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Social Media Marketing: How to Customize Your Posts for Each Network

If you’re serious about social media marketing, you’re likely to be active on more than one network. You know you don’t want to publish identical posts on all networks. While that may be an easy way to post, the easy way is seldom the best way, right?

Each network is different and it’s a good bet your audience is different. Smart social media marketing means your posts are tailored to your audience. Yes, it’s a little more work, but it’s well worth the extra time.

We know that the more personalized your content, the more relevant it will be to the reader. And the more relevant, the more effective. Whatever your goal, you’re more likely to reach it by serving content that is appropriate, targeted, and useful.

In this post, we’ll explore some of the differences and nuance of the major social media platforms, and what you need to know to reach your audience.

We’ll look at these social media marketing platforms:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest

Social Media Marketing Platforms

Facebook

Let’s start with the most popular social network, Facebook. With 2.6 billion monthly active users, according to Influencer Marketing Hub, Facebook has the largest audience by far.

What to Share

You can upload photos, videos, and GIFs, link to content from a website, or you can simply add a text post.

Here’s an example of a good Facebook post by language learning app Duolingo. With 1.8 million likes, look at the number of likes, shares, and comments — quite a bit lower than what you’d expect from nearly two million likes.

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You have plenty of room for words, but, according to Jeff Bullas, posts “less than 40 characters in length … receive 86% higher fan engagement.”

How Often to Post

Depending on your audience, once or maybe twice per day, tops.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Facebook’s widespread use makes it an imperative for most businesses. Once only for college students, it’s now populated by potential buyers of diverse ages, educational levels, and demographics. Chances are at least parts of your target audience uses Facebook.

Cons

Years ago you could create a Facebook business page and those who liked your page would see what you post. In 2020, there’s no guarantee, in fact, the odds are stacked against you.

Hootsuite’s AdEspresso cites the average organic reach for a Facebook post at 6.4 percent of your total page likes. That means that with 1000 likes on your Facebook page, only about 64 people will see your post.

How to Win on Facebook

The short answer is: pay.

Facebook is first and foremost an advertising platform. That’s where their money is made, and it’s the basis for everything they do. Their goal is to attract eyeballs, and to sell access to those (your) eyeballs to advertisers.

When users begin to rail about changes in the platform, it helps to remember that we users aren’t the audiences — we’re the product. Facebook’s goal is to keep eyeballs glued to the site for the benefit of advertisers.

It’s a bit like television in that it’s free content supported by advertising. If you don’t like something on television, you’re better off writing to the advertisers, as the networks are there to please advertisers.

Facebook advertising is some of the most reasonably priced and the targeting options are excellent. When you write good copy and use quality images, it’s also among the most effective.

Instagram

Owned by Facebook, Instagram is highly popular with a younger demographic than Facebook. It’s a primarily mobile app, though you can view, like, and comment on Instagram posts on a desktop computer.

What to Share

Primarily visual, Instagram is powered by images. Post images of your products, your office if you have one, staff, customers, or the friendly dog that hangs around.

Here’s an example from a local drug store and gift shop, promoting new holiday gifts.

social media marketing

For too many years, I thought my business as a marketer wasn’t right for Instagram. I was wrong. Service businesses can do very well as long as you can create scroll-stopping visual images.

Captions on Instagram that are 138 – 150 characters long generate the most engagement, according to Sprout Social..

How Often to Post

Most social media marketing experts say once to no more than three times per day. That doesn’t include stories.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Instagram has more than one billion users. It’s much easier to get organic reach on Instagram than on Facebook. Hashtags are much more prominent on Instagram — in fact, of all the social networks, I’d say hashtags are more important on Instagram than the others.

Cons

If you have difficulty translating your business into images, you may struggle to create regular content.

How to Win on Instagram

Get creative. You can still build an audience on Instagram with organic posts, though advertising may give you a needed boost.

