For the third post of this series, we’ll be looking at LinkedIn
Since going public in 2011, LinkedIn has gained over 332 million members, with 2 new users joining every second.
Now, as one of these members, can you honestly say you’ve used LinkedIn as anything other than a place to post your CV and qualifications?
I’ll admit, I spent a long time as a LinkedIn member without realising I could post my own original content on there, to boost my profile and widen my online portfolio.
If you want to do the same, here are seven tips to help you improve your content and craft a powerful post on the platform.
7 Tips for Publishing A Powerful LinkedIn Post
1) Use an effective headline
As with any content, your headline needs to be short, concise, and relevant to the content, giving LinkedIn users a reason to click.
Headlines with a length between 40 and 49 characters receive the greatest number of post views overall.
Some tips for headline writing include:
❌ Don’t write ‘Question Posts’, as in a headline which proposes a question – these perform poorly. Questions should be asked and answered within the post itself.
✅ Do write ‘How…’ posts. Draw the reader in with a headline that proposes ‘here’s how x does y’, promising a deeper explanation within the article.
✅ Do write List Posts, such as ‘12 Reasons…”, or “10 Helpful Tips…”. Posts with titles like these mean readers know exactly what they’re going to see, and also offer the choice of skipping through to the relevant points if they don’t want to read the whole thing.
2) Write for the demographic
The LinkedIn demographic is different to Twitter, Facebook, and other sites which are primarily ‘social’ rather than ‘professional’.
Look at it this way: for most LinkedIn users who don’t have a personal website, LinkedIn is their website. You need to target your content towards this unique community of professionals.
Think about the language you’re using to write, for example.
Posts written in language reflecting a positive sentiment tend to get the most LinkedIn shares and likes, whereas neutral language posts tend to see more comments and post views than both positive and negative sentiments.
Think about what you’re looking to achieve with your content – do you want more impressions, higher visibility, or more engagement? Tailor your language towards your goal.
3) Watch your word count
The minimum word count for a LinkedIn post is 300, with the maximum being around 2000.
Posts with shorter word counts tend to have text accompanying a separate asset, such as a video which goes into greater detail on the subject matter
On average, the longer the post, the better, with posts between 1900 and 2000 words performing the best. These gain the greatest number of post views, likes, comments, and shares.
Longer posts will obviously give readers more to talk about, so if you’re looking to get your readers engaged in conversation and debate, make sure you give them plenty to discuss.
4) Include images
Images and visuals show up prominently in the LinkedIn newsfeed. Good visuals make a good post, so make sure yours are relevant to the content and will catch your reader’s eye.
Your posts need to each contain at least one image.
The ideal number of images to include in a post is 8, which may sound like a lot, but posts with 8 images are associated with greater levels of engagement i.e. likes, comments, shares, and views.
That being said, if you’re planning to include other media in your post, adjust the number of images accordingly so the post isn’t too crowded.
Make sure to always include an image at the top of your post, to act as a sort of header image. This will catch the attention of the reader, particularly when paired with an effective headline.
5) Be careful with multimedia
Along with images, LinkedIn allows you to include multimedia assets – videos and presentations, for example – from platforms including YouTube, SlideShare, TED, Getty, Vimeo, and LifeStream.
Embedding relevant multimedia assets into your posts can make them more interesting for the reader, but be wary of how much you utilise.
There are indications that the inclusion of multimedia assets in posts results in fewer views and less engagement.
If you’re going to use a multimedia asset such as a video or presentation, it’s better to make it the focus of a post rather than an extra on top of everything else.
6) Link where you can
If you’ve already established a significant presence on LinkedIn and elsewhere online, it pays to link to your own content within your posts.
Do you have similar or relevant posts that readers might also be interested in?
Make sure to link to them as much as possible.
Even if you don’t, link to your profile. Make sure your readers know who you are, and what you can do.
If you do include links, check that they direct readers to the appropriate pages and sites.
You can also include up to three tags in your content to help other LinkedIn users find you.
7) Check and double-check
Once your headline, image/media, and content are in place, you need to finalise your article before publishing.
This may seem obvious, but it’s surprising a number of content creators that miss basic mistakes in their posts.
It’s a very easy thing to do – you know what you think a sentence or paragraph says because that’s what you meant to write, so you don’t notice if there’s an error.
Ideally, have your post checked over by a second pair of eyes before you publish it. LinkedIn is a primarily professional platform, and if you’re trying to widen your connections or find a new position you want to come across as a competent writer.
Make sure all the formatting looks right; nothing is too cramped or crowded, and everything flows well from one point to the next.
If you include links, make sure they take the user where they’re supposed to.
And always, always do a final check on spelling and grammar before posting.
Conclusion:
Providing you follow the above tips and produce high-quality engaging content, you should see more engagement, traffic and potentially new connections which could lead to future sales. To learn more about LinkedIn for business and how you can create, strengthen, and influence 1-1 conversations in your sales process, check out our LinkedIn Sales Training.
