How to Cross Promote on Social Media? (4 Strategies)

Cross promotion is something we talk about a lot, but few people know how to do it properly. If you’re spamming your other socials and just assume that you’re doing enough, you’re 100% wrong.

You have access to one of the most powerful forms of marketing with your cross promotion – don’t let it get away.

We’re going to explain:

Whether you’re trying to grow your TikTok, Instagram, YouTube or other socials, you’ll find these tips very helpful.

What is Cross Promotion and Why Does It Matter?

Cross promotion doesn’t just mean that you repost the same post across all platforms. That’s cross posting. Your cross promotion involves:

For example, let’s assume that you make a 10-minute video on dog training for your YouTube channel. You decide that you can make 10, 10-second clips from this one main video and then post two of these “teaser” videos to:

If you add a link back to the main YouTube video, it’s a successful cross promotion.

Wait! Isn’t Cross Promoting Different?

Yes. It can also mean that you’re cross promoting a similar brand or influencer’s content on your socials. There’s a blend between collaboration and cross promoting that’s been occurring, and cross promotion can be a sort of collaboration between you and other entities or people.

Whew, confusing, right?

But there’s good news. We’re going to cover both types of cross promotion so that you can get your posts seen by more people.

Warning: Spam Will Get the Opposite Results

One mistake that we want to stop immediately for our readers is that someone will post the same clips to every platform either:

No one who follows all of your socials will be happy when you spam the same posts at the same time. You can post the same post again in the future, but it needs to be spread out over weeks or months.

If you create unique content for these channels specifically to cross promote on social media, that’s where the power of this technique resides.

How to Cross Promote on Social Media in 2024 – 4 Best Practices

Are you ready to begin cross promoting on social media? If you follow these best practices, you’ll be well on your way to diverting more people to your high-quality content and growing your accounts at the same time.

1. Set Goals for Your Cross Promotion 🎯

Success is driven by goals, and if you don’t know them, you can’t begin to track your cross promotion. You should consider:

If you have all of these questions answered, you can now begin creating a base of all of this data. Perhaps you want to get 1,000 views to your new YouTube video, and you have 10 views from socials so far. You’ll want to log this data somewhere so that you know what’s working and what’s not.

You want to create goals that will be your KPIs.

Tracking your goals will require analytics. You may be able to use:

2. Tailor Your Posts for Each Platform 

Remember our example from before, where we mentioned creating 10 short clips from your long-form video? You can and should create content that is tailored to the specific platform that you plan on posting to.

Popular post options and tips to keep in mind are:

You’ll want to consider the top post types for the social media platforms that you prefer using. A simple change in post type can mean the difference between hitting your goals and KPIs or putting effort into a losing strategy.

It’s worth the extra effort to create custom content for all of your socials.

What to Do If You Don’t Have Time to Create Unique Posts?

Hire someone. Most of the world’s top creators have known that their time and resources are best spent on creating new content. And if you don’t have the time to create posts, someone can help you.

Hire someone from:

You’ll find very talented people who will help you create additional content that you can use to cross promote on social media. Try out multiple forms of content to see what’s working best with your audience.

Small tweaks can pay you back tenfold, so it’s worth making changes to your posting strategy.

3. Schedule Posts Ahead of Time

You have great posts that are tailored to the social media platform of your choice, but now you need to consider what time you’re posting. A lot of buzz has been going around recently that post scheduling leads to lower engagement.

Why?

People state that algorithms know you’re using a poster and will not promote your content. We’ve seen this with LinkedIn, but we haven’t seen it as much with other social media networks.

We recommend creating:

And you’ll want to post at the optimal times. We have an extensive series of guides on posting time, which you can find below:

Posting at just the right time can help your cross promotion be seen by more people and receive better engagement.

4. Reformat Your Posts for Each Platform

Each social media platform has its own features and format. You have Stories on Instagram and Live on Facebook. It’s important to embrace each platform and reformat your content based on where you’re posting.

For example, let’s say that you’ve recently renovated your building and you want to share the news on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

Although the general message is the same across all of these platforms, the format and messaging are different.

Embracing different platform formats may mean having to adjust your content slightly and incorporating both photos and videos into your content plan.

We recommend taking the time to research the most popular formats for each platform and ensuring that you’re following these formats whenever you cross promote.

Cross Promotional Collab Ideas

Collaborations can also be cross promotional because you can share your message across multiple platforms and off of social media.

1. Work With Influencers

Influencer partnerships are a great way to cross promote. Here’s an example:

La’mariette, a swimwear company, partnered with Selena Gomez, who has a whopping 195 million followers on Instagram. Selena posted a photo of herself posing in one of their swimsuits. She tagged the brand in the post, and the brand posted Selena’s photo on their website.

In this collaboration, the brand was able to expand its reach and cross promote its new photo on social media through Selena’s account.

You can take a similar approach by working with influencers, or you can do a simple Collab post that will be posted to each of your accounts on Instagram.

Collab posts are really effective for cross promotion, so don’t overlook them. You can find influencers to work with on influencer marketing platforms if you’re not sure who to connect with.

To create a Collab post on Instagram:

Your collaborator will need to accept before it can be published.

Can’t you just tag a person in your post or have them tag you?

Yes, you can absolutely take this approach, but it won’t have the same effect. When someone tags you in a post, it won’t be shown to your followers. To see it, profile visitors will need to open the Tagged tab.

When you do a Collab post with another user, the post will be shared with your audience and their audience. Both of you will be listed as authors of the content, which will make your account highly visible to viewers.

Overall, Collab posts are more impactful if your goal is to cross promote because your content will be prominently featured in your collaborator’s feed.

2. Run Contests with Other Brands That Share Your Audience

Another great way to cross promote through collaborations is to run contests with other brands that share your audience. Maybe you sell shoes, and another brand sells clothing. You both have similar audiences. Running a contest where you give away an entire outfit – shoes included – would be a great way to cross promote.

You can both promote the contest on your social accounts, allowing both of you to cross promote on multiple platforms.

To host a contest with a collaborator, you need to agree on:

Once you have all of the details ironed out, you can create unique posts for each social platform.

3. Be a Guest on a Podcast

Millions of people listen to podcasts each month, so this is another great opportunity for cross promotion through collaboration.

Securing a guest spot on a podcast will allow you to promote your brand to a bigger audience while providing something valuable to listeners. 

When choosing podcasts to guest on, look for shows that share a similar audience but aren’t direct competitors. Figure out how you can add value to the show and its listeners and pitch the collaboration idea to the host.

Once you’ve secured a guest spot, you can promote it on your social accounts. The podcast will also likely promote the episode and your appearance. You’ll easily expand your reach and cross promote on a wide range of social platforms.

Frequently Asked Questions