LinkedIn stories are an engaging way to interact with your followers.
They add a layer of fun on LinkedIn, and they’re proven to keep people on the platform even longer.
However, there’s probably a feature that you aren’t using as much.
These are called LinkedIn story links.
In this guide, we won’t just show you how to add links to LinkedIn story posts, but we’ll also give you the best practices and show you how story links can help with your LinkedIn marketing.
Read our full guide on using LinkedIn stories to supercharge your growth!
What are LinkedIn Story Links?
LinkedIn Stories is a fairly new feature implemented by Linkedin in early 2021 as their response to other social platforms releasing the same type of interactive feature. Facebook and Instagram have stories, Twitter has fleets, and TikTok is taking the world by storm by focusing on this alone.
Now LinkedIn doesn’t just allow you to post videos and photos, but swipe-up links, too.
But, there’s a problem.
Not everyone has access to LinkedIn story swipe-up links.
They’re only available to two types of accounts.
LinkedIn Pages automatically get the swipe-up link function on their stories. They don’t need to meet any specific criteria or go through any processes.
This means that as long as you’re the owner or admin of a LinkedIn Page and have the ability to add stories, you can get quick access to swipe-up links.
The next type of account is focused on LinkedIn influencers.
Here’s why.
You need to have the follow button activated instead of the connect button on your main profile.
And, you also need a minimum of 5,000 followers before they grant you access to the feature.
One of the reasons that LinkedIn imposes such requirements is to make sure that the feature isn’t abused by ordinary LinkedIn users. If everyone could post swipe-up links, the mobile-centered platform would be flooded with swipe-up links making the user experience spammy.
Company pages and LinkedIn influencers on the other hand are expected to have a little more restraint because their actions are judged by a wider audience. They have a lot more to lose if they decide to spam a feature.
The Benefits of LinkedIn Story Swipe Up Links
LinkedIn story swipe-up links are incredibly powerful.
They make it easier for people who are just casually strolling by to land on any link, landing page, or lead magnet.
In turn, this increases your potential to convert.
Remember, one of the most important parts of lead generation is making the process as easy as possible for your prospect. The easier it is for them to land on your page, the higher the possibility it is to convert them.
This is why companies spend tens of thousands of dollars to improve their UI for conversion rate optimization (CRO).
A normal LinkedIn story might be able to increase brand awareness and nurture a lead through the pipeline, but including a way for the prospect to convert from the story itself turns it into a lead magnet.
Now, there are a lot of use cases for swipe-up links.
- Signup pages and forms, if you’re advertising an event or a giveaway, embedding the form in the story itself helps increase the number of signups.
- Post your own LinkedIn profile, although people can go directly to your profile from stories, it’s also a good way to boost the traction of your profile and use that as a passive lead generation mechanism.
- Links to product pages, swipe-up links make for a great portal to a product page on your website. It’s especially effective if you’re generating hype over a new product launch.
- Promotions, these have always been a great way to boost sales temporarily and there’s plenty of ways you can use stories. You can stick in a special promo code on one story, and the next one has the swipe-up link to where they can enter the code.
- Content marketing, we’ve seen a lot of examples of this on Twitter and Facebook, especially with popular media outlets, they’d put the headline of their piece on the story, and have the user swipe-up for immediate consumption. Don’t just limit it to articles on your website, use it with the pieces you;ve out out for LinkedIn publishing as well.
How to Add Links to LinkedIn Story
First of all, you want to access LinkedIn Stories via your mobile device.
Click on the icon above your story with the “plus” sign.
This will bring up the stories feature within the LinkedIn app.
Now what you want to do is to add a photo or video.
Once you’re done with that, you want to click on the add the link button right at the top.
And, there you have it, you now have a LinkedIn story link!
Best Practices
The most important rule you should follow is the rule of value.
Your link has to provide your prospect with value.
People don’t like wasting their time on links built for the sake of getting views.
You need to give them something in return.
This is especially true for profiles that have the privilege of having more than 5,000 followers. These influencers have already built-up following so they can’t mess it up with links that don’t help their prospects at all.
Here are a couple of other best practices that you should keep in mind when you add links to LinkedIn story posts.
- Always remember mobile first. Keep text to a minimum, there’s plenty of text for a prospect to see one they swipe up on the LinkedIn story link.
- Use GIFs or arrows to show them “how to swipe up”, this will be helpful for people who are new to the feature.
- Don’t post on weekends.
- Save your stories, you can always reuse them at another time.
- Take note of the dimensions, you need to optimize for phone screens.
- Consider adding a UTM link so that you can properly track how effective the link-in story is.
- Don’t forget to always be testing. There’s no reason for you not to run A/B tests.
- Don’t use the feature too much, there’s nothing worse than getting your stories muted by your followers because you keep making them want to click a link. It also removes the genuiness of your posts.
Limitations of LinkedIn Stories
One of the biggest drawbacks of LinkedIn stories is their lifespan which is just a period of 24 hours.
Once the 24 hours are up, the story will disappear, so posting on the right days is crucial to your story’s success.
In the same way that we advise people not to post on LinkedIn on the weekends, we highly advise that you follow the same principle.
However, the day of the week takes precedence in importance rather than the time because they’ll be up for 24 hours in any case.
When’s the best time to post on LinkedIn? (Not Monday!)
There has been some discussion regarding the use of LinkedIn stories because the platform is still regarded as a professional social network. However, we’ve seen a lot of companies adopting rapidly to incorporate its use in their marketing materials.
They haven’t been around for even a year yet, but their base has slowly been growing, and this is a promising sign that marketers should be using it.
Takeaways
LinkedIn story links are extremely powerful in bringing in conversions because of how easy it is for your prospects to have access to your material.
However, it does come with a lot of responsibility.
You need to use links that provide value.
Without value, your story links are nothing but plain promotion.
Make sure you use them wisely.
And, track them, too.
How are you using LinkedIn stories to drive growth lately?
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