As a social media marketer, your time is stretched thin. Between creating content, analyzing data, and managing campaigns there are many responsibilities. Hence, finding time-saving strategies is a must.
That’s where cross-posting comes in—repurposing your social media content allows you to maintain a presence on various channels without expending excess time and resources. Keep reading for our comprehensive guide to cross-posting!
What is cross-posting?
Cross-posting is the practice of sharing the same content on multiple social media channels. It can be done manually or through an automated social media management tool. Sometimes, cross-posting may involve sharing identical content to multiple social platforms, but in other cases, small tweaks are made to optimize content for the different characteristics of each site. In both scenarios, content is cross-posted to save time, money, and resources.
The Pros of Cross-Posting
Cross-posting is a life-saving strategy for busy digital marketers with little time and energy. Here are the top benefits of cross-posting that all social media marketers should know!
- Saves Time and Resources
Cross-posting is a necessity, especially for small businesses with limited budgets who don’t have the time and resources to spare. Creating one asset and sharing it on multiple social media channels allows you to focus your energy on other critical tasks. All it takes is a little tweaking to make your content fit for other platforms!
- Increases Brand Awareness
Cross-posting content is a fantastic strategy for amplifying your brand recognition. When social media users see your posts on multiple channels, they’re more likely to remember you and your products or services. Hence, your brand will come to mind the next time they need something your business can offer.
- Expands Audience Reach
Tons of hard work go into creating engaging social media copy, graphics, and videos, so it’s a shame when only a few people view the content. While many social media users are active on multiple platforms, there are plenty of differences between the demographics on one social channel versus another. Plus, not every user on one platform is guaranteed to follow you on another. Thus, cross-posting ensures your content is seen by the greatest audience possible.
The Cons of Cross-Posting
As lucrative as cross-posting can be for digital marketers, it isn’t a perfect strategy. Here are some of the most pressing downsides of cross-posting to look out for when implementing this practice.
- Bombards Your Audience With Repeat Content
Although elevating your brand awareness through cross-posting is important, seeing the same content on every social platform can become annoying for those who follow you on various sites. Repeating posts too often risks aggravating your audience and losing followers.
- Doesn't Account for Unique Platform Characteristics and Capabilities
Not all social media channels are created equally in terms of the kind of content they support. For instance, while LinkedIn allows users to share clickable links in their posts, Instagram does not. If you don’t make the necessary tweaks to address these differences before cross-posting, your content won’t perform as well.
- The Content Isn’t Always the Right Fit for Different Demographics
While 78% of Gen Z in the U.S. used TikTok in 2023, only about 50% of Gen Z reported using Facebook. The same kinds of content aren’t going to appeal to both Gen Z and Gen X, so cross-posting content without considering the demographics of each social media platform is a recipe for failure.
Tips for Cross-Posting Effectively
Despite its cons, cross-posting is worthwhile for all digital marketers and content creators, as long as it’s done right. Here’s how to get the most out of your social media content with cross-posting!
- Adjust Your Content for Each Social Media Platform
Each social media platform draws in a different demographic of users. Some channels, like X (formerly Twitter), attract more men than women, while others, such as Pinterest, are used primarily by women rather than men. Similar divisions are present across other demographic categories, such as age and location, and these differences are important to note when developing online content.
That said, this doesn’t mean you can’t repurpose content you post to X for Pinterest or vice versa. Doing so just requires applying alterations to make the content more appealing for that site’s user base. This could be something as simple as adjusting the dimensions of your image to fit a platform’s specifications or something more drastic, like rewriting your copy to reflect the preferred messaging style of different demographic groups.
- Don’t Go Overboard
Considering its time-saving power, it can be tempting to rely on cross-posting for every piece of content you share on social media. However, cross-posting too often can easily fatigue your audience, who is likely exposed to the duplicate content over and over again on various platforms.
Add in some unique content tailored specifically for each platform in between recycled posts to reduce the uniformity of your social channels. Additionally, when cross-posting, you don’t have to share the same content on multiple sites on the same day, week, or even month. Instead, wait a few months to reuse content from one social media platform for another to give your online presence more variety.
- Use a Social Media Management App
There are plenty of social media management apps on the market to help you navigate cross-posting with ease. These management apps all have various cross-posting features, allowing you to schedule posts across multiple platforms, enable automated resharing, and monitor various digital channels, among other capabilities.
Cross-posting is meant to save you time, but manually sharing content to multiple online platforms can still be time-consuming. With social media management apps, the work is done for you by helpful automation tools, so all you have to do is upload the content, select the desired settings, and let the management app take care of the rest.
Like any social media strategy, cross-posting has its upsides and downsides. However, by following the cross-posting best practices above, you can master the art of recycling content and craft a compelling social media presence for your brand.
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Additional Sources:
5 Best Tools for Posting on Multiple Platforms at Once
Cross-Posting on Social Media: What Is It & Why You Should Use It
Is It Okay To Cross-Post Content On Different Platforms?
Should you be Cross-Posting Social Media Content?
The Ultimate Guide To Cross-Posting on Social Media
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