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10 Most Effective Types of Social Media Posts

10 Most Effective Social Media Post Types

One of the biggest challenges of maintaining a consistent flow of quality content to your company’s social media pages is knowing what to post. It’s important to keep your page interesting with a variety of different content types, and to choose the types that get the most Engagement. Greater Engagement increases your Reach, which means more Followers see your content. When Followers engage with and share your content, they increase your chances of attracting more Followers.

Social media is an affordable form of marketing for small retail businesses, and planning your content goes a long way. Below are the 10 most effective types of posts you can share on your Facebook or Instagram feeds for your store.

  1. Animated Gifs
10 Most Effective Types of Social Media Posts

Share a funny or attention-getting gif, or create one using an online tool. Gifs are impossible to ignore and enable you to show your store’s personality. Just make sure to keep the message appropriate and on-brand. You may need to do a little research just to make sure a particular gif hasn’t developed any negative associations in the popular imagination.

  1. Caption Contests
10 Most Effective Types of Social Media Posts

Post an unusual photo (that you own the rights to) and ask followers to create a funny or fitting caption. It might include one of your products or employees, or something completely random. Give a deadline, announce the winner and, if possible, offer a prize.

  1. Shares or Reposts From Your Brands
10 Most Effective Types of Social Media Posts

Follow the brands you carry so you see when they post something that gets a lot of engagement, then share it to your own feed. You can add your own insights or mention whether you have a particular product currently in stock. You can also ask your customers what they think about a certain product.

  1. Customer Spotlights
10 Most Effective Types of Social Media Posts

Ask if you can take a photo of a customer with a product they just purchased, or ask them to submit their own, and share it to your page. It’s likely they will share it themselves, garnering engagement from their personal connections.

  1. Surveys
10 Most Effective Types of Social Media Posts

People love to weigh in with an opinion. Ask them to pick their favorite out of four things, or ask for predictions related to your industry. Make sure to share the results later and thank everyone who participates.

[Callout] Video content of any kind performs better than static images in every metric by at least 50%. In our analysis, video content got 856% more clicks and impressions increased by an average 160%.

  1. Company Culture Posts
10 Most Effective Types of Social Media Posts

Show the humanity behind your business by showcasing projects in which you give back to your community, participate in sustainability initiatives, or otherwise make the world a better place. Make sure to tag any partner organizations or participants. Or, simply share the opinions and personalities of your team members.

  1. Links to Your Blog
10 Most Effective Types of Social Media Posts

A blog is a great place to build trust with your follower base and share deep insights about how to get the most out of your products. It’s also a great source of social media content. Share new blog posts as you publish them, or go back a little bit to share something older that’s become relevant again. Bonus tip: Make sure your blog has great images and that they’re set to display when someone shares a link.

  1. Fun Facts
10 Most Effective Types of Social Media Posts

Find an amazing piece of trivia about your company, your industry, or an area of interest to your followers and share it. This is what the internet was made for. Post your fun facts as text or turn them into graphics. 

  1. Infographics
10 Most Effective Types of Social Media Posts

Infographics are easy to read and are widely shared. They can actually double your traffic. Create your own or share infographics created by others (with credit, of course). Choose topics that teach people something new about your industry, especially those that help users get more value out of your products.

  1. Brand-Specific Sales and Promotions
10 Most Effective Types of Social Media Posts

Your followers care about the brands and products you carry, and everybody loves a deal. That might be the reason they followed you in the first place. Share timely, accurate information whenever a brand you carry is offering a promotion so your customers can take advantage of it. Keep a calendar of upcoming sales so that you remember to share well ahead of time and get customers in your door.

Sit Back and Let ThumbStopper Handle the Heavy Lifting

10 Most Effective Types of Social Media Posts

Items #3 and #10, while among the most effective, can be the most challenging to manage. You have a business to run and can’t always pay attention to what your brands are posting to their social media channels. ThumbStopper takes that work off your plate. You subscribe to feeds from top brands, and their content goes straight to your social media feeds, with current, accurate details timed for when your customers are most likely to see it. Brands have big budgets for great imagery too, so your products will always look amazing. Request a demo today to see ThumbStopper in action.
Still need ideas for social media posts? Try our social post builder.

