The following social media sharing guide helps you to get a better grip on the various sharing options for your blog posts. I have already talked about the best networks for sharing your blog posts to and when it is the best time to post on each network. Today I will dive just one step deeper and show you how to share, when to share and where to share in one concise social media sharing guide.


Every network gives you different options for presenting and promoting your post and every community reacts differently to specific posting formats. While hashtags work fine on Twitter, on Facebook and Linkedin they simply don't. It might come to a surprise, that posts with hashtags even generate less engagement on Facebook than posts without hashtags. However, posts will be found much better with hashtags, so you have to weigh your options and experiment a bit with what works best for you.


Every network provides you with different numbers of characters for your post, but it is not always recommended to use up all chars the networks provide. On Facebook you have unlimited chars, but posts with less than 50 chars work best for engagement, while on Google+ longer posts will work much better.
Most networks allow images or videos to go with your post, some activate #hashtags or handles for better search and networking options. In this article I show you what the most important options are and how you should use them.

The Complete Guide to Sharing on Social Networks: What to share, when to share and how to share for cross-promoting your blog posts

Twitter -  The Short Message Social Network


The short messaging service is the second largest social network in the whole world of social media, ranking just behind Facebook. Twitter content streams news, images and videos based on just 140 characters. Twitter was the first social network to introduce #hashtags and @handles for better search and networking options. Twitter recently implemented some changes to its 140 character limit to give your post a little more space. Even though Twitter is currently stretching its 140-character limit, it will remain in core a short message service.


Twitter facts & figures:

310 million people worldwide use Twitter and
visit the service 930 million times a day.
That is why it is important to always get right to the point when you tweet a message.

So, what exactly is a successful and engaging Tweet? What structure should it follow to get the maximum engagement and retweets from users? What to share on Twitter:

For me, Twitter is mostly business related. We run 5 Twitter accounts for our various products and in different languages, one for our company and I also have my personal Twitter account, but I use this account for business purposes, too.
How to share on Twitter: "There is a lot you can put into 140 characters"

Keep it even shorter: Tweets around 110 characters increase interaction up to 17%, Tweets with 80-110 characters work best.
Share images: Tweets with images generate up to 150% more retweets than those without. Tweets with images work best with 20-40 characters.
Include links: Tweets with links get 86% more retweets.
Use #hashtags: Adding up to 4 hashtags get more reactions, Tweets with up to 2 hashtags generate more direct interaction with users.
Use @handles to give credit or to message to specific Twitter accounts.
Call-to-action: words like please retweet, help, follow get more results. Ask for RTs results in 12 times more retweets.
Use trending # and seasonal hashtags for newsjacking and agenda surfing.


When to post and how often to share on Twitter:

The lifetime of a tweet is about 18 minutes. So it might be a good idea to share your blog post more than once on different days and at different times. Post it up to 4 times during the first 36 hours, then slow down on a weekly frequency. Afterwards, you can post it as evergreen content (every 2-3 months), but always mix your posts with curated content and other relevant content and re-tweets.
The best times to post on Twitter:
The Twittersphere is most active during the daytime hours between 8 a.m. - 7 p.m. in your audiences time zone. Tweets posted during that time will generate 30% more interaction. Tweets on weekends generate 17% higher engagement than on weekdays. The best times to tweet are:
morning hours from 8 a.m. - 10 a.m
middays from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m and
after work from 4 p.m. - 7 p.m
How often to post on Twitter:

Boost your blog post up to 4 times per day for initial promotion.
Re-post your content with different comments once a day over the next few weeks, then slow down to once a month for your evergreen content.
Please Note: For every 3 pieces of creative or promotional content, post 5 pieces of curated content from other sources and 2 pieces of personal content (that can also be replies and RTs with personal comments).



Twitter Tools:
Twitter can be a huge productivity drain, so automation tools will help you to schedule and queue your messages in advance, especially for off office hours and on weekends and holidays.

Tweriod: Tweriod gives you the best times to tweet by analysing your tweets and your follwers's tweets. Tweet when your audience is listing
Tweue.com: Queue your Tweets
Twuffer: Twuffer allows you to compose a list of future tweets, and schedule your releases.
Tagboard: helps you to monitor hashtags
Tweetdeck:monitor streams, mentions and keywords in order to respond and discuss in real time
Trending Hashtags: shows the 30 most popular hashtags in any language

Infographic: Tips for Twitter Posts

Tips for Twitter Posts

 Facebook – The Most Popular Social Network

The premiere social network ranks among the most popular social networks worldwide.

