Should you post the same thing to Facebook and Twitter?
I am trying to simplify my social media world and thought about posting the same thing to Facebook and Twitter but I hear mixed things on this practice. Wondering what others suggest.
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Feb 12, 2013
I think ideally you should post unique content/messages on each platform for these reasons:
1) It provides an incentive for people to follow/Like you on both platforms. The more places people follow your brand, the better.
2) Twitter and Facebook are different platforms that people use for different things. Some content that works great on Twitter may not work as well on Facebook and vice versa.
3) Your audience on Twitter and Facebook may be different and want different things. One type of post may work great with your Twitter audience but it's highly unlikely it's exactly what your Facebook audience is looking for.
Having said all of that, I also understand that time for managing social media accounts is often limited. So if you have limited time and it's easier to just cross-post everything, it's not the end of the world. It may be better to have more posts with cross-posting than fewer posts and no cross-posting.
Feb 11, 2013
Hi Carrie ~
How much time can you allot for social media? Twitter is like white water rapids; short, inviting posts with links generally work best. It's also important to engage others, which is Twitter's métier.
Facebook, by contrast, seems to lend itself to more visual posts (although obviously there are apps to post pictures on either site). I sometimes post the same info to both sites (when I publish my monthly newsletter, or a new blog post, for example) but often I will post an image to Fb, then network the link on Twitter.
I think content diversity offers your friend base more reason to visit both pages, as long as your message is consistent.
Feb 12, 2013
Hi Carrie, Twitter and Facebook aren't the same to me. Twitter is more direct, for the moment itself, Facebook has a trend to give bit more insight in your world.
The choice is best made from the point of view what do YOU want to do with it or get from it. If it starts to rule your socialmedia-life drop it.
Feb 12, 2013
Hi Carrie,
Since all social media channels are unique, it's best you post unique content to all your social media channels. Content that resonates on LinkedIn for instance may not necessarily resonate on Facebook.
The best way to "simplify your social media world" would be to get a tool like Buffer/HootSuite through which you can simple add/schedule your posts/tweets to go out all day long automatically.
With regards to content I would suggest you draw from your blog (if you have one) or other industry related blogs. You can setup Google Alerts or RSS feeds to keep you abreast of latest content that you can post.
Hope that helps! Wish you the best
Feb 11, 2013
It depends on your objective. I generally use Twylah.com to Power Tweet to Twitter and then Power Share to Facebook, Linkedin, Google+ and Pinterest. Twylah automatically creates " Landing Pages " for each of these and I have a " Call to Action " built in to the Landing Pages. This also helps e.g. a blog post rank because you have multiple high authority links coming back to your blog site from these posts.
Feb 12, 2013
I'd say the best recommendation is to tailor your message specifically for each platform, but you can use the same basic message. You want to keep it short and sweet on both, but you do have more room on Facebook to say more. Plus, with Twitter, it helps extend your reach if you add hashtags to your messages (1-2 per tweet is a good guideline). On the flip side, hashtags are annoying on Facebook and should be avoided. You'll also want to tweet more than you post on Facebook (think 5-12 vs. 1-2 posts).
Feb 12, 2013
I wouldn't recommend it. It seems like it would be a good idea but you have to think about it from the user perspective. The twitter user is different than the Facebook user. With twitter, you want to use hashtags to connect with the right audience, in Facebook, hashtags do not have a purpose. Also, consider pictures in the news feed, with Facebook, your message will pertain to the picture being shown in the news feed. With twitter, the picture will not show up automatically but your message will make them want to click the link.
I would recommend trying Hootsuite. You can schedule your posts ahead of time. They can send you reports and you can track interact with multiple conversations/hashtags at the same time!
Feb 12, 2013
I think it has a lot to do with bandwidth. If you have time to customize your social media messages to each platform/audience i think that is ideal however i am not sure most small business have the time for that. There are services available that can save you time to make it less time consuming but the bottom line is that the content you share is likely similar. I have not seen conversion numbers to prove it is better to customize your messages for each platform.
Feb 12, 2013
Generally speaking, I recommend against posting the same content all the time, or have one automatically pull from the others.
That said, I think it depends on the type of content you're posting. If you're trying to promote some big news, a contest or a product launch (for example), you want to share that as broadly as possible. Obviously, FB offers a more room for more text (though I would suggest keeping posts relatively short), and handles images and videos very differently.
For the majority of our posts for our company & clients, we use Hootsuite, which allows for scheduling content and posting to multiple networks.
