It’s hard to find time to put effort in your 140-character tweets. However, a short description/picture will help drive more interest. Otsego Fire is clearly driving traffic to their Facebook organizational page which has some good content. But their paired cross-postings on Twitter from Facebook lacks because it looks plain and almost spammish.

Occasionally, you can post just the hyperlink, but in general, many users will want to know more about the link they are about to click through. Also a picture would help verify that the twitter account hasn’t been hacked by a bot or another nefarious group.

If the user decided to search back in the history of the account, they would see that previous posts from OFD all look similar. Nothing exciting. Remember, social media is a very visual engaging platform that should be a real-time exciting experience for the social media user. Consider posting an image to accompany your posts too.

Many PIOs believe that cross posting on various social media platforms is irresponsible.

“In my humble opinion, we talk very differently on Facebook.”

vs

“IMHO @rusnivek txt V diff on Twittr. #OMG #WTF#TRUTH”

Different platforms force you to be a better writer. Even if it’s not your own original message, craft and tailor a specific message to your audience identifying and show how it pertains to your activities. Since this tweet (and previous tweets) have no identifying descriptors, users are likely not to click on the tweeted plain link(s). Maybe retooling the tweet with: “O-Town Mud Volleyball registration is now open. Ready to get dirty? <insert FB link here>” To increase interest, I would also include this picture of the volleyball tournament with OFD’s Engine in background.

Communicating on different platforms allow us to reach different audiences. As a professional following your strategic communications plan, you owe it to your constituents to address your specific audiences on each of your identified social media platforms.

By enhancing the tweet this way:

1. Any verbiage and image in your tweet will help readers click through the link in the tweet.

2. You include your own personal message about the upcoming event.

3. You craft messages specific to your audiences on Facebook vs Twitter vs any other social media platforms.

Time is valuable, so tweet good stuff.

@rusnivek

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