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The Types of Content on Social Media [New Data]

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The Types of Content on Social Media [New Data]

According to our 2023 Marketing Strategy Trends Report, 42% of marketers leverage social media, and it has the highest ROI of any channel. With this in mind, sharing content on social media is a no-brainer.

Whether you’re looking for a strategy refresh or leveraging the channel for the first time, this post is your guide to the different types of social media content and the benefits it’ll bring to your business.

Different Types of Social Media Content

1. Video (short form, specifically)

Short-form video is the top trend marketers will be leveraging in 2023, and HubSpot’s 2023 Social Media Trends Report found that it is the highest ROI format for social media marketing.

graph displaying the social media format with highest ROIWith this in mind, creating short-form videos is a worthwhile investment, and some common examples are TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, and YouTube shorts. The TikTok below is a video from Topicals, a skincare company, which talks about the different uses for one of its products.

Long-form video is also popular, but it doesn’t come close to the ROI of short-form. Live video gained steam during the pandemic, allowing people to participate in events remotely. Twitch is a popular live-streaming platform where people can interact with their favorite creators in real time.

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2. Audio chat and live rooms.

Audio chat is another type of social media content, and many platforms have native features like Twitter Spaces, LinkedIn Live, or Facebook Live Audio. It’s also the top content type marketers plan to leverage for the first time in 2023.

graph displaying the format social media marketers plan to leverage for the first time in 2023This makes sense, as audio chat rooms let brands directly communicate with audiences and develop closer relationships than seeing a billboard or watching a YouTube video. And, during a time when customers value connections with brands more than ever, audio chat rooms are a valuable tool.

Audio chat rooms are trendy among Gen Z. A Spotify study found that 80% of Gen Z enjoy audio content because it allows them to express their individuality and explore different sides of their personalities.

3. Content that represents brand values.

Content that represents brand values is anything that shares what your company stands for in addition to and outside of the products you sell, such as commitments to sustainable production practices, treatment of employees, or any causes you support.

Consumers care more than ever about what the brands they buy from stand for and the values they have. They want to know the causes that businesses support and the commitments made to bettering the world.

The image below is a Tweet from Ben & Jerry’s that expressed its commitment to environmentalism and combating climate change, which aligns with its stated core values of environmental protection.

ben jerrys

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Brand value content helps you draw in people whose values align with yours, and marketers also say that it has the 5th biggest ROI of any trend. 44% of marketers are also already posting this type of social media content.

4. User-generated content.

User-generated content (UGC) is content your audience creates that features your business/brand that is not paid for by your business. For example, someone shares a non-sponsored TikTok about how much they like your product or posts a picture wearing your clothing and tags your business.

This type of content is great to share on social media because it helps your audiences see that people use and like your products, vouching for you in a real-life way.

UGC pays off, as customers trust reviews from friends and family more than they trust branded ads, and 79% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchase decisions, considerably more so than branded content and influencer content.

When you do use UGC, the platforms it performs best on are Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

graph displaying the best social media platforms for sharing ugc

5. Funny, trendy, and relatable content.

Funny, trendy, and relatable content on social media can be hopping on viral memes, relating them to your business, and using trending hashtags or sounds. This type of content requires awareness of what’s happening on social media, cultural moments, and current events and creating buzzy content related to that.

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36% of marketers already share funny, trendy, and relatable content on social media, and 66% say that funny content is the most effective, followed by relatable, trendy content. Consumers say that funny content is the most memorable.

6. Shoppable content.

Shoppable social media content allows consumers to browse through products on your accounts, discover things they like, and even make a purchase without leaving the app. The image below is an Instagram storefront for Ink Meets Paper, where someone can browse its products, find what interests them, and make a purchase.

facebook shops-1

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This is a valuable content type as social shopping is currently on the rise, and consumers are discovering new products and buying products on social media apps more than ever before.

In fact, social media is the most popular way for Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X to discover new products, and over 1 in 5 have made an in-app purchase in the past three months. If you share shoppable content, the most effective platforms for selling in-app are Instagram and Facebook.

most effective selling

7. Educational content.

Educational content shares helpful information with audiences that helps them reach their goals and meet their needs. Educational content can come in infographics, videos, text-based posts, images — any of the content types we discussed in this post.

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HubSpot often shares educational content through YouTube videos, where viewers can learn more about concepts of interest. The video below is a recent video that educates viewers on creating a brand style guide.

8. High-quality images

Images are a must on social media platforms, capturing attention and drawing people in. Images can be things like high-quality product photos or even a trending meme that relates to your business.

Our recent Marketing Strategy Report found that 47% of marketers leverage images as a media format and work well on all social media platforms.

9. Text-based content

We see text-based content on social media every day, like Tweets or thought-leadership posts on LinkedIn. The primary goal of text-based content is to share insight through text rather than an image or video. For example, you can pair a Tweet with an eye-catching image, but the point of the post is in the text.

Blogs are popular text-based content where people read longer posts and discover helpful information. Some popular types of blog posts are:

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  • How-to posts that introduce a problem, offer a solution, and discuss steps to reach a desired result.
  • Lists posts that focus on a particular topic, offer several points, and provide a brief conclusion.
  • What-posts that provide further information on a specific topic, with many articles surrounding comparisons of one thing to another.
  • Why-posts that typically provide readers with a reason or purpose and provide details that support a focused conclusion.

10. Infographics

Infographics are a content type with the shareability and visual appeal of photos but are filled with helpful data and information. It’s an impactful form of social media content and educational content.

The image below is a post from HubSpot’s Instagram account that is an infographic that informs viewers about the most effective traits of a sales leader.

infographic-2

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Infographics are effective, too, with 56% of marketers that regularly use them saying it’s their most effective content type.

11. Ephemeral/disappearing content.

Ephemeral/disappearing content is content that only stays up for a certain amount of time, like Instagram Stories that disappear after 24 hours. Users only have a set period to engage with it, so they might be more eager to keep track of your profiles and keep returning to experience what you share.

Creating quizzes and polls in your Stories is a great way to leverage this type of content. People only have a certain amount of time to respond, generating excitement and immediate action and inspiring respondents to come back and see results.

Repurposing Content Is Still A Valuable Strategy

Social media marketers say they use an average of four platforms, each with its best practices and norms to follow. It can be challenging to create individual pieces of content for every single platform, so many marketers share similar content on each platform but repurpose it to fit the tone and requirements of each one.

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repurposeThe key to success, however, is repurposing content, not resharing. People don’t look fondly at brands that share the exact same thing on each platform. 48% of marketers already share similar content across platforms with tweaks to make it more relevant to the platform’s demands.

Want More Social Media Insights?

Learn more about the State of Social media with more of this data, videos, and exclusive industry tips on our State of Social Media Hub— which will come with a free downloadable resource.

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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