2 Ways to Use Pretty Links to Improve Your Social Media Presence

As a social media influencer, links can play a major role in your success. However, not all links are created equal, especially on social media. You must know how to use your links effectively, or else your efforts will be fruitless.

One way to improve your links is with link shortening. This technique makes your links easier to share on your social media profiles. Plus, it makes them more appealing to your audience, and can increase the rate at which they're clicked on.

In this post, we’ll show you how to use the Pretty Links plugin to shorten and beautify your links. We’ll  then share two ways you can use these shortened, ‘pretty’ links to improve your presence on social media. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to Pretty Links

Pretty links are optimized links that have been shortened, and often branded. For example, a typical standard link might look like www.mywebsite.com/2017-08-11-post-6459. This does not tell an audience member anything useful about the link, such as what kind of content it leads to, and it can look unprofessional.

Instead, you can alter this link to actually contain important information. For example, you could change the above URL to a pretty link such as www.mywebsite.com/blog-post-title. This is much more attractive and useful to the reader, and as such they're more likely to click on it.

You can use pretty links anywhere on the web, including on your social media profiles. However, it’s important to know how to use them effectively, if you want to connect with your audience.

How to Create Shortened Links Using the Pretty Links Plugin

Pretty Links is a link shortening WordPress plugin with a wide range of useful features, including seven redirect types, advanced link tracking, and split testing. Using the Pretty Links plugin, you can create shortened links in minutes. Let's walk through how to do just that.

Once you have installed and activated the plugin on your WordPress website, locate Pretty Links on the left side of the WordPress dashboard. Navigate to Pretty Links > Add New Link. Here you can enter your link information, including its Redirection type, Target URL, and the actual Pretty Link:

Click Create to save the link, after which you'll see a list of all the pretty links you have made:

In this menu, you can view and edit existing links, or add new ones. To actually use one of your pretty links, simply copy the new URL and paste it onto any web page.

2 Ways to Use Pretty Links to Improve Your Social Media Presence

Using pretty links can be beneficial on your website, but you can also use them on other platforms. Let’s look at two ways you can use pretty links to improve your social media presence.

1. Add Pretty Links to Your Profile Biography

Your profile biography is one of the first things social media users will see. By adding pretty links there, you can drive more targeted traffic to your website. Additionally, this technique can increase your Click-Through Rate (CTR), as shortened links are more likely to be clicked on.

There are a few things to keep in mind when using pretty links in your profile, to ensure that they're effective. For example, you'll want to use branded links. This makes the links look more professional, which increases the odds that they will be clicked on. It also promotes your brand in the process.

Finally, it's also smart to link directly to landing pages. This is especially important if your social media campaign is focused on increasing website sales. You should also make sure to update your landing pages frequently, in order to offer variety to your followers.

2. Link to Your Profile From Online Blogs and Forums

While spending time on your website and social media profiles is important, you should also be visible off-site. This includes, but is not limited to, guest posting on industry blogs and participating in industry forums. By doing these things, you increase brand awareness and also bring more targeted traffic to your profiles. Additionally, you'll create backlinks to your social media profiles, which is beneficial for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Of course, it's important to place your off-site links strategically. You can do so in a number of ways, including by:

• Using optimized anchor text. Keep the length to a minimum, for example, and incorporate industry keywords whenever possible.
• Ensure that the links are branded. This increases brand awareness, and also makes them more trustworthy.

Of course, you shouldn't just be dropping links and never looking back. Be sure to interact with the audience on these sites, as well as offer free advice. This shows that you aren’t just interested in sharing your links, but also in making connections.

Conclusion

By adding links to your social media profiles, you can increase natural traffic to your social campaigns and your website. This can boost your presence on social media, while also increasing your brand reach and search engine rankings. For best results, however, you'll want to use a tool such as Pretty Links to optimize the URLs.

In this post, we’ve outlined two ways you can use pretty links to improve your social media presence. To recap, they are:

1. Add pretty links to your profile biography.
2. Link to your profile from online blogs and forums.

Do you have any questions about using links to improve your social media presence, or how Pretty Links can help? Let us know in the comments section below!

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