If you’re in business, you need to be on LinkedIn. It boasts more than 600 million professional profiles which can provide you with a huge supply of network connections and job opportunities. Your posts will help you to build your brand, credibility and trust leading to enquiries and people buying from you. So, you need to be doing everything you can to make sure that your posts achieve the best possible reach. In this blog I’ll be sharing with you the best 6 LinkedIn post mistakes which I have learned from my professional career as a social media executive and from seeing the mistakes people make on LinkedIn first hand.
Before we begin, I can’t stress enough how important it is that you have set up your LinkedIn profile correctly in the first instance and know how to use LinkedIn– if your profile hasn’t been maximised, your posts won’t be performing as well as they should.
A little bit about the LinkedIn robots
Unfortunately, not all of your connections will have your LinkedIn post placed in their newsfeed, in fact, only about 10% will see them – unless of course, your post gets a lot of engagement.
It pays to understand the reasons why some of your posts do better than others and what to write on LinkedIn posts – to make this easier just imagine there’s an army of robots who spy on every post. They only reward the posts they like with good reach.
In the split second you click ‘post’ the LinkedIn robots scan your post for anything they like and don’t like. The ‘quality’ of your post according to them will determine not just how many of your connections see your post, but exactly who will see it.
Right, let’s go, here are some common LinkedIn mistakes which even the most seasoned user can fall foul of. No matter what your previous experience is of this professional social media network platform you’ll learn a lot from this list of worst LinkedIn mistakes.
Top Mistakes; #1
Never tag people in your posts
If you never tag people in your posts, you’re missing a trick. When you tag someone in your post, they will receive a notification to tell them. They are highly likely to check this out quickly and as the post is relevant to them, they will like and comment on the post. Their quick engagement will inform the robots that your post is proving to be interesting and they will then decide to share it with more of your connections.
- So, by tagging someone in you can predict that they will see the post. It could be that the robots didn’t intend to share it with them so in a way you’re outsmarting them!
- And when the person you tagged engages with the post, potentially their connections will see this interaction and maybe they too will want to engage with your post. Yes, you guessed it, the robots will love this and reward your post with an even greater reach.
- Don’t forget to tag in your own business too – a great idea if you’re not tagging in any of your connections. This way, you can engage with your post as your business – again outsmarting the robots.
Top Mistakes; #2
Don’t waste time looking for an image
LinkedIn posts which don’t have images currently do better than those with images. Obviously, if there is a great image to use to complement your content please use it, but if the image is there just for the sake of it, don’t bother with it.
- For this scenario to work in your favour, make sure that your post is more than two sentences long to bring up the all-important ‘… see more’ link. When this link is clicked it alerts the robots to engagement activity – the thing they love the most!
Top Mistakes; #3
Continually share other people’s content
I see this strategy a lot, and it really is one LinkedIn mistake to avoid. The robots love to see fresh content – when they see content that has already done the rounds, they don’t go out of their way to give it more views. They’ll forgive you for doing this every now and then and when you do, you’re best to add a fresh piece of content to introduce it.
Top Mistakes; #4
Never use hashtags
Believe it or not hashtags are very powerful on LinkedIn too. Many of LinkedIn’s users follow specific hashtags to allow them to keep up to date with their industry, learn from them and see who else shares valuable content on things they are interested in.
- Use hashtags that your customers would use and want to follow. Remember that if you add a hashtag to a post and someone follows that particular hashtag, your post will be visible to them. And there is nothing the robots can do to influence this!
- Avoid using generic hashtags that have no meaning, like #ThrowbackThursday. They get overused, unlikely to be relevant to your content and your post will just get lost in the noise.
- Plus, if the hashtag you have chosen is trending, many more connections will be notified of your post in their notifications. Hurrah!
Top Mistakes; #5
Selling your product or service in every post
Putting content out there that always promotes what you do, what sales you have on, what discounts you are offering, etc, is exactly what not to do on LinkedIn.
- It’s not just the robots that hate to see posts that continually sell – it’s other LinkedIn users too. No-one likes to be sold to all of the time – it’s a total put off. LinkedIn is about strengthening relationships and building trust. It’s OK to promote your product or service every now and then, just not EVERY time.
Top Mistakes; #6
Putting links in your posts
This has to be one of the worst LinkedIn mistakes! The robots go mad when this happens – they cannot stand it when you actively encourage LinkedIn users to move away from their beloved platform. It’s a big no-no and the robots won’t do anything to help people see the posts with links in them.
- Instead you can pop links into the comments section below, or;
- you can return to your post about an hour later and edit it with the link. Unfortunately the people who have already interacted with your post won’t have seen the link but they will have done enough to make the robots believe that the post is of interest and worth sharing – their eyesight isn’t that good and they don’t tend to spot the added link 😜
Get the best out of LinkedIn!
If you’re still struggling with what to write in a post, watch my YouTube video titled 13 LinkedIn Post Ideas. Here you’ll hear more of my LinkedIn tips. After that you might find my blog Top Tips for Social Media Content 2020 really useful to brainstorm content ideas.
And if you want to take your LinkedIn learnings to the next level and really grow your business on LinkedIn join me on the 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th September 2020 for an hour’s workshop every day. This interactive online course hosted by myself is limited to only 10 people allowing me to give everyone the best learning experience.
I’ll show you how to optimise and improve your profile, rank high in searches, develop a connection strategy, grow your network, build relationships and drive your business forwards with confidence.
For full details and to book, head to my Online LinkedIn Workshop For Business. I really hope you can join me – I promise you’ll be buzzing with creativity and motivation after the four days!
Bye for now,
Becs
