The content formula

Great social media content does one of three things: educates, entertains, or inspires. The best content does two at once.

Before you create anything, ask: "What does my audience get out of this?" If the answer is nothing, rethink the post.

Platform-specific content formats

Each platform has formats that outperform everything else. Here's what works:

Carousels — Highest save rate. Use for tips, tutorials, listicles. 5-10 slides is the sweet spot.
Reels — Best for reach and discovery. Keep under 30 seconds for maximum engagement.
Stories — Daily touchpoints. Polls, questions, and behind-the-scenes keep your audience engaged between posts.

Threads — Deep dives that get bookmarked and shared. Start with a strong hook.
Quote tweets with a take — Adds your perspective to trending conversations.
Short, opinionated text — The platform rewards concise, bold takes.

Text-only posts — Surprisingly effective. Personal stories and professional insights perform best.
Document posts (carousels) — Swipeable PDF slides for frameworks and how-tos.
Poll posts — Drive engagement and provide market research data.

Trending audio + your twist — Ride trends but make them relevant to your niche.
Quick tutorials — "How to do X in 30 seconds" consistently performs.
Day-in-the-life — Relatable content that builds personal connection.

Tall, vertical pins — 2:3 aspect ratio with text overlay.
Step-by-step infographics — Highly saveable and searchable.
Product pins with lifestyle context — Show products in use, not in isolation.

Shorts — Repurpose your best TikTok and Reels content.
Tutorials and how-tos — Evergreen content that builds over time through search.
AI-generated thumbnails — Use posterly's thumbnail generator for click-worthy covers.

Hook — First line must stop the scroll. Lead with a question, bold statement, or surprising stat.

Body — Deliver on the hook's promise. Keep paragraphs short. Use line breaks generously.

CTA — Every post should ask for something: like, comment, save, share, click, or follow.

Audiences that feel sold to will unfollow. Audiences that feel helped will buy.

One idea can become 5+ posts:

posterly's multi-platform composer makes this workflow simple — create once, customize per platform.

Now that you know what to create, let's supercharge your workflow with posterly's AI tools.