If you’ve spent You can also find out more about the following: When you spend time on social networks, it is easy to assume that video content is the most important thing. Instagram Reels are all over the place, as is TikToks and LinkedIn’s video feed.
Build an audience. “more video” The answer is frequently touted.
What about that? It turns out — as is often the case with social media — it depends. Some platforms are better for video than others.
To find out, we analyzed millions of posts on social media from different platforms. And, at the risk of sounding like a clickbait-y video hook (sorry) — the results might surprise you.
Video is not the only way to engage your audience. Here’s how to get people engaged. different content types Perform on Threads (formerly Twitter), TikTok LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
You can choose the best content for your needs based on the following: your target audience. There isn’t a one-size fits all approach for social media accounts.
If you want to know what’s best for you I would encourage you start by identifying your strengths. social media content strategy From there, you can experiment with various types of content. social media content calendar.
The data presented in this article can be used as a guide to determine what type of content will resonate most with your audience.
💡 We used different metrics in our analyses to determine the success of content on each platform. The networks used by these companies are vastly different. “successful” Success on one blog doesn’t mean you will be successful on the other.
We chose engagement as the most accurate measure for TikTok. On Threads (a conversational platform), we chose views. We’re not really comparing apples to apples, so take everything with a grain of salt.
All right, now let’s move on. Let’s get to the facts. In 2025, what will be the most popular social media platforms?
TikTok has the best video format.
We’ll start by stating what may be the least surprising conclusion of our study: TikTok is a video-based platform. After all, the short-form platform for video-sharing is just that.
TikTok is still a new app. carousels Videos are the TikTok algorithm’s most important feature. What It is a good idea to use a bilingual translator It is interesting to see how close this race has become.
TikTok was originally a platform for video only, but text and carousel posts have become surprisingly successful. There isn’t much of a difference in the performance, particularly when you compare it to the figures on other social media sites.
In this analysis, we measured success by median* video views. Video posts were the most popular followed by slideshows and text-only articles.
Video is the best way to get your message across on TikTok.
Let’s take a closer view of the figures:
- 🏅 Video The top-ranking video received 18% more hits than a text post and 7% higher than a photo or carousel.
- 🥈 Carousels and pictures The video posts received 10.5% more hits than the textual ones.
- 🥉 Text messages It was the last to be viewed, with a total of the fewest.
💡
By using the median instead of the average, you can get a much more accurate picture about how most video creators and brands perform.
Instagram’s most popular content formats
Instagram Reels, the exclusive app for video editing, has their own feed and discovery.
At face value, this seems to be the case — when it comes to Instagram posts with the highest reachVideo is the best.
Instagram’s Reach metrics is what the platform calls it. “total number of times the account’s media objects have been uniquely viewed.” This is the number of people who have watched your video.
Check out the ranking:
- 🏅 Reels Instagram’s most popular posts are single images, which have a 122% higher reach. Carousels come in second with 39%.
- 🥈 Carousels Images that performed well received 60% more views than those with images.
- 🥉 Images Single The platform reached was the least effective.
The carousels were not too different from the reels and the streaks are ahead of single image posts. Our data suggests that things are more complex than this.
Instagram began as a picture-sharing application, and while many people love the idea of video reels, it’s not for everyone. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri’s comments are a good indicator that it is an issue of contention.
This — along with the fact that Instagram has several feeds and algorithms, while most platforms will have one — is why we decided to dig a little deeper in another study.
The median engagement rate per post was also examined. Engagement is the key. “number of likes, saves, comments, and shares on the post, minus the number of unlikes, unsaves, and deleted comments.” It’s a simple way to count the interactions on your post. That includes comments, likes and sharing.
Carousels, not reels, were the winners in this study.
Let’s take a closer view:
- 🏅 Carousels Instagram’s top-performing posts are reels, with a 12% higher engagement rate than single image posts and 114 % more.
- 🥈 Reels They also performed well. Single-image posts generated 91% less engagement.
- 🥉 Images in single-image posts The platform was the least used by users.
Fascinating, right? Carousels are a better option for gaining deeper engagement in an existing audience.
Facebook content formats: the best ones
Instagram is similar to the old Facebook.
This is what we found median engagementAs a way to measure success, this is a powerful signal for Facebook’s algorithms. Photos remain more engaging than video, despite Facebook’s efforts to push videos (and reels).
Let’s look at some numbers.
- 🏅 Photos Video posts received nearly 44 percent more engagements than texts and 35% of the engagement from text.
- 🥈 Text messages Videos are second with 6.7% higher engagement.
- 🥉 Video They ranked third, but still received 58% more interaction than links.
- 4️⃣ Links in posts The lowest-performing content type on the platform, namely video, came last.
On Facebook, images still rule the news feed. While I’m definitely not saying you should be posting 345 images to an album after your latest creator event, à la 2017, it’s definitely worth prioritizing images in your Facebook marketing strategy.
It makes sense that posts with links get the lowest engagement. The platforms (and their users) increasingly prefer high-quality posts. zero-click content.