Post motivational quotes, photos of your office and equipment, or show how you work. Feature staff members, special days, or create a mood with a cozy cup of coffee or tea and warm socks. Post selfies in great locations or just working.

Twitter

I have to admit that Twitter is my favorite social media platform. It’s how I started my business and I made contacts on Twitter in the early days (2008) that I am still connected to.

Twitter is probably the most misunderstood social platform. More clients, friends, family members, and others have told me they don’t understand Twitter than any other social platform.

Twitter’s character limit is 280, up from the 140 it started with.

What to Share

You can share photos (4 at a time), videos, GIFs, or text, or retweet another account’s tweet.

Here’s a fun example of Hamilton creator Lin Manuel Miranda standing in line to vote in New York City.

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How Often to Post

Some of y’all aren’t going to believe me, but you need to tweet at least five times each day. More if you can. Tweet your own content, retweet or post others’ and sometimes just chat with those you follow.

Twitter moves incredibly fast, and tweets have a very short shelf life, so it’s OK — even advisable — to post frequently.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Twitter is a diverse source of ideas and thoughts. From late-night ramblings to cogent political arguments, it’s never dull.

If you want to be where news breaks first, be on Twitter. Numerous major news stories have broken first there.

Cons

It’s easier to be more anonymous on Twitter. As it’s not inherently visual, you can more or less hide your identity from all but the smartest of internet users. That often leads to more hate and vitriol than is posted on other social networks.

How to Win on Twitter

Work hard on Twitter to get to know others who share your interests and start conversations.

LinkedIn

What to Share

LinkedIn is exclusively a business platform. Photos and content about your family, your dog, or your latest fabulous cup of coffee are not welcome.

Content should be 100 percent business related. Post your own content, and post curated content from others that will appeal to your audience.

Here’s an example from Memphis Tourism.

How Often to Post

Once or, at the most, twice per day is best.

Pros and Cons

Pros

If you’re looking for a job, or for clients, LinkedIn is where you want to be.

Because it’s so clearly business focused, it’s hard to forget your audience.

Cons

Very few, except that it’s not a platform on which most people spend a lot of time, so your reach may be low.

How to Win on LinkedIn

Connect with others, add value with your content. You can post articles you’ve written or republish content from your website or blog.

Create a business and/or showcase page for the services you provide to maximize your online presence.

Pinterest

If you’d told me a year ago today that I’d be including Pinterest in a blog post, I’d never have believed you. I’m relatively new to this platform, but I’ve found it to be a top source of traffic.

Pinterest is actually more of a search engine than a social platform. Users are searching for their next favorite recipe, a new craft to try or a new marketing technique.

What to Share

Like Instagram, Pinterest is overwhelmingly visual. Users post images that catch the eye and motivate others to share, or re-pin their post.

Share helpful hints, tips, and advice represented by an image that communicates the benefits. Large, easily-readable text place over images is the norm.

Link to your website, preferably a landing page that gives more information about your offer and a call to action.

Here’s a pin from WP Beginner, a WordPress tutorial site. Notice how prominent the image is.

How Often to Post

If you’re serious about Pinterest marketing, 30 times per day is the goal. I know it’s a lot.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Pinterest is a visual search engine for anything you’re looking for. Even service businesses can build profits as long as they can create visual content.

Cons

It can be confusing. For me, it took a while to figure out. I had to spend quite a bit of time to understand Pinterest, and I’m still learning it.

How to Win on Pinterest

Think of Pinterest as a search engine and optimize accordingly. Use keywords in your title, description, and include relevant hashtags.

Set up boards on your profile for each area of your business, for example, I have boards for social media, content marketing, WordPress, and email marketing.

Customize and Personalize

I’ve given you a lot of information here — congratulations for making it to the end.

Like any type of marketing, social media marketing works best when it’s most personalized and relevant to your audience. Take a few extra minutes to tailor your content to your followers on the various platforms and you’ll see better results.


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