WEB-STIL

It’s rare that a B2B marketer is funny on LinkedIn. 

And not “posted a meme about ChatGPT taking over my job” funny. 

I mean genuinely, “I would watch this content in my free time” kind of humor. 

And she’s got 20K followers (and some viral videos with 4M+ views) to prove it.

Today’s expert tells us to stop obsessing over high-performing content, and why your buyer persona is bingeing Selling Sunset, too.

Heike Young

Head of content, social, & integrated marketing, Microsoft

• Job: She leads the Microsoft teams that shape their storytelling and ensures their content strategies resonate with target audiences.
• Claim to fame: Multimedia content is Heike’s superpower. She grew her LinkedIn following from 2K to 20K in one year by posting funny videos. She also launched Salesforce’s first branded podcast, and her team managed Salesforce’s YouTube account with 800K+ subscribers.

• Fun fact: Heike used to run her own business throwing princess birthday parties and story hours for kids.

Lesson 1: Your goal shouldn’t be high-performing content. Period. 

When Young walked into a conference room during her first day at Microsoft (this may have been virtual, but for the sake of the story let’s picture the Mad Men office), she told her team that her goal isn’t to create high-performing content. 

Her goal is to change minds.

Every time her team creates a piece of content, she asks herself: “What can we create that’s actually going to change the hearts and minds of our audience? And that’s a heady task.”

Here’s an example that hits home for us: At HubSpot, we’ve hit millions of views each year on one post alone — “The Top Movie Quotes of All Time.” 

(Yep. About as far from a product conversion as you can get.) 

But this year we took another look at that post and said, “Does it matter that it attracts millions of views if it has nothing to do with… well, HubSpot?” 

So we (finally) retired the post. (I suggested a Viking funeral, but we settled on a 301 redirect.)

This is Young’s motto and driving motivation behind all of her work. She says, “We hope it performs well, but really our goal is to create influence and to change how people think and act — and for our brand to grow when they do.”

There’s a bonus to this lesson: Creating content that changes minds means writing, recording, and posting content that is provocative and unique. And that’s the only type of content that will cut through the noise, anyway. 

As Young puts it: “Bold POVs are pretty much the only content left that resonates.”

Lesson 2: Your B2B buyer is the same person who’s bingeing Selling Sunset.

A couple of years ago, Young took comedy classes in LA at Upright Citizens Brigade, which touts past students like Amy Poehler, Kate McKinnon, and Nick Kroll. 

And she’s now bringing that comedy to her LinkedIn videos, some of which have amassed millions of views. 

Why? 

Because her B2B audience is still made up of people. And people like to laugh. 

“There’s this idea that is really important to me, which is content that moves with the culture. The same person who approves the PO for your SaaS company also binges Selling Sunset or does Twitch live streams at night.”

She adds, “In B2B, we’ve gotten into this habit of acting like people are so different. You know, they come to work and put on their work outfit and suddenly their standards for content or entertainment are different.”

Her remark reminded me of Severance: There is the buttoned-up, professional B2B audience, and then there are the people we get dinner with and watch movies with and call our friends.  

This artificial separation doesn’t just make our marketing feel stiff — it makes it ineffective.

Young says, “I personally want to create content that is informed by the culture at large and moves at that speed versus content that feels like it was sealed in a time capsule from 2001.”

Lesson 3: Employee-generated content matters now more than ever. 

Young is going all-in on personality-led content in 2025. 

Why? Because, as she told me, personality-led content can be the core differentiator for your brand: “Anybody can answer a bunch of questions. Nobody can clone your people.” 

(Take that, AI!) 

In her current role, she’s really focused on employee-generated content, and empowering her team to create content on behalf of Microsoft. 

And she’s walking the walk, too. Which is why, about a year ago, she started posting her own videos on LinkedIn. 

She told me, as a leader, she’d been missing the opportunity to create content. To her, it was important to get some skin in the game. “And I also really wanted to bet on myself.”

Sure, it can be hella awkward to post that first awkwardly edited iPhone video of yourself and getting seven likes on it.

But you never know where it could lead.

Coming full-circle to our first lesson, Young adds: “It’s important to change people’s minds around deeper topics, to have deeper conversations, and just to resonate more deeply. Surface-level, basic, one-on-one style answering questions — that’s not really the path forward.”

Lingering Questions

This Week’s Question

As a marketing thought leader, how do you see AI influencing strategic thinking and the creative process in brand building? — Lise Lozelle, senior director of communications and engagement, Best Buddies International

This Week’s Answer

Young: AI is effective as a thought partner. Ask it to poke holes in your strategy and play devil’s advocate. Also ask it to find additional research and data points you haven’t considered. Those workflows can make your original ideas even stronger.

All of that being said, I believe human creativity is more critical than ever, and I love seeing human fingerprints on the content I personally consume. For instance, I’ve recently been swooning over all the tiny creative details in Severance.

I believe some AI-related changes in marketing will happen faster than we expect, and others will happen more slowly. Only time will tell what falls into which category. So I’m leaning into AI where it’s useful for me, and not forcing it where it doesn’t seem helpful.

Next Week’s Question

Young asks: What’s a piece of marketing advice you would have given earlier in your career, but you would no longer give, due to how marketing has changed?

2025 is upon us, and a new year brings new trends and new challenges. If you‘re a brand looking to leverage social media video this year, you may not know what to expect but don’t worry.

I, your resident content creator and social media expert, have the expertise you need to prepare for social media video marketing in 2025. I also have stats from HubSpot’s handy-dandy Social Media Trends Report, which includes data from 1,000+ social media marketers.

In other words, you‘ve come to the right blog. Let’s get started by answering a burning question.

Is social media video marketing effective in 2025?

The short answer? Absolutely. Our data shows the top three social media platforms for driving site traffic, social media engagement, and audience growth are all video platforms —specifically, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

Instagram shines the brightest, with our survey showing the majority of marketers say it’s the best for driving site traffic (28%), social media engagement (25%), and audience growth (23%).

YouTube ranks second in boosting site traffic and third in social media engagement and audience growth. Meanwhile, TikTok ranks third in site traffic but second in both social media engagement and audience growth.

With this data in mind, according to our survey, it’s no surprise that TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are the top social media platforms for short-form videos and will see more investments from marketers than the other platforms in 2025.

4 Top Social Media Video Trends to Watch in 2025

I meticulously combed through our Social Media Trends report for the latest trends, and here’s what I found.

1. Brands will prioritize partnering with smaller influencers to create social media videos.

Here’s my hot take: Influencer marketing will always be among the top strategies for marketers.

They’re the new generation of celebrities but are more relatable and accessible than their predecessors. As such, they have a close relationship with their audience, making them perfect for promoting your brand to new audiences.

Don’t believe me? Our survey shows that 77% of marketers say influencer marketing delivers better ROI than other channels. Moreover, 85% say influencer marketing has been effective this past year.

So, it makes sense that nearly half (46%) of marketers plan to increase their investment in influencer marketing in 2025, while 47% will keep with their current spending. Only 6% plan to reduce their investment at all.

But, while influencers are the new celebrities, it won‘t be celebrity influencers receiving the most investment from marketers. In 2025, it will be the smaller influencer’s time to shine.

The majority of marketers in our survey (67%) work with micro-influencers, and 32% of marketers say working with small creators with 1,000 to 100,000 followers will be a better investment than working with large influencers in 2025.

Why? Micro-influencers have niche audiences, making fostering personal connections with their followers easy. In turn, their followers are much more active and engaged than those of a macro- or celebrity influencer. And engagement is crucial for influencer marketers.