Facebook facts & figures

Facebook has 1.654 million users worldwide and
7,2 billion page visits a day
Facebook is primarily used for private conversions, but it's great for brand marketing in B2B and B2C communications, too.

Tipps for cross-promoting your blog post on Facebook
Facebook gives you a lot of freedom to present your content. Text posts work as well as images and videos. There is practically no limit for the length of a Facebook post. However, only the first 480 characters are displayed in the stream, the rest is hidden behind the “show more”-button. So make sure you put the essence of your message into these first 480 characters.

How to share on Facebook:
Facebook allows you to promote your blog post on your profile, your pages and in Facebook groups. Publishing your blog post along with a video or picture works best.

Post with images and questions work best.
Facebook posts with less than 50 characters are more engaging than longer posts.
However, posts that link to longer form articles over over 1,000 words get the most engagement.
Posts without hashtags get more interaction, but they are more difficult to be found.

Personal comments work best for interaction. When you share a blog post on Facebook always add a personal and engaging comment on why your followers shall read, like or share your post.
Encourage your readers to share their opinion. Ask questions to get more response: What, Why, Who, When, Which, Would, How.
Videos that are directly embedded get over six times the engagement of embedded YouTube videos.
The 7 popular post types on Facebook:

Photos (with no link)
Question Posts
Video
Giveaway Posts
Links (with or without image)
Coupons/Promotions



When to post and how often to share on Facebook:

The best times to post on Facebook

in the afternoon from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
in the evening from 6 p.m. - 10 p.m.
also on weekends


How often to post on Facebook:

Promote your blog post once for initial promotion
Engagement generally increases with more than one posts per day, but decreases with more than two posts.
Share your blog post on your profile as well as your page and in groups, but at different times and with different comments.
Re-share your evergreen content every 2-3 month, but only on your profile.


Facebook Tools:

Pagemodo: Pagemodo simplifies Facebook Advertising from start to finish. Create your ad in the intuitive design studio, reach your audience with simplified targeting tools, and optimize future Facebook ads with user-friendly analytics.
Heyo:Use Heyo to easily create sweepstakes, contests, and campaigns that publish to mobile, Facebook, and anywhere on the web.
Likealyzer: LikeAlyzer helps you to measure and analyze the potential and effectiveness of your Facebook Pages.
fanpagekarma: Analyze your profiles - and your competitors. With KPIs, analyses and reports. Monitor your success and increase your social reach every day.


Infographic: Tips for Facebook Posts:

Tips for Facebook posts

Google+ - Google’s Social Network

Google has been around since 2011 and was launched to counterattack Facebook and has collected more than 3 billion users, but the number of users is a bit tinted. In order to speed up the collection of community members, Google connected other services such as Gmail, Drive, YouTube, Hangouts and many others. So, whenever you register for any of Googles services you automatically have a Google+ account. However, only 25 million Google+ users have ever posted on the platform and only 4-6 million among these are really active.

Similar to Facebook and LinkedIn, Google+ provides personal profiles, business pages and groups and allows for a wide variety of posts, including images, videos or polls.

However, the big advantage of Google+ is its seamless integration with all other Google services. Also, Google+ makes it much easier to invite people to your network than Facebook or LinkedIn. You simply add them to your circles and mark them as a family member, friend or colleague. You can also add people back in return for adding you.

Even if your main outlets are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, crossposting to Google+ still makes a lot of sense, since most of your pals and targets are very likely to have a Google+ account. Active profiles on Google+ have an impact on the ranking in Googles search engine, so it is definitely worth using it.

Google facts & figures:

Google+ has 3 billion users worldwide and
100 million page visits a day.

The network serves primarily company communications and expert talk, so its most active users are communication experts, SEOs and bloggers.



Tips for cross-promoting your blog posts on Google+

As on Facebook, you can share your blog post on your personal profile, on your company’s page and on Google+ groups. The rules for posting are also similar to Facebook, but not in every aspect.

