I’ve been noticing a trend over the past few years 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 with no links to test out the theory on the various social media channels.
Table of Contents
The Theory of Posts Without Links
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.
As you can see below here were some insights back in November of 2019 when I started doing videos on the Facebook page. You can see the big spike with them. They have no links 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.
You can create great ones now with the help of an AI tool. Today in 2024 shorter videos are the rage, anyway from 5-30 seconds is best.
However, longer videos still do well over on YouTube.
Twitter Linkless Posts 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:
— Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool) January 29, 2020
Some of your biggest fans are complete strangers. Some of your biggest haters are people you’ve known for years.
The 10 Commandments of Online Content:
— Kim Scaravelli (@KimScaravelli) January 27, 2020
-Write like you talk
-Short sentences
-Short paragraphs
-Sub-headings
-Catchy titles
-Cool images
-Alt tags on images
-Add links
-NO KEYWORD STUFFING!
-Edit. Edit. Edit.#blogging #contentmarketing
And over on X Twitter today, videos are becoming more the rage as they are trying to take away market share from YouTube and Facebook. Soon they are releasing vertical videos and the ability to watch X on your TV.
Facebook Posts Without Links
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 a 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 business 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 videos and loves it when we do 3 minutes or longer on our Facebook pages.
Why? They want to keep people on their network. However, reels now get more views than anything on the Meta platforms. (Both Instagram and Facebook.)
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.
You can also do boosted ads over on X Twitter for much less money.
LinkedIn Linkless Posts
Next, I went over to LinkedIn as I had been noticing fewer activities of my shares on that social network. At first, I thought it was the algorithm on this professional 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 Emojis To Your Social Media Posts
Emojis today are hot on all 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.
The Social Insider
So, do not overlook the use of emojis when you are scheduling your social media posts. They can really make them pop and make your readers feel something. Emojis are essential on the Instagram network.
Social Media Algorithms
Again, 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 for business.
The different types of social media posts may include:
- Quotes.
- Listicles.
- Paragraph with emojis.
- Video.
- Your opinion or in your own words.
- Images alone.
- Check-ins.
- Experiences.
Engagement Farming In Linkless Posts
Of course today you must be aware of engagement farming. Recently I had a Facebook post taken down because I asked a question.
They concluded it was spammy and that it was used to manipulate the algorithm.
After all, I thought social media was to engage with others on the networks by asking and answering questions.
Even X Twitter came out with a rule that if you are caught engagement farming your X account will be suspended.
Your Thoughts On Linkless Social Media Posts Today
I’d love to know your thoughts on the use of social media posts without links. Do you prefer your connections post updates vs. links on their postings?
Do you get more engagement from doing them on your own social channels? Please drop a comment so we can discuss it below.
She has 30+ years of experience in marketing/advertising with 12 years of experience in content marketing, social media, blogging, and SEO.
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Thanks for publishing this amazing case study, after reading this post I check my insights and also noticed that linkless post on social media platforms create more engagement
Hi Rishabh, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. That is great to hear. Thank you for letting me know that it worked for you as well with linkless posts on social media. Have a great day ahead!
It is really good to see someone’s experience or case study on a particular subject. After reading this, I thought of giving a try to my first “Twitter Poll” and noticed a good reach for it today.
Welcome to Inspire to Thrive Neha, thanks for coming by. I’m happy to hear about your Twitter poll today. I hope the other linkless posts work well for you as well. Have a great day!
Hello Lisa,
This is really very valuable and helpful information.
I have never posted social media post without a link, but after studying your article and seeing your results, I would definitely try implementing this strategy from now onwards.
Thanks and keep sharing such helpful articles!
Hi Sophie, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Thank for your comment. I’d love to know how it goes after your try some posts without links on your social media. Have a great day.
Hey Lisa,
I will definitely try to share my results for the posts without links with you.
Have a great day!
Thank you Sophie, looking forward to it!
When I post my blog post. I share it on social media. Which is very helpful for me. Thank you for this blog post.
Hi Rachel, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. Have you tried posting about the blog post without a link and then adding the link in the comment section? That can work better sometimes. The social networks are not liking when we share only links. Thanks for coming by and have a great day!
Hey Lisa, nice article.
Linkless social media posts are a really important part of SMM. A social network’s main aim is always to earn money via advertising impressions, any post that links away from the social network reduces their chance of doing this, and that’s why, in general, their algorithms show them to less people.
