Rev & Reach Episode 13 – One Message, Five Channels: Tailoring Without Losing the Plot

00:08
LORI: Hello, everybody. I’m Lori Jovest, and welcome to another episode of Rev & Reach, created by Pop Speed Digital Marketing to help you get more ROI from your digital marketing efforts. I’m Lori Jovest. I’m here with Kiley Metcalfe. We are the two… I don’t know what you’d call us… the two head women in charge. We are the people that are running this agency and helping our clients on digital channels, with social, YouTube, blogs, websites, emails, creating campaigns and ongoing initiatives that actually get results. And Kiley came up with the subject for today, so I’m going to let her kick us off. So whatcha got?

00:56
KILEY: Yeah, so one of the things we see a lot, whether we’re onboarding new clients or trying to reach new potential ones, is a lot of brands that share the same identical content across the board on all of their channels. And we’ll never tell you that repurposing content is a bad thing… a lot of the time, it’s a very good example of working smarter, not harder.

But the problem with this is, all channels are not created equal. What works on one will not, more often than not, work on another. Every channel is very nuanced. So today, what we want to talk about is tailoring your content to work and cater to the algorithms of each specific channel that you’re on… whether that’s Meta platforms—so Threads, Instagram, Facebook; LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, the list goes on. Of course, a lot of brands are not going to be on every single social channel that exists, but as long as you’re on more than one, the rules of the game change. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

02:06
LORI: Yes, yes. And we’re on this every single day, so we hear about the changes before most people do. Just to give you an example of the kind of changes that happen on these channels: Instagram, just over the last couple of months, went from these really cool little square images that we had all adjusted to… to now, everything’s vertical, and it is a lot harder to create a nice graphic that’s vertical, tall and skinny, especially if you’re used to doing things horizontally or as squares.

So those kinds of things happen on all the channels as well: the sizes of the images that they accept, the size of the files, the video files. You might be able to put a video on Facebook but not be able to put the same one on X because it’s too big, or the wrong aspect ratio. It’s insane. But besides that, there are things about these channels that are very unique.

Starting off with Instagram, everybody loves Instagram, right? I mean, is there anybody we know that doesn’t love Instagram?

KILEY: Exactly. I think it’s my favorite besides TikTok, I guess. Yeah, Instagram’s up there.

LORI: Yeah, it’s right up there. But the thing that you’ll notice on Instagram is you cannot use links in your copy. So they’re not paying attention and they’re putting links in the post copy on Instagram. Nobody is going to copy and paste your link… they’re not going to.

So, you customize that for “link in bio,” and then send them to the bio. You use a linktree, or some type of a multi-link tool… there’s several of them, right? The person clicks on that link, and they see all your links and can go to the article you mention. Nobody’s going to copy and paste. That just doesn’t happen, right?

KILEY: Exactly.

LORI: So let’s talk about some other differences.

03:59
KILEY: I think another big one with Instagram that we see a lot is hashtags. Again, we’ve said it here before, we’ll say it again… the power of hashtags is kind of up in the air at the moment.

Some people are using them. Some people are not at all anymore, and then you’ll find a lot of people like us that have just decreased the amount that they’re using. You used to be able… I believe it was up to about 20 hashtags; was optimal?

LORI: They recommended up to 20.

KILEY: Yeah, optimal on Instagram. That seemingly overnight, maybe a year or so ago, dwindled all the way down to now, I believe, three to eight is more optimal; so that’s kind of where we’re at. The reach of these hashtags is less and less; people are just searching specific hashtags on the platform less frequently.

So, there’s not… controversy is not the word… but there’s a little bit of kind of “to each their own” with the power of hashtags right now on Instagram. However, they are still one of the channels where, you know, you see a post, you see a hashtag. It looks normal. It doesn’t look like somebody doesn’t know what they’re doing because they put a hashtag there, right?

But then, on the flip side… and because they’re both Meta platforms, I guess the misconception is, a lot of people working for brand socials think they work more similarly than they actually do. But…

LORI: On Facebook?