Our survey shows that 53% of marketers rank engagement as the top determining factor in choosing an influencer or creator to partner with.

2. Building community on social media will be crucial.

Nearly a third of marketers in our survey predict that building a social media community will become more important in the coming year. Moreover, 85% of marketers say that building an active community is important to an overall social media strategy.

So, what’s with all this focus on community marketing? Turns out there are three huge benefits to fostering community with your brand.

First, 30% of marketers report that community building on social media increases brand sentiment and loyalty. Second, 28% say it attracts more followers and subscribers. Finally, 24% say it incentivizes user-generated content.

And if you’re not sure about investing in community marketing, keep in mind your competitors likely will.

According to our survey, 64% of marketers plan on having a dedicated community manager, and 93% of marketers will either maintain or increase their investment in community marketing in 2025.

In a long story short, expect to see brands leveraging video challenges, user-generated content, and any type of video marketing involving audience participation and community building.

Duolingo is an excellent example of using video to build a thriving digital community. Marketers behind the language-learning app achieve this by participating in viral trends while incorporating user-generated-content and inside jokes among its users. 

3. Brands will find and test new/emerging social media platforms.

When TikTok surged in popularity in 2020, many brands were scrambling to find their audience on the app despite it having already been around for two years. Some brands found their footing rather quickly, while others still struggled to stand out among billions of users.

In 2025, brands want to avoid that same struggle. In fact, 30% of respondents to our survey say finding and testing new or emerging social media platforms will impact their brand this year.

This focus on new platforms has a lot to do with marketers wanting to stay prepared in case they have to suddenly pivot their strategies.

Think about it: TikTok went dark in the U.S. for just 12 hours, and marketers saw a pandemic turn the world upside down. And don’t get me started on concerns of recession.

Like my mother always says: It‘s better to stay ready so you don’t have to get ready. Therefore, be on the lookout for new or emerging social media video platforms and don’t be afraid to play around with them.

4. Brand content and tone will be tailored to fit each platform.

I’m a content creator with many creator and influencer friends, and we often discuss how each platform has its own vibe.

For example, an influencer may post a gorgeous Instagram Reel of them wearing a matching athleisure set and assembling all their cute Stanley Cup accessories before heading to a hot yoga session.

Not a single hair is out of place, and there isn’t a bead of sweat on it.

That same influencer will post a much less polished video of themselves on TikTok sweating and struggling their way through an intense workout routine, emphasizing the difficult and relatable journey of working toward their fitness goals.

We’re not the only ones who notice this difference. According to our survey, 28% of marketers say tailoring the tone of their content to fit the unique voice of each social media platform will be more important.

For example, the hair care brand Cecred has a different approach to both Instagram and TikTok. It’s Instagram mostly consists of high-quality, stylized photos and videos, whereas TikTok leans more toward funny, simple, unpolished content.

This reminds me.

Regardless of the social media platform you leverage, remember the Big 3 content formats:

• Funny
• Relatable
• Authentic

Our survey shows that 52% of marketers leverage funny content as part of their social media strategy, 50% label relatable content, and 42% leverage authentic or behind-the-scenes content.

I suggest playing around with these content formats on different platforms and seeing how they perform.

The Top Social Media Video Challenges Marketers Face

Of course, social media video marketing isn‘t without its challenges.

Social media trends are more volatile than Florida weather (I can say that because I’m a Florida native), and the customer journey becomes more complex as consumers flock to new channels such as live streams or social searches to find products.

As trends rapidly change, assessing what consumers find engaging and what‘s considered “cool” or current can be difficult. And as the customer journey changes, tracking ROI isn’t as clear-cut as it used to be.

As a result, the top three social media challenges marketers anticipate in 2025 are keeping up with new trends, measuring ROI, and creating engaging content.

As a marketer, you can navigate these changes by investing in a community manager who is tasked with building a community with your audience and keeping a pulse on the kinds of discussions consumers are having about your industry and brand.

This will keep you on top of trends and more prepared to create engaging, timely social media videos.

As for ROI, experiment with newer channels like social media live-shopping or social e-commerce. Track where and how consumers discover your videos and look for ways to simplify their buyers’ journey.

For example, beauty brands on TikTok often include links to their TikTok within their TikTok videos, so people who stumble upon their products while scrolling can buy without having to leave the app.

Get on Trend This Year

2025 is going to be an interesting year for social media videos, but as long as you keep the above information in mind, you’ll be prepared for what the year throws your way. Good luck!

Prior to launching my own marketing business, I worked at athletic apparel company Gymshark, driving our marketing strategy around community. I knew that bringing people together was powerful. I just had to move that concept out of the fitness space and into business. How hard could it be?

So, when I launched my community marketing agency, Butterfly Effect, I took a new approach. I put on my “professional” voice. I tried to stick to business talk and keep interactions transactional. But as I built more authentic relationships with decision-makers, I noticed that behind every corporate email address was a human being facing real challenges.

That’s when I had my biggest insight: B2B isn’t just business-to-business — it’s human-to-human. The approach didn’t have to be cold and calculated. I had to take the community-building playbook I knew well and adapt it to a new platform: LinkedIn. Here’s how I did it.

How LinkedIn Transformed Our Business

I noticed that despite having over a billion users, only 1% actively post on LinkedIn. Yet, that 1% drives 99% of all reach and engagement. By consistently showing up there, I not only built influence but created one of the most engaged personal brands on the platform.

So, instead of treating LinkedIn as a digital CV or occasional broadcasting channel, I made it the center of my business development strategy. This approach wasn’t just marginally successful — it transformed my career and business trajectory completely.

When we launched Butterfly Effect, we weren’t starting from zero — we had some investment. But instead of spending it on a sales team or aggressive marketing, we poured it into the service experience. Our money went into building the kind of agency we’d want to work with. We wanted to be rooted in value, creativity, and community — not cold calls and closing scripts.

So we made a decision that scared most people in the room: No sales team. No cold outreach. No funnels. No performance ads. Just community.

We believed that if we showed up with real value, built trust in public, and put people before pitches, the right clients would come to us. Everyone told us we were mad. But, as the momentum built, our community did the selling for us.

Within 12 months, we hit £2 million ($2.6 million U.S.) in revenue. All inbound. No outbound.

So, I made a decision: LinkedIn wouldn’t be a billboard. It would be the heartbeat of the business.

Three Ways You Can Use LinkedIn to Build Connection

1. Remember: LinkedIn isn’t for corporate updates — it’s for building credibility.

Most B2B brands treat LinkedIn as an afterthought, posting corporate updates that no one engages with. I’ve fallen into that trap too.

My light bulb moment was when I realized that behind every logo was someone trying to solve something. Behind every inquiry was a real person with a problem, a goal, or a dream. LinkedIn was where these people were gathering, listening, and looking for clarity.

So, I moved away from “look-how-great-we-are” updates. Instead, I wrote open playbooks and useful insights. Every post became a conversation starter, and every comment became a connection. Our messages were open doors, not pitches.

This approach allowed the team to build credibility. Each post built on the last, compounding visibility into reputation. When people were ready to work with us, they already felt like they knew who we were and what we stood for.

Action you can take today: Audit your last 10 LinkedIn posts. How many provide genuine value versus talking about your company? Commit to an 80/20 split — 80% valuable insights, 20% business updates — and watch your engagement transform.

2. Leverage your own LinkedIn, not just your company page.

If you only focus on your company’s LinkedIn page, you’re missing out. My business blossomed when I recognized that buyers trust people more than logos. To capture that trust, I needed to leverage my LinkedIn presence.

