Posting social media with links

September 6, 2023 7:47 AM

Help a social media newb out please! I would like to post short social media (Reels, TikToks, etc) that links back to very specific posts on MetaFilter. But this doesn't seem possible, probably because most platforms want to keep you on their platform. Is there a way to do this or am I thinking about this in the wrong way? Explain it to me like Gen Xer who is mostly comfortable with technology.
posted by Brandon Blatcher to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

The way people usually do this is by using e.g. Tiktok Shop functionality. But you probably don't want to create a store in which different posts are products (maybe?) so you may be out of luck. You're right that they definitely don't want to send your eyeballs elsewhere easily.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 8:43 AM on September 6, 2023

Best answer: On Insta, short of doing the 'link in bio' thing, (which is cumbersome and a pain in the arse for both creator and reader), the best bet I've found for sharing links is to use the stories. For example, you can create the post/reel first*, then once it's posted, hit the little paper aeroplane logo beneath the image and then select 'Add to story'. You'll get a smaller version of the post appearing on your screen - that's the beginning of you editing a story. You can add text, stickers etc. If you go to add a sticker, one of them is 'Link' - you can drop a URL in there and some link text, just like on the 'real internet' :) Once you're done, tap 'Your story' on the bottom left, and away you go. This is all based on what I do on an iPhone, YMMV. AFAIK you can't post to Insta from a computer unless you're prepared to jump through the interminable hoops of Meta Business Suite which I do NOT recommend.

Stories expire after 24 hours, but you can dodge that by saving it to your highlights - you might, for example, set up one highlight specifically for MeFi and save them there.

Obviously, facebook and twitter are much more friendly to links - just drop them in, add whatever text you want and post, but I'm guessing you know that since you ask about reels/TikToks. I don't know a lot about TikToks so will let others answer that.


* You could probably also do this without making a separate post/reel first, by just uploading the image or video straight to a story, but I don't do that much so can't advise how.
posted by penguin pie at 8:44 AM on September 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: There's a hacky workaround for Reels that involves adding the link to your Instagram bio; TikTok severely limits the kinds of clickable links you can add (just movies/TV/books), but there may be a way to finagle it with a business account and treating it as a product link.

Simplest answer is probably using a MeFi shortlink and pasting it as text over the video. You can get these from the Twitter share function (ew), but the basic format is:

mefi.us/subsite/postid

...where the subsite is a short code ("w" for MeFi, "a" for Ask, etc.) and the post ID is the thread number. So this post would be mefi.us/a/375148. You can also add a hash plus a comment ID number to jump to a specific comment, like: mefi.us/a/375148#5331597. Obviously even these shortlinks are cumbersome to type out but tbh I'd be surprised if the majority of TikTok users even knew how to use a plaintext URL.
posted by Rhaomi at 9:00 AM on September 6, 2023

Best answer: Make your one allowed personal link a Pinterest board (your own) and then pin your links in that board.
posted by cda at 12:15 PM on September 6, 2023

Best answer: You need Linkinbio. You update it so that it has the same thumbnail as your piece of media with the link to the post. People are used to it and will scan for the appropriate post. I believe the NYT instagram uses it if you want to see it in action. I encounter it regularly, and it’s usually media outlets who are maintaining multiple links that people will want to be able to find.
posted by Bottlecap at 1:14 PM on September 6, 2023