The answer may surprise you. It turns out that the social network that drives the most traffic is not Facebook, or even Google+. It’s actually LinkedIn.
According to data from Shareaholic, LinkedIn generated the highest percentage of traffic to content publishers in September 2013. LinkedIn generated 25.84% of all social media traffic, compared to Facebook’s 23.93% and Google+’s 7.82%.
Why is LinkedIn so effective at driving traffic? There are a few reasons.
First, LinkedIn has a very engaged user base. While the other social networks have more users overall, LinkedIn users are far more likely to actually click on links and read articles. This is likely due to the fact that LinkedIn is a professional network, and people are there to learn and keep up with current events in their industry.
Second, LinkedIn has a great algorithm for sharing content. When someone you’re connected to shares an article on LinkedIn, it appears in your news feed along with a thumbnail image and headline. This makes it much more likely that you’ll actually click on the link and read the article.
Finally, LinkedIn has been investing heavily in its publishing platform over the past year or so. The platform makes it easy for users to share long-form articles, and they even offer some tools to help increase the reach of your articles.
So if you want to drive traffic to your website or blog, make sure you’re active on LinkedIn. It may not be the most popular social network, but it’s certainly the most effective at driving traffic.