Platforms want their users to stay within their apps or website, so they are not as likely to click a link to consume content on another site.
The low ranking of video could be due to the fact that Facebook feeds prioritize visuals such as carousels and images, which are easier to digest, particularly for casual browsing. One theory that I’ve come up with is the Facebook Reel Feed, which is where video lives. It isn’t very comment- and reaction friendly. The best use for it is passive viewing.
It’s still worth trying out different formats, depending on what you want to achieve.
Content format is best on Threads
Threads is… well, probably the one that surprised me the most on this list, to be honest.
This is primarily text-based, similar to Instagram but with more words than images.
Our analysis revealed that these posts were not as popular. Pictures The best performers when it comes to median engagement per post. The median engagement was chosen as our success measure, because conversation and community were the focus of the application.
These are the numbers
- 🏅 Photos The engagement of Threads was the highest, with 0.6% higher than that of videos, 37% greater than links and 60% more for text.
- 🥈 Video The second place was closely followed by posts that contain links, which received 36% more engagement and text-based posts garnered 59%.
- 🥉 Links in posts Third place was achieved, with 17% higher engagement than posts that were only text.
- 4️⃣ Text messages The Threads platform ranked last in terms of engagement.
It was surprising to see that the engagement of text-based posts was lowest.
The engagement of Threads is dominated by images, which are more popular than videos. But both video and text formats have a higher level of engagement. So, even in a conversation-centric space like Threads, visuals — including short videos — help you stand out in the feed.
Don’t believe the early results. Threads hasn’t finished refining their algorithms. I think they will change the algorithm to prioritize text posts. Otherwise, Threads could become just another poor man’s Instagram. Watch the Buffer Blog for updates.
LinkedIn content formats: The most effective format
Favorite movie personal brand-building platform, LinkedIn, has exploded with creators in recent years — many of them building a following by helping others build their personal brands on the platform.
In this way, LinkedIn has adopted video. LinkedIn has a video feed that makes it easy to share videos.
In the wake of these fun new feeds and features, creators — including me — saw wild levels of virality in 2024. LinkedIn didn’t have a ton of video at that time. It was only natural for the videos it did offer to be highlighted. a lot.
LinkedIn’s algorithm has been fine-tuned to reflect the increase in users and the new format.
Although video is still a good performer, The median engagement of carousels is the highest..
These are the numbers
- 🏅 Carousels The engagement rate for (document posts), was 278% greater than that of videos. It was 303% higher than the engagement rate for images. And it was 596% higher than just text.
- 🥈 Video Second place went to text-only posts, with 84% greater engagement compared to images.
- 🥉 Photos The third-placed post generated 72% more engagements than text only posts.
- 4️⃣ Text messages LinkedIn’s engagement with content of all types was the least.
If you are serious about LinkedIn growth, you should keep an eye on your metrics.
Callie Schweitzer is the LinkedIn Head of Scaled Programs. She strongly recommends that creators look into video for 2025.
“Video, Video, Video, Video,” When I asked her for her advice on how to build a following of creators by 2025, she replied that it was a good idea to start now.
All she said when asked what creators should be looking out for by 2025 was: “Keep an eye on video.”
The most popular content formats on X
Text is still the medium of engagement for X (formerly Twitter).
Even though the much-discussed desire of social networks to be “the everything app,” Microblogging is a part of their DNA.
According to data from 2025, when it comes to engagement median, video, links and images beat out text-only postings, even though they may have a lower average.
Let’s take a closer view:
- 🏅 Text messages Video engagement was up 30%, pictures 37%, link posts 53%, and retweets 113%.
- 🥈 Video The second most popular option was retweets, which had 64% more engagement.
- 🥉 Photos Third place was achieved by a post that received 56% more engagement than the retweeted tweets and 12% higher than the link.
- 4️⃣ Links in posts Fourth place was retweets which attracted 39% higher engagement, but were less engaging than any other format.
- 5️⃣ Tweets The engagement rate for all posts types (including quotes tweets) was the lowest on X.
While there are some video features on X it’s a platform that is primarily text driven. It’s a great place for hot takes, breaking news and snappy one-liners. Video can outperform still images. Adding short videos could give you an advantage.
Which content format do you think is best?
This is something that depends on both you and your audience.
You may not find the right content type for your brand or company. Experimenting with different types of content is always worth it to discover what works.
Even more important: What content format will you be most able to produce consistently?
We’ve also found in other studies that consistency is critical to content performance. In fact, consistency could produce as much content performance on all platforms. as 5X more likes, comments, and shares (Across the board)
So if you’re going to be able to show up more consistently with text-based posts, great — stick to those.
Back to video: while it performs well across nearly every platform — and is often really great for reach — it’s not universally the highest engagement format. Carousels and images are the stars of some platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. On X, text still rules.
Video is great for Reach out to us Discoverability is key to attracting new audiences and followers.
Some formats are better than others (carousels images text engagementYou can deepen your relationship with the audience you already have.
Ultimately, the best content format is the one you can produce consistently — and the one that resonates with The following are some of the ways to get in touch with us. unique target audience.
