The only 3 types of content that you need on social media right now.

Creating social media content has gotten downright overwhelming in the last few years. There are a million and one platforms for you to be on like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok.

It’s SO much to create, right?

That’s what I thought, too. Until I went digging. And I found that there were only 3 types of content that we really need on social media right now.

Three. That’s it!

So today I’m going to share these with you because I firmly believe that social media can be waaaay easier than it’s made out to be.

And I want it to be easy for you, too. Let’s learn!

The 3 Types of Content You Need on Social Media

I narrowed content down to these 3 types based on a this: maximum sharing with the least amount of effort. Essentially, how to get the most out of social media content creation time with the least amount of effort. 

And here’s what it boils down to:

• Short Form Video
• Long Form Video
• Static Image Posts

Short Form Video

The first, and most popular right now, are short videos. These videos are under 60 seconds and are fun and quick to consume.

Think TikTok and Instagram Reels.

Short videos like this are having a big push from platforms for absolutely free. TikTok is hitting it’s stride and Instagram is pushing Reels to people in a massive way.

If you want to grow on either of those platforms, short videos are a necessity.

That being said, TikTok and Instagram aren’t the only places that you can share these videos.

You can share these videos on Pinterest and Facebook, too. And you don’t even have to change them to share them there!

Related: Social Media 101: Social Media for Bloggers

Long Form Video

Don’t let this term deceive you, when I say long form I just mean anything over 60 seconds.

60 seconds seems to be the cutoff for all the platforms to consider things to be short. TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube shorts cut off at 60 seconds, while Instagram cuts IG reels at 30 seconds (for now!)

So anything that you create in terms of video that is over 60 seconds long is considered long form content because you have to treat it like a long video, even if it isn’t!

So where can you put long form videos? IGTV, Facebook, Youtube, and Pinterest. 

And since all of those platforms support vertical video now, you don’t even have to change the way your content looks.

Less effort! Woot!

Image Posts

Of course, static image posts are always going to be a part of the social media game.

Why? Because we, as humans, aren’t going to stop taking photos of our lives that we want to share.

Not only are these photo or graphic posts easy to make, they are also easy for people to share on any platform.

Sometimes it feels like these are going to disappear, but I promise it’ll stick around. Your audience is diverse. And they learn in different ways and take in information differently. With a variety of post types, you give them the benefit of learning the way THEY want to.

Where can you share images or graphics? Just about anywhere. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are definitely on the list. The best part is that you can automate these! 

I use Planoly to automatically post the same thing to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. And I use IFTTT to automagically have them show up on Pinterest for me!

Honorable Mention: Pinterest Graphics

I wasn’t sure if I should include this one in the list because these are graphics that I create for each of my blog posts no matter what.

It’s part of my post creation process, not my social media strategy process.

But, since Pinterest is a major part of the marketing game for most bloggers, I thought it at least deserved a mention!

The kicker here is that I will not use Pinterest graphics on any other platform. On Pinterest, I want people to click away to my website. On social media platforms, I want them to stay in my ecosystem on the platform.

Wrap-Up

Narrowing content down into these 3 types of content that you need on social media has been a total relief. And my squirrel brain has been reduced from completely nutty to just a wee bit crazy! 

Social media strategy CAN be easy. When you narrow your content creation down from all. the. Things. To short form video, long form video, and static images you check all the social media boxes without making yourself go into total overwhelm shutdown.

Ready to take a chance on the big 3 mentioned above? I created a cheatsheet to help you know what kind of content goes where and what platforms it can go on. Also, the size it should be. (Anyone else relentlessly search the internet for that, just me?) You can get that sent to your email right now by filling out that fancy form down there ⬇️