When you’re short-changing your fans on one platform by sharing content that was optimized for another, they will notice. Seeing a post with a cut-off caption or a weirdly cropped image looks lazy at greatest, and spammy at worst.
The time you save by cross-posting isn’t worth losing your viewers’ respect and attention. After all, if it looks like you don’t care about what you post on your account, why should they?
Here are 7 tips for crafting unique messages for your social media.
1. Optimize content for each network
The content and format of your post need to match with the platform. Check your caption to make sure you are utilizing the right vocabulary for each platform. Add videos and images with the right dimensions. Use related hashtags and tag platform-specific accounts to improve visibility, too. These details separate the spammy-looking posts from the ones you wish to click on.
Here are some greatest practices for crafting unique messages for different platforms:
2. Write an awesome caption or headline
Character limits vary by platform, so ensure your text is related, engaging and authentic to your company voice.
Captions matter, so do not rush this step! Think about what you actually want to say to your audience and the way your caption could complement or enhance the visual content in your post. Test different captions or headlines with the same piece of content and see what performs greatest. It will help you get to know your audience better and keep your feed dynamic and fascinating.
Need a little help? Here are eight tools to help you write killer posts.
3. Don’t forget to edit
Always take a second look before hitting “send.” Ideally, have someone else take that second look for you. A fresh pair of eyes will all the time catch something you missed.
Watch out for typos, broken links, and hashtags that do not mean what you thought they did.
4. Post at the right time
Timing is everything. Know the best times to post on each platform and schedule your posts for max impact.
It’s additionally a great idea to stagger your posts throughout the day so that you have a steady stream of content, rather than a flood of posts at one time. Your followers will learn that they could expect regular content from you, which can build trust and loyalty.
5. Don’t post too much
Posting frequently is vital, however, don’t overdo it. Each platform has different norms around how often to publish before you see a drop-off in engagement.
On Twitter, you could publish several times a day to boost engagement. However, posting more than once or twice a day on Fb or LinkedIn is not an effective technique for engagement, and might look like you do not understand the culture of the platform. Think quality over quantity.
6. Share content in the right places
Tailoring your posts involves more than fitting your caption to the character count. They need to suit the context and tone of each platform, too. Some content may not make sense on every platform, however, that’s ok.
A meme or trending hashtag may work well in a tweet, however, fall flat on Fb. Need to share a lookbook or cool new product? Post to Pinterest, however, LinkedIn probably will not do much for you.
For instance, take a look at how posting finest practices differ between Pinterest and Snapchat under. They’re pretty varied.
Greatest practices for publishing content to the rest of the major social platforms could be found in Hootsuite Academy’s Social Marketing course.
7. Have a clear call to action
Your posts need to do more than share info: they need to spark action. Writing a clear call to action is essential for getting your audience to take the next step, whether that is buying your product, visiting your shop, or reading your blog post.
Your post needs to make it clear to your audience what you are offering, why it is valuable to them, and why they need to act on it—now.
Writing unique posts for each platform may require a bit more effort and time up front, however, it’s worth it. After all, you work hard to crafting unique messages, and your social media posts need to show the same attention to detail. Believe us—your audience will notice.