As the CEO, I gained credibility as an expert in my field, built direct relationships with partners, and turned my personal brand into a business growth engine.

From there, I kept a close eye on who was interacting with my posts. I knew my ideal customer personas (ICPs) and tracked their engagement closely. If I saw an ICP who might be interested in our work, I could then reach out while I was still top-of-mind.

Instead of generic sales pitches, I used DMs strategically, engaging in warm, high-intent conversations that felt natural and valuable. The most powerful shift came when I built genuine inbound demand. My content provided so much value that prospects started coming to me, eliminating the need for traditional outbound sales entirely.

This approach went beyond just me. My whole team engaged actively. They didn’t need to become creators. They became contributors in a different way. Whether it was jumping into comment threads, sharing POVs in DMs, or amplifying the conversations happening on our posts, their presence helped extend the trust we were building.

Action you can take today: Look at your business goals for the next quarter. For each one, ask: “How could community connection help achieve this faster or better?” Then, implement at least one community-driven approach to your most important objective.

3. Transform your LinkedIn into a hub for your ecosystem.

When I noticed the power of LinkedIn, I committed to showing up every day — sharing ideas, telling stories, asking questions, and most importantly being myself.

That consistency changed everything. Over time, my personal LinkedIn evolved into our biggest growth engine. It powered my personal brand and ensured our company page wasn’t just a static placeholder — it functioned like a living, breathing homepage.

People returned to our LinkedIn to understand who we were and how we thought. We became a stop for real collaboration, not just networking. LinkedIn was a town square — the place where we proved our thinking before anyone filled out a form.

With that reputation, we were able to expand beyond the digital realm. We launched Catalyst, a series of events bringing together marketing professionals to tackle industry challenges. The goal? Build trust, exchange knowledge, and forge real connections.

From that foundation, I took an even bolder step with Butterfly Effect — a dedicated space where businesses facing similar challenges could come together to solve problems collectively. This wasn’t just another networking group or shallow forum. It became a space where collaboration led to real outcomes, not just conversations.

Action you can take today: Identify the top problem your customers or industry faces right now. Post your approach, then create a simple collaborative space (even a basic LinkedIn Group) specifically focused on solving that problem together. Don’t sell — facilitate solutions.

Driving Success Through Community

The old ways of using LinkedIn, keeping knowledge proprietary, and maintaining artificial distance are falling behind. The path forward requires:

• Being yourself openly so people trust you.
• Building a community of people who share your values.
• Sharing what you know to help everyone grow.
• Working together to make progress that lifts your whole industry.

The moment business became personal for me was the moment everything changed. By embracing authentic human connection in every aspect of my work, I didn’t just find a competitive edge — I found meaning, impact, and sustainable growth that benefits everyone involved.

And, all of that happened on LinkedIn.

I’m fortunate to work on exciting marketing campaigns for fantastic Nickelodeon and Paramount+ titles. But I never forget that customer experience and marketing go hand-in-hand — everything I plan and execute is to fulfill customer wants and needs.

After all, Fluent Support stated that 89% of companies will compete primarily on customer experience by 2025. Brands can’t just focus on creating an amazing product and marketing it well. They also need to close the loop with positive CX.

Marketing plays a critical role in defining, communicating, and managing the customer experience. In this post, I’ll walk through how customer experience and marketing intersect, who owns customer experience, and the marketing best practices for supporting an organization’s CX.

Table of Contents

• Customer Experience and Marketing
• The Significance of Customer Experience
• Why Customer Experience and Marketing Go Hand-in-Hand
• Who owns customer experience?

The Significance of Customer Experience

Delivering experiences that delight customers takes a planned, proactive, and holistic strategy that spans the customer journey and lifecycle.

Rightpoint pointed out that customer-centricity, deep customer understanding, journey mapping, cross-functional collaboration, feedback loop, and employee empowerment are the key elements of a winning CX strategy.

Customer experience does not stop after the sale — in fact, some of the most powerful opportunities to create loyalty are experiences with service and support after the sale.

HubSpot’s Flywheel model offers a modern view of how companies can evolve by putting customer experience at the center of the organization’s focus.

The “delight” stage powers the “attract” stage of the inbound methodology because customers talk to others about their experiences, and word-of-mouth recommendations are one of the most powerful ways to attract new customers. I know I personally will make a purchase if even one of my friends or family members recommends it to me.

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In HubSpot’s 2024 State of Customer Service Report, we discovered many essential insights about customer experience, some of which I’ve detailed below:

• 55% of respondents say AI-powered chatbots are effective, and they prefer such self-service channels when seeking customer service.
• 77% of service teams are using AI and getting excellent results.
• 92% of service teams say AI improves their response time, improves CSAT (86%), and is essential to meeting business and customer needs.
• Service teams who have adopted AI say it has resolved 11-30% of their support volume.
• Leaders of organizations with collaborative service and sales teams are 76% more likely to claim their customer service strategy was effective in 2023.
• Leaders of organizations with collaborative service and marketing teams are 69% more likely to claim their customer service strategy was effective in 2023.

Ultimately, what it means to provide an exceptional customer experience is continually evolving, and marketing will need to work with sales and services teams to ensure they’re always keeping CX top-of-mind.

Why Customer Experience and Marketing Go Hand-in-Hand

You may be wondering, “Is customer experience part of marketing?” I get it — I felt that way, too.

Historically, customer experience has been strictly viewed as a priority for sales and service teams. But, there is a massive impact when marketing includes customer experience as a top goal.

1. Brand Promise and Follow-Through

Marketing builds a strategy that defines compelling brand messages and promises, and customers who invest in the brand trust that the marketing is authentic.

Customer experience can actually follow through on these promises, encouraging brand transparency and improved customer loyalty.

2. Customer Journey

The customer journey begins with marketing and continues through the customer experience. These are part of the same cycle and, thus, cannot exist without the other.

For instance, I work in title marketing for Paramount+ shows and movies. A large part of my job is ensuring we effectively promote the title across key touchpoints, from social to digital to out-of-home.

However, once we build awareness and gain acquisitions, retention is still hugely important, as we want the customers who signed up for Paramount+ to stick with us. This is where customer experience can play a huge role.

3. Revenue Growth

When CX becomes fundamental to marketing, the impact on revenue is massive. I found in my research that brands integrating these two elements see faster revenue growth (5.1x) compared to competitors with poor customer interactions.

4. Customer Loyalty

Along with revenue growth, companies that incorporate marketing and customer experience also see a huge increase in customer loyalty. 75% of customers remain loyal to brands with excellent customer support.

In addition, 77% of customers are more inclined to recommend a brand to others following a positive customer experience. In my opinion, customer experience is the new marketing — this symbiosis leads to enhanced customer retention and brand reputation.

5. Hyper-Personalization

In a crowded marketplace, I easily get tired of seeing the same marketing efforts repeated. Now, marketing can utilize AI to predict customer behavior, desires, and needs more accurately, which leads to a better customer experience.

For instance, many streaming services track users’ viewing patterns to recommend genres or titles. This combines targeted marketing with improved customer experience — I spend less time scrolling when great movies are suggested upfront — for a seamless, customer-forward brand.

Who owns customer experience?

Contrary to popular belief, customer experience is not owned by a single person or department. It should always be the shared responsibility of the entire company, although each team may support it in different ways.

For instance, some companies have a Chief Customer Officer (CCO) overseeing CX. However, this isn’t as universal as it should be; thus, customer experience is often managed cross-functionally by teams like marketing, sales, and operations.

The advent of digital marketing gives marketers the tools to interact with buyers at the individual level — through channels and touchpoints at every stage of the lifecycle. In turn, customer experience becomes important for the success of digital marketing.