KILEY: Yes, exactly; on Facebook. You’ll see a lot of the same hashtags on Facebook as you do on Instagram. Facebook hashtags are useless. They’re not going to help you. Maybe a vanity hashtag, just something that signals “this is our brand, this is our community”… just more for aesthetic purposes as opposed to actually increasing your reach. It might look a little bit more normal, but that is one of the key things I would say. Similarly to using links on Facebook and then trying to do the exact same thing on Instagram… doesn’t work. Hashtags on Instagram are not going to work on Facebook.

LORI: And if you listened to our last episode, then you already know that hashtags are being replaced with keywords in the copy. So hashtags are losing their relevance for search and for putting those posts in people’s feeds that follow them.

06:59
So what you really want to look at more is interest-based targeting. If someone is interested in grief support, or they’re interested in the benefits of steel, you’ll want to use those keywords instead of hashtags to help drive people and get people to see your content when they search.

So, what other kinds of differences? One thing I see too, which I think is really interesting, is people are on LinkedIn… and I think this is appropriate… but they’re getting more personal. If you were not paying attention, you might not know that LinkedIn isn’t necessarily all business all the time anymore. I follow an influencer that calls it “LinkedIn at night,” and she posts more racy topics, and it’s super fun. And also, just a lot more personal stories… a lot more, “my father died two weeks ago, and here’s how that’s affected me in my daily performance at the office,” or using LinkedIn to let your work or business community know something has happened. You’re not necessarily notifying them, but sharing the story.

That’s getting more popular; but it’s still a place you want to focus more on business overall. And if you do write something up like that, it’s always best to tie it back to business in some way.

What other platforms? TikTok, I think, is a really big difference from the other channels too, right, Kiley? How would you describe it?

08:14
KILEY: I would say so for sure, because the vast majority is video-focused. Now, you can do the sliders, kind of similar to how you can on Instagram, but it is video, video, video… all the time… a little bit more like YouTube in that sense, except it combines that scrolling aspect of Instagram, which I think is why people love it so much, because it’s that quick, mindless scroll, but it’s just videos, and they’re almost always interesting. If they’re not, okay, let me skip it, right?

One of the key things about TikTok that separates it from other channels is, again with the links… I believe, unless this number has been updated, you can’t include links in your copy unless you’re a business page, and not until you have 1,000 followers.

So it is another one of those things where you’ve got to be focused on entertaining to build that audience first. If you’re not entertaining, you’re not going to get there… just the brutally honest truth.

09:38
Another interesting thing to point out about TikTok is that when you create videos using the TikTok app, and use all of their in-app features, once it’s posted, if you try to download that video from your account to repurpose it elsewhere… Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, wherever… it will download with a TikTok watermark, so every other channel knows where it was made and where it came from.

If you take that video with the TikTok watermark and then use it as an Instagram Reel, it will not perform.

LORI: Oh, interesting. Okay, good info.

KILEY: Yes, you absolutely get pinged in the algorithm on Instagram, specifically within Reels, if it’s not created there.

Is TikTok very user-friendly in its video creation resources? It absolutely is. It makes it very easy. If you’re repurposing that content, though, that’s just something to consider. It’s also very easy to do in Instagram or other platforms, so it might be worth it, or it might not… it depends on who’s doing your social, but just something to consider because you might not see the results on other platforms.

11:08
LORI: I’ve seen a lot of TikTok videos over on Instagram, which I find interesting. I haven’t noticed performance on those yet, I’ll have to pay attention, because we usually create our videos in a video editing platform and then put them up. Sometimes we will use the music from Instagram, because I have heard that it will perform better if you put their music on it, and they’ve had some kind of input to that video… it will perform higher in the algorithm.

KILEY: I think that’s true for TikTok as well; the rules there are a little bit different than they are on Instagram. So I’m sure you’ll eventually run into an issue where you maybe can’t use the exact same audio on Instagram and TikTok. If you run into that, that might be an instance where it makes sense to use something from elsewhere if you really want it to be consistent.

But I think on every platform, it does increase reach to select the audio as you’re posting within that platform, because… because of TikTok, audios go viral and they trend, and if people are searching or only watching videos of a given audio, that’s just another place where your content is going to show up that it maybe wouldn’t have otherwise.

12:33
LORI: Yeah, I mean, all these little tips all work together to get you higher up in the algorithm and get you better performance. I want to talk just a little bit about YouTube, too, because we’ve been really digging in over there, and it is pretty amazing what kind of reach you can get on Shorts, which are all vertical.

