Are links killing your social media posts?
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Businesses using social media are always trying to crack the code on how to maximize engagement for their posts. Any amount of analysis or change in strategy however does not change that there are always some posts that do better than others.
This exact issue is one that is discussed in an episode of The Science of Social Media, a podcast by Buffer. In this episode, the host tests a theory he had that links in social media posts hurt the engagement of a post. To test this, he analyzed millions of Twitter (now X) and LinkedIn posts.
He found that tweets including a linked received 7.2% less retweets and 28% less reach than tweets without. Additionally, LinkedIn posts saw three times less impressions and 70% lower engagement.
These numbers are clearly staggering and show that there is at least a correlation between links in posts and low engagement.
After his initial analysis, the podcast host did one more study: whether posts with links or posts that said “link in bio” performed better. He found that posts that pushed users to a link in the bio versus a link in the post saw 8.9% more retweets, 24% more impressions, and 40% more reach.
So, it’s settled – posts with links perform worse than posts without, therefore avoid links to maximize visibility and engagement. Although this is great to know and important to consider, I don’t think these numbers should be the end-all-be-all.
You see, the recommendation that the host makes at the end of this podcast is to not use links in posts and instead point users to a link in bio. From there, using a tool lnk.bio or Buffer’s own link manager, you can organize multiple links for a user.
Don’t get me wrong these tools are great and should be used, especially on platforms like Instagram, where you are unable to add links to posts. However, if your goal for using social media is to get to go to a different site, than this may not necessarily be the best method.
One example of this can be news stations. A news site makes money by getting people to their website and encouraging them to pay for a subscription to get the news the publish. A link in bio alone will not maximize how many people go to your website.
If there’s one thing, we can all agree on, it’s that people are lazy. They don’t want to go through more steps than they have to in order to get the information they want. People are more likely to click a link to a story that is immediately available to them rather than finding the link in the organizations bio to get there.
So, although the information from the podcast is great, think about what your reason for the link is and what your goals for social media are. A news station is reliant on people clicking their links, so it would be worth sacrificing some reach for this purpose. McDonald’s however, likely does not need users to go to their website.
Hi! My name is Peyton McKenzie.
I am a professional graphic designer, photographer and content creator.
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