Cross-Promotion on Social Media (And 4 Tips to Do It Effectively!)
Cross-promotion is a marketing strategy that involves sharing similar content to promote a business’s products or services simultaneously on more than one social media platform.
In the past, it was laborious for businesses to find new customers and grow their customer base because they were only limited to marketing offline.
But with social media marketing and cross-promotion techniques, creators and companies can quickly reach a wider audience, get more likes and shares, increase their ranking with different audiences and ultimately increase sales revenue.
In addition, there are over a hundred active social media platforms globally, so knowing how to use the cross-promotion technique effectively in your campaigns is crucial as each social media platform has its kind of audience.
In this article, we will discuss what cross-promotion on social media is, including the strategies to do it effectively, such as posting unique content, link-sharing, cross-promoting naturally, and embracing each platform’s unique format.
Let’s dig in!
What is cross-promotion on social media?
Cross-promotion on social media is a method that content creators, companies, and startups use to grow their audience across multiple social network platforms.
They promote themselves, brands, products, and services by sharing content from one platform to another to keep their audiences engaged.
According to reports, companies with solid cross-promotion engagements see 89% of their customers return for more. Some popular platforms for cross-promotion are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
You can also use your blog or company website to cross-promote your content on other social media platforms.
Here is an example of how Warby Parker used the cross-promotion technique on social media:
Warby Parker example
The Eyewear brand “Warby Parker” shared a picture post about their Fort Worth, Texas store getting a new mural on Twitter with a link that takes their audience to their Fort Worth webpage.
But then, they adjusted the content they shared on Twitter and developed a new concept on Instagram. Instead of sharing the same photo they shared on Twitter, they combined a video with an image into a single post that showed how the store got a fresh new mural and asked audiences to swipe to see the final result.
Now that’s an incentive to follow them on Instagram. If you follow them on Twitter but not on Instagram, you would miss out on the before and after content they shared of their Fort Worth, Texas store.
Effective strategies for cross-promotion on social media
The goal of cross-promotion is to promote brands, products, or services simultaneously on two or more social platforms. This lets you reach a much wider audience than any platform would allow by itself. And hopefully translate that reach into followers, subscribers, connections, and sales.
Research shows that companies who engage customers on more than one channel increase their engagement rate by 166%.
Are you planning to execute a cross-promotion campaign anytime soon? Here are 4 tips for doing it effectively.
1. Post unique content on each platform
If you want your cross-promotion campaigns to be effective, you have to give your audience an incentive to follow you on every social network you are active on. And you do this by treating each community with subtle differences.
A good example is the Warby Parker example above. They shared a photo informing their Twitter audience of the new Mural their Fort Worth, Texas, store was getting. But on Instagram, they added a mix of video and a photo; they didn’t just repost what they had posted on Twitter.
Posting the same content on the different social media platforms will hurt your reach, engagement, subscribers’ likes, connections, and the result you hope to get from your campaigns. But when you repurpose the content to suit each platform uniquely, you get an increased engagement.
2. Take advantage of link-sharing options
Link sharing is a tactic to help promote your brand, product, or services and get the word out about what you do or want to do.
Link sharing is a common practice in marketing, but most people do it spammy, which is ineffective. To adequately do this, take advantage of the unique link-sharing option that each social media platform provides.
On Twitter, you can add important links to your bio and pin a post containing links to products or services you want to cross-promote.
You can do the same on Instagram by adding an essential link to your bio and Instagram stories.
Platforms like Link Tree can allow you to group your significant links into one page, making your cross-promotion effective.
3. Promote new projects naturally
Promoting your work via various social media platforms without seeing results can make cross-promoting seem a difficult task.
You must learn to make your promotions flow naturally to get your followers to follow you on other social platforms.
For instance, potential customers who find your website through a search engine may also want to see the social side of your brand.
You can naturally promote your social media pages by making it easy for your website visitors to jump over to your Instagram feed by embedding your feed somewhere on your website.
This is what Mason-Mayes, a boutique clothing shop did. They had their feed running across the bottom of their website. Each image directs customers to its Instagram post.
Implementing this tactic will help you reach more people who are not following you on Instagram, but are following you on Facebook or Twitter.
4. Embrace the format of each platform
Social media is changing the way we communicate with each other, and this is great for business. Instagram business statistics say that 90% of users follow at least one business.
To take advantage of the benefits of each social media channel, you must promote your work correctly by embracing each platform’s unique format.
For example, Instagram is a platform that requires short videos or photos. While YouTube is a video-sharing platform that allows you to upload long-form videos.
To cross-promote on these two platforms, crop your long-form videos on YouTube to the aspect ratio suitable for Instagram, then post a short video of the YouTube video you want to promote on Instagram. Finally, add a brief description with a link that takes your audience to your YouTube channel.
Key takeaways
As mentioned above, the goal of cross-promotion is to increase brand awareness. Also, to create a following for your business that will hopefully convert into sales.
Applying the strategies discussed here will help you reach more audiences, gain more followers, and increase sales. Here are the key takeaways we want you to note.
- Post unique content on each platform – make your content unique by repurposing it to suit the other platforms.
- Take advantage of link-sharing options – use platforms like Link Tree to group all of your significant links into one page and add to your bio or pinned post for a more effective cross-promotion.
- Promote new projects naturally – design your promotions on each platform to flow naturally. For instance, you can add a description with your Instagram handle at the end of each YouTube video you publish.
- Embrace the format of each platform – each social media platform has its unique format. The key to a successful promotion is to understand the format of each platform and then cross-promote your work on them adequately.
Conclusion
There are many ways to promote your work on social media. Cross-promotion is an effective technique that content creators and companies can use to build their brands and get more followers and sales.
The strategies discussed in this article are easy to implement, free of charge, and offer many advantages for your brand and business.
Thank you for sticking to the end. Stay tuned for another helpful article next week. Bookmark has all the solutions and tools to build a solid online presence for any business. Reach out via Live Chat if you have questions.
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