Distributing identical content across all platforms is a dated tactic.
What proves successful on Instagram may not resonate on LinkedIn. That trending TikTok challenge? It could feel entirely misplaced on X (previously Twitter).
Every platform encompasses a specific audience with unique habits and preferences. And that merely scratches the surface. There are also various types of content and algorithms to consider.
To optimize your presence on each platform, customizing your content is essential. This is the only method to distinguish yourself from competitors and achieve genuine engagement and conversions.
In this article, we’ll detail precisely what to share on every social media platform. We’ll also provide suggestions for crafting compelling content and ways to utilize analytics to refine your strategy.
Is it necessary to customize your content for every social media platform?
Definitely! Tailoring content for each platform can yield far superior outcomes.
Users engage with social media platforms for diverse reasons. Aligning with their intentions and expectations can result in increased engagement on your publications.
For instance, research by Sprout Social indicates that 60% of social media users turn to Instagram and Facebook for product exploration.
Therefore, while showcasing your products may yield positive results on Meta’s platforms, inundating X (Twitter) with promotional content may not be the best approach.
But does that imply you must develop distinct content every single time? Absolutely not.
At times, cross-posting on various platforms can be remarkably effective.
For example, brands frequently share identical videos on TikTok and Instagram Reels, as these two platforms often share overlapping audiences, trends, and video dimensions.
In other instances, you can repurpose your content to prolong the lifespan of assets you’ve previously created, rather than starting anew.
Repurposing involves modifying your existing content to make it suitable for different channels or audiences. For example, you could:
- Slice a lengthy infographic into concise charts to present as a carousel on LinkedIn.
- Shorten a 30-minute YouTube guide into brief “quick tip” Reels for Instagram.
- Post individual stats and insights from your research report on X (Twitter).
Repurposing is an excellent method to increase engagement across various platforms and enhance the longevity of your existing content without expending extra resources on new material.
By recognizing what kinds of content excel on each platform, you can easily discover methods to adjust existing content for optimum engagement.
What types of content to share on each network
If you’re seeking the most effective content types for each platform, you don’t have to navigate it by yourself.
Fortunately, Sprout Social has conducted the research for you. Below, we’ll reveal specific insights from our 2024 Social Media Content Strategy Report, so you’ll understand what truly works on various social media platforms and which formats to avoid.
We’ll also present post ideas and examples from actual brands (like yours) excelling on social media.
Almost half of all Facebook users engage with brand content each day. Surprisingly, most of them prefer straightforward text posts over more elaborate formats like videos.
Brands focusing on Facebook marketing will be comforted by the fact that they don’t need to heavily invest in crafting engaging content for the platform. On Facebook, less is undeniably more.
Facebook also serves as the primary platform for customer care, particularly among Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers. Sharing genuine, conversational content that invites feedback and dialogue can yield excellent results on this platform.
Include static images in your posts or occasionally share short videos (under 15 seconds) to keep your content engaging, promote your brand, and foster interaction.
As a visually driven network, Instagram inherently favors images and videos. Yet the platform has evolved considerably from its origins as a mere photo-sharing application.
Currently, short videos (under 15 seconds) yield the best performance for Instagram marketing, followed by static images, longer videos (15-60 seconds), influencer content, and memes.
So what kinds of 15-second videos can brands upload on Instagram?
Consider Reels that deliver entertaining material, brief tutorials, or behind-the-scenes glimpses. Or Instagram Stories that include interactive elements like polls or Q&As.
With images, there’s plenty of scope for creativity. Beyond polished product photographs, you can explore attractive text graphics, educational content, carousels, motivational quotes, and even screenshots of brand Tweets throughout Instagram.
Stay updated with the latest Instagram trends to create pertinent content that your audience unquestionably wants to interact with.
As a more professional-focused network, LinkedIn is excellent for establishing yourself as a thought leader. Text posts and static images yield the best results for LinkedIn marketing, while video seems less significant compared to other platforms.
Nonetheless, don’t exclude video altogether. With LinkedIn’s new vertical video feed, we may see more short-form videos on the platform than previously.
Moreover, if you’re merely sharing company updates and posting pictures of team gatherings, you’re not utilizing LinkedIn to its full potential.
LinkedIn users are seeking more educational content, community engagement, and customer support from brands, rather than overly promotional content.
Some engaging LinkedIn post suggestions could involve user-generated content, tips, and industry insights, similar to the instance provided by Sprout Social above. Ensure you encourage dialogue on subjects your audience finds significant by posing questions and responding thoughtfully to comments.
As Pinterest is frequently utilized as a means to gather ideas, content that is informational, educational, or inspirational flourishes for Pinterest marketing.
