LinkedIn is a powerful platform that allows businesses and professionals to connect with each other. In just a few years, the social network has established itself as the hub for B2B lead generation.
However, many people still don’t know how to use LinkedIn effectively. Similarly, they don’t understand the value of LinkedIn posts and haven’t mastered the basics.
What is a LinkedIn post? Why should you implement a posting strategy? How to write them well?
In this blog post, we’ll explain why and how you should publish messages on LinkedIn, giving you some key tips and examples of posts that work.
What is a LinkedIn Post?
Let’s start with the very basics.
A LinkedIn post is a short message that you can publish directly to your news feed.
Unlike the long-form blog articles commonly found on a website, LinkedIn posts are easy to read and consume. They also generate more interactions (likes, comments, shares).
What is the Format of a LinkedIn Post?
A LinkedIn post can range from 25 to 3000 characters. Some marketing professionals recommend limiting it to around 700 characters so your post is easily readable, but it really depends on what you have to share and your audience.
On a long post, only the first 210 characters will be displayed before the “see more” option. Be particularly effective in this first paragraph to encourage clicks (and thus generate engagement).
For example, if you are part of a targeted group or have a very specialized audience, you can choose to create longer, more detailed posts. Otherwise, it’s best to keep it simple and concise.
Like any company looking to do Growth Hacking or develop its business on the LinkedIn channel, we have also implemented a publication strategy with LaGrowthMachine.
From experience, we recommend starting with a minimum of 400 characters because below this volume, statistics show that your engagement is less significant. People like good stories, and it takes time to tell them well, which requires a minimum number of words!
LinkedIn posts usually have an associated image, which can help you grab your audience’s attention. The image size should be 1200×627 pixels, and the format should be PNG or JPG.
LinkedIn posts can also be accompanied by a video, but this is still quite rare, as videos are less engaging than images on the platform. Warning: your video file must not exceed 200 MB.
What are the Types of LinkedIn Posts?
There are several formats and sizes for LinkedIn posts, but we can distinguish four main ones:
- The traditional post: this is the classic post you can publish on your news feed. It consists of text, an image, and a link. You can tag a LinkedIn company page, colleagues, or people in your network (including prospects!).
- Asking for opinions: this is a post that asks your audience to share their opinion on a given topic. It’s an excellent way to engage your community and collect ideas and feedback.
- The carousel: this is a post that allows you to scroll through multiple images or videos. It’s a good way to showcase a range of products or services, for example. You can also do storytelling by teasing the user from one slide to the next, always with the goal of encouraging engagement.
- Video: as we saw earlier, videos are less engaging than images on LinkedIn. However, they can be a very good alternative to text, especially for presenting a visual or aesthetic subject.
Why Implement a LinkedIn Post Strategy?
There are various reasons that can lead you to post on LinkedIn. Here are the main ones:
- Make your company and/or products/services known;
- Develop your reputation and expertise on a subject;
- Boost your account’s reach;
- Engage in conversation with your target audience;
- Generate qualified B2B leads for your business;
- Build and maintain professional relationships;
- Overall, improve your prospecting on LinkedIn.
From a purely business perspective, implementing a posting strategy is a very effective lead gen technique to improve your long-term reach. Indeed, the more (and better) you post on the platform, the better your engagement and the reach of your posts will be.
To measure the effects of your strategy, you can refer to your Social Selling Index, an index that allows you to track the optimization of your profile for prospecting on the professional social network.
However, know that this is not the only method for prospecting on LinkedIn! At LaGrowthMachine, we advise combining inbound strategies such as regular posts with outreach strategies like:
- sending text messages;
- sending voice messages;
- adding to your LinkedIn network;
- etc…
Our tool allows you to do all of this, and even go further with LinkedIn Automation, which involves scheduling all these tasks in advance. This allows you to do mass outreach while personalizing your messages and follow-ups each time, for a very natural – and devilishly effective – result!
Now that you know why it’s important to post on LinkedIn, let’s move on to the best practices for writing them.
