What Kind of Content Will Perform The Best on Social Media? (Part 1)

Ever wondered what really goes into crafting a killer social media strategy? This episode of Between Two Creeks takes you behind the scenes with Twin Creek Media’s Kevin and Shana as they tackle the do's, don'ts, and surprises of creating content that connects across platforms, capturing the right audience every time.

Kevin: Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of Between Two Creeks. This week, the upper management thought it would be funny and interesting to include the two most camera-shy people in this episode, so we'll see how that goes. My name is Kevin. I'm a Web Developer here at Twin Creek Media, and we're joined by Shana, our Social Media Manager.

Shana: I've got a lot of butterflies right now, but hope we pull through this.

Kevin: So, in this week’s episode, we're talking about what kind of content will perform the best on social media.

Your Social Media Strategy Depends On Your Business

Shana: Aand, that's quite a broad subject; we could even write books on it, but answering that in one word or, rather, two words, the answer would be: it depends! It depends on the type of business you do, it depends on the type of audience you have, your target audience, and the type of content you're comfortable producing, so yeah, the big answer would be it depends on multiple factors.

Kevin: Yeah, so I guess we'll go platform by platform. So why don't we start with meta? We'll start with Facebook first. What kind of content for businesses works best on Facebook?

What Types Of Content Perform Best on Facebook?

Shana: All right, so Facebook is an interesting one because although people keep saying that it's only the older generation that uses Facebook, a few recent statistics that we've come across actually prove otherwise. From the age group of about 18 to 30, people use Facebook the most, although you think it would be TikTok. Are you on TikTok at all?

Kevin: Yes, I am. Most people my age basically stick to Instagram, but I just like TikTok better, I guess.

Shana: Anyway, so what content performs best on Facebook, well again, it depends, but I think it's important to keep in mind that whatever type of content you use, be it video, be it static content, or a carousel, it's important to get your point across in the first three seconds. And yes, Facebook as a platform is heavily promoting Reel content right now, so if you look at the app, there's an actual section of Reels where you can doom scroll like you do on TikTok and Instagram. But on Instagram Reels, it's so important—and this mainly applies for B2B Brands (business to business) brands—to get your point across in the first three seconds. We call this the ‘three-second rule’. Why? because there's so much noise out there, B2C or business-to-consumer brands have it a little easier because it's simpler and not as complicated to get brand placements with influencers, collaborations, or align it to everyday life. So, for example: a t-shirt or a perfume, from a content perspective, it's kind of easy to place, and it's easy to get the message across.

Whereas a B2B brand, like metal buildings, for example, or pool covers is a little more complicated. So,

If you don't get that point across in the first three seconds, your message gets lost because of all the noise out there, so that 3C rule is Paramount, not just on Facebook, but on all platforms.

Then, of course, the big one: Reels. Facebook is heavily promoting video content with their placements and organic content, so you can see Facebook prioritizing video content quite a bit. Then of course, collaborations always are a good idea. So if you are a B2B brand that's looking to amplify your brand, collaborations are great within reason. Make sure that you pick the right collaborator to go with and not just the next big influencer.

Kevin: Yeah, maybe do some research before you decide to pick an influencer.

Shana: Yes, make sure they align with your brand, among other things. Moving on to Facebook groups, we don't talk enough about this enough, but people search for information on Facebook groups

Kevin: Yeah, absolutely

Shana: They ask for recommendations, and although some of these groups have settings, or have Pages, or you can't join the group as a page, you can join it as an individual and get your message across. So it's referral branding, it's being available when people are searching for you. The trend where people are moving towards social media to search and find information to get recommendations is a big shift that has been happening over the past few years. We used to Google everything, but people also search on Facebook, and not a lot of brands pay attention to this. For example, if you're a brand based in Kelowna, we do have quite a few groups that are very active, where people share news and brand recommendations.

Kevin: Yeah, there's the Kelowna Rant and Rave, that’s a good example, and that shows up on my feed all the time.

Shana: Yes, right, because it's organic content, and Facebook is trying to be more authentic with the content that they share. So when people recommend other brands, it's good for you, but also it's a good way to keep a pulse check on how the industry is working. Look at what your competitors are doing, and check if your competitors are winning or failing, because it's Rant and Rave, right, I find people do rant quite a bit, rather than rave.

Facebook vs. Instagram: Same Company, Different Vibes

Kevin: I would say they rant more than they rave; that's interesting! All right, so let's move on to Instagram. How do you know what's the best content for it, and is it different from Facebook? I mean, I know they're both meta, so is it going to be similar content? Are there similar demographics on Facebook or Instagram?

