It probably would make life much easier if I posted to one account and it automatically posted to all of my other social media accounts. There is a way this can be done by enabling social media automation and I am sure the busier I get the more I would be willing. But for right now there are some key reasons I am just not attracted to this strategy.
They Are Different Platforms
I’m probably the only person in the world who does not want to link her social media accounts (including this blog). Those of you who follow me on IG, FB, and Twitter have probably already noticed that I use them as separate entities. I’m not into linking them at this moment. That would be slightly annoying to me actually. This is because for me, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram may be the top 3 Social Media sites active right now, but they are three totally different platforms. This means they require similar but slightly different navigation techniques. Let’s start with Instagram.
Instagram is all about the image. This, in my opinion, gives it advantages over Facebook and Twitter in the promotional area when it comes to pictures. When you scroll through Instagram, each picture is shown one by one according to your followers most recent uploads. As you scroll through, you cannot help but see them even if you skip through the ones that are not interesting to you. This means there is less distraction here than on the other platforms. Instagram is a go-getter for attention because there is not enough space to browse through anything else outside of that timeline. People can also upload videos, another major attention keeping strategy. While Instagram allows room for wording and descriptions of the pictures, the most important thing is the photo itself. Bold and bright colors that capture and keep people’s attention is a must for IG which makes Book Cover designs and promotional flyers very attractive for authors and they garner lots of attention. Quotes and Meme’s have also become a favorite. Authors can upload pictures of books they are reading, screenshot Amazon reviews, or post quotes from the authors they love. Lots of wording in the form of an Image is not something I would want to upload to IG. Instead, I would much rather use images with wording that stand out. Far as IG is concerned, the most important thing to remember for me is the strategic use of the image.
Twitter’s restriction on word count is a plus for me. In fact, it is what attracted me to this platform in the first place. It is a fun way to post constant updates and does not take up a lot of time. Twitter is the hub for short promotional shout outs and gives me the opportunity to be creative with words. People’s attention spans are short so its not necessary to be long winded. Instead, authors can boost the visibility of posts using the #hashtag, a social discovery mechanism that is actually taken from the tagging strategy of using keywords that others are also using and networking through those words. Twitter gives you the opportunity to upload photos as well, but it is not the platform for pictures in my opinion. When I scroll through my IG timeline I can instantly see the pictures. When I scroll through my Twitter timeline however, I will either see half of the picture or (via automation) I’ll see a link to the picture file that is uploaded. This is not very attractive or important to me in the moment I am browsing the Twitter timeline. I’d much rather read a short quote or click on a link to an article. Articles, this is another major plus with Twitter. It is so much easier to click on news articles and blog posts from Twitter. In fact, Twitter is the biggest hub for sharing news and taking advantage of real time information. Is there a crisis happening? You are sure to get real time updates through your Twitter feed. Re-tweets also make it easy to share and promote the work of others.
Facebook is the place to be for a combination of all of these things: pictures, family, friends, quotes, news articles, etc. Facebook also does not have a word count limit which gives posts the opportunity to have a longer shelf life, meaning more people are likely to see your post last week on your Facebook profile than your Twitter timeline. Twitter is “What’s Happening Now?” and Facebook is just “What’s Happening?” For authors, Facebook is the place for storytelling, poetry, etc. Because you can write longer posts, you can really go in on showcasing your writing skills because FB is really great when it comes to longer conversations (You can give everyone a taste of your skills 🙂 ). When you publish a popular post (lots of likes, commentary, views) it will stay at the top of the timeline more which will give it lots of attention. In addition, old posts that have new comments will make their way back to the top which means new people will get to see it. Facebook’s major negative is that it is too crowded, or at least to me. There is a lot going on. People are chatting, playing games, watching videos, looking at pictures, and even listening to music through Facebook. Facebook is a large platform by which to expand a network and garner attention for a product but it can also be a show off. Because its such a large platform, people are sometimes less genuine than they should be. Everyone wants to prove that their lives are the best thing since sliced bread even if its not really this way in reality. People also tend to confide in Facebook more than they should, venting thoughts, actions, and family issues that should never be put on display for the world to see. For this reason, I find myself neglecting Facebook a lot unless I really have something important to share. However, I will not completely neglect it as a social media marketing strategy because together, with the use of Twitter, and Instagram, it can create one strong marketing dynamic if used correctly. Facebook is also great for connecting with family and friends whereas Twitter and Instagram opens the door for networking more with professionals and strangers. You are more likely to connect with a family member or someone you know by way of Facebook than the other platforms.
Social Media Automation combines these accounts into one, making everything you post on one automatically post to the others and this is cool (for well established businesses it may just be very cool) but right now its just not for me. It may save me time, but it doesn’t give the impression that a real person is behind the computer if every post is automatically generated. It can also get boring at times (at least to me). Right now I would like to continue to use my social media platforms separately. Why? Because they are separate platforms.
The PBS Blog 