How to post on Google+:

Posts with #hashtags work better on Google+ than on Facebook.
There is no limit for the length of your post to characters and on Google+ longer introductions for your post work best for engagement: tell your followers why they should read and share.
A length of 156 characters in two or three sentences works best for engagement.
The more you post, the more engagement you get. Three posts a day work best for engagement.
Share your blog post on your profile as well as your page and in groups, but at different times and with different comments.
Make your comments personal for more engagement.


When to post and how often to share on Google+:

The best times to post on Google+

in the morning from 7 a.m. - 10 a.m. and
in the afternoon from 2 p.m. - 3 p.m.


How often to post on Google+:

Post your blog post once for initial promotion
Also post to your page and relevant groups, but do so at different days and times and use different comments
Re-share your evergreen content every 2-3, but only on your stream.



Google+ Tools:

Photo Backup: Back up photos and videos from your Windows or Mac computer and whenever you connect a phone, camera or storage card.
Google Drive: you can share password-protected documents, presentations, slideshows and PDF with your Google+ audience
Auto Awesome: Create collages or animations with your photos.


Infographic: Tips for Google+ posts


Tips for Google+ Posts 

LinkedIn – The International Business Network

LinkedIn facts & figures
LinkedIn is the biggest international business network. The network mainly serves the purpose of contacting and networking with business contacts, recruiting high potentials and communicating business news and developments.

LinkedIn has 433 million members worldwide and
820 million page visits a day.


Tips for cross-promoting your blog posts on LinkedIn
LinkedIn allows you to post on your profile, on business- and focus pages and on LinkedIn groups. You cam also re-publish your blog post on LinkedIns Content Network LinkedInPulse.
How to share on LinkedIn:

Sharing your blog post along with an image and link to your post works best.
A LinkedIn post should not be longer than 600 characters.
On pages, only the first 463 characters are displayed.
Updates in your stream show your post along with the first 238 characters of your comment.
Share your blog post on your profile, as well as on your business page and focus page at different times and with different comments.
Make your comments personal and engaging: ask questions or make your statement to encourage engagement with your post.
How-to postings perform best for post views, likes, comments and shares than any other post type, list posts also perform well.
Posts with images work better than posts with text only.

When to post and how often to share on LinkedIn:
People are most likely to read your post in the early morning hours before work and after work in the late afternoon. Remember the time difference when you post for international clients.


The best times to post on LinkedIn

in the morning between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. and
between in the afternoon 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Posts published on Thursdays get the most average total views, followed by Sundays.


How often to post on LinkedIn:

Post your blog post once for initial promotion.
Post recurring updates to your profile once a week, then slow down to every 3-4 month on your profile, but not on your page.
Also post to your business page and / or your focus page depending on your content but do so at different days/times.
Post your blog content in groups, but do not just copy & paste, but use different comments depending on the group and target audience and post on different days and times.
Re-publish your blog content on LinkedIn Pulse.


LinkedIn Tools:

Crystalknows: Crystal gives you personality information for everyone you contact, coaching you to get their attention, win their trust, and earn their business.
LeadFuze: quickly gather contact information then send personal emails and follow-ups to them automatically.
Outro: Outro quickly finds and connects you to new potential clients, employees, partners, investors, and more, within your organization's immediate and extended network.
discoverly: See information from social networks as you browse



Infographic: Tips for LinkedIn posts

Tips for LinkedIN Posts

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Visual content is increasingly important for blogging as well as for posting on social networks. Posts with images or videos are more likely to get attention than bare text.

Sharing your images successively will extent the lifetime of your posts and will also have an impact on your visibility in the search engines. Shared images with links will provide more possible search hits and backlinks to your blog. So, sharing your blog post images on social networks such as Pinterst, Instagram or Flickr can gain more outreach for your blog.


Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr

Pinterest – The Branding Network 

Pinterest facts & figures

Pinterest has 100 million active users worldwide and
gets up to 300 million page views a day.

Tips for cross-promoting your blog posts on Pinterest
On Pinterest, you can organize your images on specific pinboards, which helps you to create a visual brand identity. Everything visual from photos, screenshots, infographics to posters is allowed.
How to share on Pinterest:
While the image remains the most important part of a pin, the description gives more information about what the pin is. You may describe and comment your images in 500 characters.

Post the featured image for your blog post on Pinterest with a link to your original blog post.
150- to 300-word descriptions work best to convince users to click.
The description is also an opportunity to add in your desired searchable keywords.

