Most brands are now active on Facebook. It allows them to post photos, videos, updates and general information about the company. But with more and more ‘must have’ social networks, companies are trying to stay up-to-date and have accounts on all types of social networks. But is it necessary? What are the benefits of opening more than one social network if 71% of the online population are on Facebook? (Duggan et.al, 2015).

Facebook is clearly the market dominator, but there are plenty of other social networking services which offer users ways to connect and communicate –  Snapchat, Instagram, Pintrest and Youtube, just to name a few. These services each offer something slightly different with connecting people as the central concept. Instagram is for sharing beautiful photos, Snapchat for secret/private messages and Youtube for videos. However Facebook already does most of this in some form, so why  bother having more than one account?

Companies need to go where their audience are. They might be on Facebook, but cross platform advertising helps to embed an idea deeply into the minds of consumers. In fact, a study commissioned by Google and carried out by Nielsen (2011) found that the benefits of cross platform advertising are significant. There was a 25% rise in the number of customers who could remember an ad which had been displayed on multiple platforms rather than just one.

However, advertising isn’t the only reason to engage with customers on multiple networks. Just like the real friends, you want to be linked with your customer on as many different networks as possible. As found in a previous blog post, the majority of consumers are now on more than one social network meaning so should businesses. This will allow them to be displayed on as many newsfeeds as possible, helping to make the brand more prominent.

In the 21st Century customers are getting their information from more and more places (Zverina, 2013) including social networks. The consumer may think that they want to go to one place and find everything they need, but with their attention spans decreasing (Weatherhead, 2014) it’s likely they’ll have close one website and open two others before paying attention to your post. Being on more websites that they open can only increase your chances of being noticed.

There are two ways that you can manage multiple accounts and both have strong arguments for and against. They are: Cross posting, posting the same content on both sites; and fresh posting, posting tailored made content for each site. It’s hard to give a definitive answer as to which is better, but below is an explanation and benefits of each.

 

Cross posting

Offering something new on each network can seem ideal, but it’s not always possible due to the costs involved. If you can, stay away from the ‘automatically post this to twitter/Facebook’ buttons and if you do use that make sure you don’t make the obvious mistake below where brands addressed Twitter users as Facebook users.

 

To avoid this, simply re-write posts or make sure you don’t include any platform specifics. It looks lazy and your customers wont like it. Look out for hashtags or @replies on networks that don’t support those functions. Using tools like www.buffer.com, helps to post the same thing across all your social media accounts, but it allows you to change them slightly each time.

Regardless of how many subscribers you have to your social media page, it’s near impossible that they will all see a post, even if they want to. So if you have something really import to post, you could start by posting it on your Facebook and then on Twitter and Google+ (re-uploading images if necessary) and then Instagram (as an image or screenshot, with a link in the description).

There are, however, several benefits to directly re-posting rather than just posting the same thing again. Firstly, it can really help promote under achieving pages. For example, if your brand has a Instagram page with only 400 likes but an Facebook with 10,000, posting a link to a new Instagram picture will not only update all your followers but will also provide a link to your Instagram account, which many followers may not know existed.

 

Fresh posting

Fresh posting is generally considered ‘the proper way of doing it’ and if you look around you are never too far from bloggers complaining about cross posting (McGee, 2015). It’s a bit childish and the cross-posters don’t put up much of a fight but these bloggers have a point. Everything in marketing needs to add value, and if the customer doesn’t get any benefit from doing something, whats the point? It looks very lazy when you see an update on twitter and then five minutes later see the exact same thing on Facebook.

By adding value, the customer has a reason to follow your activity on more than one network, which helps to implement your brand into their newsfeed. Without offering unique content, why would they bother to follow you on anything but one website and then what happens when they miss your post?

GoPro are great at offering something unique on each network. Take a look at these screenshots from Facebook and Instagram below. They understand that Instagram doesn’t facilitate the same media as Facebook (e.g. 15 seconds video maximum). They use networks as they should be used: Instagram as a way of sharing photos (also make use of the filters feature) and Facebook as a way of sharing information and collaborating with their customers. Using individual networks differently from one another has allowed Instagram to become the 4th most popular brand on Instagram. (Totems List, 2015)

 

 

 

 

Another great example, this time of a cross platform campaign, was done by JuiceBurst UK. For Valentines day they asked their users to post heart shaped fruit on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #juiceburstingwithlove and then vote on the best picture on Facebook. This campaign method meant that customers were voting entering on Instagram and Twitter (along with following their accounts on these pages) and then following on Facebook in anticipation for the results. What was really well done was that throughout the campaign, Juice burst posted updates of what was happening on other social networks. For example, on Twitter they were posting some of the best from Instagram and Facebook was posting the best from both in an effort to get users engaged with the other accounts. Below are some images of these accounts during the period.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, the importance is in a balance. Initially you need to give your customers a reason to like you on more than one social network, but you also want to make sure that customers see all the most important posts. Try not to copy posts word for word without adding anything and just be aware that your audience on each network are probably made up of the same people.

 

 

 

References

Duggan, M., et.al, (2015). Demographics of Key Social Networking Platforms. [online] Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/demographics-of-key-social-networking-platforms-2/ [Accessed 9 Apr. 2015].

McGee, M, (2015). It’s 2014. Stop Cross-Posting Between Social Networks. : Small Business Search Marketing. [online] Available at: http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/cross-posting-social-networks/6921/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2015].

Neilsen. (2011). Number of Ethnic TV Households Grows: Asian TV Households up Nearly 10 Percent | Nielsen . [online] Nielsen.com. Available at: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2011/nearly-75-of-consumers-remember-an-ad-when-viewed-across-media-platforms.html [Accessed 11 Apr. 2015].

Totems List, (2015). TOTEMS List | Most Popular Brands on Instagram. [online] Available at: http://list.totems.co/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2015].

Zverina, J. (2013). U.S. Media Consumption to Rise to 15.5 Hours a Day – Per Person – by 2015. [online] Available at: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/u.s._media_consumption_to_rise_to_15.5_hours_a_day_per_person_by_2015 [Accessed 13 Apr. 2015].

Weatherhead, R. (2014). Say it quick, say it well – the attention span of a modern internet consumer. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2012/mar/19/attention-span-internet-consumer [Accessed 13 Apr. 2015].