If ever you’ve created a LinkedIn post that you truly believed would attract a lot of attention – even secretly thought that it had enough potential to go viral – only to feel disappointed when it gets very little reach, then read on.
In this blog, I’ll explain why LinkedIn is a great place to be seen and how to structure a good LinkedIn post that won’t turn invisible the moment you hit that ‘post’ button. It really isn’t mission impossible!
Stay tuned to learn how to write a catchy post on LinkedIn and to see some of my own examples to discover what I did to make them stand out.
Let’s talk robots and the LinkedIn posting strategy
I’m talking specifically about the algorithm robots. Some people call them spiders, but as I hate spiders, I refer to the all-seeing, all-knowing algorithm machines as robots.
These robots will only send your LinkedIn post to a few of your followers when you click the ‘post’ button – so make sure you have good LinkedIn connections and never be afraid to remove those that you know will never do business with you.
When someone interacts with your LinkedIn posts, the robots will know that people are interested in it and send it on to some more of your followers. This action is continual, so the more interaction you get, the more and more people will get to see your post.
And these interactions come in many forms including people clicking on the ‘…see more’ prompt, liking, sharing and commenting on your posts.
Why LinkedIn is a great place to do business
Did you know that LinkedIn has over 740million monthly active users (according to HubSpot) and yet only 1.7% actually post weekly? So, if you consistently post on LinkedIn, you’re already onto a winner.
It seems that millions of LinkedIn users set up their profile and just lurk in the background. They might like and comment on other peoples LinkedIn posts, but rarely create a post of their own. And guess what, the LinkedIn robots aren’t impressed with this approach.
Why you shouldn’t sell on LinkedIn all of the time
In a nutshell, when someone decides to buy something, they’ll head to Google and type what they’re after into the search bar. Social media works differently in that it influences an action.
It could be that there are people out there who don’t even realise that you have the solution to their problem, so it’s up to you to tell them.
Follow the 80/20 rule for your LinkedIn Posts
People don’t like to be sold to on social media, and LinkedIn is no different. Aim for around 20% of your LinkedIn posts to be of a more ‘salesy’ nature – no more. And even then, don’t be too full on!
So that leaves 80% of your posts to showcase your values, talk about what goes on behind the scenes, demonstrate your knowledge of your sector, ask for feedback, entertain, etc. Anything that you know your target audience will like, enjoy, or find interesting.
Before selling, you must create content that builds a trusting relationship with your LinkedIn connections.
How to write a great LinkedIn post to get high visibility
To equip yourself with lots of good LinkedIn post ideas, there’s something you must do first – you must think about your customers.
- What do THEY want to see from you? Not to be confused with what YOU want to tell them!
- What are their challenges?
- How can you solve their problems?
- What do they like to talk about?
- What kind of things would interest them?
I’m sure you can think of a list of even more relevant questions, but these are a good place to start.
Tips for a LinkedIn post: Creating the content
Write the post in the manner in which you’d speak to your customers. Remember, you can be both informal and professional.
- Remove all jargon.
- Be friendly.
- Use the words, ‘I’, ‘You’, and ‘We’.
- And always be your authentic self. Your LinkedIn followers have connected with you, not your business, and they’ll want to hear about you.
LinkedIn post tips: Structuring the LinkedIn post
Below are my top tips for writing a LinkedIn post, in essence they do two things. They give your followers what they want and they please the robots.
Thinking about the list of interactions that I described above, here’s how to put them into practice.
- Encourage your LinkedIn followers to click on the ‘…see more’ prompt. Don’t cram everything in to the first 2 sentences. The robots see when that prompt has been clicked and know that people are interested to read more.
When that ‘…see more’ prompt is clicked on my post above, here’s what my followers saw.
They saw a post that is about me selling a Special Days Of The Year Social Media Wall Planner. But instead of a hard sales pitch, they saw:
- Simple, short conversational sentences about how I created it.
- Short paragraphs to make reading easier.
- CAPS to highlight what the message is focussing on.
- Emojis to add interest.
- Hashtags that are relevant to what I’m writing about. Forget about the #ThursdayThoughts type hashtags; these are far too generic, and millions will use them resulting in your post drowning in the noise!
- Tags to say thank you.
- And a picture of me because I am the person behind the brand.
These actions meant that it was enjoyable to read, it was clear, it was relevant and those who were tagged in reciprocated the ‘thank you’ message by liking, commenting and sharing too. I sold a lot of copies from this LinkedIn post and attracted some new training clients too!
Simple images on LinkedIn work best
Did you know that many people say that they are put off by posts that have professionally designed (and often expensive looking) images as it’s clear that it’s a sales pitch? It’s deemed that the item or service will be costly too – let’s face it, an expensive piece of marketing has to be paid for somehow!
More proof that direct sales posts don’t often work. Images from your mobile phone, selfies and screen shots perform better.
Here is an image I quickly prepared to support another post about my social media wall planner. It’s obvious that I’ve not hired an expensive graphic designer to work their magic on it! And this is why this post worked so well. It was genuine and demonstrated my values too.
Here’s my post before the ‘…see more’ prompt was clicked. You’ll see that I have started my post with intrigue. Never underestimate the curiosity of your followers!
Here’s after the ‘…see more’ prompt was clicked.
- There’s no link to my website as the robots hate it when we direct users away from their platform.
- I’ve put in two questions as I respect the opinions of my followers and want to hear them.
- The hashtag within the body of the content is relevant and trending. Hashtags that are embedded in the main body help LinkedIn posts achieve greater reach.
Further examples of LinkedIn posts that have performed well
Here I’ve shared with you two of my favourite LinkedIn posts, I’m hoping you can gain some LinkedIn post ideas 2021 from them too!
- This post achieved a reach of over 11k with 93 comments.
- It wasn’t selling anything.
- It was about my day.
- It thanked someone and I tagged them in.
- It had relevant hashtags.
- It had the ‘feel good factor.
- The picture was clearly taken from my phone.
- This post reached over 3k people.
- It was a selfie.
- It showed my brand.
- It told a story of what goes on behind the scenes.
- I tagged someone in.
The beauty of good reach is that people can see what I do from my LinkedIn headline. Having a well written and clear bio at the top is super important. Both posts resulted in a number of enquiries about my social media training services.
What’s better than LinkedIn reach? Getting business that’s what!
Below are two more examples of how LinkedIn reach only works when the content is relevant.
This first post was an experiment I did. The LinkedIn post blatantly asked for interaction by asking people to like and comment.
While this LinkedIn post reached over 70,000 people and received over 200 comments, I had no business leads from it.
The LinkedIn post below again had lots of views and comments, nothing on the scale of the one above, yet this one led to three enquiries about my social media training. Want to know why? Because it added value as I created a video to demonstrate how to run an event on LinkedIn.
What better way to start a new year with a new skill! My LinkedIn workshop will show you how to reach more customers, nurture your existing customers, grow your professional network, and strengthen your relationships into loyal, trusting ones.
The online course starts on Tuesday 25 January and for just one hour every day for four days your knowledge about this social media platform will grow immensely. To view the full itinerary and to book head to Eventbrite now. But be quick, this workshop is limited to only 10.
Bye for now,
Becs