Add focus keywords in form of #hashtag in your pin description, so that your pins are easier to be found.

Adding a link to your pin descriptions can increase clicks to your site, because users can click on the pin to actually travel to your site.
Calls to action (CTAs) in your pin description encourage users to take a desired action. Popular examples of CTAs that work well include: Repin, Learn More, Enter Our Sweepstakes or Buy Now.

When to post and how often to share on Pinterest:
People are most likely to read your post in the early morning hours before work and after work in the late afternoon. Remember the time difference when you post for international clients.


The best times to post on Pinterest:

Pinterest is around midday from 12 a.m. - 2 p.m. and
in the evening from 7 p.m. - 10 p.m. and
also post on weekends.


How often to post on Pinterest:

Post your featured image of your blog post for initial promotion.
Then post all suitable images of your blog post.
Share all sharable images from your post gallery successively over the following days to re-share your post on Pinterest.


Pinterest Tools:

Pinterest Business Suite: Analytics suite with insight statistics on profile views, board views, clicks on pins.
Autopin: automation software for Pinterest based on filters for auto-follows and likes and board invites.

Infographic: Tips for Pinterest posts




Instagram – Photo Sharing in Real Time

Instagram facts & figures

400 million users worldwide use Instagram each month and
the network is visited 770 million times per day.

Whereas Pinterest is focused on brand communication, Instagram is real time communication with images. Unlike Pinterest, Instagram provides a unique square size for all images, which is 1080 px in width by 1080 px in height. Especially food, lifestyle and fashion bloggers use Instagram for sharing and networking. However, the network is also suitable for corporate communications.

Tips for cross-promoting your blog posts on Instagram
Whereas on Pinterest, images are organized in albums on pinwalls, Instagram displays all images in a single stream.

The lifetime of an image post on Instagram is much shorter than on Pinterest. Most interaction takes place within the first few hours after posting. Despite the focus on hashtags, images on Instagram fall much faster into oblivion than pins on Pinterest.
How to share on Instagram:

Comments can be up to 2200 characters, of which only the first three lines are displayed in the feed. #Hashtags are very important on Instagram, so many comments consist of #hashtags only. Be sure to add your focus keywords in your comments.
Use the key words of your blog post as hashtags, so that as many Instagram users as possible will find your picture.

When to post and how often to share on Instagram:
People are most likely to read your post in the early morning hours before work and after work in the late afternoon. Remember the time difference when you post for international clients.


The best times to post on Instagram:

Instagram is around midday from 12 a.m. - 2 p.m. and
in the evening from 7 p.m. - 10 p.m.


How often to post on Instagram:

Share your featured image on Instagram, but also share other sharable images from your post gallery to re-share your post successively on Instagram.


Instagram Tools:

Instagram Analytics:  summary of your overall profile as well as individual posts’ reach, views and engagement and analytics showing times when your followers are most active.
Instagress: supports your community building for Instagram with providing filters for users’ profile bios, location, users they follow, recent posts and many more.
Holr: allows to send a customized auto-message template to followers, for example to promote a new product, link or a welcome message. The messages are not sent instantaneously but gradually.

Infographic: Tips for Instagram posts


Tips for Instagram Posts

Flickr – Yahoo’s Photo-Sharing Site

Flickr is one of the oldest photo-sharing communities and is directly integrated into Yahoo’s online services, but Flickr can still reach a lot of people.

Flickr facts & figures

The Flickr photo community has 75 million users worldwide and
gets 76 million times page visits a day.

Tips for cross-promoting your blog posts on Flickr
There is no limit of characters for your post. Use your keywords as #hashtags, so that your images can be found more easily on Flickr.

How to share on Flickr:

Share the featured image of your blog post on Flickr with a link to your blog post.
Share all other blog post images successively.
Use your keywords as #hashtags to increase the visibility of images.

When to post and how often to share on Flickr:
People are most likely to read your post in the early morning hours before work and after work in the late afternoon. Remember the time difference when you post for international clients.


The best times to post on Flickr:

Flickr is in the early morning hours from 7 a.m. - 9 a.m. and
in the evening from 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.


How often to post on Flickr:

Post your featured image of your blog post for initial promotion.
Then post all suitable images of your blog post.

