When it comes to digital content, one size does not fit all. In order to effectively promote your brand, it’s important to focus on tailoring social media content to your chosen platforms!
Thanks to scheduling apps that allow for cross-posting content across multiple platforms, this isn’t always obvious. It’s easy to click a button and send the same post to Facebook and LinkedIn, without even visiting the sites!
Unfortunately, social media isn’t that simple. Every platform has its strengths and requirements. By sending the same post to them all, you run the risk of your content looking at best lazy, and at worst, unprofessional!
Poorly cropped photos that cut off information and broken links are not how you want to present your business. What’s more, each platform has a different focus and tone, and you need to make sure you’re getting it right.
But thankfully that doesn’t mean that you have to start from scratch for every platform. So let’s explore the best ways to make your content count on four key social media channels; Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter)!
How to set the right tone
The more time you spend on your social media platforms, the better you get a feel for the tone that is used (and expected) there. But you can also look at the nature of the channel and how people are using it for pointers.
Think about it; when looking at their LinkedIn feed, people are more likely to be at work/in a work-focused mindset. When they’re on Facebook, however, they’re more likely on a break or have clocked off. They’ll want to catch up with friends, family or check in on their favourite brands or Facebook groups.
In contrast, X and Instagram are the platforms that are most likely to be used for both work and entertainment. Both can be a fun mix of pet photos, motivational posts and the latest from their favourite blogs and podcasts, all at the same time.
How does that help you set the tone for your content? Generally speaking, I’d focus on a more business-like and straightforward tone (and content) on LinkedIn – obviously always in line with your brand personality.
On X, Instagram and Facebook, however, people are not as opposed to a more fun and personable tone, even if the content is work or business-related. I believe that it’s the better choice for these platforms where overly faceless, impersonal and generic content will more likely look out of place.
2024 Demographics: Largest age group is 25 to 34-year-olds (29.9%), but research consistently suggests their audience is getting older. Research shows that 68% of Baby Boomers were active on Facebook in 2023, compared with 61% in 2019.
What are people using it for? Facebook is still highly regarded as a personal networking site, with users sharing content with family and friends or joining interest-related Facebook groups. That said, when it comes to adult users, Facebook is the social media platform they are most likely to make a direct purchase from. And the average user clicks on 12 Facebook ads per month.
Type of content favoured on Facebook:
When tailoring social media content to Facebook, video can be a really effective way of reaching audiences. Research shows that video content receives more engagement on Facebook than images, text posts and linked content. For Facebook Reels, aim to keep them under 60 seconds long, and for native videos (uploaded directly to your page) aim for at least three minutes.
Going live on Facebook is also recommended to encourage engagement with your audience. If you’re brave enough to give it a go, it can be a game-changer!
When it comes to image-focused posts, the optimum size is acknowledged to be 1080x1350px. This will ensure that your content is clear, high-quality and professional-looking.
Having a visual of some kind is a good way to attract people’s attention when they’re scrolling through their timeline. You can say it all through your visual and only add a short, engaging caption.
Or you can use the image to draw them into a more in-depth commentary either on-site, on your blog or your company website.
What I think:
Facebook company pages aren’t working very well for B2B and haven’t for years – only 2% or less of your followers will see your content. Even worse, I’ve seen clients’ visibility plummet after they’ve spent a few quid on an ad campaign, so be aware – once you’ve paid for exposure, Facebook clearly wants you to keep paying.
So, Facebook is very much a B2C platform and I’ve found that Facebook groups are a great way to generate sales for small businesses. Whether you run your own group and/or join relevant groups and use the monthly promotion allowance that most of them have to advertise your business, I found groups to be more engaging than organic posts from company pages.
2024 Demographics: Largest age group is 18 to 24-year-olds (30.8%), followed closely by the 25 to 34-year-old age group.
What are people using it for? As an inherently visual platform, there are some obvious industries that are popular on Instagram. Travel, Beauty, Fashion and Fitness are highly profitable niches here.
