How to Effectively Maximise Link Building in Your Social Media Strategy

15 June 2020By Ayleesha

How to Effectively Maximise Link Building in Your Social Media Strategy

Social media is a tough nut for businesses to crack: for every brand rapidly growing its audience by sharing valuable content, there’s a competitor struggling to attain likes, shares and comments. Some firms have ditched social media entirely, convinced that it simply doesn’t work for them. However, the number of companies who have nothing to gain from marketing on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is infinitesimal.

While there are many aspects to a successful social media campaign, link building remains the cornerstone since it can actually boost your search engine rankings. With that in mind, here are five ways to effectively bake link building into your social strategy.

Link Up Your Bio

Your social media bio is an opportunity to sell your brand. But you can’t do that if you don’t include a link to your website. Whether it’s YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest or any other social platform, don’t forget to succinctly explain who you are and what you do, with a link to your site for good measure. You can also cross-link channels, for example by linking to your YouTube channel from your Twitter, pinned tweet or banner image.

By stitching your social channels together in this way, you’ll compel followers on one platform to find you on another.

Use Link Shorteners to Boost Conversions

Links aren’t aesthetically pleasing. They’re long and unwieldy. Which is why link shorteners are so popular. Condensed URLs such as those offered by bit.ly are all the rage on social media, and for good reason: there’s compelling evidence showing they result in higher click-throughs due to their clean construction. Several link-shortening services offer custom domain branding, and record real-time analytics to help you assess the performance of your bespoke links.

Use Images and Videos

Naturally, attractive visuals help your social posts stand out. Your goal is to stop followers in their tracks as they scroll through their feed, and compel them to like, comment, RT or post your link on their own site or social profile. Where videos are concerned, remember to upload them natively rather than posting a link to YouTube; videos native to the platform tend to be viewed more favourably by the algorithms.

Solicit Reviews From Followers

All businesses welcome new, enthusiastic reviews from customers. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be routinely amassing such feedback, both on your website (via a plugin like Feefo) and from followers. You might consider running a competition on your socials, with a prize for whoever can write the best review. Don’t be afraid to reach out to influencers, too, who might consider reviewing your business (and thus giving you a valuable link) in exchange for products or payment.

There it is: four practical ways to immediately up your link-building game. When you build links, you build your brand. Don’t wait.

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