The power of crossposting on social media

This post was originally published on Localogy’s Marketing Bitz blog as “The Power of Crossposting on Social Media.”

Save time, save effort and get more social by sharing posts across multiple platforms

Having an active presence on social media is important for small businesses who want to grow their brand and gain new customers. With over 2.95 billion people worldwide regularly using social media, and several different platforms to choose from depending on your goals, your business has no excuse not to be posting on social media.

But for small businesses, starting to use social to market their business is a process:

1. First, start using social media (you’d be surprised how many small businesses don’t!)
2. Second, set up business pages and profiles — not just personal ones (business profiles will look more professional and usually offer you more tools for posting, scheduling posts, responding and tracking your progress)
3. Third, make sure you post relevant content regularly — and respond to comments, @ mentions and DMs (direct messages)
4. Fourth, use paid ads to target and retarget your customers (and potential customers just like them)
5. Finally, post your content and ads across all of your social media channels

Step 3 can be the hardest. After all, even with the best intentions, how do you post to Facebook AND Instagram AND Twitter…and still have time to run your business?

Managing your small business’s social media strategy can be overwhelming, which is why something called “crossposting” can be invaluable. Here’s what you need to know.

What is social media crossposting?

Crossposting is pretty much what it sounds like. If your company has social media profiles on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you’ll want to share whatever you’re posting across all platforms to keep things relevant and up to date. Whether you want to share a video, your status or run an ad across multiple social channels, crossposting the same piece of content is what you need to do to cover those bases.

[Related: Four Reasons to Share “Curated Content” on Social]

Crosspost the same content

Take a look at a recent example from Hibu — where the same blog post was shared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:

Depending on the social media platform, you may need or want to make subtle changes that work best for each channel. In this case, the Facebook post used a status image, and Instagram and Twitter used a video.

Using the same hashtags (#hashtag) for your company’s message on all platforms is also a great idea, since you’ll be targeting the same keyword groups on each site (and casting a larger net than if you were to only use Facebook). You really can share the same content across social networks to get more exposure with much less effort.

Tip: Create your post on Instagram and crosspost to Facebook and Twitter with one click!
 

Sharing different content across multiple social channels

While crossposting the same content — especially images — can absolutely save you time and effort… you may not want to recycle the same content every time you post. You may find that your audience isn’t interacting with a post on Facebook that they already “Liked” on Instagram or retweeted on Twitter.

Consider re-packaging your content as you switch channels:

• A series of Facebook pictures could be turned into a gallery, collage or slideshow on Instagram
• A video you tweet or retweet on Twitter without any context or introduction could become a longer post on Facebook
• An Instagram post that didn’t get much engagement can be turned into a Facebook poll

And don’t forget Twitter’s limit of 280 characters for a tweet — you may have to edit your message down to fit.

Remember, there’s no “one size fits all” way to share content on social. Experiment with what works for you, and pay close attention to what works for your customers. Keeping an eye on likes, shares, retweets, comments and more should give you a real-time view into what’s really engaging your audience, and what type of content works best for crossposting vs. sharing in a single social channel.

Share here, share there – just as long as you’re sharing somewhere

We know that not every local business has the time or resources to keep up with posting new, relevant content to multiple social media channels. Crossposting is a great way to save time and effort, but what matters most is that you’re regularly posting SOMETHING valuable to at least SOME of your channels.

Participation is definitely more important than efficiency — and quality is more important than quantity — when it comes to building your social presence and connecting with your customers on social media. Start small, focusing most of your efforts on one platform… and then start using crossposting to double or even triple your impact!

Contact us today to find out how Hibu helps your small business keep up with social marketing with ads, posts and more.