The benefits of cross-posting, but what about the drawbacks?

Social media can feel like a mammoth task – there’s so many different platforms, with different followings, needs and strategies. Do you have to do all that? Why not just cross-post? Cross-posting is simple; just create one post, share it across all platforms, and you’re done! Sounds like a great solution to all that time inputting various tweets and drafting motivational LinkedIn posts, doesn’t it? Perhaps. There are definitely benefits of cross-posting, but there are drawbacks as well – it can limit the capacity of your business to cater to different markets, and even appear a little lazy! We’ve put together a simple Pros and Cons list, below, to help you figure it out…

Pros of Cross-Posting:

• Saving time: This is probably the most obvious benefit; you can spend time creating a few great pieces of content that work for all of your platforms.
• It keeps all of your accounts active: You can easily make sure that every social media account is regularly updated and that you have a presence across several platforms.
• No one misses anything: If content is the same on all platforms, your followers on each one will have access to the same information, and therefore you can make sure your message has been put out to everyone, and delivered in a consistent way.

Cons of Cross-Posting:

• Platforms work differently: Each platform has its own ‘rush hours’ where there is peak volume of traffic, because each platform will cater to a different sector of your audience – trade, consumer and so on. Similarly, each platform has different things that gain traction – hashtags will work on Twitter, and Instagram to an extent although it is image driven, whereas they are less successful on Facebook and LinkedIn, where targeting your posts and writing them accordingly might work better. It is also more difficult to use platform-specific language – ‘Retweet if…’ will not make sense on Facebook!
• Customers become very aware that they’re customers: If you produce the same content on each and every platform, customers will notice, and it will seem like you’re pushing out content to make them buy, rather than engaging with them as people. This comes back to each platform being optimised for different content – you can’t write fun and engaging tweets about small, localized things and transfer that to Facebook, and a lengthy LinkedIn update won’t work as a tweet or a Facebook post. These social media communities are different, and they’ll soon notice that you’re posting content that doesn’t appeal to them. Do you care why they follow you – how will they know?
• Wrong content schedules: Again, as each platform works differently, different numbers of posts each week are appropriate. Twitter is fast, people want at least one update each day, and often more than that, whereas LinkedIn posts are probably only necessary once or twice a week. So if you’re cross posting… should you post too few tweets, or too many Facebook updates?

To summarise: whilst cross-posting will save you time, and effort, it stops your platforms from being distinct communication branches of your company. A consistent brand is important, but that doesn’t mean identical. Your customers will be far more engaged, and interact more positively with you, if you show that you care enough to tailor your content to their needs: the rules of the platform, the optimal format, and the right posts. It may take a little more time each week, but the payback and positive rapport it builds are definitely worthwhile.

If it still seems like a lot of work, The Oracle Group will help you to manage your social media accounts! We can post to several platforms, tailor-make content and work to flexible schedules to allow you to make the right type of posts at the right time. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, email tara@oraclepr.co.uk and see what we can do for you.