For your everyday type posts, though, I agree with some of the other people here that you should strive for unique content on each network.
Feb 12, 2013
My posts from Facebook are set to be posted on Twitter but not the other way around. I schedule over 90% of my tweets (non FB) via Hootsuite and pre-load them once a week. I also drop in every day to see what is going on and reply to comments as well.
They are two totally different mediums and require two types of posts IMHO.
Feb 12, 2013
Carrie,
Good question and a mistake many people make using social media (SM). It really depends on your audience on each SM site which you are communicating. Talk to the audience in the manner which they will relate. So, if you are taking to the same audience on each SM the yes. However, if the audience is different then change your message to speak to the audience!
- Dino
Feb 12, 2013
Thanks to everyone for all of the great responses. It seems that the key is to make sure whatever I post is relevant to my target audience (back to basics). Thanks!
Feb 11, 2013
I say yes. Twitter has a Facebook app that will automatically post your tweets to Facebook. It is definitely the right way to promote a consistent message.
Feb 14, 2013
Yes. More than likely, you'll have more followers on Twitter than fans on Facebook. Twitter is more public. The ideal thing to do is to connect your Facebook page to your Twitter account so that Facebook posts automatically get tweeted out. Twitter takes the first 80 characters then adds a link back to the Facebook page. Add #hashtags to the first 80 character so Twitter will pick them up. Hashtags don't work on Facebook. This is a good way to attract more people to your Facebook page. You can put a lot more information about your business on Facebook than on a Twitter profile.
Don't forget LinkedIn and Google+. They have different audiences. You must identify your target market and grow your following in each network accordingly.
Giselle Aguiar
Feb 16, 2013
Yes and no. Same idea on the two platforms is fine but the approach should cater for the fact that Twitter is an open community where anyone can search for content. Thus tagging is crucial on Twitter and short effective summaries linked to rich content work best. FB is a walled garden which requires curation of hyper-relevant content and a fuller editorial approach aimed at a much more selective audience. Helpful?
Feb 16, 2013
Generally speaking it is a best practice not to link your Facebook and Twitter accounts or duplicate your posts. Below are some tips we often share with clients:
Facebook and Twitter accounts should be unlinked from each other. Posts to each platform should be written for and published on that specific platform, not used on both. You can share the same information across multiple social networks, but don’t do it in the same manner across all platforms. There are a few reasons for this.
•Different Semantics – Mentions and Replies on Twitter are limited to 140 characters, whereas your Facebook status can have thousands of characters. A Facebook post that exceeds 140 characters will simply be cut short if using the auto-post feature to your Twitter feed. Also, links must be included in tweets, but on Facebook a link can be attached to an update rather than posted within the text portion of the update. These semantics don’t translate between the two platforms.
•Audience Duplication – The audiences that you want to connect with can be found on several social networks. There is no value for them in following you on all of your platforms if the content you post is exactly the same.
•No Context Across Sites – The main reason not to use auto-post features in connection with Twitter is that mentions and replies using “@username” as well as the use of hashtags serve no purpose on Facebook or other platforms.
There are, however, some situations where it is safe and could make sense to post the same content across multiple social platforms, but it is recommended to keep this practice to a minimum and third party applications should still not be used.
•Announcements of 140 characters or less that are all text with no links
•Messages that contain no semantics that are exclusive to a specific platform
Feb 14, 2013
As long as you are posting to a business FB page and it posts automatically to a business Twitter account, I see no problem with that. The reverse (Twitter to Facebook) is annoying. If you're going to use hashtags ###, keep the conversation on Twitter as there is no relevance on FB. Using Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, etc. to autopost can damage FB Edgerank, I've heard. Of course, all social media platforms would like you to engage authentically with your audience. Hope this helps.
Feb 15, 2013
Given your objective, at this time, to simply your social media efforts, I would do it. As you move forward, you might want to have unique content in Facebook and Twitter. You should research who your followers are in Facebook and Twitter. This can help you to make future decisions.
Feb 20, 2013
My personal opinion is yes, different people use different social sites. if your content is Social Media worthy then I would say post it on your different sites.
Mar 19, 2014
I definitely encourage changing it up for each platform. For example, if you post something on Twitter, you are limited to 140 characters, where as on Facebook, you can go on and on. On Twitter you want to hashtag and tag, Facebook is a little more limited there. I think it is okay to post something similar, but definitely not identical for each social media platform.
Thanks for that information. That's a hugely efficient way of using social media.