle these requests with ease.”

Kevin Doory

Director of SEO at Auto Revo

Christy Walters

CopyPress writer