Create Different But Cohesive Strategies
As tempting as it is to blast the exact same post across all social media channels you need to create content for, each channel deserves a unique strategy that takes advantage of the types of posts that garner the most traction and engagement on that channel. If you speed through posting by copying and pasting your posts across all channels, you may actually be wasting time and energy even though it seems like you’re saving time.
The posts that perform well on a photo sharing platform will look a lot different than the ones you’ll share on a professional social media network. Take some time to create a clear strategy for each channel, while ensuring your presence is relatively cohesive across all channels. That way, your audience can recognize your brand wherever they find you.
It can be helpful to have a checklist of what you need to create a successful post on each channel your business has a presence on. Take note of:
- Optimal image size and shape
- Image orientation (horizontal vs vertical)
- Character limit or ideal character amount
- Channel specific audience
- Tone and voice
- Channel specific audience
Plan a Content Calendar
The best way to stay organized and to keep up with the demands of having a consistent posting schedule is to have a social media content calendar. With this calendar you can plan out when you’re going to post on each channel and what the content will be. Doing so will help ensure you don’t let anything slip through the cracks and makes it possible for you to spread out your content well.
For example, you don’t want to post three promotions on the same channel in one day. Instead, you can plan to post a fun or helpful post in the morning that doesn’t ask your followers for anything, can follow up with a promotion in the afternoon, and can round out the day with another fun post in the evening. Having a calendar you can follow will make it much easier to strategically plan upcoming content.
Schedule Posts
Long gone are the days where social media managers have to stop what they’re doing to post at their ideal time (most social media platforms have analytics that reveal the best time to post). Nowadays there are tons of great apps—many of which are free—that allow you to schedule your social posts so they publish automatically at your desired time. Scheduling posts can free up a lot of time in your day and allows you to do batch work which can make managing your social channels a lot more convenient.
Spend some time researching what days and times your posts get the most attention on each platform and alter your posting schedule accordingly.
Reuse Content
As we mentioned earlier, there will be times you need to create custom content for each social media channel. However, there will also be times you can reuse content. Some channels may share similar character limits, image needs, and have the same audiences as your other social media channels. If that’s the case, it’s totally fine to reuse content on more than one channel. Just make sure you’re doing so because you believe the post will thrive on more than one channel, not just for the sake of saving time.
You may even want to repost older content once enough time has passed, so save your old graphics and captions. Certain social media platforms work more like a search engine than a timeline based feed, in which case reposting the same content from time to time isn’t something your audience will notice and will save you a lot of time and energy. Pay attention to how consumers use the platforms you want to post on to see if sharing older content will be noticeable or not.
With some research and planning, over time it will become easier to manage more than one social media platform at once.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or an opinion on any issue. It should not be regarded as comprehensive or a substitute for professional advice.