Linkless Social Media Posts for Engagement and Reach
I'd been noticing a trend over the past few months on linkless social media posts. I started to notice it on the Facebook pages first, then on Twitter and LinkedIn as well.
So, I began to start creating social media posts without links to test out the theory.
The Theory of Linkless Posts on Social Media
The theory began on my own Facebook page. I always test things on my own social network channels before doing anything on clients pages.
I call my social media channels the "social media playground" where I experiment. Also, I have a Facebook named that. If you want to join the Social Media Playground Group just click here for approval as it's a private Facebook group to learn about social media.
As you can see below here were some insights back in November when I started doing videos on the Facebook page. You can see the big spike with them. They have no links to anywhere, they are straight videos with tips.
Videos are a form of linkless posts on Facebook pages as long as you don't include a link in the text area.
Next, I experimented with it over on Twitter and to my surprise I saw the same type of results. This particular example was a video I made from Zubtitles that has captions and a title.
Hoping this will inspire you to do video for your business on social media or on your website, etc. #videomarketing pic.twitter.com/8OAP4RDcRk
- Lisa Sicard 👩💻🧡🌞 (@Lisapatb) December 10, 2019
This video tweet received over 500 views with 143 engagements. That is more than my average views and engagements over on Twitter. You can check your Twitter analytics to learn more.
Twitter Linkless Links That Rock!
As you can see some other social media giants have figured this out too. Notice the use of listicles in their tweets as well.
Unfortunate truth:
Some of your biggest fans are complete strangers. Some of your biggest haters are people you've known for years.
- Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool) January 29, 2020
The 10 Commandments of Online Content:
-Write like you talk
-Short sentences
-Short paragraphs
-Sub-headings
-Catchy titles
-Cool images
-Alt tags on images
-Add links
-NO KEYWORD STUFFING!
-Edit. And Edit. Edit.#blogging #contentmarketing- KimScaravelli (@KimScaravelli) January 27, 2020
The key elements of a successful #socialmedia strategy:
- Don't be everything and everywhere.
- Build a community, not a following.
- Ask questions, share solutions.
- Give first - it transforms everything.
- Do the work, consistently show up.
- Focus on quality, not quantity.- Rebekah Radice (@RebekahRadice) January 28, 2020
Therefore, as you can see from above the linkless tweets got a lot of engagement over on Twitter. The bottom two tweets are called listicle posts. Listicles are simply social media posts with a list.
Facebook Linkless Posts
To really showcase what I'm talking about here is an average Facebook page post of mine that is not boosted and includes a link.
Here is a Facebook page post I did a while back with only an image and an quote.
Now, check out this Facebook post below that was a "check-in".
Check-ins do NOT include any links and they perform better too. This particular post reached 95 people. (About 10% of the audience reach.)
Facebook posts with links tend to reach only 1-3% of your fanbase. So for instance, if your page has 1,000 fans you will only reach 10 to 30 people. And, that small number of reach leads to almost always no engagement.
But, of course video is where Facebook pages really shine! Facebook wants us to do video and loves it when we do 3 minutes or longer on our Facebook pages. Hence, they will show those videos to more of your page followers.
Of course, Facebook is really in business to make money so if you boost your Facebook posts you will reach more people and increase your engagement.
LinkedIn Linkless Posts
Facebook wants us to do video and loves it when we do 3 minutes or longer on our Facebook pages. Hence, they will show those videos to more of your page followers. #Facebookvideo Click To TweetNext, I went over to LinkedIn as I had been noticing less activities of my shares on that social network.
Then, I tried one myself and saw a difference as well. Most of my LinkedIn posts with links were receiving just under 50 views. Notice now, this one below received 133 views. (LinkedIn Embeds don't show views.)
Adding Emoji's to Your Social Media Posts
Emoji's today are hot on all the social networks. According to the social insider:
Across the board, posts with emojis in the caption lead to an increase of engagement in comparison with posts that do not include emojis.
So, do not overlook the use of emoji's when you are scheduling your social media posts. They can really make them pop and make your readers feel something. 🙂
Social Media Algorithms
So, do not overlook the use of emoji's when you are scheduling your social media posts. #SMM Click To TweetAgain, the same theory applies to LinkedIn as does the Facebook algorithm with the reach of posts in the feed. However, the only way to combat this is to mix up your post types and boost them.
The different types of social media posts may include:
If you want to see something really cool look at my latest Agorapulse report for my Facebook page. You can see a lot of insights there as well as what works and what doesn't work as well for your Facebook page.
- Quotes.
- Listicles.
- Paragraph with emojis.
- Video.
- Your opinion or in your own words.
- Images alone.
- Check-ins.
Now, the reports go back a ways so they don't give the total picture on using linkless posts as many of the things I've shared do include links. However, these Agorapulse reports will show you the power of video and images.
These reports can also be generated for Twitter and Instagram. You may understand why I love Agorapulse now 🙂 Finally, these reports may be generated for LinkedIn Company Pages but not profiles.
Your Thoughts on Linkless Social Media Posts
These reports can also be generated for Twitter and Instagram. You may understand why I love Agorapulse now 🙂 #socialmediamanagement Click To TweetI'd love to know your thoughts on the use of social media posts without links.
Now, do you like seeing them in your feed? Do you get more engagement from doing them on your own social channels?