TL;DR: Social media cross-posting is posting the same content across different platforms. And yes, every creator should do it. (T&C apply)
Content creators have limited time and resources. We don’t need to tell you that. You already know that creating content for Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the bazillion other platforms is a tedious task.
At the same time, it is also important to maintain an active presence on all of them to reach the maximum number of people. The solution: social media cross-posting.
What is social media cross-posting?
Sharing the same content across various social media platforms is known as social media cross-posting. For example, you wrote a blog or recorded a video on #OOTD and then shared it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
That’s cross-posting!
What are the advantages and disadvantages of social media cross-posting?
The obvious benefit of cross-posting is saving time. for micro-and nano-influencers who don’t have enough resources to create separate content for every social media platform. Instead of creating brand-new content for each of your social media accounts. You create one piece of content and publish it everywhere. It gives you free time to focus on other aspects, such as analytics and content strategy.
Another advantage is increased reach. Social media cross-posting comes in really handy if you are targeting users of different platforms. It also helps users recognise you more easily.
According to the Global Social Media Statistics report by Data Reportal, an average social media user actively uses approximately 6 different platforms and spends around 2 hours and 29 minutes of their day scrolling through these sites.
When they repeatedly come across your content on different sites, your content style and identity get imprinted in their mind. So, they might scroll past once, twice, or thrice. But the fourth time, they’ll stop and consume it.
However, social media cross-posting has several cons as well. One of its major drawbacks is content incompatibility across different platforms.
Not all social media sites are built the same. Each one has its own USP and that in turn affects the engagement rate. A video on YouTube may do well, but the same video on Twitter will barely get any engagement.
Essentially, what works on one may not work on another. That’s why popular creators tailor their content and even their bio to social media site.
Another disadvantage of cross-posting is that if a user is following you on different social media sites, they may get bored of the repetitive content. They may eventually stop paying attention, bringing down your reach and impression.
What are the best practices for social media cross-posting?
Here are some of the tips that you should follow while cross-posting on different social media platforms.
1. Content must be appropriate for the social networking site where you are cross-posting
Every platform has a different tonality, and that’s why not all content will be appropriate for it. So do not cross-post one particular content on all platforms.
For example, YouTube Shorts can be cross-posted as reels on Instagram. However, you cannot post a WordPress blog as a caption on Instagram. Similarly, a piece written for Facebook (conversational platform) may not be appropriate for LinkedIn (professional platform).
So instead of copying-pasting content as it is, you should tweak it a little to fit into the style and tonality of each platform.
2. Make sure that the formatting is right for each social media platform
Every social media platform has certain limitations and regulations that need to be followed while posting content. This may include word limits, hashtags, image size, and more.
Facebook and LinkedIn support long-form content, whereas Twitter has a character limit of 280 and Instagram encourages limiting it to 30.
So while you can post the same content (written, image, or video) on different platforms, switch up the format to make sure it matches the social media platform.
3. Post at the peak time of each social media platform
People prefer to watch different types of content at different points in the day. That’s why the peak times of various social media platforms differ slightly.
So, instead of posting the content at the same time on all platforms, find the time that works best for each social. For example, late evening on Instagram, early morning on LinkedIn, etc. This way, you will be able to reach the maximum number of users and increase engagement.
Social media cross-posting: should you do it?
Yes, if you want to leverage users from different platforms and increase your reach. Remember, people use multiple socials, and they don’t actively pay attention to what’s posted on all of them.
They are bound to miss out on some of your content on one platform. But when you cross-post content on multiple networking sites, they will eventually notice it on at least one of them.
And that’s not it. You’ll reach new users as well. Keep in mind, that not everyone is on Instagram, even if you think so. The only caveat to social media cross-posting? Tweak the content to fit the platform.