While the entire organization is responsible for experience delivery, marketing is often best positioned to listen to, analyze, and advocate for customer needs. By delivering reliable, fact-based insights about customer experience, marketing helps overcome the siloing of departments, which is a major detractor to a consistent CX approach.

Let‘s explore the current marketing best practices for supporting an organization’s customer experience strategy.

1. Listen to customers at scale — and share their insights.

Conversations data: Marketing that meaningfully impacts the audience requires understanding customer experience and marketing analytics and interpretation of conversational data. Data is not only used for targeting marketing campaigns but also for improving the customer experience.

Segmentation: Digital marketing automation platforms make it easy to track and act upon data. Data such as customer history, behaviors, and interests make it possible to develop segments to target customers better, and they also provide insights on how to deliver a more satisfactory experience.

KPIs: Key performance indicators such as conversion rate, churn, retention rate, and patient satisfaction scores should be identified, monitored, and tracked in a manner that is highly visible to all teams. These shared insights drive change and reinforce progress, identify areas for improvement, and support a culture in which everyone is responsible for delivering an exceptional experience.

2. Know the voice of the customer.

Direct customer feedback is foundational for understanding and improving experiences. My team at Paramount continues to use traditional research methods, such as satisfaction surveys, focus groups, and interviews. These play a pivotal role in assessing satisfaction and capturing the voice of the customer.

However, digital technologies are providing new ways to supplement this information. Tools such as social listening, live chat, and website analytics provide opportunities to keep a pulse on customer feedback in real time.

Additionally, sales and service delivery teams can capture customer feedback through observation, field reports, and complaint logs. Regardless of method, following a journey or experience map can ensure effectively capturing feedback about the holistic experience rather than siloed stages.

HubSpot offers customer journey map templates, which help organizations outline the customer journey across several phases, such as lead nurturing, customer churn, and future state. I love how interactive these templates are, providing thought-provoking questions to get marketers into customers’ brains.

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Ultimately, marketing’s role is to work across departments and stages of the lifecycle to consolidate feedback, identify themes, and use the voice of the customer to bring about change.

3. Collaborate cross-functionally to foster change.

Unfortunately, it’s common for marketing teams to take responsibility for attracting prospects and generating leads but then have little involvement after qualified leads are handed to sales, leading to a disjointed customer experience.

Instead, we can bring the results of listening at scale to collaborate on making business processes more customer-centered. When marketing develops insights about customers, this knowledge gives teams a common objective basis for working together on changes to improve the customer experience.

Simply put, we marketers can support the customer experience by creating meaningful, valuable content for the buyer journey and identifying buyer segments and personas to target.

Additionally, the insights from listening at scale can have a much broader impact when shared and used as a springboard to identify bottlenecks, solve problems, and redesign processes in customer-focused ways. I recommend that marketing teams create workshops or brainstorming sessions cross-departmentally to generate solutions and obtain buy-in for change.

Of course, it’s difficult for marketing to bring about change without executive buy-in. One way they can engage and obtain support from executive teams is to calculate the ROI of improvements to the customer experience.

Satisfaction and Net Promoter Score (likelihood to recommend) are two popular KPIs. Others include churn rate, resolution time, or conversion rates.

4. Invest in automation.

Consider both marketing and service automation software to create an ideal customer experience. Marketing automation facilitates an improved customer experience by providing clients with the right information at the right time.

For instance, automation drastically shortens follow-up time. This is critical because the average response time for customer service chat is 2 minutes, but customers expect replies within 45 seconds to feel satisfied.

Marketing automation not only improves the overall customer experience but is also critical to lead generation. Therefore, organizations can benefit from investing in automation software like HubSpot’s Marketing and Service Hubs.

Marketing Hub helps businesses attract, engage, and convert leads through marketing tools, including email marketing, social media management, analytics & reporting, and lead management, all of which enable teams to manage marketing campaigns effectively.

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Service Hub focuses on improving customer support and retention through tools like a help desk and ticketing system, knowledge base, omnichannel support, and AI-powered assistance, all of which help manage customer conversations and improve satisfaction.

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Together, they create a seamless customer journey from lead attraction to retention. Since both share a centralized HubSpot CRM, marketing and service teams can access the same customer data to inform next steps more easily.

These teams can also utilize shared insights to inform their separate goals. For example, marketers can use Service Hub insights, such as common customer pain points, to create more targeted marketing campaigns. On the other hand, service teams can use Marketing Hub data, such as buyer personas, to offer customized support.

There is no end to the insights teams can share when investing in both Marketing and Service Hubs. This symbiosis offers the perfect opportunity for marketing teams to prioritize the customer experience since the customer service information and data are readily available.

Experience the Power of Customer Experience

Ultimately, to create an exceptional customer experience, I believe companies need collaboration from all three of the organization’s departments — marketing, sales, and service.

However, the responsibility can fall on marketers to lead the way by ensuring that when collecting research for marketing efforts, they share those results with sales and service and remain open to their feedback.

Check out The Ultimate Guide to Sales and Marketing to help integrate a stronger partnership between these teams at your own company.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

As a former journalist, I spent years digging through social media feeds to write juicy stories. Now, as HubSpot’s go-to for all things social, I stay ahead of every single trend. Literally, nothing flies under my radar.

On top of that, as a millennial who grew up online, this isn’t just what I do — it’s what I live.

So, if you’re a marketer trying to pick the right platform to grow your brand, get leads, and drive traffic, you’re in the right place.

I’ve broken it all down: social media types, top platforms, and the pros and cons of each. By the end, you’ll know exactly where to focus and what to skip. Let’s dive in.

The list of social media platforms is growing, and well-known platforms like Facebook are constantly evolving and adding new features.

With a greater and greater need for a social presence and an overwhelming amount of platform choices, it can be hard to pick which social channels to use.

You might not want to spread yourself too thin by managing a channel on every imaginable platform, but you don’t want to miss great brand awareness opportunities.

1. Social Networking

• Facebook: 3.06 billion monthly active users
• X (formerly Twitter): 611 million monthly active users
• LinkedIn: 1.15 billion active users

Social networking is possibly the most traditional form of social media, and most social media platforms fall under the social networking category. So, you’ll likely see at least one of the aforementioned platforms (*cough, cough* X) pop up again later in this post.

Platforms like Facebook, X, and LinkedIn are often called “networking” platforms because they allow user accounts to interact (network) in various ways.

Professional Uses

Facebook

Many brands and businesses are leveraging social media direct messaging (DMs) for customer service.

In fact, our 2025 State of Marketing Report shows that 20.45% of marketers are increasing or maintaining their investment in social media DMs for customer service.

Facebook Messenger is a great platform for this strategy as it allows you to respond to messages from your brand’s Facebook followers.

Plus, as a fellow consumer, I can assure you it leaves a great impression on your customers when you respond promptly to their DMs.

There have been many times when I’ve slid into a business’ DM because I needed an update on an order, more information about a product, or troubleshooting. Now, most businesses add chatbots to respond to customers inquiries:

And, when the business responds back with helpful information, I always make a note to keep buying from them.

However, using direct messages benefits not only customers but also companies. For instance, Hyundai permanently integrated Meta’s Messenger into its customer service after a successful test phase. The results showed:

• A sales rate four times higher than other channels
• A conversion rate five times higher through Messenger compared to other channels
• A 13% reduction in cost per lead using Messenger

If you’re a small business, like a restaurant, I recommend a platform like Facebook as a great place to start your social strategy. With Facebook, you can build a business profile with links to your website and details about your menu.

