Should You Use The Same Content On Facebook And Instagram?

This is a question I get asked A LOT, so if you’re wondering this too, you’re in the right place.

To answer this question, you first need to think and understand the different platforms. Facebook is much more wordy, it’s about starting conversations with people, interacting with them, and your content on there needs to fit that purpose,

Instagram is a very different animal. This is a place of inspiration and aspiration, it’s a platform of beautiful imagery and ideology rather than the every day issues which people air on Facebook.

That is one main reason why you should not use or duplicate your content across the platforms, as well as the following reasons:

Instagram doesn't allow links in the content

If you’re scheduling your posts from Meta Business Suite, then you’ll need to resize images to a vertical shape for Instagram.

Different platforms have different demographics

Hashtags and account tags may not exist on one platform or another

Duplicating content means that people have no reason to follow you on both platforms, so you may actually lose followers

These are the main reasons why you should have different content for different platforms, but don’t panic just yet, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this will now involve a whole heap more work for you.

Let’s say you are a web designer, and you want to post about building websites..
On Facebook you would have something like this:

This has wording in the image to resonate with people who may see this in their newsfeed, or wherever you share the post. It would be accompanied by a longer description, could have your business page tagged in there like ‘@themcnealmethod’, and you can add a couple of hashtags if you like, although they’re not as prevalent on Facebook as they are in Instagram.

Over on Instagram you would use something like this:

This shows the world (and your customers!) how you product helps them to lead a happier and easier life - remember Instagram is about how life should be! In the accompanying wording, you would pop a shorter comment about how your customers have benefitted from your products or services, focus on the positives, use 3-7 (researched) hashtags and don’t add any links. Don’t forget you can always add the wording ‘link in bio’ and make sure you have a link in your bio to whatever you’re wanting to promote, whether that’s your website or. special landing page etc.

Hopefully that’s answered your question, and you now understand that you need different content for different platforms - but as always if you have any questions, drop me a comment below or email me at info@themcnealmethod.com