Ryan Lopano Blog

Links in a social media post are a very difficult subject when it comes to advertising online. Social media platforms actively discourage you from sharing links. This is something that they do very intentionally. The goal of their platform is to keep you there, so by encouraging links, you are jeopardising that. The Science of Social Media Podcast did a study on this, and it showed that tweets with links had 7.2% fewer retweets and 28% less reach than tweets without links. In addition, LinkedIn impressions decrease by 3 times, and the engagement rate is increased by 70% when you don’t have a link.

Despite these statistics, it is very important to move social media followers to other avenues, including websites or other social platforms. There are some tricks to share links, such as putting them in your bio, where social media platforms intend you to put them, and using features like Instagram stories to share links. These methods are statistically better when trying to share links on social media. It is smart to do it with tricks like these, as it limits the social media platform from hiding your post.

I personally think that this dilemma is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it makes total sense why the social media platforms do not want you to leave their platform; it makes them more money the longer you stay. Despite this, links are important for business, and these social platforms know this. If you weren’t able to share links, many businesses wouldn’t use that platform to advertise. Because of this, it seems like the platforms allow users to use these links but don’t encourage it.

Overall, it is important to know how links work on social media. After seeing statistics and learning tricks like these, you can more efficiently use links in a way that still promotes your posts.