It’s not enough to just post about your brand and hope people care. Social media is all about content that sparks reactions—whether that’s laughter or a “wow, I didn’t know that” moment. The good news? You don’t need paid ads to grow. The key is creating content that feels organic to the platform while making sure your brand is part of the conversation.
Why Traditional Social Media Marketing Doesn’t Work
Most businesses struggle on social media because they focus too much on themselves. People aren’t logging in to see ads. Instead of pushing sales-driven posts, brands need to create content that fits into what people are already engaging with. Think about it; when was the last time you followed a brand just because they posted a photo of their product?
The best-performing content falls into three categories:
- Entertaining – Relatable humor, industry jokes or trends with a creative spin.
- Attention-grabbing – Hard truths, shocking facts or a behind-the-scenes perspective.
- Informative – Bite-sized, engaging insights that actually help your audience.
If your posts aren’t sparking reactions or discussions then it’s time to switch things up.
What Kind of Content Actually Works?
Entertaining Content: Making People Laugh & Relate
Humor is one of the fastest ways to boost engagement. It doesn’t have to be memes because sometimes, poking fun at industry clichés or sharing lighthearted moments does the trick. So, how do you do this? A marketing agency could post something relatable to their niche like poking fun at “the client feedback loop in real life,” while a fitness brand might highlight “things only gym newbies understand.”
Shocking Content: Hard Truths & Stories That Stop the Scroll
People love controversial opinions or industry truths that they won’t hear elsewhere. Share mistakes you’ve made, client stories or myths that need to be busted. Essentially; the more unexpected, the better.
Audiences love watching a journey, a transformation, or any kind of growth/change of a protagonist. This kind of story arc is a tried and true way to catch someone’s attention and draw them in. If you’re considering testing out this type of content approach, step 1 is to let go of the pressure to be perfect. The point is that people want to see you grow, they want to hear what challenges you faced and how you overcame them. That’s why those 12 part series like “who did I marry?” go viral.
Informative Content: That’s Actually Engaging
Educational content doesn’t mean boring. Keep it quick and easy to digest. Think about terms your audience might actually be searching for and what information they need to help them with the problem your business solves, and then make it entertaining. A simple way to do this if you are a skincare brand, for example, could be to break down common beauty myths, bonus points if you provide information on a topic that’s already trending. For a real estate company you might post “3 things you should never say during a house tour” this type of video provides value, subtly makes it clear what your business does, while also (hopefully) getting a laugh out of the viewer.
Focus on Your Niche, Not Just Your Brand
If all you talk about is your product then it's likely people will tune out. Instead, focus on the larger conversation happening in your industry.
A real estate company doesn’t have to just post listings—they can share home-buying horror stories or house-hunting red flags. A personal trainer doesn’t need to push their coaching program every post—they can share fitness myths or real client progress stories. People follow accounts that entertain or help them. Make your brand part of their daily scroll and not just another ad in their feed.
Become an Active Social Media User
The best-performing brands on social media don’t just post—they engage. If your entire strategy is “post and hope for the best,” then you’re missing a huge piece of the puzzle.
Use the platform like a real person
Follow trends and engage with other content in your industry. Put yourself into the mind of your brand, scroll and interact on your business account as if your brand is a person, this will help the algorithm learn who “you” are as a brand, as well as spark creativity when it comes to content ideas. The more you consume in your niche the easier it will be to create content that fits right in.
Save and repurpose trends
If you see a format or viral sound taking off, think about how you can apply it to your brand.
How to find trending sounds on Instagram?
Option 1 (faster):
- Go to your profile (must be a professional account)
- Select “professional dashboard”
- Scroll all the way to the bottom and open the “trending sounds” tab
- Here you can pick from a list of the top 50 trending sounds.
While option 1 fast tracks you to the top trending sounds, it doesn’t tailor the list of trending sounds to what is working in your niche.
Option 2 (preferred):
- Scroll through the reels tab on your company account
- Pay attention to the sound listed at the bottom of your screen, if the sound is trending it will have a little arrow next to it.
- Click on the trending sound, make sure the posts attached to the sound are in your niche or at least appealing to your wider demographic, and check how many videos it already has posted. In our experience, a trending sound between 700-5,000 posts is the sign of an early stage trending sound, with promising potential. If it has more than 20,000-30,000 uses, you might already be a bit late to the game.
This option may seem more tedious, but not only does it help you find trending sounds more specific to your niche, but it also forces you to scroll and interact on your business account which helps with engagement.
Join conversations
Reply to comments, stitch or duet popular videos and interact with accounts in your space. This strategy works because it allows you to piggyback off someone else’s momentum. Don’t just reply back to a comment on your post and think that’s making a difference, yes it doubles your comment count and boosts those vanity metrics, but it’s not expanding your reach. If you want to improve your visibility, commenting something useful or funny on a viral post in your industry will help increase brand awareness. The same goes for dueting/stitching popular videos, find something you can add value to that already has traction, this allows you to capture attention using a clip that has already proven to be relevant and scroll stopping to your audience.
The bottom line is, the more your brand acts like an actual user, the more the algorithm will work in your favor.
How to Turn Engagement into Sales (Without Being Pushy)
A common mistake is trying to sell too soon. Social media isn’t about getting a sale with every post; you've got to build trust first. When people engage with your content organically, they naturally become curious about what you offer.
Instead of constantly pushing products, let your content do the work. If someone laughs at your post or learns something valuable then they’re more likely to check out your profile, follow you, and eventually, make a purchase, all without feeling pressured.
Final Thoughts: Brands Need to Act Like Influencers
Brands that win on social media don’t act like traditional businesses. They blend in with the content people already love while subtly weaving in their brand message. When you create content that’s entertaining or valuable then people pay attention, and when they pay attention, they engage.
Simply put, you need to stop acting like a brand and start posting like a creator.
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