Get Out of Your Own Way and Why Cross Promoting Hurts More Than It Helps

Every content creator out there today faces the same problem. How to get more views on their content. It doesn’t matter if it is written, video, or a picture, everyone wants more views. Right? You may be thinking, I know, I will post my YouTube (same for TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, etc) link EVERYWHERE, that will surely bring in the views and new subscribers. Right?

Wrong.

Stop it. You are hurting yourself more than you realize.

Photo by Pixabay

No One Cares Less than the Platform You Are Posting On

Just getting the elephant in the room out of the way here. It is true though, no one cares less than the platform you are posting other platform links on.

Not only are you spamming your links everywhere, you are also not reaching the potential eyeballs you think you are. Why? Because the platform is going to suppress your post as soon as it sees a link to another, i.e. competitor, platform.

Social media is run with algorithms. There is no one person, or even a group of people, sitting on the other side of the screen deciding who goes viral or not. Sure, some platforms such as TikTok, have been found out to be controlling if certain accounts go viral or not – i.e., got tons of views, it is not something we can prove goes on regularly. For the most part, it is a computer program with a set of parameters that is deciding if your content is pushed.

Even before algorithms were all the rage, there was a simpler variation. Keywords. While still used it is not as often spoken today as, well, people love buzzwords. Algorithms. A.I.

You get the point.

The point is, computers are not stupid, they can see the words in that URL that you are sharing. They can recognize the words in the preview (which often includes the name of the platform the link goes to).

For instance, Facebook/Meta will suppress anything from other platforms. Zuckerberg cannot let his walled in garden get infected with weeds from TikTok, Clapper, YouTube, etc.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

Save Your Energy and Invest It in More Content

I have a belief that if you are willing to promote a link from another platform, in this case a video on YouTube, on another platform, such as Facebook, then just post the video on Facebook. You will see better results all around doing that and potentially reach more viewers anyhow.

YouTube does this too though so don’t go thinking Google’s video platform is perfect. Go ahead, put some links to other video platforms in your description, or mention other video platforms in your content.

Your views will suffer because of it.

Seriously, try it out. Prove me wrong.

It is natural that the platform you are on is heavily invested in growing their platform and not advertising for competitors for free.

The same thing happens in real life, you won’t see Walmart or Target advertising the other in their stores.

This is why when you watch creators on YouTube, they are careful not to say the name of another platform. Often TikTok is called “the clock app” or purposefully mispronounced. Others simply say the name and what happens, happens (if you have a strong fanbase you can sometimes counter any negative on the platform).

Photo by Thirdman

Users Care About Platform They Are On

Think about this, when was the last time you were scrolling Facebook or X and saw a link to something that looked interesting based on the preview? When you clicked it, how fast did you close the app that opens?

Maybe you were not expecting what popped up, such as a video with loud audio right at the start. This can be a turn off for many users.

This causes you to get a millisecond view before they left. That will hurt your push on any platform, especially on YouTube where average and total watch time are very powerful metrics.

Why would you want to purposefully force those metrics down?

If your video is posted directly on Facebook, most times the audio is muted and the viewer as to turn it on. For many, that is more acceptable than being hit with audio immediately. Viewers that stick around and watch will only help your reach.

Save that energy you would spend cross-promoting and answering comments there and make more content on one platform. Focus. If you feel another platform is that valuable to your content, then just post it there.

Photo by cottonbro studio

Unique Platforms, Unique Audience

Most people are on platforms they choose to be on. No one is forced to be on X, Facebook, or YouTube. They are there because they enjoy the content, they enjoy the platform itself. Maybe they have a disdain for other platforms.

You do not know. I do not know.

That is why you should focus your energy. Why fight an uphill battle that is costing you more than it is giving just to be suppressed on another platform?

Take Threads for instance – Meta’s answer to X. People post YouTube videos there, pictures, etc and those posts do horrible. Either by design or because users are ignoring them and/or clicking “not interested” telling the platform not to show it.

The point is, users on Threads are there for written posts, not to watch 20+ minute long YouTube videos of you playing a game or discussing the latest interest that has caught your attention.

The same for YouTube, which has a “community” tab – basically where you can post pictures, text, etc. How many reading this even knew that existed?

Did you know that you can post videos to X? Just don’t call it Xvid… Wait, this is an SFW post.

The point is people want to stay on their platform of choice. The platforms will suppress any attempt to take users off that platform.

YouTube is generally accepted as the hardest platform to grow on. I believe this is because so many are doing it wrong as described in this article. If you focus on YouTube and push on the platform you will grow so much quicker than other creators that are focused on using other platforms to grow on YouTube.