Sean P. Sullivan's Northwest Wine Report

Lately I’ve seen a lot of wineries linking their Facebook and Twitter accounts so that posts on one are automatically cross-posted to the other. My advice? Do so with caution. Here’s why.

Cross-posting between Facebook and Twitter is problematic because they are vastly different Social Media tools with different uses, users, nomenclature, and etiquette. Let’s look at several problems that arise when cross-posting from Facebook to Twitter, which seems to be the most common case for many wineries and other businesses.

Example 1 – Cross-posting a Facebook post of less than 140 characters to Twitter

You’ve just posted something to Facebook. If I am a Facebook user I see this:

YOUR FB POST HERE

If I am a Twitter user, I probably see something like:

YOUR FB POST HERE fb.me/543210

The fb.me link in Twitter is a link to your Facebook post. Now if I am a Twitter user and I click on that link, what do I see?

YOUR FB POST HERE

The information is completely redundant with what I saw in Twitter. It looks like it might be a link to unique material, but it is really just a Facebook post cross-posted to Twitter. Sometimes it is very obvious when this is the case; sometimes it is not as we will see below, and this is where things become particularly problematic.

What do Twitter users do as a result of this? Users are less likely to click on links cross-posted from Facebook making these links less effective.

Example 2 – Cross-posting a Facebook post of more than 140 characters to Twitter

So you’ve just posted something to Facebook, and it’s longer than Twitter’s 140- character limit. What people see on Twitter is most likely something like:

YOUR FB POST HERE…fb.me/543210

The post has been truncated (…), often into something that’s completely meaningless to someone on Twitter unless they click on the link. The post is less likely to get traction on Twitter because it doesn’t stand up by itself without taking additional action.

Example 3 – Cross-posting an external link from Facebook to Twitter

Let’s say you read something you find really interesting and you want to share it and see people’s comments on it. On Facebook this looks as follows:

YOUR FB POST HERE
ARTICLE NAME HERE WITH LINK AND POSSIBLY A PICTURE

What does it look like on Twitter? You guessed it:

YOUR FB POST HERE fb.me/543210

There is no obvious difference between a tweet that is a link to an article you found interesting and a tweet that is simply a link back to something you posted on Facebook.

Additionally - and importantly - when Twitter users click on the link, they will go straight to the article, not to Facebook! There is, therefore, no ability for Twitter users to comment on the Facebook post unless they go to Facebook and search for your winery page. This, of course, defeats the purpose of trying to create interaction. Furthermore, any content you wrote over the 140 characters is lost completely because the link, in this case, goes straight to the article instead of going to Facebook.

Example 4 – Cross posting from Facebook to Twitter and not paying attention to responses on Twitter

This is probably the biggest problem when cross-posting between Facebook and Twitter. Let’s say you live in Facebook but rarely venture into Twitter. You post:

YOUR FB POST HERE…..fb.me/543210

Someone responds on Twitter:

“Hey @YOURWINERYNAME that’s really interesting!”

This is an opportunity for engagement. However, you don’t see the response or interact with the person because you’re not paying attention to Twitter. You’re living in Facebook. The opportunity for engagement – the entire point of what you’ve posted – is lost. Additionally, if you’re posting on Twitter and not looking for a response there, in essence, you’re spamming Twitter.

* * *

Now I’m not saying that wineries should not set up automated cross-posts between Facebook and Twitter. Time is short, and I know a lot of people don’t like/understand Twitter. Additionally, some people are simply looking to hit two birds with one stone and are actively responding and engaging people in both spaces. That’s fine.

However, if you are going to cross-post between Facebook and Twitter, there are some simple things you can do to make these posts more effective. More on that later this week.