I’m especially fond of Facebook’s community feature, which you can also leverage to create a community page for customers to ask questions or rave about your products and services.

In fact, we found that businesses that leverage social media communities will see excellent results in their marketing strategy.

According to our survey, 90% of marketers say building an active online community is crucial to a successful social media strategy.

I’m not surprised, considering our Consumer Trends survey found that 20% of social media users joined an online community in the past three months, and 22% actively participated in one.

One of the best Facebook groups I’m in is run by Kat Sullivan, who saw a gap in how group creators engaged with members.

Kat openly shares insights from working with business owners and agencies, while members contribute by discussing entrepreneurship, dissecting online monetization, and sharing interesting marketing case studies.

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LinkedIn

LinkedIn emphasizes career-related networking, and, for years, I only ever used LinkedIn when searching for jobs or to help friends find opportunities. It turns out, however, that LinkedIn is very beneficial for businesses.

For companies looking to offer a professional service, such as B2B or publishing companies, LinkedIn is another excellent way to grow a following.

What I love about LinkedIn is how it evolved — it’s no longer just a stiff corporate platform. Brands like Semrush and Hootsuite have nailed the balance between professionalism and humor while staying true to their niche. It’s a genius way to get people to resonate with your content, love it, and keep coming back for more.

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According to our survey, LinkedIn is among the top five social media platforms yielding the highest ROI for marketers.

Furthermore, of the marketers who currently leverage LinkedIn in their strategy, 26.16% plan to increase their investment in 2025.

Brands looking to build an audience of professionals from a particular industry can create a business profile there, categorize it with an industry type, and then use posts and messaging to publish updates. They can also use messaging and comment features to interact with their audiences or users who comment on their posts.

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Besides organic traffic, let’s not forget LinkedIn advertising options. Jaimon Hancock, Founder & Digital Strategist at Adalystic Marketing, shared how LinkedIn ads can work wonders for B2B clients:

“For a B2B client facing high competition and rising CPCs, we saw an opportunity to improve LinkedIn ad performance. To boost engagement and lower costs, we layered in LinkedIn Thought Leadership Ads, promoting content from an individual’s profile instead of the company page. This approach made the campaign feel more organic and authentic. One of our top posts featured an executive accepting an industry award, subtly boosting credibility without pushing sales.”

The results are impressive:

• 50% lower cost per conversion.
• 5x higher click-through rate (CTR).
• 75% lower CPC.
• Meaningful engagement in the comments.

X (formerly Twitter)

An X account could be helpful to companies in a broad spectrum of industries, from entertainment to e-commerce. This platform similarly allows you to create a profile where you can list and link company information.

You can then use X to post about company updates, tag companies or customers in posts, repost positive customer tweets, and respond to customer questions via posts or direct messages.

One of my favorite X features I think marketers should look into is Spaces, which allows users to create live audio chat rooms and talk amongst each other.

Companies will often use Spaces to host Q&As, interview thought leaders, or keep audiences informed about the latest happenings with the brand or industry.

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On all three social networks, users can easily communicate with others through simple actions like tagging, hashtagging, commenting, private messaging, reacting to posts, and re-sharing content.

Aside from social interaction, feeds on common social networking platforms are designed to show off a mix of text and visuals rather than one primary content type.

This flexibility makes it easy to begin a social strategy on social networking platforms because you can experiment with different forms of content before branching out to platforms that require more specific content types. For those who want to dabble in video or graphics, these platforms could be a great place to test this new content.

With the growth of video marketing, many have begun to launch more advanced features like Facebook Stories and X’s live streams. They also started encouraging native video and photo uploads more heavily.

Recently, Facebook adjusted its algorithms to favor live video and image uploads. This has caused these types of native content to gain greater user engagement.

And no, Reels aren’t just for Instagram anymore. Facebook now has its own Reels section, mixing all kinds of videos based on its algorithm. And looking at the numbers, they’re outperforming images and text content by far.

The best example is the Northwoods Folk Facebook page. She’s a nature-inspired influencer who shares practical tips and tricks. Let’s take a look at her photo content, which typically got around 20–30 likes with minimal engagement:

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And then we have reels:

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This speaks a lot about the changes happening on platforms and how Facebook has also gone in the video direction.

If you’re unsure where to start, check out our beginner’s guides for Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.

I’ll be honest, the beginner guide for X was published before the platform rebranded from Twitter; however, much of the information still applies today.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Facebook, X, and LinkedIn are some of the most prominent forms of social media.
• Social networking sites often integrate with scheduling tools like HubSpot and Hootsuite software.
• All platforms have capabilities for photos and video.

Cons

• Those interested in posting links may have more difficulty getting engagement than uploading photos and videos.
• Some platforms, like Facebook, put individual user posts higher than business posts in newsfeeds.
• Facebook may not be the right platform for your business if you’re looking to target younger consumers like Gen Z, who are more likely to use TikTok, X, or Snapchat.

2. Photo Sharing

• Pinterest: 533 million monthly active users
• BeReal: 23 million monthly active users

Photo-sharing social media platforms are exactly as they sound — they’re platforms where sharing images is the name of the game. I remember the days when Instagram was the most prominent photo-sharing platform.

But that was then, and this is now, so if you’re wondering why Instagram isn’t mentioned here — don’t worry! I’ll have more on that when I get to the video platforms.

Professional Uses

Pinterest

One of the biggest platforms that specialize in photo sharing is Pinterest. Pinterest is a “visual discovery engine” for users looking for cooking, style, home decor, and general visual inspiration.

Personally, I’ve been using Pinterest for over 10 years and, like most users, I interact with other accounts on the platform through tags, likes, comments, or direct messages.

In the early days, Pinterest wasn’t as synonymous with brands and companies as it is now. Here’s how it looked:

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It was more so about crafting virtual vision boards based on aesthetics.

However, brands, companies, and creators find it useful when they want to take photographs, display content, and update followers about their food, goods, or products.

Pinterest is well-suited for e-commerce companies, such as those that sell home goods and businesses that would like a place to share crisp standalone product images with links.

The platform offers a photo-based feed with posts that can include a photo and a short description.

In the last few years, Pinterest has also shifted to include more video content to compete with platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok. However, the platform still remains a place for users to share their favorite photos.

Here’s a little look at my Pinterest feed.

The platform also allows all users to link directly to websites or product landing pages in posts. I especially love Pinterest‘s Explore page and can see a lot of opportunities for brands there. The Explore page updates daily and operates almost like an old-school blog, with the ability to scroll to see the previous days’ themes as well.

It features boards curated by celebrities, creators, and brands sharing images their followers would be interested in. And, of course, there are opportunities for consumers to shop.

I clicked on the board called Pinterest Predicts: Dolled up 2025 and was shown different trends expected to take over this season, along with links to buy them.

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Before starting on a platform like Pinterest, you’ll want to determine whether your goal is to gain brand awareness or link-based or e-commerce traffic.

BeReal

If you haven’t heard of BeReal, I don’t blame you. It’s a fairly new app that launched in 2020 and is pretty popular among Gen Z users.

The app’s main feature is that it allows users to share a photo of themselves and their immediate surroundings during a randomly selected two-minute window every day.

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The idea of BeReal is to step away from the overly filtered and curated content users often see on other platforms. Just be real. Get it?

With the app’s premise being candid and unfiltered, how can brands leverage BeReal? The best way I could think of is to use the app to build trust with your audience and only share behind-the-scenes candids.

However, that can be difficult, given users are only given a random two-minute window to post.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• These kinds of platforms help with brand awareness. Approximately 80% of Pinterest users say they’ve learned about products or services on the app.
• Pinterest provides an outlet for showing off visual content or product shots.