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Key Points:

 

  • Companies should understand the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure their websites are accessible.
  • Brands that concentrate on accessibility on social media demonstrate care for their customers and build a positive brand reputation.
  • Brands should always consider inclusive design, such as plain, straightforward language, in their social media posts.

 

 

Accessibility may not be a term you usually associate with the internet and social media. You might picture wheelchair ramps, directional signs in braille, or sign language interpreters at live performances. The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 dictates the legal necessity of these and similar accommodations in public spaces. As we’ve come to rely on the internet for everything from entertainment to buying groceries, it’s become clear that the internet is now also a public space. It must be accessible to everyone. And like other applications of ADA, businesses that do not comply are liable for damages caused by inaccessibility.

 

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international set of standards to provide instruction on meeting accessibility needs. It’s important for companies to understand how this applies to their websites, especially if they engage in e-commerce. In terms of social media, the requirements are less concrete. But prioritizing accessibility on your company’s social media is essential to your reputation, even if the legal requirements are uncertain. We’ll look at why it’s important to your customers, how it affects the perception of your brand, and how to make these changes efficiently.

Social Media for All

The cornerstone of accessibility is inclusive design: products or experiences that are accessible for everyone regardless of disability. The most important place where this shows up is on company websites where most users expect to also find links to the brand’s social media profiles. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of websites are not accessible, despite the fact that the application of ADA to the internet is over 20 years old. Making websites accessible is a complex process without the use of specialized software like Accessibe or EqualWeb.

Unlike websites, making sure your social media is accessible is a straightforward, ongoing process. Every social platform has been quick to release optional accessibility features. These features are important to many users even if they don’t rely on them to use social media.

Making your social presence accessible tells users that your brand cares about people, not just profits. It’s the same idea as the push for the representation of different body sizes in fashion or more expansive skin tone ranges in beauty products. Brands that meet the needs of underrepresented groups endear themselves to others as well. And while optimizing your brand website for accessibility might be a larger project you aren’t ready to tackle yet, starting with your social media pages is a great way to show customers that you’re listening to their concerns. 

 

Making Content Accessible

Shifting to accessible content means incorporating inclusive design into your creative process. The practice varies by type of media. For platforms that have graphics or videos with captions, it means not only adjusting each component but also being mindful of how they interact with each other.

For example, YouTube’s automatically generated closed captions and subtitles are often inaccurate. It's one of many examples where the caption generation software has issues picking up strong accents and mumbled words. This could be remedied with handcrafted video transcription services. If that’s not in the budget, the video creator could add their script or transcription to the video description.

None of the technology for accessibility is perfect yet. Teaching computers to digest complex information for human understanding is difficult, and the variations in disabilities further complicate it. The majority of adjustments creators need to make revolve around helping assistive technology better understand their content. Let’s look at how to make different kinds of content accessible. 

Text

  • Use plain language that’s easy to understand 
  • Avoid text in all caps
  • Capitalize the first letter of each word in a hashtag, like #SocialMediaMarketing, a practice called camel-case

Videos

  • Provide descriptive captions. Instead of just displaying the words people on-screen say, explain background noises and other sounds that are relevant to the scene.
  • Add your own subtitles or enable auto-subtitles on the video platform of your choice
  • Use captioning for live videos when possible

Graphics

Distribute Accessible Content

Many users find their new favorite brand through social media. When disabled people (who make up 26% of the population according to the CDC) can’t access your brand’s social posts, you miss the opportunity to connect with a demographic that’s eager to engage in online communities. On a hyper-local level, that kind of connection goes even further.

That’s why ThumbStopper exists to help brands distribute their social content to their retailer network. Retailers can connect with their local audience - with your accessible, branded content - in a more personal way. And since content goes to their page automatically once they sign up, retailers can effortlessly promote your brand online while focusing on running their business. 

