What’s the One Social Media Growth Hack Not to Do?

Yes, there is one that you should avoid like the plague.

If you want to grow your social media success but value your audience, and their time, there is one social media growth hack that you should not do.  It might sound over dramatic but you really should avoid linking your social media accounts like that plague.

Growth hacking is on the rise.  And why not? Who doesn’t want to save time, streamline processes and do less work? With the focus on this efficiency with a quotient for growth, there are more and more ways to save time while doing more.  Social media has become a hot topic within this new area of study.

Not all are evil

Some tactics are great, especially when used in moderation.  For example, scheduling your social media posts.  Drafting and scheduling posts ahead of time is great, and it saves you from having to come up with a plan every day and watch the clock for your next peak time to post.  It should not be the only way that your post though.  You want to play into relevant things that are happening on social media and strike up conversations in person so to speak, or maybe it’s better to say in real time.

While some just are

What social media growth hacking strategy has me all up in arms? Linking your social media accounts.  Social media platforms now give users the opportunity to link two of their accounts as a way of automating their posts.  Saves time and energy which can lessen the draw on some of your resources.  This sounds great right?

This is where social media strategy goes wrong.  Your audience might be the same on both platforms, which makes one think that seeing similar messages is good and increases the chances a user might see your message.  I ask you to think about the platforms for a moment.  Instagram isn’t Twitter and Twitter isn’t Pinterest.  Users choose to utilize different platforms for different reasons.  Hold that thought for a moment while we delve into the other side of the problem.

This automation isn’t perfect.  While you might be able to link your Instagram to your Twitter, the post will not look exactly the same.  In fact, to see the photo that you are saying is so great at all, a user must click on the link to open up the other platform.  Let’s pick that first point back up.  If a user is following you on Twitter, because Twitter isn’t Instagram, why would you make them click on a link to go over to Instagram to see your image?

To make it worse, think of what you are losing.  By linking your accounts, and creating unique posts in Instagram, and having them automatically published as links on your Twitter feed, what does your Twitter feed look like? A bunch of links, to another platform.  If I find you on Twitter, and scroll through the posts, without seeing the images that you’ve worked so hard to capture, I’m missing a major part of your message.  You are missing out on a major chance to interact with me.

Its just not good.

My recommendation?

Take the extra few minutes and use a different growth hacking tool to schedule those posts on Twitter.  Your followers on both platforms will read your text and see your great imagery – getting the full message and leaving nothing up to interpretation.  Yes it will occupy you or one of your employees a bit longer than if you only had to post these to one channel.  There’s no denying that.  Your time will be well spent though and your audience will appreciate you for it.