This article looks at the negative impact that sharing identical content across multiple platforms can have on your social media following, and outlines the best way to appropriately diversify your postings based on the platform in question.
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Guest post by Ryan Whitman, Manager of Interactive Marketing at The Orchard on The Daily Rind
Picture this: You’ve just posted a picture to Instagram with the caption “Thank you all for coming to the show last night. Manhattan, you’re next.” You decide to share this post to your Facebook and Twitter as you usually do. Then you take a minute to look at your Twitter to see the post shows up as, “Thank you all for….instagram.com/p/ahjdjksha.” As you scroll, the majority of your Twitter feed looks similar. As you switch to Facebook you see the majority of your posts are Instagram shares as well making your feed primarily photos.
While we all have our favorite platform, and cross promoting from time to time can be successful, auto or constant sharing from one platform can effect your engagement on the others. Think of it like this, if all of your posts are the same across all platforms, why would a fan need to follow you on all socials? Fans could simply follow you on the one platform where you natively post and engage. Seeing a thread of fragmented thought followed by links tells the viewer you are not actively engaged or paying attention to the platform, making the them less likely to engage with your content.
An effective way to avoid this issue, starts with taking a look at your brand and choosing your individual voice for each platform. Here are just a few examples of unique ways to use each platform:
- Witty thoughts
- Real time updates about your day
- Taking a poll
- Commentary on current events
- Announcements
- Sharing playlists and music
- Native video uploads
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Event footage and images
- Get togethers and meetings with other artists
- Places you go / tour locations
- Album artwork
- Lifestyle
- Outfits, hair cuts, visual style changes
- Instagram Story updates
- Facebook live – Q&A’s, acoustic sets, surprise announcements
- Upcoming events
- Facebook canvases
- Sharing links
- Native video uploads
Although you may convey the same information from time to time, finding a unique way to share the news on each platform makes a big difference. Varying your voice keeps viewers following and engaged on all socials to keep up with every update.
When you have that great post that works well across all platforms think first, “could this be uploaded natively for a better seamless experience for my viewers?”