Welcome back! ICYMI: Last week I started to discuss personalizing your content (ie: ensuring your content works on each platform you use) and it turned out to a super long post so here is part two!
Videos:
Videos are the new craze. Everyone is losing their mind about how important videos are. I don’t care so much mainly because they are a lot more work but it’s always something to keep in mind when mapping out your content. If you have access to a SHORT HIGH-QUALITY video, try posting it instead of an image. You will most likely see increased engagement but only if it’s something people want to watch and is relevant to your account. (Short videos or Boomerangs are great for Instagram stories too!)
Stories:
We talked about stories in my last post but use them! When you can, when its relevant, they are a great option to reach people in a different way.
Shorten Your Posts:
If you are writing a post a good rule of thumb is to write it, cut it in half and then cut it in half again. I know that can be very difficult, but followers respond better to shorter posts. Sometimes it’s necessary to write something long but don’t do that every time. Facebook mobile (where everyone looks at Facebook these days) supports 300 characters before the “read more” option. Since that’s only a bit more than the Twitter limit, it’s a good average to aim for most of your posts (Instagram is very short before the “read more” but if someone clicks it and they see 8 paragraphs emerge they will probably keep on scrollin’). There is always going to be vital information that you have to get across but if you can, save a draft and come back to your post before scheduling-is everything you written needed? Is this information that you find cool, but your followers don’t care so much? Conversely do your followers know what you are talking about? This post is for them, not for you.
Should It Even Go Here:
Cross posting is an easy thing to do, just write something out and plop it everywhere. Don’t do it! Even if you want to have the same message on all channels at least post it separately. There are so many scheduling platforms, it is so easy to take the small extra step to personalize it for each platform. Remove some hashtags, add a link, change the image size, whatever. There is so much content online, make yours the highest quality it can be.
As mentioned above, not all content belongs on all platforms either. You should have an idea on how well posts in general do on each of your platforms and tilt towards the one that does better but also think about your audience and the purpose of the post before dumping it on everything. Does it make sense in 280 characters? Does it have a link? Is there an image that people will interact with? It is okay to not post on every account constantly. Sometimes less is more.
Here endeth the lesson. Go out and create your quality content! ?