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Cross-posting is when a person or business shares a post from one social media channel to another channel either manually or automatically. And while it may seem like a good idea, it's also one of the major mistakes we see direct sellers make. Cross-posting social media content across multiple platforms usually happens when a direct seller expands their presence to a new channel without first formulating a strategy or figuring out how that new channel fits into their funnel.

Any marketing expert will tell you: you've got to go to where your clients are. Is your ideal client on Twitter? Then get there. Is your ideal client on Facebook? Then get there. LinkedIn? Instagram? Wherever your client is — get there. Doing so will mean that you have a higher chance of your ideal client finding and following you on at least one platform. Inevitably, this leads to the question: “what should I post on all these channels?

This is why cross-posting social media content seems like such a good idea. Not only does it answer the question “what should I post,” but it also saves time and money while getting your message across to followers on all channels. Unfortunately, that is where the advantages end, and the disadvantages far outweigh those advantages.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Cross-posting social media content seems like such a good idea. Unfortunately, the disadvantages far outweigh those advantages.” quote=”Cross-posting social media content seems like such a good idea. Unfortunately, the disadvantages far outweigh those advantages.” theme=”style1″]

1. Cross-posting social media content will bore your followers.

This is probably the number one reason against cross-posting your social media content: it will bore anyone following you on more than one channel. And then what happens? That's right — they will end up unfollowing you on at least one of those channels because you've given them no reason to be on more than one. Now, you might think that cross-posting will help attract new followers by keeping your profile on that second platform active. And while that might be true, it won't take long for that second account to look boring and robotic, and any new followers who were initially attracted to it won't follow for long.

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2. Every platform has its own rules.

Have you ever noticed that the posts shared from Instagram to Facebook look different than the posts created natively on Facebook? Or that posts shared from Facebook over to Twitter don't seem to quite fit? Every social media platform has different rules such as graphic dimensions, character limits, and formatting. And the communities on each of these platforms also have their own separate unwritten rules that should be considered when posting. People on Facebook don't want to read through the 25-30 hashtags that you included on your Instagram post. People on Twitter stop engaging if your post has more than 2-3 hashtags.

Cross-posting social media content is a dead giveaway that you are absent on that second channel — the very thing you are trying to avoid.

So, what should you do instead?

Cross-promote. Yes, promote the same things in new and various ways across your channels.

Create new captions, hashtags, and graphics for each platform that you want to post to, and make sure each follows the guidelines set forth by the social channel in question. Writing new posts for each channel every time might sound like a lot of extra effort. But the truth is once you've written your post for the first channel, there's no need to start from scratch to get that same information over onto the other channels. A couple of edits or tweak here or there, resize the graphic, and you're good to go.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Writing new posts for each channel every time might sound like a lot of extra effort — but you'll be glad you did it.” quote=”Writing new posts for each channel every time might sound like a lot of extra effort — but you'll be glad you did it.” theme=”style1″]

This will also give you the chance to craft messages that will be optimized for each channel.

Additionally, post the content at different times across these channels. If you tweet about a blog post on Twitter at nine in the morning, don't share about the same blog post until about noon on Facebook. When people go online, they tend to check all (or at least most) of their channels in order. By spreading out your posts, you help make sure that the people aren't seeing it twice in a row (and if they are seeing both posts, at least they won't look exactly the same).

If time management is still an issue, then take advantage of a scheduler such as CinchShare or Tailwind to help save you time. We're not against cutting some corners to save time and be more efficient: cross-promoting is just not a corner that should be cut.

#EmpowerSocial

Brenda Ster in a tablet from sitting at her desk with her phone in her hands with the words Stop cross posting all social content without thinking about the rules of that platform for the blog post Stop Cross-posting Social Media Content Across Multiple Platforms

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