Not too long ago, I skipped my regular content on Threads and only posted links all day.
Here’s what happened:
Unsurprisingly, nothing good.
But I’ll elaborate:
One of the tricky things to navigate with social media is staying in favor with the algorithm while still promoting your business.
It’s becoming fairly common knowledge that…
Posting links on social media isn’t a good plan
But I decided to test it anyway, because few are willing to do such a thing and risk jeopardizing their account…
And so one day, I decided to run the test.
Not just by saying “buy my stuff” and dropping the link.
But by sharing a post that could get hundreds to thousands of views on my account on it’s own, and adding a CTA with the link at the end.
Here are the results:
- Total link post views: 64
- Link clicks: 6
- Sales: 0
Interestingly, despite the abysmal views I got more link clicks than some days with 10,000 views from a meme.
Would I do this again?
Not a chance.
So what’s the plan moving forward?
3 main things:
- Really refine my messaging, continue to help my ideal customer, and reply to my own posts with a link when it makes sense
- Pump up the 30 day post views from the 136k they’re at now to 3M a month without resorting to rage bait, dumb questions, off-brand memes, or anything else like that
- Tell more stories, make more connections, and have more fun on Threads
Despite this test doing exactly what I thought it would by failing miserably, there is some good news:
Fortunately, it didn’t ruin my reach.
I made a regular, non-link post after which got over double the views from all 10 link posts combined.
If I had to put together some kind of takeaway here, it would be this:
Avoid posting links and focus on sharing insights, stories, and wins your ideal customer would benefit from and that positions you as the go-to person.
As for promotion, have a link in your profile, post links in the comments of your own relevant posts, and use the pinned post feature to demonstrate expertise, proof, or make an offer.
With all that said, it’s time to get back on the mission.
And for digital product strategies that actually worked and helped me make over 150 sales of my digital products in one niche, go here:
https://gabejohansson.com/blueprint
Any questions? Let me know.
Talk soon,
-Gabe
P.S. This approach is equally bad on X and the same fixes help a lot there too, so if you’re on there this still applies.