Welcome to Lesson 3 of Stage 2: All about Content.
In the last lesson, we learned how documenting your journey on LinkedIn can keep content creation consistent.
Today, we take a look at the use of external links in posts.
External links are an important asset in content marketing for many reasons:
They make your content appear more natural and evidence-based.
Earlier in Stage 1 of the FILT Pod Institute, you’ve learned that the purpose of your content could be to educate, entertain or pitch.
Regardless of your content’s goal, supplying external articles could improve their overall experience. It also adds more value to your LinkedIn post.
They’re essential for lead generation.
We absolutely can’t forget that the end goal of content creation is to drive back traffic to your website or close deals. You want it to make it easy for your audience to locate your website or contact you, which is why you need to incorporate external links.
Use it as part of a cross-platform posting strategy.
Content doesn’t have to be exclusive to one platform or channel. Perhaps you have a comprehensive e-book or guide on your website related to the topic of your LinkedIn post. You should link your post to the specific e-book or guide so those interested in learning more can easily access it. We will explore more content repurposing tactics in a later lesson.
You can keep track of how much traffic LinkedIn brings to your website.
What sources or channels bring the most traffic back to your website?
It’s crucial to monitor the channels you’ve invested time and effort into, and LinkedIn is no exception. You can track how many people are clicking on the link you posted on LinkedIn with Google Analytics.
Tips from our top members: To make tracking convenient, you can use this Campaign URL Builder.
Fill in the necessary information to track the traffic coming from your LinkedIn post, then monitor your progress on Google Analytics.
Find your campaigns under Acquisition and compare the success of your posts easily.
If no one is clicking on your external link, you might want to revise the copy you use on LinkedIn. Alternatively, if something is working exceptionally well for you, you’ll want to discover this strength earlier on so you can get the most out of it!
Before you go including numerous links on your LinkedIn post, have you wondered why many LinkedIn users include links in the comments section instead?
There’s a rationale behind this…
The LinkedIn algorithm penalises posts that take their audience outside of its platform. This means LinkedIn posts that include external links won’t have as much reach as posts without them.
To avoid seeing viewership and engagement drop for any post, you can include external links by placing them in the comments section.
Problem solved!