Last week we shared our top 10 tips to get the best out of LinkedIn, from posting regularly to using images.
This week, I want to expand on the last of those tips in which we talked about the importance of adding links to your posts, ideally to your website.
As we said, there are two ways to include a link:
- In the post itself
- In the comments section immediately below your post, with a note in your original post (e.g. “Link in the comments”) directing connections to the link.
So, over the past week, we’ve been testing this theory.
Here’s what we did
We added four duplicate posts (with apologies to those people who saw both), which had identical text and images. They were also posted at exactly the same time.
The first had the link in the post. The second had the link in the comments with the words “Link in the comments” added to the post. We then monitored which received the most views.
In each case, the post with the link in the comments got more views. The uplifts varied but were all significant:
- 376.84%
- 58.14%
- 162.70%
- 52.42%
The good news
Although the uplift varies, our research over the past seven days clearly shows that adding a link in the comments will generate more views than putting it in the post.
The bad news
This technique doesn’t work if you are using a platform such as Hootsuite or Buffer to line up your post because you can’t schedule comments to an as yet unpublished post.
Also, as you’re not adding a link to the post, it won’t pull through the image from your website (assuming your developer has set this up for you). So, you’ll have to add the image manually. It’s worth doing, though, as posts with images get more engagement than those without.
Dive in!
We’ve had lots of people tell us that last week’s blog was the motivation they needed to give LinkedIn another try. That’s great to hear. If your target clients hang out there, it’s a great platform.
Just remember to put your links in the comments!
I’d be really interested to find out how LinkedIn is working for you. Please drop me an email to phil@theyardstickagency.co.uk and share your experiences!