Honestly, I’m almost not even hesitant to recommend that whatever you’re recording, you record it vertically these days. I don’t like the vertical so much, but all the channels are going to them. Instagram had Reels, then TikTok came along, then YouTube created Shorts, and with a good Short, you can get some really nice reach numbers organically, which is surprising.

Also, I’ve found that YouTube promotion is pretty affordable. It’s really easy to target, and it’s very affordable. So again, if you’re not on YouTube, make sure you start creating assets that can go there for your other channels, because it’s a great place as a support for everything else that you do.

So anything else we want to say about helping people understand the difference in what you post on different channels?

13:59
KILEY: I was going to say, I think just considering audiences is really important, and really distinguishing those differences. We’ve talked about our grief support nonprofit client before, right? So the types of things that work on Facebook, where it’s a lot more community-based and family-oriented, might not work on somewhere like LinkedIn, where maybe we’re talking more specifically to people of a certain career, like childhood therapists, educators, or even funeral homes. It’s a much more business-focused platform; so you kind of tailor it to who you’re speaking to.

And then Pinterest… I know we talked about Pinterest just before this, Lori… is another good example. So many moms, especially millennial moms, are on Pinterest. It’s been part of our lives forever, right? And that’s a great place for resources, family resources, journal prompts, activities to help your grieving children and things like that.

So really taking deep dives when you’re in your strategy creation phase about who lives on what platform and what they’re looking for there, and tailoring your messaging accordingly.

15:32
So once again, is that to say that you can’t post on TikTok and use the same video, if done correctly, on Instagram Reels and Facebook? No, but your copy absolutely needs to be edited to mesh with the person that you’re trying to reach on that given platform. Whether that’s removing links and using them in the bio, editing hashtags, or using slightly different language… still including those keywords, but using language that’s going to resonate with the common audience on each platform.

16:12
LORI: Absolutely. And the one thing I want to add before we wrap up is that video on all of these channels is really, really important. Yeah, specifically on TikTok, however, if you cannot feed that channel three videos a week… would you say Kiley?

KILEY: Yeah. Absolutely minimum.

LORI: Three videos a week, continually, that are meaningful. You can give really good advice, you can be entertaining, you can… okay, can I just out myself? There’s a 1990s home decor show called Design Sense that everybody’s been going bananas for.

KILEY: I love it.

LORI: It’s absolutely hilarious. People go there expecting to be entertained, to laugh, to see something that means something, to be drawn in by content… not to be advertised to. So before you make a decision to go over to TikTok, make sure you are spending some time on that channel to see what will be required and know that like three to five videos a week is what it’s going to take to hit those high numbers and make it worth your while.

KILEY: Absolutely.

LORI: And yes, you can advertise there, but your channel still has to have a lot of followers, have experienced a lot of engagement. There’s got to be strong content there to actually see results.

17:33
KILEY: Absolutely. So I think that’s really important… speaking just to wrap up specifically to TikTok. Another way that it differentiates itself is that, of course, you can advertise there, but because of including links in your bio and captions, because of that rule, it’s so important that you’re at that three-to-five-times-a-week range, and that they’re all high quality, engaging content to grow you as fast as possible.

Because Meta platforms like Instagram and Facebook have that little cheat code where you can put a bunch of money into it and build a following of real, interested audience members pretty quickly. You can do that on TikTok, but it’s going to take a little bit longer because it functions so differently.

LORI: It does. There’s not necessarily the “like my page” functionality.

KILEY: Right, exactly… exactly.

LORI: You know, it’s just not there. But if people love what you’re posting, they will follow you, so.

KILEY: Yeah.

LORI: Well, that’s what we’ve got for today. Again, Pop Speed Digital Marketing… we are here for you. We’re both open networkers on LinkedIn. Both Kiley Metcalfe and Lori Jo Vest, happy to talk to you there and also take suggestions for what we should be talking about.

We want to help you get more ROI from your digital marketing and social media efforts. That’s why we’re here. If you’d like to know more about us, check out popspeeddigital.com, and we will see you again with some more helpful advice in a few weeks.

KILEY: Bye, everybody.