Frontline Perspectives

A fellow marketer asked me why we didn’t automatically link our updates to Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts, pushing our content out to all of our social media networks with one click.

My answer was simple. Although this seems like the most efficient process, I’ve found that linking different sites actually stunts your social media growth because it also links your timing. Each social media tool has a different best practice in terms of the numbers of posts, status updates or tweets per hour and should be scheduled accordingly. Posting on your sites at the same time, every time is not in your best interest.

For example, Twitter is more effective the more you use it. The more you tweet, the more followers you gain. The exception to this rule? The average click through rate per hour decreases after 2 links – meaning, if you want someone to click through to your valuable thought leadership, that should be your only tweet for an hour. If you’re syndicating general information that you don’t necessarily own, tweet as often as you like.

Facebook is different. To get your posts liked on Facebook, only post once every other day. Unlike Twitter, which by nature is a constant stream of updates, Facebook users are more easily bombarded by information and less likely to like your information if you send it too frequently.

Each social media tool has a different best practice in terms of the time of day that posts, status updates and tweets are most effective. For Twitter, late in the day and later in the week are the most retweetable times. But for Facebook, weekends are the best time for sharing.

So what’s the best solution? Focus your content.

Start by publishing a blog and post it on Facebook once every other day. Re-purpose that post for Twitter and tweet throughout the day with additional information about the same topic – even repost the same blog with different lead-ins multiple times. Then, mix in other timely stories and post as often as possible. If it helps, make an editorial calendar with the number of posts per day for each social media tool.

If you’re farther a long with your social media following, try an integration solution like Hootsuite. This tool is more than a simple social media tool that sends one post to multiple sites at the same time. It allows the user to send updates to multiple places at various times and also allows for scheduled postings in advance.

What schedule works best for you?