A round mini-video, a detailed case or an illustration – how to understand what will work better on social networks? We understand the types, formats, tasks and rules of content creation.
Main content formats
Classification of content by content
How to choose a content type
Basic rules for creating quality content
Expert advice
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Main content formats
Table of Contents
Types of content in social networks and on the Internet in general can be classified on different grounds. In terms of content formats, the following types are distinguished:
● Text content
everything related to text: interviews, licenses, cases, notes, posts – any material in text form.
● Video content
everything related to webinars, online broadcasts, TikTok, interviews, reviews and guides, video blogs, advertising videos.
● Audio content
everything related to the playback of audio tracks: recordings of webinars, podcasts, notes, voice messages.
● Graphic content
everything related to illustrations or graphics in general. These can be pictures, photographs, memes, infographics, maps and diagrams, animation.
● User
generated content is a popular trend, something that is created by users themselves. This content can also be text, graphic, audio or video: presented in the form of reviews, comments, stories, video reviews, photos or podcasts.
You can learn how to create content in different formats on the course “Content Marketer” . Students will learn how to solve customer pain points through content, master the product approach, hypothesis testing and distribution of materials. Among the mentors is the head of Premium&Private marketing at Tinkoff and a performance marketing expert with over 14 years of experience. You can start training for free.
Classification of content by content
There are several options for classifying the main types of content, one of the most common is by its content:
● Game or entertainment
the main goal is to entertain the user. Forms – quizzes, games, pranks, joke tests “What kind of pie are you?”
● Educational or expert
the company shares useful expertise, advice, cases and guides for clients.
● Selling
encourages the client to potentially perform a target action: leave their contact information or application, request a commercial offer, contact a manager, get a consultation or demo access, buy a product or service.
● Informational
informs users of information that is important from the company’s point of view.
Different types of content are rarely used in their pure form; they are often combined – for example, entertainment and sales, informational and expert.
Another common option is to classify content according to the main task pursued by the content manager:
1.● increase loyalty or attract attention;
2.● inform;
3.● force the user to perform a target action;
4.● sell a product or service;
5.● entertain;
6.● teach or increase the reader’s expertise.
Regardless of the content and main task, the format of information presentation can be anything, from text to video or even illustration. For example, a case will be partly educational, partly a selling type of content. Everything depends on the packaging and structure of the narrative.
A travel company provides expert advice on how to apply for a visa, buy airline tickets or book a hotel. They can be in the form of short videos, instructions or checklists that include information about the company’s products and useful options. This is how elements of the selling content are integrated into the educational content, but this is not a direct sale.
How to choose a content type
To determine which type of content will work best in a particular case, you need to:
1. Analyze the potential target audience.
2. Formulate the goals and objectives of the content.
3. Decide how to present the information: through videos, reviews, cases, posts or other options. In fact, it does not matter what specific type of content to use: users consume information in different ways: some like to watch videos, others prefer texts. At the same time, all types of content are integrated into our lives: in different situations, the same user can read a text, look at a picture, listen to audio or spend 20 minutes on a video. There is no such thing as a user perceiving only one format.
When choosing the type of content, you need to consider what the user will find convenient to use at different moments in life. For example, in the evening, a person can easily spend half an hour on a video, reading a longread, or scrolling through a social media feed. At work, during a break with a cup of coffee, he will only have time to quickly scroll through the headlines or watch a 10-second video.
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Basic rules for creating quality content
Let’s look at two rules that allow you to create high-quality and useful content:
1. Know and constantly study your audience
Even experienced content managers and marketers often forget about this. It is not enough to study the potential audience at the start of a product and never return to this issue again. You need to constantly communicate with it, collect feedback, test how it perceives different formats – know the real state of affairs at the current moment.
It is important not only to sell, but also to satisfy the needs of users with the help of content. Now in marketing there is a trend for content that conveys benefits or helps its clients through expertise, through educational mechanics – for this you need to know what the audience lives by and what worries them.
2. Know the technical limitations of each platform
Imagine where the content will be used, how it will be distributed, i.e. spread on different channels and platforms, and what limitations they have. The content manager first thinks about what information he wants to convey, for whom and in what way, and then correlates his idea with the capabilities of the platforms and the habits of users.
For example, a classic video in 16:9 resolution will not be in demand in social networks created for short vertical videos and stories. Therefore, it is necessary to know the technical requirements for the platforms, restrictions, recommended volumes, formats and resolutions.
