Content choice is one of the most critical decisions an aspiring content creator can make. New accounts have no existing fanbase, barely any data on what works and what doesn’t, and no algorithmic momentum to push their profiles to new viewers. This means that your content has to be good enough to grab and retain people’s attention on its own merit.

At this stage of your content creation journey, the goal is to build traction and show the algorithm that your content is relevant, not going viral. You want to build a strong foundation that will support your content creation into the long term. This guide will cover the various types of social media content, ranging from trend-based and interactive content to relatable/personal to educational content, that you can use to grow your new account. 

We will cover how to choose content that lends itself to your interests and skills while still attracting sufficient viewer demand to warrant creating new content.

Why Content Type Matters More Early On 

A completely new account has zero follower history and no data to train the algorithm on. It is a blank canvas that can go in any direction, depending on the content choices you make. The content-related decisions you make this early in the game will determine which audience the algorithm shows your account to when it starts to gain momentum. A wrong decision could leave you making content that doesn’t have enough viewer demand to support the type of growth you want. On the other hand, you could be stuck making content that has adequate viewer demand but doesn’t really line up with your passions or skills. 

The former situation will hobble your account’s growth from the very start, while the latter will make content creation less enjoyable and more stressful, even if you gain adequate traction. To make the right content choice before you start creating and posting content, you will need a decent understanding of different content types, how they perform at the earliest stages of growth, and how you can choose the best content for you.

Educational and How-To Content   

As the name suggests, educational content is content designed to educate and teach viewers/readers. Think how-to videos, guides, and any other format that imparts knowledge to the viewer. Also called informative content, this type of web content is critical to building audience trust early in the game.

Why It Works for New Accounts  

Educational content is great for bringing traffic to new accounts as audiences typically search for this content themselves. This means that as long as your bio and captions are SEO-optimized, you can attract viewers to your profile by posting high-quality, search engine-optimized educational content. 

It all comes down to search intent, which is the underlying reason why an individual uses the search function. Users with informational intent go to social media to learn and are more likely to seek educational content. This significantly cuts down the work new accounts have to do to market themselves, allowing for greater organic growth.

As users with search intent seek and interact with your educational content, your account will start to gain enough algorithm momentum for the algorithm to push your profile to new viewers. Educational content will showcase your expertise, build trust in your brand, and foster community engagement via search visibility, shares, and saves.

Formats That Perform Well 

Choosing educational content is just one step; the next is presenting it in a format that will perform well on your social media platform of choice. The benefit of informative content is that it can be presented in several formats, be it “mistakes to avoid” posts, step-by-step tutorials, quick tips, or lecture-style videos and essays.

You may opt for explainers that simplify complex topics, carousels and infographics for digestible, compact content, expert Q&As and FAQs to answer and address common questions and challenges, or how-to guides and tutorials. These types of posts tend to have strong share and save rates, and will help you capture audience attention and drive engagement consistently. 

Trend-Based Content 

Dealing with trend-based content can be a double-edged sword. While you are more likely to gain a short burst of traffic by following trends, this type of following isn’t always loyal. Depending on your handling, most of these individuals will move on once the next trend comes, making it incredibly difficult for new accounts to build loyal followings. Even so, trend-based content can be a major growth driver for your account. You just have to do it right.

How to Use Trends Without Losing Your Niche 

Trend-hopping becomes a major liability when it forces you to move from one niche to another. Just like niche-hopping, this kind of strategy confuses viewers and can alienate them when you move on from the trend that brought them to your profile. Make trends a part of your growth strategy by adapting trends that already fit your niche and chosen content pillars.

Content pillars are the topics your content is focused on, and should always guide you when you approach trend-based content. The key is to follow trends that fall within your niche and content pillars, and have ready viewers in your target audience. This way, any viewers you attract will be the type to resonate with your content, and will be more likely to remain as followers even when the trend passes. Off-niche trend-based content will attract the wrong audiences to your account, leading to temporary hikes in views and engagement but little follower retention.

Risks of Relying on Trends Too Heavily  

Beware of becoming too reliant on trend-based topics, even if you remain within your chosen niche. Relying too heavily on trends prevents you from building a following that resonates with your content. Instead, you will have audiences that only tune in to interact with specific trend-based content and move on to the next thing once the trend fades.

Trendy content should not be your primary content. Instead, this type of content should supplement your content strategy, not act as the core strategy. 

Entertaining Content  

Undoubtedly one of the largest niches in content creation, this type of content caters to viewers seeking entertainment on social media. When done right, entertaining content tends to have high share rates, especially in this era where all it takes is a witty or entertaining post to gain massive reach.

New accounts that cover lighthearted content, storytelling, and humor will stand out in feeds filled with informational posts. People are much more likely to share and rewatch content with entertainment value, as the ease of consuming it, at least compared to educational content, makes it super shareable.

Why Entertainment Value Drives Shareability

So how can content with entertainment value help your new account grow? Simply put, this type of content is a gold mine for driving community engagement. You are more likely to get high engagement rates with this type of content, as viewers typically interact with, comment on, and share posts with entertainment value at higher rates. 

Focusing on entertainment value allows you to craft relatable and shareable social media content, helps to build brand awareness while simultaneously maintaining audience engagement, and makes your profile approachable and look tuned in to current culture. Accounts with entertainment content tend to see higher rates of organic growth and don’t need to rely on algorithmic reach to reach new viewers. Even so, such accounts also enjoy lots of algorithmic support due to their high engagement rates. 

Keeping Entertainment Tied to Your Niche

Focusing on entertainment content isn’t an excuse to stray out of your chosen niche. Any content that’s based on storytelling or humor should remain firmly within your niche and relate directly to your content pillars. Drawing this line will ensure that your content attracts the correct audience over generic audiences that are unlikely to sign on as followers.

A content plan that outlines your content pillars and themes will keep you focused and on point. As long as the content is tied to your niche, you can make memes, short-form videos, and day-in-the-life content that entertains your target audience and drives engagement. 

Interactive and Community-Driven Content 

Community-driven and interactive content refers to any type of content that requires the active participation of social media users. This includes user-generated content (UGC), quick polls, and interactive posts. Such posts are great for inducing social media growth because they convert passive scrollers into active and engaged participants. 

Community-driven and interactive content will help you gain algorithmic favor as social media algorithms tend to reward and push content with higher engagement rates. As such, this type of content can help you grow your reach both organically and algorithmically, allowing you to attract followers to your new social media account.

Interactive posts can include surveys and polls, Q&As and Ask Me Anything (AMA), trivia and quizzes, gamification features, and clickable carousels.

Why Engagement Signals Matter Early On 

Engagement signals like comments, likes, and shares are more important than many aspiring content creators realize. The more likes, comments, and shares your posts receive, the more likely they are to carry more algorithmic weight. These metrics show that viewers/readers are engaged with your content and encourage the algorithm to push your content to more people.

You want to prioritize content that encourages community engagement, such as interactive, educational, or trend-based content, remains on-niche, and posts consistently to grow both organically and algorithmically. Tracking these metrics over time will show you how your content is performing and where you can improve.

The strongest social media growth strategy includes a content mix that blends educational content with entertainment value, trend-based content, and interactive posts. As long as you remain within your niche, you can blend different types of content to create a diverse mix that attracts followers and keeps them engaged.