Also, posts with links are actively asking your audience to do something for them, as well as keeping the core value of your post in a separate location from the social post itself (i hope that makes sense).
I’ve always found that posting content that creates engagement on social (i.e. linkless posts) helps improve the performance of your content that does include a link.
Anyway, thanks for the article!
Hi Josh, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. That is what I thought, it would mean people spent less time on their networks and thus potential to early more dollars. Glad to hear how it can improvement engagement as well Josh. But here is a question for you – how do you increase your blog’s visibility if you don’t post any links on social media? Kind of ironic right? I know some put them in the comments. I’ve done that too. Thanks for your valuable input for and for coming by. Love what you folks are doing over at Einstein Marketer!
So this is a totally new tip for me as I always thought that linkless posts are just another good gesture for the business. But after reading and watching your stats I’m going to experiment or more likely ‘apply the technique’ for my business as well.
Thanks, Lisa for helping!
Hi Friedrich, You are welcome. I’m glad to hear it’s a new tip for you and I’d love to know how it goes after you experiment with it on your social networks. Welcome to Inspire To Thrive.
Have a great day.
Hi Lisa,
it’s entirely possible that linkless posts get more engagement. The reason for that is because these social media giants want to keep people on their platforms, so they promote heavily those posts that have no outbound links, at the expense of those posts that do have them.
Hi Nikola, I agree on the possible reason why. It makes a lot of sense and a way for them to make more money. Thanks for coming by on this one and have a great day!
It is really good to see someone’s experience or case study on a particular subject. After reading this, I thought of giving a try to my first “Twitter Poll” and noticed a good reach for it today.
Even though I have 4.5k fans on my Facebook page I don’t see the engagement at all. Maybe it’s because I always publish posts with links. Your study really triggered me to do something different for my audience apart from those routine blog posts. I’m thinking of Quotes, GIFs, and opinion polls. Let’s see the difference.
Thanks, Lisa.
Hi Mudassir, thank you. Glad to hear about your Twitter poll. I will try to check it out. Wow, that many fans? Cool! Yes, You can surely do more to get engagement and do a few inexpensive boosts as well. They do help! Let me know how it goes Mudassir. Have a great day!
Hey Lisa,
Facebook and twitter are really very crowded social platform and we can use them pertaining to online businesses.
And many entrepreneurs and company taken benefits of it, here we can thrive healthy relationship with new people worldwide.
Sponsored posts come with advanced targeting capabilities and options that let you reach new audiences for a brand impression or a click.
Facebook is where your audience is spending time already, so engaging with them there makes a lot of sense.
Eventually, thanks for revealing a light on this topic.
With best wishes,
Amar Kumar
Hey Lisa,
Great post as usual. I really liked the way you have written this because you have shared your experiments with some examples as well. I really got your point and what you meant to say. Keep up the good work.
Thank you Harry, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. Oh yes, I do love to experiment on my own social media accounts as I begin to see a trend or change in the algorithms. Thank you for coming by and for your input. Have a wonderful day.
Hi Lisa,
As I explained on Quora, linkless LinkedIn posts are supposed to surpass the engagement of posts with links.
Thanks for testing this theory. Your research on all these social media sites is impressive. Great screenshots as well.
Janice
Hi Janice, Oh I do believe that after what I’ve been seeing on LinkedIn. You are most welcome and I appreciate your coming by on this post. I hope you are having a great week there.
Hi Lisa,
Actionable tweets or social media posts drive lot of engagement. The other type of posts that go viral on social media are controversial or those that spark controversy.
It is surely wise ides to share linkless posts to grab the attention.
Thanks!
Hi Gaurav, oh yes if they are actionable that will also help. I tend to stay away from anything too controversial, not good for most businesses to do that. Thanks for the input on this one and have a great day and weekend Gaurav.
Hi Lisa,
Great job buddy; you did a fine study on something I suspected for a minute, but, I never knew for sure. Good nudge in a more linkless direction for me. Facebook and Twitter seem to equate links with business on some level, and wish users to pay for advertising to spread the word on links. I shall go linkless more often going forward to gain greater exposure. Thanks again!
Ryan
Thank you Ryan. Oh yes, I suspected and then did some testing. It’s not 100% but I would say about 90% of the time it does work. I’d love to know how you find it once you do more of them like that. I hope your day is going well there and thanks for coming by on this Ryan!