When it comes to Social Media for Business the biggest thing I always here is “I don’t have time for that”. So a common thing to do for Social Media is to link them all together. So for example, I post a “tweet” on Twitter and it then automatically gets sent to both my LinkedIn Account and Facebook Page. There are some that think that this is the best thing since sliced bread, and then there are others that think they should not be linked together. Let’s examine these two arguments…
The “pro-linking” camp, of which I am a part of to a degree, like being able to easily stay active on all three mediums with essentially only having to do one. This can save a lot of time not having to think about three things all the time or having to remember to post in all three places, or decide how to say things, etc etc. I also find that being relatively new to all three mediums not having to stress out about all three at the same time can be nice.
That being said, I am also careful about how my accounts are linked. You can essentially link all three to each other any way you want. You can have it set so when you comment on linked in it tweets for you, when you post a link of facebook your twitter followers or LinkedIn connections see it also – all having the potential of getting very confusing! Another thing to think about is that in all three mediums the restriction on the amount of characters you use is different, so what may be a perfectly fine post in LinkedIn may get shortened awkwardly in Twitter.
What I have chosen to do is have only one set of connections. When I post to Twitter it pushes my tweet to both Facebook and LinkedIn, but that’s it. So if I do any comments in either Facebook or LinkedIn that’s the only place they post, they don’t get posted to any other places. I’ve chosen this because of a few reasons; Twitter has the lowest character allowance so I know if I can fit my post there it will be fine on the other two places. I also find that Twitter is the most basic medium as well, you only get to post comments, you cannot embed video or anything more complex – you can include a link to those, but not have them directly in the post. Finally, I also am not a super frequent “tweeter” – the most tweets I think I have ever done in a day is 7; and usually I average only 2 to three a week. Because of that I know that I am not going to overwhelm my facebook fans or my LinkedIn connections. I think if I get more active in Twitter I would think about disconnecting it.
That leads nicely into the thoughts of the “anti-linking” camp. The most common reason that I have heard for not linking your accounts is that there is an entirely different audience for all three. I personally think that can very much depend on the company, some companies have similar fans/followers/connections on all three mediums. But regardless, a very valid point. Another reason is that you don’t want people to start ignoring you because they see the same message everywhere. If someone followed you on more than one medium and noticed that your posts were the same them may start to ignore your posts – which obviously you would not want! This is why if you are someone that tweets a lot you may not want to connect your twitter to your LinkedIn stream for example; it may be too much for someone on LinkedIn. A final reason for not linking is that your LinkedIn connections may not understand Twitter – so if you comment with “#” and “@” in your tweets, or start using Twitter lingo like “FF” or the like, which makes perfect sense to those on Twitter, you could confuse your LinkedIn connections. A perfect example of a great reason to not connect and just do two posts instead.
A great tool for those that cannot decide is a Social Media managing program, such as for example. Using something like that you can make a post and decide what medium(s) to post it to. It can also be an easy place to make a tweet, copy and past it back into the comment window and then take out the “Twitter speak” and adjust it for posting to either Facebook or LinkedIn and post it again – all in the same place without having to hop around to different windows. You can also schedule posts in advance as well which can save much time if that was your reason for connecting your accounts.
Some thoughts to consider when you’re getting ready to dive into Social Media! Overall just remember to not overwhelm your followers or you can generate “blindness” to your comments!
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