A common question I get asked by small business owners is: “how do I know what type of content to create to increase brand awareness and engagement?”

And that’s a fair question! Gone are the days when a simple photo would do, and now you’re being told to post Reels, TikToks, carousels, infographics… the list goes on.

So how to pick which type of content is best for your small business?

The answer is you should be utilising a mix of content types to reach more people, build connection, increase engagement and generate leads.

content-types

Here’s a breakdown of the different types of social media content and when to best use them:

  • Photos: use these to tell a story and build connection. They don’t have to be static posts, you can use them in video content as well to add personality and a human element to your piece of content. I find that when photos of people are shared, paired with a personal story, they tend to perform better than other content; so if you are creating a storytelling post, try and use photos rather than graphics.


  • Graphics/infographics: great for education or shareable pieces of content, ie: content you want to go viral. Think posts that are ‘do this, not that’, quotes, questions etc. I would suggest not using these too often on Facebook or Instagram as people don’t feel compelled to engage with these sorts of posts.


  • Carousel posts: use these when you want to share a lot of information that is too long for a caption or video content. People love interacting with posts, and carousel posts encourage this interaction and help boost your reach and engagement.


  • Video content: best used to reach new people and raise brand awareness. For Instagram, keep the videos short (under 30 secs, 15 secs is optimal); while for TikTok, they can be longer, and multi-part videos perform extremely well (hint: use this for storytelling). Use pre-made templates in third-party apps like CapCut or Canva.


  • Instagram Stories: these are fantastic for storytelling and building relationships with your target audience. Due to the range of tools available like polls, stickers and the newly added ‘Reveal’ feature, they encourage engagement and because any interaction appears in your DMs, it opens the way to direct conversations, which can lead to conversions.


The main thing to remember with choosing your content type is to focus on building authentic, genuine connections with your audience. The era of overly-edited, highly-polished content is over, and it’s all about that slightly unedited, vulnerable content focusing on the ‘human’ element of your brand.

It should also align with your brand direction and aesthetics. For example, if you’re creating social media content for the beauty industry, you would rely heavily on photo and video content, to share customer’s experiences and story with you. If you’re a service-based business focusing on education, you may use more infographics and carousel posts, with the occasional video content to attract new customers.

Want a printable checklist of all the dos and don’ts of social media? Download my free Ultimate Social Media Checklist, which will answer all and any questions you have about posting social media content.