It was so easy for the home cinematographers of the past. Sure, they might not have had all the fun filters and editing tools that our phones have today, but distribution was a no-brainer in those days. Capture footage of your toddler crashing into a hedgerow with his PowerWheel car, then show the videotape to anyone who dares walk past your TV—target marketing at its finest.
Today, however, the possibilities for home video distribution are enormous. At the moment, there are dozens of places where you can leave your original work on the film. You can upload it directly to Facebook, create a TikTok, post to LinkedIn, tweet or turn it into an Instagram story. Or there is an option that many of us do: upload your video to Youtube and just share the link on all your social platforms.
The Youtube link method seems logical, doesn’t it? Sharing a single URL is efficient and effective – it’s the choice of videographers who need maximum reach while directing viewers to a single source of content. But what you want and what social media platforms want are not always the same thing, are they?
There is a theory that social networks (mainly Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) favor posts that use their native video solutions. There are rumors that YouTube video links may even be penalized by the algorithms of other social media platforms.
But here at the Hootsuite blog, we’re not content to get caught up in the rumor mill. We do our own grinding… of truth!
That’s why I put on a suit (aka my work sweatpants) and boldly head to the front line (aka my own social media) to see with my own eyes (aka my social media analytics) whether YouTube links are actually generating less engagement. than native posts.
In other words: I will share, but will the algorithm care? Let’s do it.
Hypothesis: Posting YouTube links on other social media platforms will result in less reach
Even though we spend so much time here at Hootsuite researching and analyzing social media algorithms, the behavior of social media sites can sometimes seem incomprehensible.
But unlike that brooding new kid at school with the mysterious scar and sad eyes, the mystique of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more tends to infuriate rather than beckon. Why can’t they just tell us what they want?!
The algorithms of these sites are designed to reward users who behave in certain ways. For example, we know that the Facebook algorithm gives more boost to photo posts than text messages, and that Instagram tends to give Reels a little more love. So it makes sense that these platforms would bury the type of content they didn’t want to encourage, such as links to another video site.
YouTube was a pioneer of simple video sharing founded in 2005 with the idea that “regular people would love to share their home video “. But in 2023, every social network now allows you to upload videos and post. And every social network needs content from its users.
So the theory that sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn can restrict access to YouTube links compared to content that was originally uploaded has some logic. But logic is not necessarily proof. So let me just put together this pretty little hypothesis and go spamming my social media followers looking for cold, hard facts.
Methodology
To check if YouTube links had limited reach, I went to three different social media platforms to create posts that could be compared. Each post was either a YouTube URL or native content—text, image, or directly uploaded video.
Were my followers on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook perhaps confused or intimidated by my hectic video activity? Maybe.
But, to quote Shakespeare: “You can’t create a science without breaking a few eggs.”
And ultimately, the metric I’m looking for here is reach, not social media engagement, so even if my boss didn’t leave a comment on the deeply personal comedy video I shared, that’s fine! In fact, I barely noticed or got any stress rash!
In total, I posted six times on each platform: three YouTube links, three unlinked posts. Which social media overlords would consider worthy of attention?
Results
TLDR: Posts with YouTube links had less social media reach than native posts.
Since this whole experiment was all about determining the reach of these posts, I’m going to use reach (or impressions) as a measure of success (or lack thereof).
On Twitter, my non-YouTube tweets had far more impressions than my YouTube-linked tweets.
On LinkedIn, my posts tended to get much more reach than Twitter, but non-YouTube content definitely outperformed posts with YouTube URLs.
The numbers are pretty clear here: posting a YouTube link on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn resulted in a drop in reach/impressions.
That’s not super surprising, though, is it? Even if you’re perfectly comfortable playing in the social media field, every platform ultimately wishes they were your one true love. Users who upload their content directly will be rewarded for their sweet, sweet loyalty.
This, of course, is just my personal experience. So, to test my test, I asked the social media team here at Hootsuite to do a little experiment with official Hoot accounts.
What would YouTube URL posts look like for an established brand account with a large following?
Trish Ryswick, social engagement specialist at Hootsuite, was already theorizing about the problem with YouTube links when I approached her.
“Over the past year, our social media team has noticed that posts without links tend to perform better than posts with links. We often post short videos on LinkedIn and some of them tend to work well.”
– Trish Ryswick, Social Engagement Specialist, Hootsuite
However, the team hadn’t tested a long video before, so they weren’t sure what the results would be. She took a video they linked to on Facebook and LinkedIn back in the fall and uploaded it natively to share it.
Here’s what they found.
There is no other word for it: the results were amazing. “The link video was posted in November, while the native video was posted two days ago,” Ryswick says. “I think the LinkedIn results are a key indicator of what the social experts are saying: Social media doesn’t promote related messages.”
Risvik and his team ran a similar test for Facebook, where they found that the number of times a linked video was actually shown was higher than a native video, even though the native video’s engagement rate was significantly higher.
Ryswick’s hypothesis? “The video linked to [YouTube] has been available since November, which may be the reason for the increase in video views.”However, the fact that the native video engagement rate is so high probably indicates that it was shared quite widely in a short amount of time, with 235 views in just two days.
What do the results mean?
Now that the dust has settled on my LinkedIn feed again and the Hootsuite social team is on the road (thanks Trish!), it’s time to start thinking. What can we learn from this grand experiment of exchanging YouTube links on other social platforms?
Social media algorithms likely prioritize native video content over YouTube URLs.
If you’re looking for maximum reach for your video content, you might be better off uploading those footage directly to each platform individually… at least if this little social media experiment is indicative of a broader trend.
In general, try to avoid all types of links in social posts.
We should clarify that this tip is specifically for people who are looking for reach and engagement. If one of your goals is to drive traffic to your site, please ignore it.
Other social algorithms may experience problems not with YouTube links, but with links in general. My own social media posts without links performed well in this experiment, and this theory is confirmed by our own social team in other experiments:
- Experiment: Do Tweets with Links Get Less Engagement and Reach?
- Experiment: Do LinkedIn Posts with Links Get Less Engagement and Reach?
Try uploading teasers or clips that direct viewers to YouTube.
But perhaps your social media strategy is focused on growing the audience of your YouTube page. If so, try creating original teasers or snippets that you can upload to other platforms to direct viewers to the full version on Tube. It’s the best of both worlds: algorithmic reach, concentrated audience.
An algorithm is needed to optimize organic reach.
Creating great content is an important part of reaching a large number of people and ensuring quality interaction. But even the Facebook equivalent of Citizen Kane won’t get very far unless it appeases this almighty algorithm.
Stay up to date with the latest changes and revelations about the algorithms of your favorite platforms to make sure you optimize your posts in every possible way. This way, even if you have to post a link to YouTube, you are doing your best to achieve maximum organic reach.
(Although if all else fails, a paid booster definitely never hurts.)