Cons

• Upkeep on these platforms might require a photo budget or dedicated production time.
• Some platforms require you to post from a mobile app.
• BeReal is most popular with Gen Z users, and there is no opportunity for e-commerce or paid content on the app.

3. Video Sharing

• YouTube: Over 2.7 billion monthly active users
• Instagram: 2 billion monthly active users worldwide
• TikTok: Over 955 million monthly active users

Video has been the dominant type of content marketing over the last few years, and it has no sign of slowing down — especially short-form video.

17.13% of the marketers whose companies are currently leveraging short-form videos say they will increase their investments in 2025.

Adding a video platform to your social strategy could make your brand look relevant and keep you up to speed with your competitors. Video can be helpful to a wide range of industries. While a restaurant could have a vlog with cooking tips, a technology company might focus its video strategy on product demos.

Professional Uses

YouTube & Vimeo

YouTube offers both short-form and long-form capabilities.

Regarding short-form video uses, YouTube Shorts can be a platform your business uses to post product demos, explainer videos, and more.

If you want to get interactive, you can also host live-stream Q&As to answer consumer questions and build community.

When it comes to long-form videos, YouTube is one of the leading platforms. Compared to competing video-sharing platforms like Vimeo, YouTube has an extensive audience base and better SEO capabilities.

What’s great about YouTube’s long-form format is that you can create content series — episodes that are either standalone or built on each other.

When your audience knows a new video will drop every two days, let’s say it keeps them coming back and makes them more loyal. Just like how people eagerly wait for the next episode of their favorite TV show, it’s pretty much the same with this.

As for educational videos, my favorite is the Ahrefs series hosted by Sam Oh, covering everything from blogging to all things marketing and SEO:

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Janelle Warner, co-director and marketing advisor at Born Social, shared how YouTube played a crucial role in their campaign’s success:

“I vividly remember the day we launched the influencer component — it was like a wildfire spreading across social media. The top tech YouTuber we partnered with did an unboxing video that got over 2 million views in the first week. The comments were incredibly positive, with people tagging friends and saying they needed to get this product. It demonstrated the power of tapping into established, trusted voices in your industry.”

However, it wasn’t just YouTube that contributed to this success — it was a multi-pronged approach. A combination of influencer marketing, engaging video content, and targeted ads.

• By partnering with popular tech influencers, they reached a highly engaged audience and built credibility.
• Their video ads showcased the product’s features in an entertaining way, encouraging views and shares.
• Targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram helped them focus on their ideal audience.

Over 500,000 engagements, 100 million video views, a 20% increase in website traffic, and a 400% return on ad spend in just 3 months. What a result!

So YouTube definitely has amazing opportunities for advertisers and monetization, while Vimeo offers viewers the perk of no pre-roll ads. For a longer list of similarities and differences, check out this head-to-head piece where we compare the business capabilities of Vimeo and YouTube.

Instagram

To compete with TikTok, Instagram has shifted away from being a photo-sharing app.

While users can still post photos on Instagram, the platform mainly promotes reels and video stories. It’s also worth mentioning that Instagram video posts are more than twice as likely to generate engagement than image posts (kinda similar to what we’ve seen with Facebook above).

And when you figure out how to serve up content your audience can’t get enough of, you can get tons of views overnight (literally!).

Best proof? One and only Duolingo:

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Another example of how powerful shorts and reels can be came from Karen Etchells, Digital Marketing Strategist at Innovast Digital Marketing.

She embedded vertical videos in blog posts, then repurposed those videos as YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Facebook, and TikTok clips to reach a wider audience.

YouTube Shorts alone led to a 2x boost in site visits from video searches. They saw a huge jump in engagement and overall visibility — a 73% increase in search engine traffic.

TikTok

I’m going to revisit TikTok again later in this post because it also falls under another category of social media platforms. However, it is still a video-sharing channel.

What I love about TikTok in terms of marketing is that it’s a very diverse app with many marketing opportunities.

Yes, you can post short-form demos and explainers, like on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, but TikTok has more opportunities to build community with your audience.

This is because the app is a breeding ground for new viral trends anyone can take part in, and the app provides many ways for audiences to interact via liking, commenting, repurposing sounds, and stitching — the ability to respond to someone’s video by filming your own.

For example, check out how the Chicago Bulls mascot, Benny the Bull, responded to the NBA using Stitch:

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P.S. No offense to any teams, but this video is going down as one of the most legendary stitches ever.

Let’s dive into TikTok’s interactive opportunities.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Regarding YouTube, videos can be longer than on other social platforms.
• All platforms have website linking capabilities.
• Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram often offer analytics.
• YouTube has search optimization features.

Cons

• Video content, particularly long-form, might take more time and money to create.
• Vimeo and YouTube require more backend tasks, like SEO.
• Instagram does not have long-form video capabilities
• TikTok appeals to a younger audience known to distrust brands, so you will likely have to invest in influencer marketing to gain traction on the platform.

4. Interactive Media

• Snapchat: 850 million monthly active users
• TikTok: Over 955 million monthly active users

Apps like Snapchat and TikTok allow users to share photos and videos and have various unique interactive and highly experimental features.

These two apps include AR/VR filters, musical overlays, and interactive games. Their audience base is also predominantly Gen-Z.

Professional Uses

Snapchat

Brands with large followings might consider publishing Snapchat Stories or videos curated by fans. Without a high-budget or giant online following, it might be difficult for a company just starting out on social media to leverage Snapchat.

Brands and influencers on Snapchat tend to cater their content to the platforms’ younger audiences. For example, on Snapchat, you might see stories that present beauty tutorials, wellness tips, news, or trendy new products.

While major brands, like VICE and BuzzFeed, have become Snapchat Discover partners, the average business can still create a Snapchat business account that users can search for and friend.

This account allows you to publish temporary stories like individual accounts. However, those with a business account can also purchase ad space.

For example, Clarins boosted its sales with Snap Ads, Collection Ads, Dynamic Ads, and UGC content.

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They optimized their Snapchat strategy, driving a 114% increase in website actions and a 67% return on ad spend from new audiences. Their efforts led to a 275% rise in incremental sales and an 83% increase in Snapchat ad spend, proving the effectiveness of the whole strategy.

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If you’ve set up your Snapchat account and need further help, check out this guide to getting started on Snapchat.

TikTok

When TikTok first rose to prominence in 2020, it was mainly an app-based platform catering to a Gen Z market that wanted little to do with brands.

Since then, TikTok has grown to shift its focus to longer-form content, and brands are much more aware of how to leverage the channel.

In fact, about a quarter of marketers in our Social Media Marketing survey say TikTok yields the highest ROI compared to other social media platforms.

What’s wild about TikTok is that some videos can get millions of views, while the next one might get stuck at 200. But, speaking from experience, don’t give up because TikTok really rewards creativity and consistency.

The key to TikTok is to invest in influencer and creator marketing. Build a partnership with a creator who aligns with your brand’s values and can introduce your products and services to their audience.

We mostly come across two types of influencer collabs on TikTok:

1. Subtle, non-pushy marketing. For example, check out how Zach King promotes Mr. Nova’s ice creams without even saying a word about it.

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2. Direct influencer marketing. We see this one all the time. Influencers actively promote a product or service, often showcasing it, discussing its features, or giving a review.

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But, influencer marketing also gives room for experimentation. We often take risks, try something new, and just pray it works.

