Last Updated on 4 months by Selen Cetin
Marketing strategies move to digital platforms because social media platforms are in the middle of our lives. Because of this, social marketing agencies adopt different social media strategies for brands to reach wider audiences and get across the brands’ names. An effective strategy for social media is cross-posting. In this strategy, it is possible to share one content on different platforms. It is an ideal strategy for social media, especially for small and low-budget businesses. Sometimes it is not enough to use a single social media account as a business trying to grow. Businesses spanning different platforms may have difficulty controlling all these accounts and producing content. Cross-posting on social media comes into play at this point and saves time and effort. Standardized content for all accounts is shared on different platforms. Small businesses with lower budgets and insufficient employees for social media strategies can thus spread. Spreading the same content from each platform to different audiences also increases brand visibility. For this reason, it is good to know deeply what cross-posting on social media is, its pros and cons, and how it is best applied.
What is Cross-Posting?
Managing social media accounts is especially important for businesses. It is necessary to use the most appropriate platforms according to the identity of the brand and produce content on these platforms. Using multiple social media platforms can be hard; cross-posting on social media is used as a strategy. Cross-posting on social media includes sharing the content you prepared for an account from other social media accounts. This process can be done manually or automatically with automation tools. Cross-posting on social media is done via posts, stories, short videos, and links. This is a good social media strategy to reach a wider audience and create a consistent profile on every account.
Cross-Posting vs. Multi-Posting
Cross-posting and multi-posting are related to social media strategies and determine how to share content. Although both approaches are similar, they are actually different. Cross-posting involves sharing content produced on social media across multiple social media accounts. For example, a product video thrown onto Instagram as a reel can also be thrown onto TikTok. Despite this, multi-posting is the sharing of the same or similar content on different accounts. The main difference is that one-on-one content is shared on each platform when cross-posting. In multi-posting, content that is the same or similar can be customized according to the platform. For example, while a product announcement may be in the form of text on Twitter (X), the same product can be announced with a short video or live broadcast on the Instagram story feature.
Who is Cross-Posting Good for?
This method is a practical way to reach more people with less effort. That’s why cross-posting on social media is ideal for businesses that want to access wider audiences, increase brand visibility, and attract more attention. Moreover, it is an efficient and easy method for content producers, as it doesn’t require individual customization for each platform. If you have less budget for your social media strategies, little time to devote to strategies on these platforms, or don’t have enough employees for this task, cross-posting on social media can be very useful to you. Those who are working with affiliate marketing can also benefit from cross-posting as it increases reach and interaction.
Pros And Cons of Cross-Posting on Social Media
No matter how functional this method looks, there are cons. You need to analyze the pros and cons well before adopting this strategy for your business. Cross-posting on social media’s pros include saving time and effort. A single content works for all platforms, and there is no need to share individually in each manually. Businesses that use more than one social media account and have a low budget use all their accounts efficiently. Spreading the same content on different platforms means more access to people. This makes it easier to get more visitor traffic and reach potential customers. Cross-posting is the biggest axis of social media, with every content not suitable for every platform. Each platform has its own features, and content prepared based on one may not fit others. Features such as the purpose of use of the platform, character limit, and connections can be difficult. A false cross-posting strategy can make it more irrelevant rather than attracting customers.
Best Practices for Cross-Posting on Social Media
When this method is done correctly, it becomes a great opportunity, especially for small businesses. Paying attention to the following details when doing cross-posting on social media strategy makes it easy to achieve your goals.
1. Don’t cross-post everything
It is an important detail not to cross-posting every post you post. Not all content may be suitable for this type of sharing and may have a negative effect. Instead, content suitable and understandable for each platform should be shared in this way. The most liberating platform in this regard is Facebook. There is no character limitation, it allows sharing of text, images, and links. It also has features such as live broadcasts and stories. It can easily work in harmony with many platforms.
2. Choose the correct visuals
Each platform has its own characteristics. For example, each platform allows a certain ratio for its visual selection and doesn’t accept the larger one. It is important to work as a standard to keep the ratio in images and videos. It is important to analyze not only the proportions of the visuals but also what the visuals will look like, especially if cross-posting on social media is made. Details are important, whether the quality of the image will appear multiple or scroll if the text is at the bottom or at the top.
3. Pay attention to character count and links
The intended use of each platform is different. Instead of publishing text on Instagram, images are posted, Facebook and LinkedIn allow both visual and text sharing, TikTok is ideal for videos, and Twitter (X) supports text sharing with a certain character length. Knowing these features guides you through creating your strategy because each cross-posting is important for social media. For example, there is a 280-character limitation on Twitter. When cross-posting with Facebook, a significant part of the text may not be reflected on Twitter. In addition, clickable links are essential to direct users to the right place. For example, when using Instagram, the text is written on the image and the link cannot be added. Such features can create certain limitations and need to be careful.
4. Leverage automation for consistency
Automation tools save lives while cross-posting on social media. In addition, these tools are one of the ideal ways to save time. The content you share from a single account through automation is reflected in your other accounts and saves you from sharing manually with the copy-paste method. This method is also often used by social media agencies to ensure continuity and share in social media accounts over a period of time. Agencies standardize the content to each platform and share them in the accounts related to these tools. Thus, it also supports the entity’s creation of a consistent profile on each account.
