Cross Posting: Tips, Tricks and Time Savers

Building your online presence across multiple platforms is valuable for brands, but taking the time to create unique content for each platform can feel like a full time job. While there are instances where you should create platform specific content, cross posting can help you save time while still regularly posting.

What Is Cross Posting?

Cross posting is when you share the same (or very similar) content across different social media platforms. For example, if you create a video for your Instagram account and decide to share it on Twitter and Facebook too, that is cross posting. Cross posting can help you build engagement, save time, and increase your overall social media presence.

How To Use Cross Posting:

Before you start cross posting, make sure the content you want to share is suitable for each platform. For example, cross posting between BlueSky, X, and Threads is a great choice as they are all text based platforms. You could also share a video to Instagram and cross post to Facebook. Cross posting between platforms with different medium focuses is also possible (like Instagram to X), you just might need to make some small changes to the caption or overall presentation of the post.

Drawbacks To Cross Posting:

While cross posting can be incredibly helpful, there are also some things to be cautious of. First off, not every piece of content is going to be optimized for every social media channel. While some content might be perfect to cross post, trying to force content onto a platform it isn’t intended for can come across as sloppy or lazy. If this is a mistake you make once in awhile it might not be a big deal, but if you are doing this consistently it can drive away your audience. Make sure that you take into consideration your audience on each platform and how you are presenting the content. Little details are important also- if you say “link in bio”, make sure you actually have the link in your bio everywhere you post. Something else to keep in mind with cross posting is that if your audience might get tired of your content if you cross post too frequently- if they are getting the exact same information everywhere they follow you, they might choose to unfollow you on certain platforms.

Advantages To Cross Posting:

Cross posting comes with many benefits, when done correctly. Aside from saving you time, cross posting can help you get important messages out to a wider audience by making your content more available to your audiences. If you are starting up a new social media account, cross posting content can help you get your new profile up and running more quickly. With new platforms, it also helps you test out what your new audiences responds to, without having to take time to create all new content. Cross posting across similar platforms allows you test where audiences resonate with your content the most, and what the tend to scroll past. This is helpful when creating new content. For example, your audience on X might love when you post a short video or a fun graphic, while your Bluesky audience might prefer strictly text posts. Although these platforms are focused on the same medium, that doesn’t mean that both audiences are looking for the exact same thing.

Cross posting is a useful tool, as long as you use it with discretion. Make sure you pay attention to how your content is performing, what your audience is responding to, and where you need to focus more on specialized content. Do you use cross posting for your business? Do you notice when other businesses cross post? Let us know in the comments!