How to Cross-post on Social Media

Have you ever spent a chunk of time making content for one social media platform that turned out so good, you wanted to share it on your other accounts?

Well, luckily that’s something you can do through one simple marketing tactic: cross-posting. 

What is cross-posting on social media? It’s posting the same or similar content across more than one channel.

Social media managers and strategists cross-post content to make the most of their time and resources. If you have something to say on all of your channels, why not repurpose the same picture, video, or caption on each?

And you know what the best part is? There are cross-posting apps to make it way easier than learning how to tie your shoes. 

(As a mother of two children, you can trust me on that one. )

For example, Tailwind has cross-posting features which we’ll get into below. 

In this article, we’ll be going over everything you need to know to be a cross-posting pro. Let’s get to it, shall we?

And psst… If you’re wondering which social apps your business should be on, we have an article that’ll blow your socks off! 

Which Social Media Platforms Are Best for My Business

Opportunities of Cross-posting

While cross-posting essentially allows you to repurpose content across multiple channels while keeping your accounts up-to-date, it has several additional advantages. 

For example, cross-posting can increase your reach efficiency and give your business access to a broader demographic.

Curious about the pros and cons of repurposing content? The next section will break down why you should be cross-posting on social media, and how to avoid feeling spammy.

Cost-Effective

Instead of investing in several different forms of media, you can niche down (especially at the beginning of your social media journey), and produce a specific type of great content that you share on all of your profiles. 

So instead of focusing on videos, blog posts, witty captions, and Lives, you can pick one thing and do it really well. This can allow you to build a strong foundation and not go overboard hiring photographers, videographers, SEO specialists, etc. 

Whatever you’re best at, do that and share it everywhere!

Time Efficiency

If you’re a busy business owner or social media manager for a company, you wear lots of hats and probably don’t have a ton of time. 

Cross-posting allows you to create one piece of content and then share it on several channels. This can save you from making one great piece of content and four mediocre ones. 

Instead, lean into that incredible piece, and repurpose it by tweaking a few words!

Further Reach/Visibility

Each app has different demographics and algorithms, meaning your fantastic piece of content has a much greater chance of reaching new people if it is shared on other platforms. People generally have strong preferences for one or a couple of apps. It could be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, etc. 

The more you’re on, the better chance you can reach more people.

Increase in Engagement and Followers

Sharing across multiple platforms doesn’t just allow you to reach more people, but it can snowball your following much quicker. 

When you are on multiple apps and provide links to your other accounts, the people who like your business will likely give your other accounts a follow. 

As mentioned above, this gives you a chance to grow rapidly as each app works together to build your following. 

Now that we’ve talked about the perks, are there any disadvantages?

Obstacles of Cross-Posting

Okay, I love a good opportunity to repurpose. But to be fair, I have to mention the potential downsides too. 

While saving time and snagging some shortcuts is about all a social media manager or business owner can do in this harsh capitalistic climate, cross-posting can look redundant and lower engagement.

The redundancy can lose follower engagement

Redundancy can quickly lose your followers’ interest if they follow you on multiple channels. And if they’ve already seen the same content on another platform, they’re less likely to engage when they see it again. 

Too much repurposing can also give your brand the feeling that it doesn’t have a unique personality.

Not all content is compatible with each platform

As I mentioned earlier, each app has its own demographics and algorithm. So while one piece of content may do well on one app, it might not be as successful on another. For example, LinkedIn is best for educational content. While with Instagram, the quality of aesthetics is crucial. 

You can combat that by making quality content that will be attractive on all platforms and creating and sharing unique content, so it’s not ALL repurposed. 

Lastly, by giving your content a few different tweaks between platforms, you can appear less robotic and give each forum its voice and personality. 

This brings us to the next section.

Before cross-posting, consider the distinctions between platforms

Each app has rules of its own, from different image sizes to character limits and algorithms. The various social media platforms have their preferred content type and typical age demographics. 

For example, Tik Tik is excellent marketing for the Gen Z generation, while millennials are primarily on Instagram and Twitter. 

So while cross-posting has all those perks we just talked about, there are a few other factors to consider, which we’ll get into in greater detail next!

