We have to admit that we get a little peeved when people use the terms “social media” and “Facebook” interchangeably. As the most massive social media network, Facebook certainly deserves a correspondingly large amount of attention from digital marketers. But sometimes it seems that marketers are making the mistake of putting all their eggs in the Facebook basket, ignoring the significant benefits that other social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn have to offer. That could be in part because those two platforms in particular demand their own marketing styles, which are quite different from the way you probably market your organization on Facebook. Here’s why you should probably be giving more attention to your Twitter feed and your LinkedIn network in your digital marketing in Charleston, SC.
Listen now: Play in new window | (Duration: 4:17 — 4MB)
Not Everyone’s On Facebook
Okay, we all know that’s not actually true. Everyone is on Facebook, but not all the time, and not for all purposes. Simply put, there are large audiences on Twitter and LinkedIn that you will not reach through your Facebook page, because Facebook is not the place those people typically go to find whatever it is you’re offering them. This is more the case with LinkedIn—the average person who is conducting a keyword search on LinkedIn isn’t looking for interesting or entertaining content, but rather for a business connection that could lead to mutual benefits for both parties.
While Twitter is more similar to Facebook in style—that is, focused on wasting time, smiling, and laughing more than serious networking—it’s still true that your organization’s Tweets can reach a lot of people that might not find your Facebook page. What reason could you have not to expand your marketing reach by putting content out on both platforms every week?
Variety Works—But It’s Work
If you are new to the whole social media marketing thing and you’re coming up with the great idea of writing a Facebook post, then changing the wording a little bit to turn it into a Tweet and a LinkedIn post for the same day, discard that great idea immediately. Not only is “duplicate content” (that is, plagiarizing your own writing) the biggest mistake in online marketing, but your approach is guaranteed to fall flat at best. Because the audience on LinkedIn is thinking differently from the audience on Facebook, you need to write that audience a post that recognizes what they’re thinking.
Say you’re a website designer. On Facebook, you might try to grab the reader’s attention with a trivia question, a surprising statistic, or some other kind of “hook.” Then you’ll tell them why they need to have you design their next website and boost their traffic by however many percentage points you want to promise them. On LinkedIn, however, that same post will lose your reader as soon as they recognize the “salesy” feel of the writing. Your post on LinkedIn should be much more professional, perhaps mentioning a few successes of your team that you’re proud of or providing readers within your industry with some valuable insights on recent news items.
This is the point where people often give up. It’s just plain difficult to switch gears three times to write three different kinds of social media posts. And that’s why marketers tend to go back to just posting on Facebook, where you don’t have to think so hard about whether your post is going to be well received by the folks who discover it. A professional writer who is familiar with all three platforms and what their audiences expect, however, can make the most of your social media reach and drive potential customers and clients from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to your website.
Your Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook posts should be written differently.
Move Your Social Media Marketing Forward
Don’t be content with a few Facebook posts each month. Your organization could be reaching many more people on various social media platforms with the right experts in charge of your campaign. Get in touch with us to find out how the PalmettoSoft team and our digital marketing agency in Charleston, SC can move you toward social media marketing success. And of course, visit us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as well!
