It’s tempting to approach social media with a lazier approach of cross-channel posting of the same content, rather than creating content that is tailor-made for the platform.

Posting the same content is a minimum effort marketing strategy that shows the importance of content being put out there is important, but a lack of awareness about what else can be posted to stand out.

Audiences to social media content for the business may not be the same across all platforms. Additionally, not every social media platform may be suitable for the content that is being posted. Therefore, it’s a good idea to ensure that the content being posted to the audience uses the advantages of the platform to maximise its benefit. It’s also important to consider the relevance of the content being posted on each platform, as irrelevant content could result in a loss of followers.

Social media content needs to be planned accordingly for each platform, and that takes time to do. It’s important to ensure that there is ample time available for the content to be planned, written, created and posted. Similarly, any media that is required for the content on social media will need to be optimised and relevant for the audience of the platform.

Style guides and a brand voice should be established for different platforms to address the changes in audience. TikTok audiences may be more receptive to an informal, casual address that takes advantage of current memes and trends, but LinkedIn’s business-oriented content may not be quite as suitable.

Here are a few things to consider when posting social media content, and what may need to be changed or addressed in a content marketing strategy:

• The performance of content in posts across social media platforms
• Trends and hashtags relevant to each platform
• The demographics of audiences on each platform
• What time content is being delivered to the audience

Each social media platform has a type of content that is more suitable for posting, also known as what works best in the algorithm. These should be considered when creating content, as taking advantage of them can boost a post’s visibility and reach to the audiences of the content.

Here are a few of the content types that certain social media platforms prefer:

• Instagram prefers eye-catching photos and videos.
• Twitter works well with links and, if timed right, current memes and trends.
• Linkedin is great for building thought leaders, with commenting on links and long text posts encouraged to be shared.
• Facebook videos and informative or attention grabbing links on the platform often work better than other content types.
• Pinterest preferes content that is inspirational, educational or inspirational, with headlines that grab the attention.