But the business community is growing fast here too, with many service-based business owners building a dedicated following by heavily involving themselves in their brand. The shopping feature is also hugely popular, with 44% of users using the app to shop each month!
Type of content favoured on Instagram:
When it comes to tailoring social media content to Instagram, the quality of the image is of vital importance.
For photo/video content, ideal sizes for Instagram are 1080 x 1080 (square), 1080 x 566 (landscape), 1080 x 1350 (portrait). Instagram Stories and Reels are 1080×1920.
In addition to the quality, posting a carousel of images can increase engagement. Instagram allows for up to 10 images and/or video clips in one post. So where you might post a single image with a significant caption on Facebook, shortening your caption and working your information into a carousel is a great way of switching up the same content for Instagram!
And don’t forget stories! There are over 500 million daily active users on Instagram Stories, and 49% of Gen Z viewers say they look to Instagram stories for product/service recommendations. It’s easy to create a post for your Facebook and simply copy and paste to the grid. But taking the time to create properly sized, engaging stories is so worth it.
Finally, remember that you cannot include clickable links within Instagram posts. Point users in the direction of the link in your bio to get them onto your website or your newsletter sign-up.
Generally, people are more focused on imagery on this platform. So if your photo is not relevant to the topic of the post or looks generic, people might simply scroll on and never look at the caption.
Also, in their timeline, they can only see the first few words of your caption. So make sure to grab their attention quickly to make them click for more.
What I think:
Personally, I enjoy Instagram and it has been a fantastic way to connect with fellow small business owners over the years. I’ve found that especially creative businesses, artists and makers are using Instagram to great effect and the platforms lends itself very well to make personal connections with your followers.
Stories are a good way to add a personal touch and behind-the-scenes content to your profile and Reels offer an additional way to get your point and (business) personality across.
With links restricted to your bio, I have found that I don’t get many click-throughs from Instagram. But the ones I do get, are worth their weight in gold. They clearly make the effort for a reason and often turn into the most loyal followers and clients.
2024 Demographics: 60% of users worldwide are aged 25-34, while just 3% are aged 55+. In contrast to Facebook, the youngest age group is the fastest-growing demographic on LinkedIn.
What are people using it for? LinkedIn is best known as a professional networking platform. It is where people hang out to build connections to boost their careers or business. People advertise jobs and apply for jobs here. It is an excellent B2B platform and statistically seen to be one of the most effective social media platforms for lead generation – 277% more effective than Facebook and X, in fact!
Type of content favoured on LinkedIn:
Tailoring social media content for LinkedIn is another ballgame altogether. Here, longer-form content like blog posts can be incredibly effective. You can either share a link to your own blog, or share the content direct to LinkedIn through their own blog feature. If you choose the latter, try to aim for 2,000 words plus for optimum performance!
Once again, images are key. Stats show you’ll see an increase in views if you include an image with your article. Ideal dimensions for images on LinkedIn are 1200×644 pixels for blog post images, shared links and sponsored content.
However, unlike on Facebook and Instagram, there does still seem to be a strong argument for including text-only content on LinkedIn. This article from Brafton notes that: “There’s something vintage, authentic, accessible and perhaps even intimate about a simple message that appears to provide interesting and useful information without any links or shiny, branded images”.
When dealing with B2B, especially, the simplicity of this can be a nice change of pace amongst the flood of images and video! Something to keep in mind when tailoring social media content to LinkedIn!
What I think:
During the pandemic, LinkedIn has transformed from a boring, corporate-y platform to a place where business owners and professionals connect, exchange views and have a rant or laugh.
Some people still complain about personal opinions or non-business content being shared here. They think stuff like that should be banished to Facebook! But I quite like it. It makes the LinkedIn community more engaging and supportive and less a place where you show yourself in the best of light to grab that dream job of yours.
Instead, people like to hear your thoughts, what motivates you and what you do if you’re not at work. It’s the best B2B platform there is but mainly because you can make direct one-to-one connections with individuals.
