Are you sitting at your computer or staring at your phone and watching the tumbleweed blow across your post? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Even when we think we have created the next viral post, it can sometimes feel like an uphill battle to get positive engagements. Likes and comments shouldn’t be as rare as gold dust, but you probably keep asking yourself, ‘what am I doing wrong?’ I have a better question for you, what can you start doing right with LinkedIn content?
The Post Itself
One of the most obvious problems with your LinkedIn content could be that it is too long. Just because LinkedIn has a 3000 character limit does not mean you have to use them all. Even if you do, you should break up your sentences into their own paragraphs and make sure all the text is relevant and concise. Just like any social media, when people are scrolling through their feed they are not likely to pause long enough to read a giant chunk of text. If you do have more to say then link to an external source. This will also build more interaction with your post by encouraging people to click.
Add photos and videos to make your posts more appealing. Anything that is currently trending is sure to get engagements but any kind of visual accompaniment is more likely to make people react. Just like your text, you want to keep videos short (between 30 seconds and 2 minutes is the sweet spot). Visuals are good to up your engagements but don’t overuse them!
Directly engaging with your industry should be obvious but some people focus so much on reaching a global audience that they don’t reach anyone at all. You want to put your focus on reaching the right people – people you know who are more likely to react to your LinkedIn content. Share professional tips, industry news, videos of everyday work moments. Breaking up your business and more “human” content is key to enticing your audience. Great knowledge and tips from your industry are ideal but people also want personal stories and experiences. With every post, you are building a community of people with similar interests and insights.
Hashtags (Rule of Three)
There seems to be a misconception that using a lot of hashtags will make your post receive a higher engagement ratio. It is actually more likely that so many hashtags will bury your post because it will not be reaching the people who want to see it – the people who are more likely to enjoy and relate to the content.
Remember the rule of three. Use three key hashtags that will help your post reach a wider audience. Make sure the hashtags are industry-related and have a significant following so anyone searching posts by their hashtags is more likely to find them. If you are struggling to think of hashtags, LinkedIn has a helpful feature that will suggest relevant ones for you. Failing that, you can simply search “top hashtags on LinkedIn” to find what is currently trending.
Comments
Comments are a good sign of how successful your post has been. The more engaging people find your content, the more likely they are to comment. Responding to these comments is an understated part of keeping your engagement building. It is an opportunity for you to create a conversation or further one you are already having.
You want to respond in a thoughtful manner, even use the commentator’s name in your comment to make a personal connection. Asking open questions will begin a back and forth and can be a way to ask people what kind of content they find the most interesting. It all goes back to building a community and growing your network. Get to know your audience so that you know you are posting LinkedIn content that people want to see.
Track Your Post’s Performance
Once you have created and posted your content, the only thing left to do is sit back and watch the likes roll in. There are a couple of ways to track your post’s performance. You can judge by the number of likes and comments it has received. This is a good indication of how engaging your post is but you can also use LinkedIn’s analytical tools.
Below your post, just above the comments, you will see the icon of a chart. Next to the chart is the number of people who have viewed your post. If you click on this icon then you will be able to see the industries these people work in as well as their locations. If you have a high number of views but low engagements this is a good tool to use to find out why. Maybe you are not reaching your desired industries or if you are then you know this type of LinkedIn content is not the right kind for you to be posting.