Optimal Posting Time

Generally, the best time for you to post on each app is when your audience on that particular platform is most active. 

So when cross-posting, it’s essential to consider what time you’re posting. The specific time you post will have a significant impact on how many people see your content or not. 

Luckily Tailwind tracks these analytics for you and will automatically publish your posts during your audience’s peak engagement time. 

No need to set that alarm on your phone; download Tailwind, schedule your posts, and you’re all good to go.

Character Limits

All the platforms have a different character limit, so each post will need to be slightly rephrased. While Facebook has an astounding 63,206 character limit, Twitter’s is only 280 characters. 

As you can see, the number of words you can say vastly varies from app to app. 

The best way to get around this? Write the longest caption first, then cut and tweak it for the smaller character limits!.

Image Dimensions 

Not only is the character count different, but so are the image dimensions. And to further complicate things, different types of content on each app have different dimensions.  

Instagram has several dimensions for different types of posts! Image dimensions are the rules that never end…(They just go on and on my frieeeend! )

Want to learn more about the image dimensions on different apps? We have blog posts on just that for Facebook image sizes, Instagram image sizes, and Pinterest Image Sizes.

Hashtags

Hashtags perform much differently on different apps. While one may be trending on Twitter, it could be over-saturated and outdated on Instagram. 

While it can be easy to copy and paste hashtags between apps, one area that greatly benefits from some TLC is customized hashtags.

 If you don’t want to spend time researching hashtags, you’re in luck because Tailwind’s Hashtag Finder does that for you!

How a CTA translates

Each app has its own way of allowing CTAs, and spoiler alert; some apps *cough* Tik Tok, make it harder than others. 

For example, Tik Tok only lets you have one hyper-link if you have 1k followers, but you can’t link directly outside of the app in the videos. It’s almost as if they don’t want you to leave the app. Very suspicious.

Then Instagram allows you to post Link Stickers in your Stories, making clicks to a website or article easy peasy. 

If you’d like to learn more, we have a post about Instagram Link Stickers that’ll you’ll love! 

Facebook allows hyperlinked URLs in the caption, making it easier than ever for people to click a link and be transported to somewhere far, far away on the interweb. 

While all apps give the same benefit of allowing you to share a link, the way of sharing it and making it accessible to your audience is slightly different.

Now that we’ve gone over the key factors to consider before cross-posting let’s go over how to pull it off seamlessly.

Avoid coming off spammy

I mentioned this earlier, but if your posts are the same on all accounts, people who follow you on different platforms could find that spammy. And THAT could result in lowered engagement and loss of followers. 

Want to use the benefit of repurposing content while not appearing spammy? Then buckle up for the best part of the ride because we’re heading there right meow.

How to cross-post on social media effectively

The easiest way to cross-post without social media consuming all of your time (between constantly researching and physically posting throughout the day) is with the help of a social media management tool. 

And I know JUST the one to recommend! Ever heard of an app called Tailwind?

Tailwind allows you to create your posts in the app then schedule them in one place. It also posts during your customized peak engagement window taking the research and guesswork out of posting efficiently. 

Tailwind also gives customized hashtag recommendations based on your captions. And want to know one of my personal favorite perks? Tailwind allows you to see your Instagram and Pinterest feed before posting to make sure it’ll be aesthetically pleasing. 

So while we’ve covered why you should be cross-posting on social media and how to do so, let’s discuss an almost as easy alternative.

When cross-posting is redundant, consider cross-promotion

Cross-promotion is similar to cross-posting; it just has a slightly different approach. 

Cross-promotion on social media is sharing your content to fit each platform’s characteristics and preferences. So it’s less cut and paste.

This type of marketing generally requires more creativity to produce unique posts to promote a form of content you made. Blog posts or paid services are common forms to cross-promote on several channels. 

So instead of sharing a slightly different photo and caption, cross-promotion requires different types of content about the same thing. 

For example, you could have a Reel promoting a new service on Instagram, then share a longer description of your services on Facebook. Different forms of content catered to each app to promote one thing. 

This type of content may involve more labor, but the results bring much more engagement and interest!

While repurposing wouldn’t be an effective social media marketing strategy, it’s a great way to make an announcement or get a lot of value out of your favorite content.