Flickr Tools:

Uploadr: Upload hundreds of thousands of photos with 1000 GB of free storage.


Infographic: Tips for Flickr posts

Tips for Flickr Posts

Editorial Networks for Re-Publishing Your Blog Post:
Tumblr, Medium, Torial, LinkedIn Pulse, Slideshare, Scribd, Issue, Quora, . . .

General Sharing Tips for Editorial Networks (Content Networks)

Re-Publish your blog content to other blogging networks and content sharing sites to give your content a wider outreach.
You may vary your headlines and your copy.
Always share your blog posts with 5-7 days delay to your original post, for letting Google index your original blog post first.


 Tumblr – Yahoo’s Blogging Platform

Tumblr facts & figures
Tumblr is the most popular blogging community where users publish and share texts, images, quotations, links and videos. Tumblr provides the complete functionality of a blog.

The blogging network has 282 million active users worldwide and
up to 440 million page visits a day.
The network is particularly used by younger folks. But it is also suitable for blogs and corporate blogs for re-publishing blog content to reach more potential readers.

Tips for cross-promoting your blog post on Tumblr
There is no character-limit for your posts. You can choose the HTML format for your blog post.

How to share on Tumblr:

You can re-publish your entire blog post on Tumblr.
Use keywords as tags in order to attract more interested readers to your post.
Posts with images and videos work best on Tumblr.

When to post and how often to share on Tumblr:
People are most likely to read your post in the early evening hours after work.


The best times to post on Tumblr:

late afternoon and
in the evening between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m.


Medium – The Editorial Network

Medium is an editorial network for social journalism,  focusing on the exchange of ideas, articles and stories. The network is known for its committed and interactive readership.

Medium currently has 625.000 users and
gets visited 26 million times a day.

Tips for cross-promoting your blog posts on Medium
Like Tumblr, Medium provides users with entire blog functionalities.


How to share on Medium:

Re-publish your entire blog post on Medium and add a link to the original post, as well as related posts on your blog.
You can customized headings and subheadings, add key words and insert your links and pictures directly in the text.

When to post and how often to share on Medium:
People are most likely to read your post during day time in the early evening hours after work.


The best times to post on Medium:

between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m.





Diigo, Delicious, Digg – the social bookmarking networks

Social bookmarking networks are great to easily save, organize and share links to all kinds of online resources. Always be sure to save your blog posts as links to your collection and share them with your followers and friends.

Diigo has 3 million pages views per day.

Tips for cross-promoting your blog posts on Social bookmarting networks

Publish your post with #hashtags and a link to your blog post.

Social Media Sharing and Cross-Sharing Automation: Pros and Cons

Let's take a look at the pros first:
Automating cross-posting to multiple networks:

Saves time for posting on each network manually.
Provides your networks with a consistent stream of valuable content for your readers.
Leaves you with more time and space to engage with your community and active networking.

So what are the cons?
Blasting out robot-like the same message to all of your networks:

Lack the human touch that otherwise makes your posts personal and engaging.
Will be recognized by your followers as robotic content.
May annoy your followers if posting frequency gets too tight.

Therefore, a lot of things have to be considered when setting up an automation process and choosing a suitable tool.

Don't just broadcast your blog post to all of your channels, without promoting it.
Tailor your posts for each network and add personal comments to encourage engagement.
Use tools that help you to customise your posts and choose the best times to post on each network

How Blog2Social can help

The Wordpress Plugin Blog2Social automatically turns your blog post into the optimal format for every network. The plugin allows you to customize each post for each network individually with personal comments, hashtags or handles on a one-page preview page for all networks. You can also schedule your post on network-level or use the best time scheduler to  share your posts automatically at the best time to post on each network. You can schedule your post on a one-time or recurring basis.


Blog2Social cross-shares and corss-promotes your posts on Facebook (profiles, pages), Twitter, Google+ (profiles, pages, groups), LinkedIn (profiles, pages), XING (profiles, pages, groups), Diigo, Delicious, to Tumblr, Medium, Torial for re-publishing your post, as well as your images on Instagram, Flickr and Pinterest.

Customizing blog posts with the Blog2Social social media plugin for Wordpress

It's free to use it for crossposting, cross-promoting and customizing your posts and there is a Premium upgrade for elaborate sharing and scheduling features.
How to work with Blog2Social