Are you a content creator who is using Instagram to redirect traffic to your Blog/YouTube Channel? If you are someone who has less than 10k followers as of now, it would be hard for you to divert people on your desired link. Yes, 10k is the minimum number of followers required to enable the “Swipe Up” feature of Instagram. So, the only option left with you is to play around with that one link which Instagram allows you to put in your bio. But, that is indeed a cumbersome task. How often do you plan to change your bio? Here are some issues with that arrangement:
1. Time Consuming:
This is coming from a personal experience. I write almost 4 times a week. This goes up to 6 during some special occasions. Changing the link in bio for these many times, is just a non value adding activity.
2. Lack of Relevance:
What if someone is dropping on your profile directly without having the reference of the post that asked people to click the link in bio? In that case, they would see a random page with no context.
Apart from that, if you are changing the link four times a week, there’s a high probability that the person viewing your past story/post may want to explore more, but now the link in bio is talking about something different altogether.
3. Aesthetical Nightmare:
Unless you use a URL shortener service like bit.ly, the link in bio is going to look bad. Adding something like https://pandatechie.in/2021/05/16/technology-and-nostalgia-what-does-a-90s-kid-miss/ to your bio would not look nice in any way.
So, how do you tackle all these issues? How to add multiple links in Instagram bio? The answer lies in the freesome software called Linktree. Launched in 2016, Linktree has been used by a lot of Instagrammers to manage their off-site content. Say you are a tech blogger and you have reviewed two products. Now instead of adding two separate links one after the other in a period of a few days, you can add a linktree link which can contain all the links you may want to add.
Key Features of Linktree:
Linktree is a feature packed platform with a very lean UI. It would hardly take you a few minutes to figure out how to use this platform. Let’s explore some key features with screenshots in detail:
1. Adding Links:
Duh! That’s what the platform is meant for. However, the sheer convenience and ease of completing this activity is worth a mention. All you have to do is press on ‘add new link‘ button, mention the name of the link, URL and viola! You are done.
In case you want to remove a link temporarily, you may not need to delete it and reupload it later. You can add turn on or off a link at any given time.
All of these links can be rearranged by simply dragging them to the required position. So, if you plan to revisit a blogpost through your stories, simply drag it to the top.
You can also add thumbnail to a link by either uploading it form your storage or connecting it with one of your social media accounts. A particular link can also be set to priority in which case it always stays on the top.
There are some pro features which can be extremely handy:
With linktree pro, you can add a leap link which would redirect customers to a website directly, surpassing linktree and Instagram altogether.
You can also schedule a post in pro version for going live at a later date.
And one feature that I really crave for is Linktree analytics. This would help you understand the number of clicks with a trend over a period of time.
2. Appearance:
There are multiple themes to pick an apt background for your linktree. The ones available in the basic version are limited to certain types. However, if you are a pro member, there are a lot of options to pick from. Not only you can tweak the background, but also buttons, fonts.
You can also add bio to your linktree which will appear on the top. One can also add a display picture of your choice.
Also, you can also share your linktree as a QR code to someone.
3. Mailing List Integrations:
This feature is again available to pro members only. What you can do is add a sign up button on your Linktree and integrate the sign ups with multiple platforms. You can integrate with Mailchimp directly. Alternatively, you can save the Email IDs in the excel format as well.
Incase you are interested in knowing how to connect your Mailchimp account/Google Spreadsheet with Linktree, here’s a tutorial.
4. Other Features:
There are some additional features which may be relevant to you.
You can add a support banner in case you want to promote a cause and want people to donate to a foundation. Currently there are two options available on Linktree: Covid Relief and Anti Racism.
You can also enable some commerce integrations to a supported payment provider to collect payments from visitors for everything from eBooks and digital content to donations and more!
Apart from that, there is a possibility to mark your content sensitive so that users are intimated before viewing your content.
Downsides of Linktree:
No tool is perfect. Although, I personally use Linktree, I believe there is some scope of improvement. Here are some features that I wish Linktree had:
1. Custom URL:
All the linktree URLs are of the format link.tree/xyz. It would be better if we could start the URL with our brand name instead of a generic word.
2. Customization:
Although a few options are there, the customization options are pretty limited in terms of overall design. You would feel the crunch in case you are not using a pro membership.
3. Statistics:
Come on! I created content, put it up for the world to see for free. Now, I need to pay you to understand who dropped by? Basic analytics like number of visits and clicks are available in the free version. But it would be better to dive in deeper.
Conclusion:
My heart goes out to developers who solve a genuine problem like this. And this is why, Linktree successfully raised $10M a few months ago in 2020. (source).
Are you a user already? Or are you jumping in right away?
Got questions? Want to take it to the next level? Reach out to me using your preferred platform from the links below
Until next time..
