April 13, 2026 - 1:53pm - by Luke Thiessen

Organic social media just keeps getting tougher for brands and marketers, and with the algorithms constantly changing, new formats being introduced and prioritized, and user engagement habits shifting, it can be hard to punch through.

A great post in any format should still reach an audience, but catering at least some of your content to the algorithms and engagement styles unique to each app can do a lot to maximize your reach. So, we’re going to look at the best formats for reach and engagement across most of the major social media platforms, what they work best for, and how to harness this information for your social media marketing.

Best post types for Instagram

Posts that work best for Instagram can really depend on your goals, but one thing that is consistently and broadly true is that static single-image posts – yes, the kind the platform was built on – generally perform the worst.

Carousels tend to be the best format for overall engagement on Instagram. These are posts with multiple images or videos which users can swipe through. When you swipe on these posts, Instagram reads this as you spending more time and interacting with the post, even if you don’t press like or engage in any other way. 

Some of the success of the format also comes from the types of content that many brands use it for, like “best-of” roundups, how-to guides, before and after photos, and other useful or extra-engaging content. The extra time people spend with these posts, including saving them or sending them to other users, also leads to higher average engagement rates.

Reels, on the other hand, are often best for reaching new audiences on Instagram. They are more likely than any other post type to end up in front of users who don’t follow you but have shown interest in similar content, and are overall the format users spend the most time with on the platform. 

Stories generally come in third place, but are not to be ignored. Many users spend more time in stories than scrolling their feed, and it’s important for reaching and engaging your existing followers to be there often. 

Best post types for Facebook

You might think of Facebook as being only good for arguments in the comment section, and that’s because – surprise! – that’s what the algorithm feeds on.

The best type of post for overall engagement on Facebook is something that draws a lot of comments. Even a purely text-based post (like the big text on colourful backgrounds you see so often) asking a yes or no / either-or question can be a ticket to higher engagement and reach within your followers.

For reaching new people, Facebook is similar to Instagram in that reels (vertical, please) are the number-one way to gain new followers and views from outside your existing audience.

Thirdly, live videos can be a highly effective way to reach your existing followers, as Facebook will even go so far as to send push notifications to some of your followers letting them know you are live. Timely and event-based content like product launches, as well as intentional engagement like Q&A sessions, can be great use cases here.

Beyond these formats, Facebook can really be trial-and-error. It’s a strange place where long-form text rants can go viral while high-quality videos full of relevant and interesting content can pass unseen into the void.

Best post types for TikTok

If you haven’t spent much time on TikTok as a user lately, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s just a short-form video app. Perhaps surprisingly, some of the best-performing posts on the platform are now photo carousels and longer-form video.

Similarly to Instagram, a good photo carousel that people spend time with can be highly effective, as TikTok’s algorithm counts the swiping and lingering time as a high degree of engagement. In terms of content, similar things work well here as with Instagram, and for the same reasons – saves and sends count for a lot.

And while you certainly won’t be punished for posting the common short-form video formats that TikTok is most known for, sometimes a longer-form video can be a good way to get in front of new audiences, as they are increasingly popular in search. A highly informational video with a caption and opening line that answers a commonly searched question can be the TikTok equivalent of great SEO.

Best post types for LinkedIn

Not everyone counts LinkedIn as a social media platform, but when we’re talking about business and nonprofit marketing, it’s just as important as the others – if not more so.

LinkedIn is a lot like Facebook in that there are many different possible post formats, and any of them can do well if the post is catered to your audience and well-crafted. However, some formats are more likely to help you accomplish certain goals.

Carousel posts – in LinkedIn’s case, uploaded as multi-page PDF documents – are often some of the best posts for reach on the platform. Provided the content is useful and engaging, users will spend time with it, save it, and in turn show the algorithm it’s worth showing to more people.

Newer to the platform but gaining importance are short-form video posts. These should be vertical, like TikTok videos or Reels, and don’t need to be anything fancy; under a minute and shot on your phone is just fine. However, remember to use subtitles – most videos are played without sound.

Best post types for Threads, X, Bluesky, etc.

The most popular text-first platforms may have fewer options than Instagram and Facebook, but there are still some approaches that work better than others.

On Threads, images do often perform well, especially things like memes and screenshots of things like notes and lists, where relevant to your brand – but you certainly don’t need images, and may be better off without them. The thing most likely to boost your reach and engagement on Threads is generating discussion; questions, polls, hot takes, and other conversation starters get people engaging with and re-posting your content.

The same advice generally goes for the other text-first platforms, although X (formerly Twitter) can be an outlier in the way it embraces video. We don’t spend much time or energy on X these days, but data shows that short video clips (under 15 seconds) in vertical format are a popular candidate for viral posts on the platform.

Strategy is key

It might be tempting to take all of this and go all-in on one or two formats across all platforms, but ultimately, different formats will serve different goals. A sustainable social media content plan should involve multiple different formats, catered to the individual platforms you’re on. And we know the algorithms and options will change again in the future, so it’s important not to pin your entire aesthetic on one type of post, knowing that might not work or be available forever.

At Starling Social, we help brands and nonprofits of all sizes develop social media strategies that work. Get in touch today to book a free discovery call – we would love to help you turn your social channels into something that builds relationships with your audience and drives revenue for your organization.

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