What is social media content creato
How do I start content creating
Social media content creation: Best guide
Chloe West
Chloe West is a marketing writer for SaaS companies. He lives in Charleston, SC and when he's not working, you can find him playing cards or watering the plants.
Many camera lenses
Creating social media content is often more than just posting to Instagram. It involves a good helping of strategy, planning, analysis and expertise in creating content for a brand's social media presence.
Throughout this article, we'll help you learn how to do just that. Discover what we mean when we say "social media content creation", the types of content you create and how to get started, and the best tools to help.
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What is content creation
Content creation refers to the act of creating information and visuals for distribution to an audience, usually online.
There are different types of content it may refer to:
- Ebook
- Infographics
- Blog posts
- video
- Email newsletter
Great content creators are skilled at storytelling and can create memorable, shareable narratives that keep people coming back — and increase brand recall, if that's your goal. Their originality sets them apart from the digital noise, while their consistent posting keeps viewers engaged.
What is social media content creation
We sound like a broken record, but social media content creation is the act of creating information and visuals to distribute on various social media platforms.
Each social media site has its own rules about the best types of content to share, how long captions can be, how to use hashtags, and what size images or videos to create. So creating social media content is an art in its own right.
Social media content creators must be well-versed in the criteria set by each social media platform as well as the best performing content types to succeed.
7 Types of Content for Social Media
So without further ado, let's get into the different types of social media content your brand wants to create. There are seven main categories, although you can be creative with your content ideas and come up with something outside the box.
1. Post the text
First, we have basic text posts. It involves nothing more than a typed caption or text status (perhaps with a few emojis).
Here's a great example of this from Grammarly:
The proofreading software brand created a simple text post (with emojis, of course) that aims to help its audience communicate better in the workplace by offering advanced wording options.
X (formerly known as Twitter) and LinkedIn are two of the best platforms for text-only posts. LinkedIn is great for starting conversations on specific professional topics and X has a reputation as a short-form content hub (although premium users are now able to create longer posts).
Creating social media feeds that contain a variety of content helps keep your strategy fresh, so consider incorporating text posts into your X and LinkedIn content strategies.
2. Images and Graphics
Images and graphics are another popular post. While your social media team works with others to create these types of assets, basic photography and graphic design skills are also great for social media managers.
Here's an example of an image shared on the Costa Farms Instagram page:
Plant Nursery takes a photo, neatly splits it into three square photos and shares it as an image carousel.
Here's another Instagram image carousel from form and survey software Typeform, but this time with graphics instead of photos:
Image Carousel is a great way to share multiple images at once on social media. They're swipeable—and on Instagram, they flow seamlessly together, making it easy to link one photo to the next.
However, you can also share single images on social media, as we see in this Facebook post from software company Zoho:
6. Story
Social Media Stories are temporary photos and videos that appear on your profile used on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. These stories only last 24 hours - though Instagram allows users to add selected stories to highlights on their profiles.
Here's an example of an Instagram story from marshmallow company XO Marshmallow:
Examples of Instagram stories
This type of content is the best place for behind-the-scenes footage, company updates, UGC and interactive content. Instagram Stories offers several stickers that you can add to your visuals to create polls or quizzes, add music, and tag locations.
7. Links
Finally, sometimes you need to share a link on your website. There are a few different ways to do this to ensure your content is still visible, eye-catching and interesting for your audience.
Here's an example from SEO software company Semrush:
Its team shared a link to a blog post, but made sure to include some information about what readers will learn, including an eye-catching image in the caption.
Instead of creating a clickable post you can paste a link in the caption and use a photo as the main visual. Check out both options to see what works best for your brand.
Links can be shared on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.
How to Create Content for Social Media in 7 Steps
We've covered the seven main types of social media content, but how do you create them? First, you need to make a plan. Your team needs to come up with a social media content strategy and content creation process that helps you create quality content every time.
1. Define your goal and audience
What do you want to get out of your social media content? Do you want to engage and entertain your audience? Provide a wealth of helpful information? Generate more sales? You can do this and more with the right content format.
You also need to figure out who your target audience is and what kind of content they want to see from a brand like yours. Gen Z enjoys different types of content than Gen X and Baby Boomers, so it's important to identify exactly who you need to create content for.
2. Choose the right platforms
Another part of finding your audience is knowing which platforms they prefer to use. For example, if you're targeting a much older demographic, you might not have the best experience creating content for TikTok. At the same time, you may not want to spend a lot of time on LinkedIn if you're trying to reach a younger, hipper, less professional audience.
You choose the right platforms for your product and your target customer to create a successful digital marketing strategy.
3. Create a content strategy plan
An overarching strategy or plan can help you create the best content for your brand. Once you've figured out your platforms, it's time to outline a few other things, such as:
How often to post on each platform
The type of content you post on each platform
Content creation tools you'll use (scroll down to discover some great options)
Each person on your team will have a role in content creation
Once you figure that out, you can move on to the next step and start creating your content calendar.
4. Do content research and brainstorming
At this point, you should have a vague idea of what and where you will build. Now it's time to do some research to come up with ideas for your specific content.
Start by looking at what your competitors are doing. While you never want to copy their techniques exactly, this can be a great start for gathering basic ideas.
