What's your preference - regurgitate content on social media or just post it the once?

[SanjidaKazi]

Hi All,

Not been on the forums for a while and this isn't really an SEO question.

How do you feel about Twitter feeds that constantly regurgitate the same content. It's pretty much industry standard on most pages but if the content is yours, no affiliates or other people are involved - is it really necessary to plug the same 500 word blog post over and over?

Personally, I don't like it. I think it looks spammy and unprofessional and in all honesty, I unfollow pages regularly because of it.. What do you guys think? Am I squandering content by not regurgitating?

Happy Monday all - Jamie

[MillyShaw]

Tweets have such a short shelf life that it is worth posting a few times for really great content, to make sure you reach the maximum audience. To avoid annoying your followers, try:

• Posting at different times, on different days to reach people via their behaviour (ie some people will always check twitter over breakfast, others when they're bored in the afternoon. We tend to be people of habit. Consider time zones if you have an international audience).
• Look at your content and think of a new angle for it. Try writing 3 different titles for it, for example - and then each of those headlines essentially becomes its own tweet.
• Use different types of media - try one text-only tweet, one image-only tweet, one combination of the two.

[SanjidaKazi]

Thanks Matt, some good points to consider.

I think due to our following being relatively small and the fact it's a pretty select UK only audience, they don't tend to like it. We re-shared something twice in the same day for the first time in months and sure enough, we lost a few followers. Fickle bunch I do think we could get more out of of the blog though, so more testing to be done!

Cheers,

[MattRoney]

In my opinion, it depends on the network. A tweet, for example, is said to have a total lifespan of 18-24 minutes; if a follower doesn't see it during that window, it's extremely likely they simply won't see it. For any Moz Blog or YouMoz post, we'll tweet a total of 12 times over six days—once each AM and once each PM, never tweeting the same hour twice. Posts for other sorts of content vary.

Of course, our social following is massive and globe-spanning, so a tweet during business hours where we're located in Seattle, WA, USA is unlikely to be seen by any of our UK followers, for example. I'd recommend testing your own post frequency to see what works best for your audience.

[SanjidaKazi]

Thanks for the reply John.

I agree with you and you're on point about Moz up-skilling us. I might focus on updating our seasonal blog posts before I share them again - good shout.

Have a good one!

[ClaytonJ]

I think each post should be considered on its merits.

Some posts become topical 12 months after you have written them. A good post, if it has relevance today is worth re-publishing.  So in my view do not be hamstrung by rules, if you think the post is relevant today... then re-publish.. Often we see a greater number of hits on re-posts especially for emerging sites. Similarweb is a classic for re-publishing old blogs.. and turning readers off. Moz however is the essence of perfection, as being mature they never do... if so only updated to upskill us..

Hope that assists.

[SanjidaKazi]

Glad you agree Tim.

Time relevance and importance are my main focus when it comes to re-sharing. I'm not completely against it and I love to see clicks go through the roof with a well times re-share - just glad I'm not the only one who finds the constant sharing annoying.

You can lead a horse to water...

[TimHolmes]

I tend to agree.

I too do not like it when you see the same copy, over and over again. Although on the other hand I do feel that reposting some content still does have its benefits providing it is done sparingly and not in a repetitive fashion (normally months apart). I try to consider any new followers and sometimes, providing the content is useful, may try and highlight a particularly important or time relevant article again.

Flooding people with the same content all the time will lead to a healthy number of lost followers and potential influencers leaving your social channels.