Is cross-posting social media content worth it? Explore the pros and cons of cross-posting and learn how to effectively and efficiently cross-post to reach a wider audience and boost engagement.
Are you looking to save time scheduling social media and maximize the usage of your content? Then you should check out cross-posting! This common practice is used by social media marketers to get more bang for their creative buck, but it may not be for everyone.
In this post we’ll be diving into cross-posting, if it’s for you, and how to do it effectively.
What is Cross-Posting?
Cross-posting is sharing the same piece of social media content across multiple platforms. Making a TikTok video, downloading it, and reposting it to Reels is an example of cross-posting. It's a common practice used by social media marketers to save time, creative energy, and get more use out of each piece of content.
Should Everyone Use this Strategy?
Cross-posting shouldn’t be used by every social media team. While it can save time, it isn’t the best way to gain a committed and interested audience on all platforms.
Take a look at some pros and cons of cross-posting below:
Who Benefits Most from Cross-Posting?
If you have a small team, limited budget, are new to social media marketing, or just want more time to focus on other aspects of your job, then cross-posting might be a good strategy for you!
But if you aren't any of these things, it's probably best to restrategize and create your social content to focus on each specific platform.
How to Cross-Post Effectively?
Like any strategy, the more thought that’s behind it, the better the outcome. In this instance, we need to think about how to share the same piece of content in the most efficient and effective way.
First, we need to make sure each piece of content is optimized for the platform we’re sharing it to regardless of which platform you originally made the content on or for.
To do this, we need to edit each piece of content slightly for each platform. Things to consider changing are: on-screen text, audio, caption, hashtags, stickers, and effects.
For example, if you make a Reel and use trending audio found within Instagram when you download it and post it to TikTok the audio will not register. You need to turn off the original video’s audio, find the sound in the app, and add it to the video manually.
Second, staying in-tune with each platform's specific audience is crucial to cross-posting effectively. Some content might engage your audience on all platforms, some may only earn engagement on Instagram and some only on LinkedIn. Knowing what content works for what audience on each platform is how you nurture your communities. Cloud Campaign allows you to create platform specific captions so you can use targeted language and hashtags on each platform!
If you have been noticing only educational content performs well on LinkedIn, don’t cross-post the silly lip-sync video you just posted to TikTok there. But that silly video could perform great with your Instagram audience because they enjoy entertainment and educational content. These kinds of insights come with time and data that shows what works for your audiences. Cloud Campaign offers insights and reports so you can see how your audience is responding to content on each platform and share the information with others.
When creating content, it’s important to keep a read on each audience. As trends, consumption behavior, audience demographics, and more change, your audience on each platform will change too.
Or if (the almighty algorithm bestows its blessings upon you and) you have a viral video and gain 10,000 more followers, your audience will change as well. Keeping in-touch with your audience is important to producing content they want to see.
One way to keep in-touch with your audience is to interact with them on each platform. This is done by responding to comments, interacting with other accounts in the same space, and creating content solely for that platform.
Another is by creating platform specific captions! In these captions you can also utilize platform specific hashtags, as some will perform better than others on certain platforms. You can do this by using Cloud Campaign to schedule your pieces of content.
Twitter is one platform in particular that I try to produce individual content for every now and again. This platform has a very different environment than Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn.
Writing a Tweet and pinning replies will let your dedicated Twitter fans know you’re active on the platform. Sharing short-form video and carousel posts won’t hit this audience in the same way it would on other platforms, so the extra effort in this area can go a long way.
Cross-Posting in Action:
I created this piece of content on TikTok highlighting our summer interns.
This video was created with TikTok and Reels in mind because of the causal nature of the video and from having seen other, similar content on these platforms. After downloading the video from TikTok using a 3rd party site to remove the watermark, I uploaded it to Instagram (with the original audio turned down and the song added within the app).
After uploading to TikTok and Reels, I wondered what other platforms this video could perform well on. YouTube Shorts seemed like a good option because of their promotion of short-form videos and our past performance with casual content on the platform.
I also posted the video to LinkedIn. I usually wouldn't consider more casual content for LinkedIn but this video highlights and celebrates part of our team. So, while the video has a more casual and fun energy to it, it centers on themes that LinkedIn supports- teamwork, professional growth, and mentorship.
The Results
To recap, I posted the above video to TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and LinkedIn. Here are the results:
TikTok - 270 views, 2 likes, 0 comments
Reels - 6,970 views, 72 likes, 0 comments
Shorts - 72 views, 2 likes, 0 comments
LinkedIn - 441 views, 27 likes, 1 comment
Keep in mind that our Instagram audience is by far our largest and most engaged audience. I would like to point out that the video did relatively well for us on LinkedIn even though it was different than the usual thing we post. It’s good to try different kinds of content and see how they perform!
So, these results aren’t completely unpredictable but often the results can reap a shocking result!
Such as with this video.
I created the video above with Instagram in mind and called that thought process out by captioning it with the word “Reels”. Although it was created with Instagram in mind, it performed the highest on YouTube.
TikTok - 264 views, 3 likes, 0 comments
Reels - 2,396 views, 22 likes, 2 comments
Shorts - 9,807 views, 80 likes, 2 comments
Things to Keep in Mind:
If you’ve decided to give cross-posting a try there’s a few things to keep in mind:
Mya’s Three Steps for Cross-Posting Success
Conclusion
Cross-posting may not be for everyone, but it can save those who use it a lot of time, energy, and creative juices.
Some audiences may not respond to cross-posted content at all and will require more effort to engage them. Identifying this early on allows you to effectively monitor and grow your cross-posting strategy.
However, this doesn't mean this strategy doesn't require effort to be fruitful. It requires staying in tune with each platform's audience and communities to see what content is working, what isn't, and adjusting your cross-posting off that.
If you’re ready to give cross-posting a try, but want a tool to help, check out Cloud Campaign! Our social media management platform can help you create and schedule content across multiple platforms all at once! AKA easy and efficient cross-posting!
If you want to see if Cloud Campaign is right for you, sign up for a free demo with one of our goofy, know-it-all sales associates who can answer all your questions and walk you through the platform in a one-on-one meeting! Click here to schedule a free demo!
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