Cross-posting is the act of sharing the exact same post across different social media platforms or on the same account multiple times.
Similar to any bad habit, it is tempting: it keeps your accounts active, saves time, and makes it simple to share your content widely. However, the short-term benefits outweigh the long-term drawbacks.
Read on to find out why you need to stop posting the same message, and what you need to do instead.
Why you should stop posting the same message across networks
Cross-posting is like putting a text via Google Translate. You run the risk of getting a very weird result that appears careless and unintentional.
Instead, your content needs to be fluent in the language of each platform. Otherwise, you will never be capable of having a real dialog with your followers.
Things like caption length, picture formatting, and vocabulary differ by platform. Sharing the exact same post on all of them means you may accidentally end up inviting your followers to retweet you on Fb or Pin your post on Instagram.
You might also lose a part of your caption, or tag a handle from one platform that doesn’t exist on another or lose your visible content.
For example, Instagram allows you to link your profile to your other social media accounts, and automatically share each post (along with its caption and hashtags) to all of them. Nonetheless, these posts do not always turn out the way you want them to. Instagram posts shared to Twitter embrace a link to the picture, however, not the picture itself. You miss out on the engagement a visual would generate, and perhaps part of your caption too. The result’s a hasty-looking post that will not impress your followers or inspire them to click on.
Speaking of your fans, they aren’t going to be the same on every platform.
LinkedIn has slightly more men than women, and most of its users are over 30. Instagram, however, has more ladies than men, and their biggest demographic are these under 30. As a result, it’s likely that the people who Such as you on Fb aren’t the same people who follow you on Twitter.
When you are short-changing your followers on one platform by sharing content that was optimized for another, they are going to notice. Seeing a post with a cut-off caption or a weirdly cropped picture looks lazy at greatest, and spammy at worst.
The time you save by cross-posting is not worth losing your viewers’ respect and attention. After all, if it looks such as you do not care about what you post on your account, why should they?
Why you should stop posting the same message on the same network
Similar to you should not post the exact same message across multiple platforms, you additionally need to keep away from reposting the same message within a single account.
that man who tells the same story at every occasion and everybody tunes out as soon as he begins talking? That’s how your audience feels once you repeat content—as they would rather be elsewhere.
Your followers are not the only ones who notice once you repost content—the platforms are catching on, too. Twitter is one major platform that is limiting automation and identical content as a part of their effort to curb bots and spam accounts. Other platforms are likely to follow suit and take steps to limit spam.
As a result, repeating content can lead to more than disengaged followers: your account may get suspended. Stay on the right side of anti-spam rules by taking the time to make sure each message you post is thoughtful and deliberate.
Recycling is great for the planet. It is good for your wallet. It’s good karma! However, it isn’t good for your social media accounts. There’s a greater alternative.
What should you do instead of cross-posting?
Craft a new message for every network and post!
You need to still be posting frequently across all of your social media accounts, and fascinating with your fans on each platform. However, instead of repeating messages word-for-word, you need to be writing a new post each time.
Crafting unique messages may sound like lots of work, however, you do not need to begin from scratch every time. Even small tweaks make a distinction and show that you are paying attention.
Eyewear brand Warby Parker is good at adjusting their content to ensure it seems excellent on each account. A post about their Fort Worth, Texas store getting a new mural was shared as an image on Twitter. However, on Instagram, they took benefit of the option to mix multiple videos or photos into a single post.
Instead of sharing just the “after” picture, they added a video of the mural in progress and invited audiences to swipe to see the final outcome.
