These days a lot pre-selling happens via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest. Social media are the source of product and service recommendations, provide social proof and the measure of your reputation.

It is therefore important for every business large or small, to actively connect with their customers via social media channels. Unfortunately, although these social platforms are frequently lumped together as social media, each platform is like a different country – with different rules and customs, and a different language.

So to be effective in connecting to your customers, you can not post exactly the same status update on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus, or your posts or status updates will fall on deaf ears.

As one of the social media experts put it, each social media platform is its own country. For example – LinkedIn is a land of complete sentences, good punctuation, no slang, total professionalism. LinkedIn world is business-oriented, formal and proper. Business readers are pressed for time, so you’ve got to get to the meat of the post as quickly as possible. Actionable business tips are appreciated and shared the most.

Facebook on the other hand is far more casual. Similar to LinkedIn, Facebook is about connecting, yet the language used on Facebook is far more frivolous and fun. On Facebook you connect through educating or entertaining or both. The platform is also very visual, so if you want your post to be read, including an eye-caching image is a must.

In order to capture your follower’s attention and entice them to click through to read the article, you need to post a good hook. The best hooks seem to start with a question – How, Why, What and Where, or a number e.g. 5 ways to be more productive … Different language used on different social media platforms is one of the biggest reasons to avoid posting the same updates across the board. Crafting one update for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter may save time, but it can make your social media marketing efforts fall flat.

These days a lot pre-selling happens via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest. Social media are the source of product and service recommendations, provide social proof and the measure of your reputation.

As one of the social media experts put it, each social media platform is its own country. Crafting one update for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter may save time, but it can make your social media marketing efforts fall flat.