“Consistency” is a word you can’t avoid when applying best practices to content marketing. But there’s another “c” word that is just as important and maybe a little more difficult to fully understand and execute: cohesion.

To be consistent is simply to be regular in your communication — regular in both the timing of your messaging and what you say in your messaging. To be cohesive, however, you must integrate branding and consistent messaging across all marketing platforms in a way that is most appropriate for each platform. This means adapting content to match the audience and nature of each social media channel your content marketing platform employs. MarketingProfs.com author Heather Rast says:

“Some channels (such as Twitter) require brevity and task the reader to ‘read between the lines.’ We get it; the challenge is both part of the experience and the allure. Other channels (such as LinkedIn) have fewer restrictions on message length, creating certain expectations for behavior and acceptable discussion topics.”

So, while the meaning behind the message must remain consistent, the message itself — from its length to its overall tone (for example, casual versus business-like) — must match the expectations of those who use specific social media channels.