Influencers and their followers can avoid getting lost in the algorithm by using Linktree as their primary platform.

To be a successful influencer in 2021, online creators need to do more than post photos on Instagram. Brands are often looking for partners who can create content across multiple social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Plus, if a creator wants to be paid directly by their followers, that means setting up a Patreon or OnlyFans as well.

But what works for one social media audience does not necessarily translate across platforms. Suddenly, an influencer can find themselves struggling to get more content in front of more audiences who each want different things.

“I put it off for so long because I was like, ‘I don’t want to start over on a new platform,’” YouTuber Joanna Spicer says in a recent YouTube video about starting a TikTok account. “It does feel like a new set of people…I don’t know them and they don’t know me so it feels a little scary.”

This is arguably the influencer industry’s biggest problem in 2021: It’s frustrating for creators to work double, triple, sometimes quadruply as hard in order to come up with new content for every social media platform they are on, and it’s just as frustrating for their follower who wants to stay up to date on what their favorite creator is doing. This is exactly why utilizing link in bio tools like Linktree is so important for influencers. With a creator’s internet footprint scattered far and wide, it’s necessary that they, and their audiences, can view everything they are producing in one place. Here are a few more reasons why influencers and their followers should be treating Linktree as their primary platform.

Promote content across platforms

Before Linktree, websites were the only way to show everything you’ve created. Nowadays, social media moves too quickly. A creator who posts several times a day doesn’t have time to keep redesigning their website. Instead, Linktree puts everything a creator’s audience is looking for right in front of them, including their website. Contrary to popular belief, Linktree doesn’t compete with your website for SEO, clicks, your audience, for anything because it’s a third party tool that directs people to your website.

According to 2021 data from Linktree, the most-linked domains on the platform are Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook, whereas the most clicked links on Linktree are to platforms like OnlyFans and Etsy. This proves that Linktree gives unbiased access to a full range of content that creators share. Instead of having to choose one platform to prioritize as a central hub, an influencer’s Linktree is a fast, effective way to unify their increasingly diverse presence. If social media platforms like TikTok use Linktree, it’s clearly not a threat to your brand. 16 million Linktree users and counting can’t be wrong!

Reduce workload

YouTuber Tara Marzuki recently uploaded a video about the two different pieces of furniture she DIY-ed for her Brooklyn, New York loft. However, without any way of knowing if her 146,000 YouTube subscribers are the same as her 73,000 Instagram followers, she had to post an additional Instagram Story version of her work in order to make sure it reached both audiences. This meant editing and documenting her video footage all over again.

However, anyone keeping tabs on Marzuki’s Linktree would know that she’s already made her DIY vlog readily available, along with her full YouTube library, Spotify, blog, and a place to shop her outfits right off of Instagram. As more of Marzuki’s audiences treat her Linktree as a priority, she will no longer have to repackage her content for different platforms, significantly reducing workload.

Protect your brand

When a potential TikTok ban loomed in America last summer, prominent TikTok creators were rushing to direct their followers to their Instagram and YouTube accounts. At risk of losing the audiences they spent the past year building, creators like Ellie Zeiler hoped some of her millions of TikTok followers would jump ship with her to YouTube.

“The first thing I felt was sad for the millions of people who watch TikToks as their entertainment for fun, comedy, tutorials and so much more,” Zeiler told nofilter in July 2020. “YouTube has always been an ideal platform for me…I’ll continue to post on Instagram and stay active on other platforms like Snapchat.”

Luckily, TikTok is here to stay, but the threat of a ban was a big wake-up call for online creators: without a central hub for all your content, you could lose a huge chunk of your audience at a moment’s notice. Instead, influencers should encourage their multiple audiences to stay informed primarily via their Linktree. That way, if creators were to lose one of their content arms, their audience would still know where to find them.

Build authentic content

Thanks to the mysterious algorithms behind Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, the same piece of content is not guaranteed to be successful on every platform: A video that blows up on Reels may get lost in the TikTok void, a YouTube video of fashion recommendations looks totally different than an Instagram post.

In order to adapt to the different audiences, influencers may find themselves altering their content style to appease a fickle algorithm, rather than their biggest asset: their audience. By building a unified audience, the concept of “Instagram followers” versus “Twitter followers” versus “TikTok followers” no longer applies. Instead, a creator can use the platforms at their disposal to make authentic content for the one, singular audience that keeps up with all their varied content through Linktree.

A creator is only as strong as their relationship with their followers. The rise in social media platforms has made it increasingly difficult to maintain that connection, not to mention increased creators’ workload and contributed to instability in the industry, but Linktree can help. Linktree alleviates these setbacks and allows creators to demystify their online presence, putting all their platforms in one, easy-to-access place — growing their audience into one, unified community. It’s roadmap for followers to access exactly what their favorite creators are offering.

About the author: Kathryn Lindsay is freelance writer and editor living in Brooklyn, New York. Find out more at kathrynfionalindsay.com.