Ready to see how ThumbStopper can help your brand improve its reach? Check out our brand reach calculator or book a demo.

 

 

accessibility
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Key Points:

 

  • Companies should understand the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure their websites are accessible.
  • Brands that concentrate on accessibility on social media demonstrate care for their customers and build a positive brand reputation.
  • Brands should always consider inclusive design, such as plain, straightforward language, in their social media posts.

 

 

Accessibility may not be a term you usually associate with the internet and social media. You might picture wheelchair ramps, directional signs in braille, or sign language interpreters at live performances. The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 dictates the legal necessity of these and similar accommodations in public spaces. As we’ve come to rely on the internet for everything from entertainment to buying groceries, it’s become clear that the internet is now also a public space. It must be accessible to everyone. And like other applications of ADA, businesses that do not comply are liable for damages caused by inaccessibility.

 

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international set of standards to provide instruction on meeting accessibility needs. It’s important for companies to understand how this applies to their websites, especially if they engage in e-commerce. In terms of social media, the requirements are less concrete. But prioritizing accessibility on your company’s social media is essential to your reputation, even if the legal requirements are uncertain. We’ll look at why it’s important to your customers, how it affects the perception of your brand, and how to make these changes efficiently.

Social Media for All

The cornerstone of accessibility is inclusive design: products or experiences that are accessible for everyone regardless of disability. The most important place where this shows up is on company websites where most users expect to also find links to the brand’s social media profiles. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of websites are not accessible, despite the fact that the application of ADA to the internet is over 20 years old. Making websites accessible is a complex process without the use of specialized software like Accessibe or EqualWeb.

Unlike websites, making sure your social media is accessible is a straightforward, ongoing process. Every social platform has been quick to release optional accessibility features. These features are important to many users even if they don’t rely on them to use social media.

Making your social presence accessible tells users that your brand cares about people, not just profits. It’s the same idea as the push for the representation of different body sizes in fashion or more expansive skin tone ranges in beauty products. Brands that meet the needs of underrepresented groups endear themselves to others as well. And while optimizing your brand website for accessibility might be a larger project you aren’t ready to tackle yet, starting with your social media pages is a great way to show customers that you’re listening to their concerns. 

 

Making Content Accessible

Shifting to accessible content means incorporating inclusive design into your creative process. The practice varies by type of media. For platforms that have graphics or videos with captions, it means not only adjusting each component but also being mindful of how they interact with each other.

For example, YouTube’s automatically generated closed captions and subtitles are often inaccurate. It’s one of many examples where the caption generation software has issues picking up strong accents and mumbled words. This could be remedied with handcrafted video transcription services. If that’s not in the budget, the video creator could add their script or transcription to the video description.

None of the technology for accessibility is perfect yet. Teaching computers to digest complex information for human understanding is difficult, and the variations in disabilities further complicate it. The majority of adjustments creators need to make revolve around helping assistive technology better understand their content. Let’s look at how to make different kinds of content accessible. 

Text

  • Use plain language that’s easy to understand 
  • Avoid text in all caps
  • Capitalize the first letter of each word in a hashtag, like #SocialMediaMarketing, a practice called camel-case

Videos

  • Provide descriptive captions. Instead of just displaying the words people on-screen say, explain background noises and other sounds that are relevant to the scene.
  • Add your own subtitles or enable auto-subtitles on the video platform of your choice
  • Use captioning for live videos when possible

Graphics

Distribute Accessible Content

Many users find their new favorite brand through social media. When disabled people (who make up 26% of the population according to the CDC) can’t access your brand’s social posts, you miss the opportunity to connect with a demographic that’s eager to engage in online communities. On a hyper-local level, that kind of connection goes even further.

That’s why ThumbStopper exists to help brands distribute their social content to their retailer network. Retailers can connect with their local audience – with your accessible, branded content – in a more personal way. And since content goes to their page automatically once they sign up, retailers can effortlessly promote your brand online while focusing on running their business. 

Ready to see how ThumbStopper can help your brand improve its reach? Check out our brand reach calculator or book a demo.

 

 

accessibility
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