X (Formerly Twitter)
2024 Demographics: 71.3% of X users are aged 18-34. Users aged 50+ are said to make up only 7%.
What are people using it for? Popular topics are news, politics, entertainment and sport. Because of the speed at which the platform moves, it’s a very conversational space. Replying to, quote tweeting and retweeting content from other users is common and expected.
Type of content favoured on X:
When it comes to tailoring social media content to X, the frequency of posting is as important as the content itself. Because the half-life of a tweet is said to be only 43 minutes, it helps to be as active on there as possible.
This fast-paced nature of X is linked to the character limit – 280 characters maximum per tweet. The aim of the game here is to keep things short and snappy! This encourages you to be intentional with what you write. You only have a few sentences to grab someone’s attention – use them wisely.
Research by Buffer found that tweet threads (like Instagram carousels) tend to perform better than individual tweets. This is good news for creating content out of blog posts or case studies! Creating a thread of text-based content, with well-placed images/gifs, could help you be seen by more people.
Unsurprisingly, again, images can help you stand out in wordy feeds. So make sure to use a mix of text-only and image-with-text tweets! The optimum dimensions for photos on X is 1:1 (900px x 900px). To ensure nothing gets cropped off, design your image in line with these dimensions.
I keep coming back to the fast pace, but again it’s important! If you only have 15mins to grab someone and all they see is a poorly sized photo, it’s game over!
On the good side, the short lifespan of a post on this platform not only enables you, but actually requires you to post important content several times instead of just once.
For example, if you publish a new blog post and only tweet the link once, a lot of your followers who aren’t online at that time won’t see it. So tweet about it on different days and at different times of the day for best exposure.
What I think:
Honestly, I’ve moved away from Twitter since Elon Musk has taken over. I still have my account and I really miss the chat and fast-paced environment it presents. But it has gotten very spammy and a lot less secure to use it, so I left.
As a copywriter, it’s not surprising that I enjoyed the text-based content. And I’ve tried to get into Threads and Bluesky. But while both of these platforms imitate (and improve upon) the Twitter format (it’ll always be Twitter for me!), the people just aren’t there.
Threads seems to be a carbon-copy of the Instagram crowd. And Bluesky has not (yet?) seen the influx of business people that the other platforms have experienced after their early year(s).
How to easily create effective content
Last but not least, I wanted to mention Canva. I’ve covered Canva in a few posts before, but it’s particularly relevant here!
If you don’t have access to fancy photo editing software or a graphic designer, tailoring content to specific dimensions can be daunting. Canva is a free graphic design platform with templates for just about everything you could ever need! Business cards, flyers, menus – and, most importantly, all your social media posts.
So hop on with your chosen images and resize every one to fit your chosen platforms perfectly!
The links issue…
In recent years, people began to notice that posts including links were being shown significantly less on social media platforms. At that point, many people began finishing their post with “link in comments”, and placing the relevant link there. Problem solved, right?!
Well… it was for a while. Unfortunately, as time has gone on, people have begun to notice these posts being buried too. Or, at the very least, the comments on them being hidden or filtered out. Naturally, social media platforms don’t want you to direct traffic away from them. So it’s becoming more difficult to get that link seen.
You are left with a couple of options. You can continue with the link in comments for now and monitor the progress. There is always the link in bio option, which allows you to include one link to a page with multiple resources. Or, you can try a new approach.
One that many people have been using lately is to offer to send the link to people who are interested. So you could say, “If you want to sign up, comment “I’m in” and I’ll DM you the link.”
I’ve also seen many people using DMs or their email addresses for call-to-actions rather than a link to their contact page. Another option could be replicating your content on the platform itself, either in the caption of a post or as a separate article, for example on LinkedIn.
The jury is still out on this one, but generally, it’s recommended to focus more on content that delivers value right then and there (and makes people want more) rather than only posting a quick teaser with a link.
FURTHER READING
If you are interested in reading more about this topic, have a look at these:
4 Types of Social Media Content You Should Focus on
How to Improve your Social Media Organisation and Get Your Content Out There
Social Media Timing – An Alternative Guide for Small Businesses
Why You Should Focus on Your Social Media Engagement
