How to use social media platform features to get your customers talking
There is a new mantra for brands! They say that ‘if you are not on social media, you are virtually MIA (missing in action)’. Recent records published by DataReportal show that social media platforms command access to more than half of the world’s population. In Ghana, records have it that 6.6 million of us use social media. That is one in every five persons you meet out there! Any brand worth its salt must see the opportunity this offers for market growth.
It is, therefore, not surprising that brands have trooped to multiple media platforms. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, name them and brands are there. Irrespective of their type and size, brands are posting what we call firm-generated content on various social media platforms. These are contents that are internally generated by brands and posted on their own spaces in social media with the hope that their followers and targets will engage with them. However, being on social media does not come easy. Besides the monetary costs – which so far appear much lower than it takes to rep on other media – it takes a lot of time to initiate, monitor and maintain conversations. So often, the short-cut is to take the same content and do what people in the industry call cross-posting, i.e., using the same material across different platforms. So for instance, when your brand wins a CIMG category award and you want to make noise about it, typically, you design the same message and deploy across platforms. Indeed, some social media platforms encourage cross-posting. For instance, Facebook promotes cross-posting on Instagram.
The challenge is, each social media platform has a unique style and vernacular which shapes how people interact there. According to researchers, social media platforms come in different forms. Some are hedonic – meeting entertainment, past-time, and interaction needs – while others are utilitarian/functional – satisfying needs for news and information. Facebook, for instance, has a hedonic vibe. People go there for entertainment, social interaction and the softer conversations in life. Twitter is a different ballroom. People go there for what is happening now. There are also those meant for self-presentation and professional networking; feel free to think about platforms such as LinkedIn.
For this reason, when cross-posting messages, including even with minor modifications, on different platforms, certain tricks may be required to achieve optimal results. It cannot be a ‘one-size-fits-all’ game. For instance, a post that invokes feelings agrees more with a hedonic platform than a utilitarian one. But does that mean that your followers and visitors will engage with your brand’s posts and even click to share?
A recent study published by the Journal of Advertising shares winning strategies on this. The article is titled ‘Congruency and Users’ Sharing on Social Media Platforms’. In it, the authors examine how what you are posting and the features of the platform you are using affect sharing among your page’s visitors. In particular, they consider whether you should follow or break the norm with your posts if you want to increase sharing rates. In other words, if you want people to share your brand’s posts, should you post content that agrees or contrasts with a platform’s vibe –whether hedonic or utilitarian? It appears that the former is the better advice to use.
The researchers examined the characteristics of nearly 7000 posts by brands on Twitter and Facebook and the extent of their agreement with the features and generally accepted vibe of the two platforms. They then examined the number of shares received by each post to track whether posts in agreement or contrast with the platform features had a higher share rate.
Their findings indicate that posts that are congruent with the vibe of the platform platforms are more likely to be shared. What this means is that when on Twitter, do what ‘Twitterians’ do. Your Twitter posts ought to be framed to be newsy. In contrast, perhaps, your Facebook posts must remember why people go to the platform; give them connection, fun, etc.
It appears that congruency between your post and the platform used makes it less intrusiveness and leans people toward readiness to engage. Secondly, where there is such agreement, it takes less mental energy to process the message, leading to more favourable evaluations of the post. But so far, the reasons adduced explain why people will stay to engage with your post. How about their decision to share?
That reason lies in the fact that sharing a post is a socially observable behaviour. When I share something, people in my network can see it and use that to draw conclusions about me. Therefore, when a brand’s post agrees with the things expected of the platform and I am sharing, I should have no worries about shocking people. It will agree with their general expectations of what should be happening on that platform.
The verdict, therefore, is that when cross-posting your brand’s messages on different social media platforms, remember that in this world it is always a case of ‘different strokes for different folks’. Go win!
The author is a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana Department of Communication Studies ([email protected])
