There’s a simple trick that most marketers use to make their social media engagement more efficient. They use automation and social integration to turn a single post on one social network into multiple posts across multiple networks. It’s actually a bit of a stretch to call it a trick, because it’s practically standard practice at the moment.
The thing is, not all social networks are the same. Social media engagement methods that work on one channel may not work on another. Automation saves you time, but the wrong posts in the wrong places might be damaging your social presence. For your social media engagement to be truly successful, you need to have more than one social personality.
LinkedIn: The Social Professional
LinkedIn is a professional network. It says so on they’re About page. You can’t get away from its professional nature. This leads a lot of people to post to LinkedIn in a very professional way. They use strict and perfect grammar, they ensure every post is like a business document. Some even eschew the apostrophe in an attempt to squeeze out that extra drop of professionalism. ‘Don’t’s become ‘do not’s and ‘you’re’s become ‘you are’s, and everything looks nice and business like. The thing is, LinkedIn is also a social network.
It’s supposed to be a friendly network of professionals, which means you can let some of the barriers down. When you post on LinkedIn, you should use a professional tone, but keep it friendly. If you want people to work with you, it’s easier if they like you too. The key is to keep the content professional.
LinkedIn is not the place for visual gags or links to celebrity news. Your LinkedIn output should be social media engagement with a professional flavor. It’s a bit like a lunch with your boss. It’s okay to be friendly and social. Don’t worry about being perfect; just don’t treat it like a casual drink with a friend.
Twitter: The Witty Curator
Even if you’re a business on Twitter, on Twitter you’re not a business. To your Twitter followers you’re a content source and a conversation partner. They will be happy to engage with your professional content, but they will also expect a bit of engagement and some personality. Twitter users will give a lot more latitude to business people and brands who are willing to let their hair down and make a joke. As long as it’s relevant, and funny.
The easiest traps to fall into on Twitter are inappropriate jokes and irrelevant content. Whenever you post on Twitter, you need to know why you’re posting it. If it’s just for laughs that’s fine, but only if it leads to something more concrete. If you want to post a gag about politics, religion or any contentious issue do it on your own time. Brands need to stay away from those issues on every social network but Twitter tends to be the quickest to jump on iffy social media engagement.
Twitter is a great place for businesses to create a likeable image for themselves. A few witty comments and careful curation of useful content, both yours and third party, can be really successful. The only rule is don’t go too far.
Facebook: The Young Professional
Facebook and Twitter have very similar guidelines, but very different audiences. The tone guidelines are the same because Facebook users are just as open to a few gags and they want to see plenty of personality. The real difference comes in the content. Twitter is basically a feed for finding new content; Facebook is a content location in its own right.
Facebook users prefer their social media engagement to remain in one place, rather than following links and returning to comment or share. The extra (unlimited) character space available on Facebook is far more than just a technical difference. It gives you the opportunity to generate conversation and post content that people want to share.
The great thing about Facebook is the freedom it gives you to post a variety of content. Images, videos and Infographics all play really well with Facebook users, because you can interact with them without leaving the network. People use Facebook as their main connection to most of their friends, so you have more chance of success if you let them stay there.
Social media engagement isn’t about perfecting one of these personalities, it’s about developing a content strategy that allows you to perfect all three. You don’t need three completely different content outputs; most of your content will work across all three. The key is to ditch the automation and give each post the right personality.
Get ahead of your competitors and stay there with the help of social media marketing! Download our free whitepaper The Definitive Guide to B2B Social Media to begin your development in social media!
