Whether you’re new to LinkedIn or a veteran user, most people are drawn to the platform because of its unique positioning as a business networking platform.
For the last few years, we’ve heard people say the platform is thriving. That it’s hitting new heights. That it’s never been a better place to grow your brand.
Which is true. But we don’t think it’s stopping any time soon. We think the growth curve is still on an upward trajectory.
Looking over the last 5 years, LinkedIn has grown from 548 million users to 900 million across 200 countries and territories. If this rate continues, we’ll see LinkedIn hit 1 billion users in 2025.
So, to make sure you’re getting the most out of this growing platform, you need to ensure your posts are the best they can be.
Before we get into our top 3 tips to get people to read your LinkedIn posts, we’re going to take a quick look at how the platform works. Hopefully, this will help you better understand why we’re making the suggestion we are.
How does LinkedIn work?
Like any other business, LinkedIn wants to make money. And, they do that by serving adverts to users scrolling through their website.
Therefore, the more people they have on their site, and the more time they spend there, the more money they can make.
The way they do this is by using algorithms. The algorithms’ role is to make sure that the most relevant content is put in front of the right people, to ensure they stay on the site longer.
In very simple terms, they do this by profiling every user, keeping a record of the type of content they like to see and other people who like similar content to them. Then, what they’ll do is, determine whom to show content to by monitoring how other people interact with it.
For example, if there are two people, Usman and Kieran who are both profiled as being similar and Usman is shown two posts. The first, he scrolls straight by. The second, he takes time to read, react to and even leave a comment. In this case, it is likely the algorithms will also show the second post to Kieran.
So, to improve your posts, you need to play into the algorithms’ hands. By trying to tempt more people to stop, read and interact with your posts, it will perform exponentially better.
But, how do you do that?
3 tips to improve your LinkedIn posts
1. Create a hook with the first line.
This could be a question or an intriguing statement, but you have to be smart because, if your post is a certain length, it will be cut off by a “see more” break.
If you have a plain text post, this appears if your post is longer than 5 lines. And ff the post includes some form of media, it shows up if the post is more than 3 lines long.
Once the “see more” break is activated, it will show, roughly, 140 characters before the cut off. So, you need to make sure you use those 140 characters wisely.
2. Use different post features.
Whether this is including some form of media, a poll or another feature, these, generally, improve engagement.
That being said, plain text posts can work, but they need a really good hook (see above).
Using post features helps in two ways. Firstly, they visually break up somebody’s scroll, allowing you to catch their attention.
The other way these features help is by creating low-effort ways for people to engage. Take polls for example. People read the question, have an opinion, and click one button. They don’t have to type anything out and only the author of the post can see which way they voted.
If you are going to use these features, you need to ensure you’re using them appropriately. Don’t just drop them in for the sake of it.
3. Use faces.
As humans, we are attracted to faces. So much so, we spot faces in inanimate objects.
We’ve all seen a laughing face in a bin, a building which looks shocked or even the man in the moon. This is a common version of a tendency called pareidolia.
In fact, we even have an area of the brain which specializes in facial recognition.
So, if you include a face in your post (even emojis can work on a lesser scale) it’s more likely to grab the reader's attention.
And if the face relates to somebody you’re talking about in your post, it gives the reader a point of reference and connection.
So, if you can incorporate a picture or video that includes faces, go for it.
Wrapping up
Ultimately, you need to help LinkedIn to help you.
We may not like them, but the algorithms control everything. So, do the best you can to play into their hands.
This doesn’t mean you only create content for the algorithms. Instead, look at what you’re going to post and see how you can tweak it to give yourself the best chance.
The idea is to increase engagement and signal to LinkedIn this post might be interesting to other people too. And the first part of that is capturing their attention.
We hope, this has given you some food for thought.
Until next time, thanks for reading.