How to Make a LinkedIn Post?
There is no absolute rule when it comes to LinkedIn posts. However, following these 8 recommendations will help you best structure your post and optimize its engagement:
- Craft a compelling hook;
- Structure the post clearly;
- Include tags;
- Use emojis;
- Work on your copywriting;
- Optimize your resources (images, links, videos, tutorials);
- Opening: engage your community;
- Feedback: respond to comments.
We will detail each of these steps below to explain how to proceed.
Step 1: Craft the Hook of Your Posts
The first thing your audience will see when viewing your post is its first sentence. This means the hook of your post is crucial for grabbing users’ attention and encouraging them to click. Here are some tips for writing a compelling hook:
- Use relevant keywords;
- Be original;
- Avoid abbreviations;
- Use teasing to make people want to read more.
Step 2: Structure Your Post Clearly
Once you’ve written the hook for your post, you can get into the main content. Again, there’s no absolute rule for length. However, we recommend not exceeding 500 words, to avoid boring your audience.
Step 4: Use Emojis to Make Your Posts Stand Out
Emojis are an excellent way to highlight certain content on LinkedIn. These small icons are easily recognizable and help make your posts stand out in search results.
NB: If you use emojis in your posts, don’t forget to use them wisely. Too many emojis can detract from the quality of your content and reduce its impact.
Step 5: Work on Your Copywriting
Copywriting is the art of writing impactful and persuasive texts. Each communication channel has its own copywriting rules. Here are some tips to improve your copywriting on LinkedIn:
- Use short and concise sentences;
- No bullshit!;
- Be clear;
- Be impactful;
- Adapt the tone and style to your target audience.
These rules also apply to your direct messages! If you use LaGrowthMachine for your LinkedIn outreach strategy, don’t worry, our support will assist you throughout your campaign!
Step 6: Optimize Your Resources (Images, Links, Videos)
To optimize engagement on your posts, don’t hesitate to include visuals (images, illustrations, infographics, etc.), links, and videos. These elements are easily noticeable and will add more depth to your content.
To use our sustainable development example, you could include a photo or illustration on the subject. Similarly, if you post a video about sustainable development, you could include a link to this video in your post.
Keep in mind that the human eye tends to focus more on an image than on a block of text. That’s why you need to pay special attention to the choice of visual you will use for your post.
Step 7: Opening: Engage Your Community
To optimize engagement on your posts, don’t hesitate to engage your community in your content. You can, for example:
- Ask your followers what they think of your post;
- Organize a contest on the theme of your post;
- Propose a question for debate in the comments, etc.
By directly engaging your community, you encourage users to interact with you and actively participate in building your post. This is a very effective way to boost your engagement!
Step 8: Keep Your Post Alive by Responding to Comments
There you have it, you’ve posted a gem on your news feed. That’s good, but it’s not over yet!
Once your post is published, don’t forget to handle the comments. By responding to users, you keep your post alive and encourage others to interact with you. Again, this is a technique aimed at maximizing your post’s engagement rate, and therefore your long-term reach.
Take the time to read all comments and answer any questions asked. If some users do not respect the rules of courtesy, do not hesitate to moderate their comments.
Now that you know how to make an effective post on LinkedIn, let’s move on to other elements of your inbound strategy on the social platform.
What is the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn?
Unlike Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn is not a social network where content is displayed based on time. LinkedIn’s algorithm ranks by relevance, not chronologically. This means your post won’t necessarily be seen by all your followers, even if you post it in the middle of the day.
Using LinkedIn insights, you can analyze the different times of day when users are most receptive to your content. You can also use audience analysis tools such as Hootsuite Insights or Mention.
At LaGrowthMachine, where our target is exclusively B2B, we like to post on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Engagement rates have proven to be better at these times.
However, as the LinkedIn community is professional, there are some intrinsic norms to master regarding the timing of your publications. Generally, as with email, the best times to post on LinkedIn are therefore:
- Monday and Tuesday between 10 AM and 11 AM;
- Wednesday between 11 AM and 12 PM;
- Thursday and Friday between 9 AM and 10 AM.