Shana: The Instagram demographic is kind of similar, but people use the platforms differently. The purpose of using Facebook is different from why you use Instagram, and Instagram as a platform is positioning itself heavily as a competitor to TikTok. So it's trying to replace TikTok, which is why you see a lot of the video features, a lot of enhancements, and stories have upgraded. It has become so advanced over the past few months that it's blown up.

Kevin: Yeah, Reels are getting a lot more popular now, I found with Instagram. As you're mentioning, they're just trying to compete directly with TikTok at this point, and I’ve noticed it quite a bit, too.

Shana: Yeah, and an interesting thing that we noticed, and this was just us discussing inside the office: all the girls prefer the Instagram algorithm; we prefer the suggestions we get on Reels more than TikTok because sometimes TikTok doesn't really provide content based on what we relate to based on our browsing behaviour.

Kevin: Yeah, TikTok can be a little bit random; it's funny because we were talking about this yesterday, and I actually found that TikTok was better for me along those lines, so it's a little bit interesting how the girls have a different take on that.

Shana: I know! All the girls didn't like it. Maybe it's like a fishbowl vs. the main office area, hahaha.

Kevin: Yeah, it could be; who knows? Though I don't spend—this is for the bosses—I don't spend a lot of time on my phone at the office, so…

Shana: You know it's my job, I have to

Kevin: True, Shana has to, and I don't. If I'm on my phone, that's not so good for me!

Shana: It's okay; we’ll call it research. It's all research, so coming back to Instagram, Reels for the win!

Instagram is heavily pushing Reels, but interestingly because there's so much competition on Reels, it makes sense for you to also look at static content image collections or carousels on Instagram as they perform great.

This is because most of the time—and I'm sure most of you would have noticed—when you post a collection of images, you see it on your feed once, and then you see it again with the second picture on the collection. So it's as good as multiple posts; I would say it gives you more of a frequency than a single image post.

Stories are amazing, too, but one big mistake I've seen B2B brands make is that they tend to focus more on stories than on actual feed content. Feed content stays on your feed, while stories disappear 24 hours later. So yes, post stories; it's excellent to do them every day, but make sure if you're promoting something important, a new product, a launch, or a different feature, you have to have that balance between Stories and feed content.

Kevin: Yeah, and your stories will only be seen by people who are already following you.

Shana: Yeah, exactly. And for online, and that's the other big thing, right? B2B customers are not always online and are not always looking at your content, so the durability of your content comes into play quite a bit when it's a B2B brand. The other big one I wanted to talk about is hashtags. Brands love to use 1,500 hashtags on their posts, and it does absolutely nothing.

Kevin: Exactly! absolutely nothing, so stop doing that!

The Right Use of Hashtags

Shana: Hashtags are great, but it's a Search tool, and this actually was something that we grabbed from an interview with the CEO of Instagram himself, so if you're an appliance company that's promoting Whirlpool as a brand then #Whirlpool makes sense if you are only focusing on people who are travelling or looking for experiences in Kelowna, then #Kelowna makes sense, but adding 15 million hashtags under metal building companies saying #metal buildings and #bestthingever or #YOLO doesn’t make any sense and won’t do your business any benefit in terms of visibility or conversions.

Kevin: Yeah, that's really not gonna do anything for your business.

Shana: The bottom line is to handpick your hashtags and ensure that they are relevant, but don't overuse them. It's just a waste of time and does not look great.

Kevin: Yeah, too many hashtags are a no-no. When you see posts with a caption of 50 characters but then you've got 50 hashtags below, well, it doesn't look good to the viewer, or user at all, and the chances of them even clicking on those hashtags are pretty minimal.

Shana: People rarely click on the hashtags on a post; they just use it to search, so I'm searching for something, and you get the hashtag result. So, I mean, if it's World Environment Day, go ahead and use that hashtag because you want to be in that content group, but NOT #Best Friday Ever, #Woke Up Like This, not for B2B brands, at least. The other big thing is, on Instagram, because you can't click on a link on organic Instagram content you can't really add a link to click on. You only have the links on your bio. So, it makes sense if you're sharing a blog or if you want to share some key piece of information, then a descriptive caption is good. The other thing you can do, as we’ve recommended earlier, is to use carousels. Have the content create a little experience, you can add similar content as PDFs or as documents on LinkedIn. But I've seen them do a pretty good job on the platform as well in terms of getting you organic content.

