Do you want your brand to be simultaneously present on different platforms but starved for time to create original content? Then it’s time to think about cross-posting on social networks. Many perceive this format of work as mindless copying. Don’t be like others since this is the path to nowhere. Keep reading to learn how to use cross-posting correctly. It helps you save time and resources while maintaining content quality.
Cross-Posting on Social Media: What Is It and Who Needs It
Cross-posting is posting the same content to multiple social media channels. So, for example, if you write a killer blog post, you can publish it to all your social networks. Thus, it’s a perfect opportunity to share content in multiple places without much effort. And it’s very convenient because you often have to maintain accounts on all sites at once to reach your target audience as much as possible.
But we must not forget that many people are registered on several social networks, so if you post the same thing everywhere, a user won’t want to read your content anymore. Instead, they’ll choose one network convenient to them, leaving you without a follower and a possible buyer on all the others. Therefore, cross-posting should be used wisely. But before we get to the article’s main topic, let’s understand who this tool is suitable for:
- Small business owners who don’t have enough resources (time and money) to spend on creating original content on different platforms.
- Marketing agencies and freelancers who run a social media company on a limited budget.
- Marketers who believe that it’s not a sin to repeat good news twice or even more than once.
- Bloggers who want their articles to be shared all over social networks.
- SMM specialists who post 5-10 times a day and get tired of it.
- Owners of several commercial accounts on the same topic.
- Brands that have just begun a promotion on social networks are testing different platforms, figuring out which channels will bring maximum benefit to their business.
- Brands that have websites and want to drive traffic to them from all possible sources.
So, if you recognize yourself in one of these categories, then it’s time to figure out the pros and cons of cross-posting. But you don’t have to rush into everything right away. First, check and configure everything you need to work comfortably. It is not superfluous to adjust the synchronization of all your devices and prepare the necessary software. If you’ve got any difficulties with this issue, immediately ask an expert, which you can find on Howly consulting service. Is everything ready? So then move on.
Two Sides of the Coin: Pros and Cons of Cross-Posting
Like many other tools, cross-posting has pros and cons, which we’ve presented in the table below for your convenience. It would help if you studied the following material carefully since it enables you to avoid possible future mistakes relating to this process, which positively affects all your work.
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PROS |
CONS |
| ✔️ Save time. The catastrophic lack of time for the creation of separate content for each social network sometimes becomes the reason that entrepreneurs refuse to promote their profiles on different social networks. So cross-posting solves this problem. | ❌ Duplicate content. The same information will be published on different social networks. And that’s not very good. The point is that audiences on different platforms differ from each other. For example, the presentation and style of Instagram may not be suitable for Twitter. |
| ✔️ Attracting more audience coverage. Promoting on several social media can attract customers and buyers on two or three, or more sites at once. | ❌ Probability of incorrect display. So you should consider the size of pictures, previews, and other peculiarities to make the post look nice. |
| ✔️ Greater indexing of the site. Since transitions to the site occur from different places, it positively affects indexation, which is liked by Google algorithms. | |
| ✔️ Brand recognition due to cross-posting of the same content on multiple channels. The average social media user is active on six different platforms and spends two and a half hours daily. So if they see your content on multiple platforms, they’ll get more impressions of your business. |
Despite all the benefits of this tool, insane cross-posting is more common to generate mass unsubscribes and less audience engagement. Accordingly, it leads to the loss of a potential client. So how and why do you need to cross-post correctly? It all depends on the features of social networks. Let’s break this down in more detail.
Social Media Features
Each social network has its format, and very often, the functionality of the two is at least slightly different. For example, hashtags work on Instagram and Twitter but are often useless on Facebook. Why? Unlike Instagram, a post with a hashtag on Facebook is only visible if the user’s profile is open. So you can find content with hashtags from brands, bloggers, and other people with an open profile.
However, if the user only shares with friends, audience reach will be significantly less than on sites with a different hashtag policy. In addition, each social network has a character limit. For example, Twitter has a limit of 280 characters, Instagram — has 2,20 characters, and on Facebook, you can type a book chapter if you want to since the limit for a post is 63,206 characters. Each social network has its requirements for content.
For example, you can post videos on Instagram that are longer than one minute in the IGTV section. Moreover, followers will only see a small part of the video in the feed if you specify a preview in the feed settings. On Facebook, you can upload a video of up to 120 minutes, and on Twitter, up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Therefore, the choice of site for cross-posting should also be approached wisely.
How to Choose Suitable Sites for Cross-Posting
It would help if you studied statistics to start a business and post on all available sites. But, if your business is underway at full speed, then analyze where your content comes in best. So, what exactly do you need to do to choose the best sites for cross-posting?
Research your target audience
Know your target audience? Have you studied their interests, conducted surveys, and created a detailed portrait of your ideal customer? If so, then the choice of the site won’t be too difficult. You already know which audience prefers social networks. If you haven’t done any of that, go ahead.
Watch your statistics
If your audience repeatedly fails to respond on a particular site or responds too sluggishly — why waste time when other social media have heavy traffic? Statistics show the number of likes, reposts, and comments. Focus your efforts where the charts show ups and downs, figure out the reasons, and improve the content.
Consider the number of posts
For example, on Instagram and Facebook, it’s better not to bore your audience and post content a couple of times a day. Bombarding followers with posts sooner or later will start to bother them. So they will begin to scroll through your feed without much attention and mostly unconsciously. Instead, respect your audience’s time. Create a publishing schedule, mark the time of the post on your calendar, allow your audience to consume your content in doses, and leave time for them to perceive it.
Once you’ve chosen the best platform for your business, create posts for it. And then publish that content to the other social networks of your choice. You can do these actions due to such methods for cross-posting on social media.
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Manual |
Here everything is quite simple. For example, you take a text and a picture from one social network and post it to another. However, this method has one unpleasant drawback: the process takes some time. |
| Through the functionality of social media | If your social network supports cross-posting in related channels, you can take advantage of it. Instagram, for example, has the option to post your content to other social networks. As for drawbacks, all social networks can glitch. Recently, it has been rare, but it happens. However, the noticeable benefit — this method is free. |
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With the help of services |
Here, too, everything is straightforward. You choose a service, bind your accounts to it and post content from there. This method has a disadvantage: you must allocate money from your budget to pay for the service. But the pluses are much more. Everything is at hand, and you can edit posts in one place. You can upload a photo and edit it. You can schedule your posts for a time that suits you. Moreover, some services allow you to preview your posts on social networks. |
Summing Up
Cross-posting on social media can help solve the issue of the lack of time to maintain your profiles and save money on original content for each site. But it is better to use this tool with other promotion methods. For example, try targeting each social network to choose the best channel for traffic to your site.
In addition, you have to remember that each channel has its format. It applies to the audience’s behavior and the size of the pictures. Therefore, if you work with several platforms, it is essential to consider all their peculiarities already at the stage of content strategy. At that rate, your unique content will lead to sales, and your brand will get a strong community around it.
About the Author
Christine Tomas is a tech expert and consultant with her finger on the pulse of science and technology news worldwide. Her exciting work includes writing articles for various news portals and thematic blogs, which allows being on top of things. She also provides online help for computer problems and shares her knowledge with everyone.
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