During the audits we conduct for clients, we’ve found that many brands aren’t even aware of all of the different ways you can engage with your audience on each social media channel. As a result, many program only one or two types of posts and miss the opportunity to offer variety and, more importantly, the chance to reach a more diverse audience.
As a strategic marketer, you should never diversify your post types for the sake of diversifying. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try a variety of post-types. When planning your social media content, mix things up and continue to innovate. As with everything in social media, post-type effectiveness changes as the platforms evolve. We recommend that you look quarterly and annually to spot trends and see what types of posts tend to overperform. Once the data are in, you can make the decision on what post types to prioritize and which ones aren’t as effective with your audience.
We created a handy infographic to show all the posting types by channel. You can download a copy to use as a reference as you mix up your social media posts!
Here’s a list of all of the posting types by channel:
Live video
Document (Upload from your computer or Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive)
Video
Link
Poll
Image
Carousel (multiple images in one post)
Shared
Job
Status Update (no link or image attached)
Write an article
Story
Features:
Celebrate an occasion
Find an expert
Add a profile (recommend someone)
Share that You’re Hiring
Offer Help
Live video
Video
Link
Image
Shared
Status update (no link or image attached)
Additional FB Features:
Add a feeling or activity to your posts
Create a watch party with friends
Easily attach gifs (which are counted as video)
Check into a business or place
Ask for a recommendation
Tag friends
Raise money
Live video (Hit the camera icon and you’ll have the option to toggle to “Live.” You can also use third-party streaming services to go live.)
Audio (only available in mobile and TBD on how long this lasts)
Poll
Video (upload or create a video on the fly)
Link
Image
Shared (RT or Quote tweet)
Status update (no link or image attached)
Features
Tag people in images
Limit people who can reply
Add a location
Alt-text for images
Thread tweets (which can be any type of tweet but it just responds to one of your tweets)
Easily add a gif through the menu (Note: This is considered a video in stats)
Pinterest:
Image Pins (Note: Most Pins link to something but you can technically create a Pin with just an image and no link)
Link Pins
Only available to Business accounts:
Note: These are not to be confused with Rich Pins, which are types of Pins, such as recipe, product, and article Pins, that you program on your website to display when someone Pins something from there.
YouTube
Videos
Live Stream
Create Post (launches Community tab)
Videos
Polls
Images
Status Updates
Live Video
Carousel
Video (Boomerang, Gif, or regular video)
Image post (regular image or use their layout tool)
Shared (you can share a post to your story)
Story
Reel
Additional Insta Features:
Add music to your Reel
Slow your Reel up or down
TikTok
Video
Live video (requires minimum of 1,000 followers)
Additional TikTok Features:
Add music
Add graphics
Add effects
Limit duration / Timer
Beauty mode/filters
Duet with an existing video