This is precisely why Pinterest serves as a hub for discovering recipes, DIY guides, seasonal ideas, style guides, gift guides, and related content.
Pinterest’s default vertical dimensions are visually striking—think infographics, high-quality image covers, and mood boards. Overlaying content with a headline will help your Pin capture attention.
TikTok
Short videos dominate on TikTok—which is not surprising since that’s the sole content format the platform currently supports. However, the length of your videos is important.
Research from Sprout reveals that short-form videos between 15-30 seconds achieve the highest engagement on TikTok, followed closely by very short videos (under 15 seconds), and then slightly extended videos (31-60 secs).
So, what should you post on TikTok, anyway?
Concise, engaging videos that either entertain or educate perform best—essentially, edutainment content.
The platform is also a favorite destination for Gen Z to catch up on news and discover new products, so consider partnering with TikTok influencers to highlight your product’s standout features.
TikTok’s algorithm favors creative and engaging content, presenting brands with the perfect opportunity to experiment with humor, storytelling, and viral trends. Even brands with a serious tone can succeed by showing a more lighthearted side.
Threads
Meta’s latest platform, Threads, is still establishing its niche but demonstrates potential with an emphasis on conversational content. It provides brands with a chance to connect more profoundly with their audience through entertaining and educational material.
Presently, text posts garner the highest engagement on Threads, followed by static images and short-form videos (under 15 seconds).
Interestingly, some users also appreciate viewing long-form videos (60+ seconds) on the platform, opening new possibilities for brands to convey powerful, in-depth narratives.
X (formerly Twitter)
Despite the rebranding, X continues to be the preferred platform for news, real-time updates, entertainment, and education among its users. Nearly half (48%) of social media users with an X account are significantly more likely to be men than women.
Text posts (previously referred to as “Tweets”) still yield the best results on X (Twitter).
However, static images and short-form videos closely follow, so don’t hesitate to experiment with supporting visuals in your X marketing strategy.
YouTube
When it comes to YouTube marketing, the approach is somewhat different.
On this platform, the longer your content, the greater the likelihood it will attract engagement.
Our Content Strategy Report indicates that videos longer than 60 seconds achieve the best performance on the platform.
Nonetheless, the popularity of long-form videos hasn’t deterred YouTube from embracing the short-form video trend. YouTube Shorts have been around for a while now and are increasing in popularity.
Indeed, this is likely why the second and third most engaging content types on YouTube are short-form videos ranging from 15 seconds to 3 minutes long.
Here’s a compilation of video types your brand can post on YouTube:
- Case study videos
- Tips and tutorials
- Webinars and video podcasts
- Interviews with clients
- Brand narrative videos
- Comprehensive product demonstrations
Here’s how Semrush shares informative SEO content on its YouTube channel.
Strategies for crafting compelling content across platforms
Social media users are eager to see more content from brands, but their expectations are higher than ever. Posting generic, promotional content across the board simply won’t suffice any longer.
Each platform calls for a tailored approach. However, fundamentally, they all adhere to some shared principles of effective content creation.
Here’s how to design engaging content that operates across platforms while respecting each network’s unique traits.
Understand your audience
Your audience isn’t just using various platforms—they interact with them for different reasons. Recognizing these behavioral patterns can assist you in engaging them on every channel.
As an example, a Millennial attorney may browse industry news on LinkedIn, seek shopping inspiration on Instagram, and watch entertaining videos on TikTok. As a brand targeting this demographic, you now know which content to create for each platform.
And where can you access this valuable information? Social media analytics, of course.
Examine your analytics to identify when your audience is most active and what type of content drives engagement on each platform. Utilize these insights to develop tailored content that aligns with their platform-specific habits and expectations.
Incorporate high-quality visuals
While you don’t require professional equipment for every post, you must meet fundamental standards of clarity, composition, and illumination. This is particularly crucial for image-centric platforms like Instagram and Pinterest.
Sharing blurred images or dim, shaky footage with muffled sound on any platform will not garner engagement. In fact, it can damage your brand’s image by making you seem unprofessional.
Moreover, the competition is fierce. If users have to exert excessive time and energy to comprehend or appreciate your content, they will simply switch to something else.
At a minimum, invest in basic photography skills and basic editing tools. If you intend to use external assets, opt for higher quality rather than settling for the free, lower-quality versions.
Embrace video
If video hasn’t already become an integral part of your social media content strategy, consider this your cue to pivot.
According to our 2024 Content Benchmarks Report, short-form video is the #1 content format that consumers wish brands to focus on in 2024. Notably, video (of varying lengths) occupies three of the top five spots on this list!
Remember to adapt your videos to align with each platform. While brief, vertical videos dominate TikTok and Instagram, longer videos may be more appropriate for YouTube.