It is important to note that these time slots are not set in stone, as they can vary depending on your industry. However, they provide a good basis for determining when to post.
How Often Should You Post on LinkedIn?
The frequency of posting on LinkedIn largely depends on your activity on the social network. If you regularly post content, it’s important not to bombard your community with a multitude of posts every day. This could have the opposite effect and cause users to unfollow you.
By posting less often, you are more likely to have your content seen and read by your followers. This is partly due to how LinkedIn’s news feed works, which, as a reminder, does not display content in real-time but rather ranks it by relevance.
On the other hand, if your activity on LinkedIn is quite low, it can be beneficial to post more regularly to maintain your presence on the social network. In this case, try to post at least 1 post per week.
Finally, if you have trouble finding content to post on LinkedIn, you can always use content curation tools like Scoop.it or Pocket. These tools make it easy to find the best articles and content based on your criteria.
How to Schedule a LinkedIn Post?
As you’ve understood, posting too often on LinkedIn can have negative consequences on your activity. It can drive away your followers or cause them to unfollow you.
Conversely, not posting often enough can cause your LinkedIn profile to disappear from your contacts’ news feeds.
To avoid these situations, it is therefore important to manage your posting frequency well.
A good way to do this is to schedule your posts in advance, using a scheduling tool like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Podawaa. These tools allow you to automatically post your content at the most opportune times.
This way, you can spend less time managing your LinkedIn activity while ensuring that your content is published at the best times.
What is LinkedIn Creator Mode?
As we write this article, content creator mode is a recent LinkedIn feature that allows users to publish richer and more varied content.
This mode specifically allows you to publish articles, videos, or podcasts directly on the social network.
To post in creator mode, simply go to the “Create a post” section and click on the icon corresponding to the type of content you want to publish. You can then add your text, video, or audio, and post it directly on the platform.
This is a feature that can fit very well into an inbound marketing strategy.
How to Find Inspiration for Your LinkedIn Posts?
Finding inspiration for your LinkedIn posts can sometimes be difficult. Fortunately, there are several tools and tips that can help you in your quest for the perfect content. Some tools allow you to observe trends and news related to your topic among the posts of other LinkedIn users.
You can also use Google Alerts. This service allows you to receive the latest articles published on a given topic directly in your inbox. It’s also a great tool for following hot news on a given subject. To set it up correctly, simply create an alert by entering the keyword or phrase you want to follow, directly on Google’s tool.
Finally, if you’re struggling to find inspiration, don’t hesitate to check out the LinkedIn profiles of your competitors or profiles similar to yours. You can also follow hashtags on LinkedIn to discover new content.
If you want to structure your LinkedIn content strategy more regularly, tools like Lyter can help you. They allow you to centralize idea generation, writing, scheduling, and analysis of your posts. In practice, this can be useful if you lack time or struggle to post consistently. The goal: to help you move more easily from intention to action, especially if you don’t have a dedicated marketing team.
Examples of Posts That Work
To help you find inspiration, here are some examples of posts that work well on LinkedIn:
- Posts that highlight hot and/or controversial news in your industry;
- Humorous or quirky posts, provided they are related to your business;
- Posts presenting a study, a survey, or a white paper.
- Posts containing tips, tricks, and other practical advice. Didactic, expert, or pedagogical publications that bring real added value to your followers are also considered;
Conclusion
So, we’ve covered how to post effectively on LinkedIn. You now know what types of content to publish, how often, and how to best distribute them. However, don’t forget that the success of a LinkedIn post depends not only on its quality or originality but also on the relevance of your audience. Therefore, take the time to target the right contacts, and don’t hesitate to use LinkedIn tools – like Sales Navigator – to best frame your publications and their objectives.
By regularly posting quality content, you can be sure to increase your visibility, credibility, and get LinkedIn recommendations from your contacts. This can translate concretely into increased traffic to your website, or simply consistent and more effective B2B lead generation.