Cutting the Clicks: ‘Link in Bio’ 101

Kevin: Yeah, carousels work quite well. How do you feel about people adding posts with captions that end with ‘Click the Link in Bio’ to read/ learn more? I used to see a lot of people do this. Is that still a good idea, or is it better to just have your main website link in your bio instead of changing it every time there's something new to share?

Shana: So, your bio allows you to have up to five links right now. You can keep updating that, but it just makes sense to have all the important information in your caption—again, following the 3-second rule, because there's so much to do, so much content out there, no one is going to go looking for a link to click or even clicking a link to find what they’re looking for.

Kevin: Right, okay, that makes sense.

Shana: So, it’s important to have your key point or hook on your caption or image. Most of the time, there is no option; you have to sell the Link in Bio, but I try to avoid that. For example, if it's a blog, I would say to read more or visit the Link in Bio, but a good tip is to have the gist of the blog, or the ‘meat’ of it, within your caption.

Kevin: Yeah, absolutely. The key is to engage the user enough, so they actually want to search for the link. Instead of just adding a single sentence and then saying, ‘If you want to know more, ‘click the link in the bio,’ and making them do all the work by having to switch tabs and click in multiple places until they get to the website, they’ll lose interest really quickly.

Shana: Yep, exactly.

Kevin: Yeah, okay, so let's move over to Meta ads. Is the type of content you post on Meta ads different from what you would post on Facebook and Instagram as a business? How does the content change because it's an ad?

Shana: So, your ad strategy needs to be a lot more strategic, I would say it needs to be well thought out rather than just winging it and throwing your content out there.

Kevin: A lot more strategy needs to be put into it, got it.

​​Do Static Posts Trump Videos?

Shana: Yes, because although Reels and video content have performed great organically; for the past few months—we manage Meta ads for over 20 clients at Twin Creek Media—I'm seeing a trend where static content and experience ads perform way better than video content. A little bit of digging into this, coupled with hearing what the industry experts have to say, made us realize that it's basic economics demand and supply! There's so much of a supply of video content being boosted and promoted, and that little segment of video content is very overcrowded. So there's a space for you to kind of shine in the static and experience ad space.

Watching for the demand and supply of content, and looking at what your competitor is doing, is always important when you're running an ad. So, yes, do Reels because everyone is looking at them, and that's like the MVP right now, but when it comes to ad strategy, have a clear balance between static, experience ads, carousels, and videos. Having that mix is vital. Right now, Meta ads let you use ‘Advantage Plus’ delivery, so you don't really have to worry about where you're placing your ads, their order, or anything. It’s worked great for us, but yeah, it's very important to have that balance and not just to depend on one video that you've created, hoping that it'll bring you conversions.

Kevin: Yeah, switch it up once in a while so you're not always just posting Reels, or you're not always just posting a single image.

Balancing Strategy and AI Magic

Shana: Right, and it's not just about the creatives anymore. There's a lot more at play here, and talking about that, Meta ads are, from a technical perspective, becoming more and more like Google ads right now. Back in the day, we would publish a post and then put money behind it, and that's the end of it. Now, you can enhance your post, so if you're doing a static post with an image, you have different placements where it can be a square, it could be like a little rectangle, there's a story placement, and then you can add multiple links like site links, offers and with the application of AI coming in, you also have the option of generating multiple headlines and multiple descriptions.

Kevin: Okay, so the AI helps you write the content. You would basically just put in one headline that you wrote, and then it'll give you more ideas and options.

Shana: Yeah, and it will actually test out these different pieces of content to come to the one that works best. So it's more important to set that up right than to focus on getting just the picture or just the caption right. Again it comes down to getting all the little bits and pieces of content and setting it up rather than just having one templated post going out. Now from an agency and even a marketing team that needs to get approval for things, this gets a little difficult because we remember a time when we had to create a content plan, get the captions approved, and get the images approved. It's not recommended to do that anymore, you've got to be a little more dynamic.

Kevin: Okay, well, that's good to know. This is why we have departments here. I had no idea about any of these new tips and tricks with Meta Ads!

Bloopers Oh, guys, we're low on battery. We're running out of battery. Oh, we talked for way too long. Yeah, sorry, we killed the camera, hahaha.

On that note, stay tuned for part 2, where Shana and Kevin dive into more social media do’s and don’ts for your business!

Check out our previous episode: The Best Marketing Assets: Presenting Your Core Brand to the World!

“Between Two Creeks” is Twin Creek Media’s weekly podcast series. You can find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Spotify. If you enjoy listening to the latest and wonkiest in marketing every week, don’t forget to hit that subscribe button! If you want us to amp up your marketing, contact us and let’s chat!