Austin Benton, Marketing Consultant at Gotham Artists, was brave enough, and it paid off. Here’s what he did:

“Instead of paying influencers for traditional sponsored posts, we sent PR packages to 20 micro-influencers (10K-50K followers) with a challenge: film an unboxing and reaction video, and if your post gets 500+ likes, we’ll send you an exclusive mystery VIP package.

This small tweak made a huge difference because it turned the campaign into a game rather than just another product promotion. Influencers were naturally more excited to post, and their followers got curious about both the product and the “mystery reward,” which drove engagement through the roof.”

312% increase in sales and a 270% boost in engagement within six weeks. Impressive results!

Austin also said that after launching the challenge, they encouraged customers to post unboxing videos for a chance to win a year’s supply of the product, which created massive FOMO and boosted UGC.

They ran retargeting ads featuring viral videos, resulting in a 5.4x return on ad spend (ROAS).

Pros and Cons

Pros

• These platforms are very creative and experimental.
• They have young audiences, which can help brands better target Gen-Z.

Cons

• Producing regular content could be expensive and time-consuming.
• Business accounts aren’t promoted up-front on the Snapchat interface. You may want to promote your channel on your website or other social channels because users must search for you with your Snapcode or username.
• Snapchat is limited to mobile and isn’t as easy to use as other platforms.
• You will most likely have to invest in influencer marketing to gain traction on TikTok, and finding a creator aligned with your business may be difficult.

Pro tip: You should try to correctly estimate the time and money that might go into keeping these accounts up-to-date and relevant.

If you’re unsure how short video ads can benefit your business, remember that short-form videos have the highest ROI compared to other video formats.

5. Blogging/Community

• Tumblr
• Reddit

Tumblr and Reddit allow users to post about exciting niche topics, like memes, events, politics, and pop culture.

When users publish a post, these platforms allow others to share it or add it to the conversation with their commentary.

Professional Uses

Both blogging and community-building platforms could be helpful to those who want to encourage discussion around very niche industries or topics.

For example, on these platforms, you might see discussions about anything from alternative health to machine learning.

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By blogging, you can write posts about your company’s industry topics and link them to your product or site.

While many people have a blog on their website, platforms like Tumblr might be great to use if you haven’t set this feature up — or just want to see what others in your industry are blogging about.

With a discussion site like Reddit, you could share a link or a post about a specific topic on a discussion board related to your industry and see how users respond. You could also start your board if a topic you’re looking to encourage discussion on doesn’t have one yet.

These two platforms specifically encourage web chatter and post shares from users who care about the same topics.

Both also allow users to follow you or subscribe to your blogs or Reddit boards so your content can appear on their feeds. Here’s an example of what Reddit’s feed looks like.

Other users can up-vote or down-vote when someone publishes something on Reddit. Up-voting makes a post show up higher in Reddit feeds, while down-voting does the opposite.

On Tumblr, the feeds are organized by time. However, a post can show up higher when it is re-shared by other users. When a user shares or interacts with your Tumblr content, they give it a note.

When they reshare, they can post a comment with the post that gets added to a thread.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Both platforms allow you to share text posts, photos, and videos about your business, brand, or individual thoughts.
• These platforms enable you to start conversations about a topic.
• Both platforms allow linking to outside websites.

Cons

• Longer blog posts might take time to craft or write.
• Getting downvoted on Reddit or having no reaction from Tumblr users means your posts may go unseen.
• Your audience might be too niche or limited to just those on the specific platform you use.

6. Microblogging

• Threads: 130 million monthly active users
• X (formerly Twitter): Over 320 million monthly active users

Microblogging refers to posting short blogs that are meant for quick audience interaction. Both Threads and X fall under this category as they allow users to post blog content with very limited character counts.

Professional Uses

For years, companies have used X to post quick updates regarding their products and services or to engage with their audience in a humorous or relatable way. For example, Wendy’s will often post content like below to humorously entice their audience.

The same can be said about Threads, though the platform has only been around since July 2023.

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Both platforms allow users to upload mini blogs, photos, and videos to engage audiences. So, really the possibilities are endless in terms of how to use the platform.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• If you have a great sense of humor (like whoever runs Wendy’s social media), you have a great chance of entertaining audiences and raising brand awareness on microblogs.
• Microblogs are very versatile in terms of the kind of content you can post.

Cons

• Since rebranding from Twitter, X has been experiencing a steady decline in users.
• Threads also struggled to maintain consistent users and has yet to eclipse X, its direct competitor.

7. Private Community

• Discord: 200 million monthly active users
• Slack: 79 million active monthly users

One of the best ways to build a loyal customer base is through platforms like Discord and Slack. They give you a direct line to your audience — share exclusive content, start conversations, build trust, and turn followers into a tight-knit community.

Professional Uses

Discord

You can use Discord as a virtual focus group where you can engage with your consumers directly to understand their habits, concerns, and needs.

B2B brands and SaaS companies can benefit from Discord if they play it right.

For instance, Midjourney used the platform’s engaged community to fuel growth. Their app, which lets users create AI-generated images, has turned into a hub for creativity and collaboration.

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The numbers speak for themselves:

• 1 million users in just three months after private testing
• Thousands of new users daily at its peak
• Installed on 7 million servers
• The server hit a cap of 1 million users.

I also have a Discord server, and I use a content creator to engage with my followers, keep up with the latest happenings in my niche, and build community.

Few things are more frustrating and terrifying to me than when I post something on social media that is meant for my friends, followers, or my target audience, and it “leaves the neighborhood.” By that, I mean the post leaves its intended audience and takes on a life of its own.

Discord is a voice and chat platform where users join conversation servers, often through exclusive invites, and talk to other members about niche topics.

Slack

Slack has gone from just a basic team communication channel to a powerhouse for all sorts of fields, like SEO, marketing, and more. There are many free groups like BigSEO, but you usually need to sign up or request access (which is actually great since it helps keep spam out).

There are also some paid channels. For example, the DO link building community by Digital Olympus offers both free and paid options to connect SaaS editors and SEO experts with exclusive access, collaboration opportunities, and even mentorship.

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So, some channels are definitely worth paying for. Of course, it’s necessary to do a little research, see user experiences, and understand what benefits you can gain before deciding to give a paid channel a chance.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Like I said, private community platforms are excellent for community building with your followers and like-minded individuals. You can foster community and stay tapped into your audience.

Cons

• Discord doesn’t have features for native advertising, and it’s only really helpful if you already have a stable audience who wants to be in the community with you. So, you may have to focus on building your brand’s following before investing in Discord.
• Slack has a message limitation — it allows you to search the last 10,000 messages only. So, if you‘re trying to search for something older than that, you won’t be able to find it.

From TikTok to LinkedIn: Where should you be?!

Every platform has its benefits, but definitely not equally for everyone.

That’s why before you start building a community anywhere, figure out where your audience actually is.

For B2C, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook will always be a solid bet. On the other hand, for B2B, LinkedIn, X, and communities like Slack or Discord might work.

Of course, there are no hard and fast rules. A SaaS company can absolutely share quick tutorials on TikTok or Instagram. The trick is knowing who you’re targeting and giving them the content “they’re hungry for.”

And yes, as the internet evolves and so do the types of content people prefer, I’m glad you’re still reading this. It means that despite the flood of video content, some people still love a good, old text post.

Keep up with trends, but stay true to yourself. That’s the recipe for success.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Imagine a weighted balance scale: on one side is brand visibility; the other, lead generation. Your job as a content marketer is to use gated and ungated content to successfully balance both goals.

With gated content, users arrive at your website and see a CTA or pop-up that offers them access to content in exchange for their information. This could be their email address in exchange for a content offer — and a way of generating leads for your business.

