Posted by The first step in a cross-platform content marketing campaign on social media is determining which social media network you are going to use. This is important because each social media network is different, and you need to choose the one that will best suit your needs.
The great thing about cross-platform content marketing is getting to utilize multiple platforms and benefiting from the best feature each network has to offer.
What is Cross-Platform Content Marketing?
Cross-platform content marketing is running different content on different social media sites simultaneously. As a result of social media, companies of all sizes have the opportunity to reach audiences wherever they are, be it on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc. This type of content marketing provides a more cost-effective option.
Is Cross-Platform Marketing Right For You?
Cross-platform marketing is more effective for established businesses. The reason being is new businesses are unknown and most likely have a small team and budget. Therefore, efforts are more beneficial when one social network is chosen. By focusing on one network, small companies are able to promote their name and form a following for their brand.
However, once you become an established business it is recommended that you then use different social media platforms to gain other audiences and raise brand awareness.
Benefits of Cross-Social Networks Marketing
The true benefits of this type of marketing campaign can be found in the results of this study conducted by Linkedin. They report that a company’s engagement rate on social media can increase by 166% by engaging customers on more than one channel. To boot, cross-platform audiences have a 30% lifetime value than customers who only engage on one channel.
The three main benefits of a cross-platform campaign are :
- Wider Reach — By using a cross-platform campaign, marketers can reach more audiences and different segments, and introduce those persons to the brand.
- Creating Organic Content — Having a large following means you have the potential to gather free user-generated content. Furthermore, since social media gives you more control over the message you put out, this means you can produce a consistent theme in your messaging. A consistent message will give the audience an idea of who you are and what your brand is. This can create brand awareness and loyalty.
- More Opportunity to Interact with your Audience — More than likely you will have followers who exist on multiple platforms and cross-platform content allows you to utilize the best feature of each platform to advertise to your audience.
How to Measure Your Campaign’s Success?
After running a cross-platform campaign, it is critical to evaluate its results to show what worked and what didn’t. Including, which social media network is more profitable and beneficial to you, and which one does not reap any rewards. This information is necessary to help you improve your strategy over time and convert more customers through social media.
Tips for a Successful Cross-Platform Marketing Content
1. Do Not Copy And Paste Your Content
Social media integration does not mean identical messaging for each platform. Simply copying and pasting your content may cause you to lose the message’s effectiveness. One of the great things about cross-platform marketing is the chance to change up your posting style. You can learn which is better for each platform. For instance, giving promotions via video or images a chance as opposed to strictly text content.
Furthermore, each network has a different set of required content specifications. For example, content posted on Twitter needs to be less than 280 characters. On Facebook, links posted in captions can be hyper-linked, but this is not possible on Instagram. These restrictions emphasize the point in the next tip.
2. Generate Separate Messages for Each Platform
Visual content is more effective on some platforms like Instagram or TikTok, while short-form text may be better suited for a platform like Facebook and long-form text should be reserved for posting on your blog.
Therefore, the content will need to be customized to best align with the platform it will be shared on.
For example, converting key points of your text into a meme or a quote block to share on Instagram. Also, you can combine different media formats based on the platform. For instance, on Facebook, not only can you include the text in the caption, but you can also use the image used on Instagram and have the chance to hyperlink any links as well.
Besides aligning the content with the most efficient platform, it is important to diversify the message to prevent audience fatigue. The messages are simply being reposted to different platforms, audiences will grow tired of the content and will eventually begin to tune it out. If this sounds like a lot of work, you’re right, it is. If you don’t have the time (or talent) to write messaging effectively in-house consider outsourcing to a freelance writer that has experience in creating cross-platform content, they’re not cheap, but they’re often worth every cent.
3. Set Marketing Objectives
Above, we touched on how to measure the campaign’s success. Unless marketing objectives or goals are set, there will be no way to measure if those targets are met. Besides, your marketing efforts may be guided by the marketing objectives because the metrics you measure will depend on the campaign goals. For instance, if you are trying to call your audience to action, that type of content should be created to influence that. However, if you are merely trying to create brand awareness, that will be its own type of content.
4. Decide Which Social Media Networks You Will Use
The decision on which social media platforms to use will be experimental in the early stages. Measuring the campaign’s effectiveness will direct you to the best network to use as you progress. Your “home base” platform should be the platform with the largest audience and the most engagement. Your “home base” should be the primary platform for promotions.
Selecting which platform to repurpose the content to should be influenced by your target audience. You will have to find out where they are, which platform they are more active on, and then you should include that in your cross-platform campaign.
5. Continue to Promote Across Each Platform you Use
Even if you develop a “home base” and you believe you are achieving high numbers and interactions there, you should not forgo any promotion efforts across each platform you have a presence. Luckily, there are many social media scheduling tools that will allow you to post to multiple platforms automatically. This is super useful for a small marketing team. And, helps to keep the human touch to remain connected to your audience.
Summary
There is no denying that cross-platform content marketing has its benefits for all businesses. However, the reality is, it is not easy to master, especially if you are a new, upcoming, small business. To truly reap the benefits of this campaign, you will need to put in the time and effort, bearing in mind it may be trial and error for a while. Figuring out the type of content to post and where this content should be posted. Despite the challenges, cross-platform marketing begins with only one social media post. What you decide to post depends on how the audience will react.
Nevertheless, before you make that first post you need to set clear goals of what you want to achieve, these goals will also guide you on your campaign. Without these goals, you will not know if your efforts are fruitful or if you are wasting your time.