I know this will appear contrary to many things you may have been told but it is really one of those areas where you have to trust me! It is now extremely easy to link your social profiles together so when you make a post on one it automatically posts on the others but here I am going to give you a few crucial reasons why should not do this (and if you are doing this now, why you should stop).
It Is Lazy!
This is not the most important reason but it is the first. Using one social profile to automatically post on the others is not social networking, it is simply broadcasting information. There is no interaction with your followers. I have spoken to many people in the scuba diving industry who never actually check their Twitter profiles because all of their tweets are generated by the things they post on Facebook. You could be missing out on comments, retweets and even questions about your services without even realising it and in the long run this will cost you money!
Each Network Audience Is Different
The type of audience you have on each social network can be very different. Yes, some people will follow you on all of the networks you are active on, and this is one extra reason not to share identical information on every network. Followers don’t want to read the same post on 10 different networks (it’s boring). Beyond this however your audience can be different on each network and the style of posts should also vary. For example, on your Facebook profile one or two posts per day is sufficient because of the way your audiences Timeline works. A follower can scroll through all posts from the day and they will see what you have shared. Twitter however is a much faster pace and no one scrolls through thousands of tweets at the end of the day and therefore you need to be posting with more frequency to ensure your comments are seen.
Out of Context Posts Make No Sense
Due the fact that the audience and style of posts are different between each network, cross posting will result in tweets or posts which are out of context and make no sense to your followers. For example, adding “hash tags” to your Twitter posts (adding # followed by the topic of your post) is common practice. This however when done on Facebook just looks silly and totally out of context. I do believe that at some point Facebook will introduce hash tags but for now they don’t make any sense.
The same is true in reverse. When your Facebook posts appear on Twitter they are viewed out of context. For example, when you post a photograph to your Facebook wall without any accompanying text, it appears on Twitter as just a link to Facebook. What is the incentive for someone to click this? There is nothing to tell them what the link relates to.
Conclusion
The bottom line with this article is simple. Treat each social network as an independent entity. Update them independently. Engage with your followers and don’t just broadcast. Yes, it will take you more time but in the long run, the benefits of interaction with your followers will more than justify the extra time.
What are your thoughts on the subject? Leave a comment below or contact me and share your thoughts!
This article was originally published on my Dive Marketing Tips Blog
