Kassaundra 0:00
Today, we're tackling another one of those age old social media questions. Do I cross posts my Instagram content to my Facebook page? And I'm going to be dishing out my personal opinion as a social media strategist as well as giving you things to consider when cross posting.
Kassaundra 0:19
So teacher authors, go ahead and reheat that cup of coffee, because I'm your host, Kassaundra Foster. And we're about to get schooled in socials.
Kassaundra 0:29
Welcome back to schooled in socials. I'm excited to bring you an episode on a highly requested topic today, cross posting to Facebook, I've had plenty of people in my DMs asking if they should take their Instagram content, and cross post it to their Facebook page. So I'm finally diving into my thoughts and what I've experienced with clients, so you can make the best decision for your business.
Kassaundra 0:52
Now, I don't think it's any secret that I'm all for repurposing content and working smarter and not harder. So in my opinion, the short answer to this question is, yes, go ahead and cross post to Facebook, it is a legitimate way to stretch the life of your content. And the time investment to do it is quite small, really just a button to toggle when you're posting on Instagram if you post natively in the app. But what if people follow me in both places Kassaundra and see the exact same content? Yeah, that could definitely happen. But if you've listened to my episodes on repurposing, you know, that isn't a bad thing. We are all pretty distracted in our day to day lives. And the chances that someone from your community is going to see the same two posts back to back is quite small, I wouldn't even argue it's good to have the information out there more than once. Maybe they didn't even get shown your original posts on Instagram. And now they get the chance to see it on Facebook. Or maybe they were scrolling while making dinner or watching TV and they didn't even notice your post on Instagram. Having it on Facebook gives them another chance to get your message. And honestly, I've never had anyone say to me or any of my clients, oh my gosh, I saw the exact same post twice from you. I don't like that. And I've never seen any decrease in followers from Instagram or Facebook when implementing cross posting. So for me, cross posting is an easy Yes, stretch that content as far as possible. Get in front of your target audience as much as possible.
Kassaundra 2:26
Now, that doesn't mean there aren't certain considerations we should take when cross posting from Instagram to Facebook, the first thing that we need to keep in mind are your goals? Is your goal with cross posting to try to get in front of a few more of your target audience? Or give them a second look at your content. So potentially more people act on it? Or are you really looking to hone in on your Facebook marketing strategy to leverage that platform to its fullest extent. If you said number two, cross posting probably won't get you there. Because there are some differences in how content is presented on Instagram versus Facebook, and how people on Instagram versus Facebook interact with content. But if you're just looking to stretch your content a little further cast your net a little wider than cross posting is a great option. Another thing to consider are the CTAs you use in your posts. I'm thinking specifically of that link in bio call to action. Because if you are cross posting using the Instagram app that CTA isn't going to translate to Facebook, since Facebook doesn't have a link in bio, which means most people aren't going to be able to take action on that content if they see it on Facebook. However, there are some really easy fixes for this. The first fix is to just ditch the link in bio CTA all together with your content and have people comment to get access to the link because that can work both on Instagram. And on Facebook. It makes it a non issue. And it even makes it a little less obvious that you're using the same exact content in two places. Also, if you're using meta business suite or some other third party schedulers, you can actually schedule one post to Instagram and Facebook and have them each have different captions. So in the Instagram caption, you could always leave in that link in bio call to action. And then in the Facebook caption, you could always tweak it slightly and just drop the link you want people to travel to because remember, links are clickable in Facebook posts which are amazing. Another consideration is around media types on Instagram, you can post reels carousels and static content. These can all be cross posted to Facebook, but some of them aren't formatted exactly the same. With static and carousel posts. The captions are going to be above the graphics versus on Instagram. They're shown below the graphics. And the biggest change is with carousels. You don't swipe through a carousel on Facebook. Instead it ends up being posted as a group of individual images as one post that people have to open and click through each one. So this means that carousels might lose a little bit of their effectiveness when posted this way, because it's more labor intensive for the user to access all of those slides. Finally, a minor difference is that hashtags aren't as prevalent. Linley used on Facebook as they are on Instagram. So you could just cross posts as is with all the hashtags you want to use, there seems to be no negative effect for doing this. Or if you want to conform a little bit more to Facebook conventions, you could always reduce the number of hashtags you use on your Instagram posts to around two or for either option doesn't really show any significant difference, but it is one last thing to keep in mind.
Kassaundra 5:43
So here's what I'm seeing when cross posting to Facebook for clients. One, there has been no negative effects for doing so it's actually helping my clients cast a little bit wider net and bring in some more of their target audience. Cross posted static posts are actually performing best on Facebook, users on Facebook seem to like having one image or graphic. And I'm seeing more interactions on those types of posts versus on cross posted carousels or reels. promotional posts and engagement posts have been doing better on Facebook than educational posts, or even in some instances, entertaining or relatable posts. Now what about posting time, because I've been asked about this too, like, should I have them go out at the same time, or should I try to schedule them for different times. So when it comes to having the post go out at the same time, or different times, I haven't experimented enough and got enough data to confidently say that it makes a difference or it doesn't make a difference. So that is something you can definitely test out with your audience. I'll leave some links to popular times on Instagram versus popular times on Facebook if you want to take a peek at those. But just know that if you're cross posting from the app, the Instagram app, you do not have the choice of changing times they're going to go out at the same time. If you use meta business suite or some other third party schedulers, you are able to choose different times for each platform.
Kassaundra 7:12
When it comes down to it. I am pro cross posting your Instagram content to Facebook. It's a valid way to engage more of your target audience and help your content go further and work harder for you. I've seen no negative effects in doing so with myself or my clients. However, cross posting doesn't come without considerations. As not everything we do on Instagram always translates to what can be done or is being done on Facebook.
Kassaundra 7:40
Just know that if you are looking to get really strategic with your Facebook marketing, cross posting is probably not the end all be all for you. You would want to gather data from your Facebook posts and create a Facebook specific strategy based on the actions your target audience is taking on that platform. If you're in that boat, don't forget, you can always get on my schedule for a mini consult where we can chat about your goals and lay out strategic steps to get you started on that path.
Kassaundra 8:14
Alright, cold coffee friends. Thanks so much for listening. If you're loving getting schooled in socials, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Also, I would love it if you left a review so that other teacher authors like you can start getting schooled in socials too. All right, I'll see you in the next episode.