Guest Blog: Content for LinkedIn by Hannah McCormick

LinkedIn is the most trusted social network in the US so if you aren’t already using it as part of your social media strategy, I highly recommend you start.

But what exactly do you post to LinkedIn?

That was the question I asked myself when I first started marketing my business on social media. I’ve had a LinkedIn profile for over a decade (feeling pretty old now) and I’ve used it for job hunting but I had never, ever posted.

The platform always seemed too stuffy and corporate but, after taking a course on LinkedIn management, I discovered that it was far from boring! In fact, content shared to the platform increased by 50% last year.

The short answer is, you can post the same content you post to other social media platforms - with a few tweaks.

What to post on LinkedIn for business:

Firstly, although  4 out of 5  LinkedIn users are the big decision makers for their business, they’re not there to shop. This is a social platform so people are looking for connections and opportunities to build their networks, not an endless stream of pitches!

For this reason, posts from your profile will consistently perform better than posts from your business page. You can post a variety of content, like shout-outs to favourite clients, recent wins and even more personal stories. 

I actually find creating LinkedIn posts easier than creating Instagram content, there’s no pesky grid design to fuss over and text posts often perform better than those with graphics. That being said, your copywriting better be on point. If the word count is stifling your creativity, you can always post a LinkedIn article (basically a mini-blog post with the option to add as many links and images as your heart desires).

Feel free to sprinkle in a few pitches here and there but keep your focus on providing value to your audience.

Boosting your content’s engagement:

Algorithm - the most dreaded word to any social media marketer. Each platform has it’s special, secret set of rules for what content gets seen and by whom. Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating your content for LinkedIn.

The first three lines are the most important - they are all your followers will see before needing to click “see more”. Make these enticing, you only have one chance to grab someone’s attention. If you’re sharing a link in your post and you don’t want the algorithm gods to bury your content, make sure that your link is in these first three lines! (If you can’t work the link in organically, then post it in a comment rather than adding it below the fold).

If you can tag a person or a business, do it! Of course, I don’t mean spamming your connections with meaningless tags - I’m talking about finding an organic and authentic way to weave them into the conversation. People love to be mentioned on LinkedIn and if they decide to comment or share your post, their connections will also see your content. 

Use hashtags but not all of them! Five hashtags is all you need for LinkedIn, any more and the algorithm gets testy. Put these at the very end of your post and try to pick a nice selection of relevant hashtags that have between 20K to 40K posts.

Last but not least, let your content breathe. Keep about a 48 hours space between posts, this will give your connections enough time to see your content and engage with it. Mondays to Thursdays are the best performing days for LinkedIn so posting twice a week tends to work well for the average user. (If everything you post goes viral, then by all means post more regularly but for us average peeps, less is more.)

Want to know more about using LinkedIn for marketing your business? Head over to my blog for more great tips and tools.

Hannah x