Maintain consistency
To thrive on any social platform, you must work with its algorithm. Most (if not all) social media algorithms favor consistency. Posting regularly keeps your audience engaged and your brand top of mind.
However, consistency isn’t solely about posting frequency; it also encompasses sustaining your brand voice and content quality, regardless of where you post or how often.
Instead of attempting to churn out 10 posts daily across all platforms, choose a realistic schedule you can adhere to. Sharing one high-quality post daily is preferable to several lackluster ones.
Utilize storytelling techniques
Every piece of content should craft a narrative, even a simple product image.
Stories resonate because they establish emotional connections. They enable individuals to envision themselves in your content, whether you are solving a problem or recounting a journey.
Each platform provides unique opportunities for your brand to narrate these stories. On LinkedIn, this may involve sharing a client success tale with your brand. On Instagram and TikTok, it might be a 15-second video showcasing the before and after effects of your product in action.
Storytelling enriches your content. By constructing a compelling narrative that resonates powerfully with your target audience, engagement is bound to follow.
Engage authentically
Your audience can detect insincere engagement from afar. To build trust and loyalty, you need to genuinely connect with your audience.
Respond promptly and thoughtfully to comments, questions, and messages. Participate in relevant discussions and contribute actual value instead of simply promoting your brand.
Authenticity also implies adjusting your tone to each platform’s culture while remaining true to your brand’s values. For instance, observe how Duolingo maintains its playful tone across TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
How to leverage data to inform your content strategy for each network
Now that you recognize the need to adjust your content based on audience and platform, what should you do next?
Begin by examining your analytics and reports for each channel. This data will reveal which content and post types are thriving in your brand’s content strategy.
While each platform provides some basic analytics, utilizing a third-party tool such as Sprout Social can offer deeper insights, analyze cross-platform metrics, identify trends, and apply those insights to enhance your engagement.
Let’s examine how Sprout can assist you in using data to drive your content strategy across various social media platforms.
Track cross-platform analytics and performance
Sprout offers detailed metrics on impressions, reach, engagement, and audience demographics for every platform. This equips your business to comprehend what resonates with your audience and tailor content to match those needs.
However, you needn’t toggle between individual platform analytics for this information. Our Post Performance Report consolidates all your data into a single dashboard, providing a comprehensive view of your performance across multiple channels.
You can delve deeper by filtering through video, text, photo, and link posts, sorting them by impressions, engagement, and clicks.
Spot top-performing content
Sprout’s Post Performance Report isn’t just effective for consolidating your data. It also simplifies the identification of your best content across platforms, especially when you categorize your posts by reach or engagement.
You can generate network-specific reports to pinpoint your top content on each channel, such as Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn. What videos are viewed the most? Which posts have received the greatest number of likes and comments?
Beyond noting the type of content, also observe if there are shared characteristics among the leading content: dimensions, voice, style, graphics, type of filter, photo composition, etc. Repeat this examination for each network and identify the disparities.
Uncover trending tags
Want to stay ahead of the conversation? Sprout’s listening tools reveal precisely what your audience is discussing at this moment. Tap into trending topics, hashtags, and mentions to participate in the discourse and create timely, relevant content for each platform.
For example, a skincare brand on Instagram might discover that posts with #skintok surge on Sunday nights during skincare regimens.
Then explore your content performance further with our Tag Performance Report.
Tag your posts by campaign, theme, or content type across all networks and reveal exactly what works where. For instance, tagging “Holiday Campaign” posts could reveal spikes in engagement for specific visuals or copy.
Link the dots between trending conversations and your best-performing content, and utilize these insights to optimize your strategy for each platform.
Implement AI and data-driven recommendations
Sprout transcends mere reporting by providing AI-driven recommendations for what to post and when to do it for maximized engagement.
Utilize our Generate Posts by AI Assist feature to quickly produce tailored content. It can analyze your top-performing posts to develop fresh concepts that align with your brand voice.
If you find an idea appealing, send it to Compose for editing and scheduling. Then use our Enhance by AI Assist tool to brainstorm engaging caption ideas for your post.
And it gets even better.
If you’re scheduling content across any platform and are uncertain about the optimal posting times, you can view suggestions for Optimal Send Times based on historical data.
Have audiences in various time zones? Entrust your final drafts to our ViralPost technology, which will automatically publish your queued posts at peak engagement intervals.
Harness the potential of platform-specific content
The guide above will assist you in identifying which types of content are most effective on each social platform. Keep in mind that not every content format (or platform) will suit your brand, but experimentation is key.
Test various content types and continuously monitor performance to learn and refine your strategy. If you need assistance, utilize our complimentary assessment tool to determine the best social media content mix for your brand.
The post What to post on each social media platform: Your guide to content success appeared first on Sprout Social.
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