Ungated content requires no exchange of information, and it has more SEO value — giving you brand visibility.

Here, we’ll explore what gated content is and dive into best practices and examples.

Table of Contents

• What is gated content?
• Best Practices for Gated Content
• Gated Content Examples
• Gated vs. Ungated Content

It’s important to note that gated content for inbound marketing is free and not hidden behind a paywall. Users need to submit their information — not their credit card number — to access the content.

Now, you might be wondering, “Why would I hide my content from my audience?”

Typically, the goal of gated content is to generate leads. Gated content isn‘t used for brand awareness or visibility campaigns because the nature of hidden content doesn’t allow for high traffic.

Below, let’s discuss the pros and cons of gated versus ungated content.

Gated content is usually protected by a paywall, which allows the publisher to require users to sign up or pay for access.

Pros and Cons of Gated Content

Gated content generates leads you can nurture into prospects, whereas ungated content is meant to increase traffic and improve audience trust.

Both types of content are valuable to your content marketing strategy, as long as you’re finding the right balance for your business goals.

After reading this list, you might be wondering, “How do I know if I should gate my content?”

Well, it all depends on your priorities — brand visibility or lead generation.

Additionally, consider the type of content. Longer-form content like an ebook is well-suited to gated content, while most shorter-form content like blog posts are better off ungated.

Once you‘ve decided to create gated content, you’re probably curious about how to get started. Let’s review some best practices below.

1. Create content for each stage in the buyer’s journey.

When a prospect goes through the buyer‘s journey, they’ll go through three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.

Here’s a quick rundown of each stage:

During each stage, your audience needs content that meets them where they are.

For instance, visitors in the awareness stage are probably interested in reading an ebook. On the other hand, a visitor in the decision stage might prefer a product demo or webinar.

That‘s why it’s important to design content offers for each stage of the buyer’s journey. If your gated content aligns with their stage in the journey, your audience is more likely to convert.

2. Complete a competitive analysis.

Once you‘ve brainstormed some content ideas for each stage of the buyer’s journey, it’s time to conduct a competitive analysis.

In a competitive analysis, you’ll research the types of content your competitors offer. activities.

Pay attention to what content is gated versus ungated — this will give you an idea of what types of content are valuable enough to place behind a gate.

3. Provide incentive.

As an inbound marketer, you know that providing value is of the utmost importance.

Your content offer shouldn’t be a quick blog post. Instead, your gated content should provide actionable, valuable content.

Just as importantly, your gated content should be relevant to your audience.

When your content provides true value, it gives your audience an incentive to fill out that form and give you their contact information.

4. Build a strong landing page.

When a user clicks on a CTA for a content offer, they’re usually led to a landing page. So, one of the best practices for gated content is to build a strong landing page (we’ve got 41 examples if you need some inspo).

For example, HubSpot’s State of Marketing report landing page contains a strong headline, compelling copy, and a sneak preview of some of the key findings.

Once you decide to download, the form is simple and fast.

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The technical steps for gating your content will vary depending on your CMS. But chances are, your landing page will include a form where visitors can input their contact details in exchange for your content offer. It’s important that your form is straightforward, easy to use, and user-friendly.

HubSpot offers a free online form builder that enables you to create and customize forms with a drag-and-drop form maker.

5. Segment your audience.

Once your audience has downloaded your gated content and you receive their email address, it’s time to segment your email lists.

This will help you develop targeted and effective email marketing campaigns.

Additionally, segmenting your audience means you can send nurturing emails to move those leads to prospects.

6. Measure the analytics.

When you’ve decided to gate a certain piece of content, you can track conversions and measure your analytics.

As with any marketing strategy, measuring your success is extremely important. This data will help you understand your audience better and improve your content strategy.

Now that you know some best practices for creating gated content, let’s look at types of content and examples of what this will look like in action.

Gated Content Examples

There’s lots of ways you can build gated content landing pages — here’s five of the most common types of content that businesses gate.

1. White Papers, Case Studies, and Other Reports

White papers, case studies, and other reports are great examples of gated content because they can provide targeted value to your audience.

A white paper is an authoritative, in-depth report on a specific topic; case studies look at a specific use case; and other reports might not fall into either category but still use a text-heavy, longer-form format. (Think: HubSpot’s State of Marketing report.)

All three of these content types can position your brand as an industry expert. And when you‘re a trusted expert, people want to know what you have to say — which means you’ll get more downloads and conversions.

Usually, offers are long-form content that are interesting and valuable to your audience, like this one from IMO Health about high-quality medical data and research.

Pro tip: Give your audience a taste of the content. The above example includes a few key learnings that prove its value and entice its audience to fill out the form.

StrataBeat’s 2025 B2B SEO Performance Report is a good example of a gated report. The landing page clearly states what the product is, and the description — “Unlock superior SEO performance with insights from an analysis of 300 B2B SaaS websites” — emphasizes high-quality data and even includes the size of the study.

There’s also a graphic of the report, which suggests a beautifully designed, thoughtfully produced content offer. The CTA, “Get the report and boost your SEO results,” promises that providing your information will be worth your while, and you can see all six information fields you need to fill out.

2. Ebooks

An ebook is another popular type of gated content. Unlike a white paper, an ebook is usually a shorter guide on a specific topic.

Ebooks can also establish your brand authority and build trust with your audience. They are usually used in the awareness and consideration stages of the buyer’s journey.

IMO Health also has multiple gated ebooks that require your contact information before you can hit that “download” button.

This one, entitled AI in healthcare: 6 solutions driving efficiency and innovation, includes a few bullet points of what you’ll learn, ensuring that it finds the right audience.

Pro tip: Tell your readers how long the ebook is so they know what they’re getting into. IMO Health, above, includes the read time just below the title.

3. Templates

One of my favorite forms of gated content is the template. Providing a template is a tactical, actionable piece of content.

The perceived value of a template is much higher than that of an ebook and a white paper, which means your audience is more likely to input their contact information to receive it.

Templates are a great gated content offer for folks in the consideration and decision stage of the buyer’s journey.

SlidesGo, which publishes free templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides, gates much of its premium content:

Pro tip: You can still preview all of the slides in the template, so users know exactly what they’re getting when they hand over their email address.

4. Webinars

With a webinar, you‘ll educate your audience to learn more about a topic. You’ll develop trust, build relationships, and, hopefully, inspire.

For prospects in the decision stage of the buyer’s journey, webinars make an excellent gated content offer.

Again, webinars have a high perceived value, which makes your audience more likely to fill out that form.

5. Quizzes

If you’re a person who wears makeup and you’ve been on Instagram or TikTok in the past couple years, you’ve probably been targeted by Il Makiage, a cosmetics company with a particularly large range of foundation shades.

After enticing you with before-and-after pics of models (whose perfect skin somehow looks even more perfect after Il Makiage foundation), the makeup company promises that its “PowerMatch algorithm” will find a shade that perfectly matches your skin tone—no in-store swatching required.

After you’ve devoted several minutes of your time — which is a lot in a world where 30-second videos rule — Il Makiage asks for your contact info before revealing your foundation color.

Pro tip: Putting the ask after the quiz means that the user has already invested their time and is more likely to fork over their email. (And I can tell you from personal experience that it’s really hard to walk away from the promise of perfect skin.)

Gated vs. Ungated Content

With gated content, it’s important to provide your audience with interesting and relevant offers. Ultimately, gated content should be targeted and help you generate leads. Remember that scale from the beginning: You’ll want to find a balance between brand visibility and lead gen, so gate wisely — and with your audience’s needs in mind.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.