A common mistake made by novice users who want to start a social media campaign is thinking that it can be as easy as setting up your social media accounts and linking each platform to one another so that everything you post on one platform gets carried by the others.
After all, Facebook is as much a social network as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest are, isn’t it?
We here at Social Barrel do not recommend you do that. When you start to think of the various social networks around, you start to appreciate that no matter how much they are commonly referred to as “social networks”, they really are different from each other.
As such, each social network has its own strengths and weaknesses and certain types of content that will be more effective for marketing to its audience.
Here are five reasons why you, as a budding social media manager, should tailor your social media content to the social network that you use.
1. There Is No One-Size-Fits-All Approach
Consider every social network as a different beast to tame.
Facebook has its Pages where you can post long status updates, photos, videos (hosted by the social network itself) and links. Facebook also allows for installation of applications that your fans can use. Twitter has its character limit and its photos. Pinterest has its visual content and its boards. LinkedIn has its company profiles and groups.
When you take into consideration all of those, it becomes quite apparent that not every successful content on one social network translates to a hit in another social network. For example, you can post longer status updates on Facebook but have to consider writing in headline-like form for Twitter. Boards with appealing visual content may catch the attention of Pinterest users but not users on LinkedIn. Professional graphs and other visuals on LinkedIn may not be suited for all social networks.
Learn which type of content works on social networks you have an account in and then tailor what you aim to post from your trove of content to the type of content that works for a specific social network.
Of course, it pays to know your target market so also take into consideration what they may deem as interesting, in addition to the social network you are posting on, when customizing your content.
2. Customers Have More Trust In Profiles That Give More Effort
People have an easier time investing their trust in a certain social media account when they know that its managers are making an effort to post useful content. This does not mean that every social media campaign needs to have a ton of financial backing (though that undoubtedly helps), getting people to know you put effort into each material you post can start from simple things as trying to maintain a certain look and feel.
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Though it makes sense to post content from other account that you think will be of interest to your followers, it also pays to post content you have personally branded. For example, your photos should have your logo or an identifying mark aside from having a look that’s consistent with the image planned in your social media plan.
Another way to let people indirectly know that you put effort in your social media content is to offer materials which can genuinely be of use to your followers. For example, organize your boards on Pinterest into categories that can be used by people who follow your account. If you are a furniture store, organize your boards into rooms in the house or into whatever category lists that makes sense to you and your followers. Use Facebook and Twitter to link to articles on your blog that offer real help or breakthrough ideas that your followers can use.
An added benefit of having social media accounts that have content that exudes effort is that once you have gained the trust of your followers and they know your contents’ look and feel, they will easily spot your content and are more likely to recommend it to their connections in whichever social network they are on. This brings us to our next point.
3. Customized Content Lead To Better Customer Engagement
Customized content almost always leads to better customer engagement.
Consider this: on Twitter, you are likely to get more retweets when you ask for retweets and include a link and a photo in your tweet. The way you ask for retweets also affects how many people will actually retweet your tweet. Ask by stating the full word as “Please retweet” gets more retweets than saying “Please RT” or “Pls RT”.
5 Proven Ways To Get ReTweets [Infographic]
On Pinterest, users who organize their boards into categories that make sense to their followers are more likely to get more followers for a certain board and for their whole account. Boards which follow a certain theme or a certain look also have more followers than boards which are not this way.
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Why does customized content lead to better customer engagement? Because customizing your content into the type of content that are effective in each social platform is a surefire way that people will interact with your content. Of course, that’s assuming you modify your content into the type of stuff users usually interact with.
Learn these types of insights and tailor the content you post on each social network using these tips to drive more engagement. When people are more engaged with the posts you make on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other social networks, you are sure to get the next point.
4. Tailored Content Results In Wider And Deeper Customer Reach
We all want more engagement from our content on social networks because more engagement also increases customer reach.
Content that is tailored for each social network, when widely liked, shared and commented on, will be noticed by more people. No social media manager says no to their content going viral over the Internet.
When more people see your content and interact with it, you get a share of their time which they spend thinking about your topic and ultimately about your brand or your company or your organization. They may either also share your content because they think their connections will also find it interesting, or they may comment on it driving more comments and thus getting more people to participate in a discussion with them about what you are saying.
This is how your content reaches a wider audience and how it drives a deeper knowledge into your content and ultimately, the account that content is associated to. All of this can be achieved by ensuring that your content is optimized for the social media platform you are sharing it on.
Tips For A Successful Social Media Campaign On Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn [Infographic]
In the end, what we all get from the points above and as well as this one is the next reason in this list.
5. Customized Content Increases Site Traffic And Ultimately, Sales
When you have reached a lot of people, gained their trust and gotten them engaged with your content, the ultimate and perhaps most important reason we have why you should tailor your content to the social media platform you are using is that it drives more traffic to your site and ultimately increases your sales. This is particularly important for businesses.
There is a huge market to tap when we are talking about Internet users who also use social media. According to Mind Jumpers, people spend 22 percent of their time on the Internet using social media sites. That is even more than the time spent by people using communication tools like emails (19 percent) and using the Internet for search (21 percent).
There is also much to gain customizing content for each social media platform that is used. For example, if you want to see a rise in people who unfollow your accounts, solely use an automatic content poster for your social media efforts.
Making customizations to your social media content for each social network you are on may seem to be a daunting task as it certainly entails more effort on your part, but in our opinion, it is the way to go for those who are serious in their social media campaigns.
Image from Daniel Iversen on Flickr (CC)
