It’s a never-ending cycle – What works on Facebook today may not work tomorrow. It is important to monitor changes for what works best on the platform – this includes how you are utilizing Facebook Link Posts in your social media strategy.
How do you choose to customize your Facebook Posts?
Sharing current information on Facebook is important whether it is for a new blog, promotion or event for your business. But how do you decide how you want to post on Facebook? Do you utilize branded images or eye-catching photos? Perhaps it’s a blend of both (this is my suggestion). It’s not all or nothing even if the trend says it should be.
Do You Post Photos with Links or Formatted Links on Facebook?
The goal for businesses online is the goal was to drive engagement via social media by including a link to their blog post, website, affiliate product, etc. to drive traffic.
So when all the experts started advising people to post mainly photos, what happened? Well, people posted a lot of photos!
In fact, the News Feed was flooded with photos.
This creates the problem today that so many people are only publishing photos — and it has become white noise. Even if you have a vibrant brand.
As I said before, this is not all or nothing when it comes to posting on Facebook.
When you want to post a link on Facebook there are a few things that you need to consider to make sure that it looks right and populates a featured image.
1 – Effectiveness of Facebook Posts
One of the easiest ways to expand your reach and spread information regarding your organization is to share website links on Facebook. Your primary focus while using social media platforms should be to drive traffic back to your website as an organization.
In a primarily visual world, it’s common knowledge that posts that contain imagery perform better versus posts that only contain text. Although posts with photos may perform better engagement-wise, your posts containing links back to your website will ultimately drive more traffic to your site.
Give your followers what they’re looking for by regularly posting content on this platform using Facebook Link Posts!
2 – What’s Most Important in Facebook Link Posts
When starting out with Facebook Link Posts, it’s imperative to learn the most important aspects of this feature. In order of importance;
Image
A good, eye-catching image will grab users’ attention and more likely get them to click on your link. This is one of, if not the most important aspect when using link posts.
Link Headline
Once you get users’ attention with your photo, draw them closer with an attention-grabbing headline. Make users think “I want to learn more!”
Post Caption
Don’t overcomplicate this aspect! Your image and headline should speak loud enough that your post caption should be short and sweet!
Link Description
Ideally, your image and snappy headline will draw users to click your link already, but it doesn’t hurt to go one step further and give them a little sneak peek about what they will find upon clicking.
Website Display Link
Make sure your link is correct!
3 – Use a Good & Relevant Image
One of the worst things an organization can do is post a Facebook Link Post without a photo. The majority of users will scroll right past a link post without a thumbnail. Consequently, the most significant aspect of link-style posts is the picture – it’s even more important than your caption.
The photo you choose should be relevant to the topic of the link to get the best results. Use the photo to catch users’ attention and draw their gaze to your headline.
4 – Post Captions and Link Descriptions
Facebook Post captions are not the primary way users are drawn in – however, they add an extra layer of content to your link preview. It won’t ultimately grab a user’s attention.
In a world where the average mobile user spends 1.7 seconds on each Facebook post, most users will not take the time to read the caption after reading the headline thoroughly.
Only the first three lines appear in a post before “See More” cuts off the rest. A best practice is to keep your social posts short and sweet, maybe with an emoji or two!
But wait, how do I post these Facebook posts?
It’s very simple, grab the link from your website, landing page etc:
- Head over to Meta Business
- Click on create a post
- Add your link to the text section to see how it will populate in the preview.
- If everything looks good, add in your caption and hit Publish/Schedule.
- If you want to make changes, you will need to do so on the web page. There can be social sharing options available on the individual pages/posts.
