Photo-sharing at Facebook: File or Link?

Two hours ago I shared a 1:1 photo at Instagram, which in turn posted it at my Facebook and Twitter profile. The photo reached 124 people in two hours and 13 people liked it. Great.

When I got home, I thought to post another one from my hometown’s seafront. This time, I opted to post the photo at my Flickr photostream after editing the picture with VSCO on my mobile phone. I didn’t crop the image to the common Instagram’s square size, rather kept it unchanged at 3:2 ratio. Then, I shared it at Google+ and from there to other social media per my favorite photo-sharing routine.

Half an hour later, radio silence. Not even a like. Was the photo that bad?

Maybe it was. Or maybe it was the lengthy preceding description.

But I also think adding a link to a Facebook post (image #2) instead of a hosted image (image #1) significantly affected my posts’ reach at Facebook.

At this time, I don’t have the necessary data to back this claim. Besides, Facebook users do like/click on my articles’ links when posted at Facebook. Yet, from now on, when sharing photos at Facebook, I’ll keep the links to the minimum and upload the actual photos instead. Despite the horrifying quality of Facebook photos compared to the original files at Google+ or Flickr, they still attract my friends’ attention. And after all, that’s what matters for attention whores like myself.

So, how do you share your photos at Facebook? Do you share them directly, or link to another photo-sharing profile of yours? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.