Sit down with your team to start brainstorming different ideas based on the seven types of content we mentioned in the last section. Keep your content calendar varied with multiple types of content to keep your feed fresh and not repetitive.
5. Optimize for each platform
Even if you plan to create similar content for your Instagram, Facebook and TikTok pages, each platform has different rules for optimization. The way you write your caption, edit your post, or include hashtags will be different for each platform.
You should never create the same social media content and post exactly the same way on every platform on the board. Instead, pay attention to what works on different platforms and optimize your posts so they meet those rules.
6. Engage with your audience
Once you start sharing content on social media, you need to make sure there is an audience out there to receive it. Engage with users who fit your target demographic so that they are aware that your brand is on social media.
Start by liking and commenting on posts made by experts and influencers in your industry. Find followers that fit your target demographic and engage with them. As you grow your own audience, be sure to comment and respond to all the messages you receive.
The more engaged you are with your visitors, the more likely they are to come back. Also, it can help build brand awareness when other users see your brand name in comments and click on your profile.
7. Analysis and adjustment
Finally, keep an eye on your social media analytics. Each platform comes with its own built-in form of analytics and insights, but you can also rely on a third-party tool to put everything together for you in a nice little dashboard.
Focus on the posts that perform well and the posts that don't generate the same content as the posts your audience likes, and if a certain type of content isn't getting a lot of buzz, remove it from your strategy.
Being adaptive on social media is important. There are always new trends happening and there are always ideas that may not work. You just need to look at your analytics to see what works and do more of it.
10 Content Creation Tools Every Social Media Marketer Needs
If you want to make a splash on social media with great content, you need the right toolbox. There are many tools every social media manager needs - here are our top 10.
1. Description
Image of the description homepage
Description is a video and podcast editing tool that has several features that make it perfect for creating and editing social media video content.
You can easily create both horizontal and vertical videos, fully equipped with transitions, background music and special effects. You can create videos for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn in one place. Description allows you to publish videos directly to YouTube.
Description is free to start. Paid plans start at $12 per month with annual billing.
2. Hashtagify
Image of the Hashtagify landing page
Hashtagfy helps brands find the best hashtags to use on X and Instagram — although hashtags are used on different platforms, they're the most popular on those two. Use Hashtagify to conduct an analysis on the top hashtags in your industry so you can expand your reach with your social media posts.
3. Grammatically
Grammarly homepage image
Grammarly is a grammar and proofreading software that helps content creators avoid typos and awkward phrasing in their text posts and captions. Grammarly includes a browser extension that users can download so that regardless of the program they're using—a social media scheduling tool, typing directly into a social media posting box, or creating content in a document—they have spelling and grammar support.
4. Typeform
Image of the Typeform homepage
Typeform is a form and survey maker that can help teams add interactive content to their marketing strategy. Create surveys, polls, quizzes and other fun content that you can link to from your social media sites Typeform can also be used to create customer surveys to help you get a better idea of what your audience wants to see from your business.
5. RiteBoost
Image of RiteBoost homepage
RiteBoost is a tool that can help you boost your social media posts, as the name would suggest. It comes with several features, such as automatically finding the best hashtags in your posts, automatically adding relevant emojis, extracting images from links, finding the author of an article and tagging them in their posts, and other key features to help you take your social. . . . . . . Media content. For the next level.
6. Hootsuite
Hootsuite homepage image
Hootsuite is a social media management tool that can make a marketer's job a lot easier. It provides tools to schedule and publish content, monitor online conversations, analyze post performance, and engage with followers.
7. HubSpot
Image of the HubSpot homepage
HubSpot is another social media management tool that offers similar features to Hootsuite. But HubSpot also offers additional features like email and content marketing tools, a sales CRM, and a customer service help desk.
8. Visme
Image of the Visme homepage
Visme is a graphic design tool that can help your team create engaging content. Create graphics, GIFs, videos, infographics and more visual content with this software With an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editing interface and professionally designed templates, you can quickly fill your content calendar with high-quality social posts.
9. Game Scenes
Image of Placeit homepage
Placeit is another content creation tool that helps you design logos, mockups, videos and other designs quickly and easily. Also, you can turn those designs into prints to create swag for your business.
10. Buffer
Buffer homepage image
A great content creator also needs tools that make their job easier, and Buffer does just that. Using Buffer, you can monitor and analyze your social media progress across all your social channels. Integration simplifies content management and helps make informed decisions based on aggregated data.
Create professional content for social media with narrative
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Social Media Content Creation FAQs
How do you create a social media content plan?
Start with a clear understanding of the different types of content that perform well on each platform. Then get to know your target audience so you can create content that interests them the most Create a plan with some content ideas, start creating and see how your audience responds.
What is the difference between content creation and social media management?
Content creation is the act of creating content—be it for social media or the wider spectrum. Social media management is the act of managing social platforms for a brand, including publishing content, interacting with followers, analyzing metrics and monitoring overall performance.
How do I start creating social media content
If you're interested in creating social media content, start with your own personal brand. Create social media posts that help you grow your own social presence, then demonstrate to a brand you want to work with how you can replicate that success for them.
