Marketing a brand or business on social media can be a lot of fun and it’s certainly different from any other form of advertising. Unlike conventional SEO techniques, building a strong following on sites like Facebook and Twitter doesn’t require any focus on keywords, specific topics, inbound links, or other metrics that we’d typically work to improve during a campaign. Instead, social success is achieved through engaging friends, fans, and followers with interesting, informative, and entertaining content. As with any other form of marketing, content is king on social media, but not all content types provide the same level of engagement. With that said, here are the top four content types that seem to do the best on social media:

1. Meme Photos

To remind you of the obvious, your Facebook wall is probably littered with memes at this very moment. They say “a picture speaks a thousand words,” but a picture with a few words on top of it is even better. Throwing in a comedic slant or some intriguing facts almost always works to get a boat load of shares and likes quickly. Instructional memes that depict steps in a process are also easily made popular. If you’re marketing on social media, the first thing you should do is learn how to make attention-grabbing memes.

2. Infographics

Infographics also do well and are often passed around as trending memes themselves. Not surprisingly, people tend to welcome complex stats and a wealth of information when it is accompanied by visual content. Businesses that are trying to showcase the performance of their product or services often share infographics to highlight the benefits of what they’re offering or related industry news and stats. Infographics are slightly more complicated than memes, but they can still go a long way with the right crowd.

3. Polls

Holding a poll is a great way to coerce people into interacting on your page and it can also provide detailed insight into the opinions and values of your customer base and target audience. As an example, on Facebook you can use the various forms of likes to let people answer without having to visit an external site (i.e. – instructing respondents to use the ‘Like’ or ‘Love’ icons to represent their answer). Polls can also spark controversy, which is almost always good for boosting publicity around a topic or event.

4. Videos

You log into your account to message someone or check the status of something and the next thing you know you’re scrolling down your newsfeed watching video after video – we’re all guilty of it. Many Facebook users have the ‘auto play’ feature enabled, publishing video content on social media is one of the best ways to get more views and forcefully grab the attention of people who might otherwise scroll past your posts.

Mix It Up and Moderate Post Frequency for Best Results

In closing, using a combination of the above content types is the best way to keep your friends and followers interested in your page and aware of your brand. At the same time, it’s important not to overdo it with too many posts. Oftentimes, people will unfollow brands that are cluttering their social media with excessive promotional content. In general, a good rule of thumb is to aim for 2-5 posts per week so as not to overwhelm.