LinkedIn is an unusual social media network. As the preferred place for business and networking online, LinkedIn has its own culture and own guidelines for what content performs best. Videos that make a splash on TikTok or YouTube shorts may fizzle on LinkedIn.
If you're not seeing the engagement you expected on LinkedIn, it could be as simple as a mismatch. Are you posting the same content to LinkedIn that you do to Facebook, Twitter or other social media networks? Are you taking into consideration the types of content that perform best on LinkedIn, and creating accordingly - or are you distributing what you already have in the form it's already in?
When you're trying to drive more engagement for your LinkedIn content, it's important to understand what type of content performs best on LinkedIn. From there, you can craft compelling posts that inspire action.
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1. Post Regularly, But Strategically
Like many social media sites, LinkedIn's algorithm rewards steady, consistent activity. According to research by HubSpot, you should aim to post between two and five posts per week. This is easier said than done, especially for business owners who want to post to both their personal profiles and their business accounts.
Instead of posting all your great ideas at once, write a bunch of social media posts when you feel that burst of inspiration and schedule them to post later. You can use a scheduling tool like HubSpot or Hootsuite to plan out your content in advance.
Likewise, you can use the same asset with strategic language for each of your profiles to maximize engagement. Let's say for example that you're creating a post around a recent blog you read, that you want to share on LinkedIn. On your personal profile, that post might be more casual, and direct and refer to your feelings, insights and thoughts on the article. On your business profile, you might keep the post more high-level and focus on how the article relates to your industry, and what insights are most important for your customers. It's the same core content: but crafted to be custom for each type of profile.
2. Use LinkedIn's Native Posting Tools
LinkedIn has a lot of custom post options that you should use to your advantage. Not only do these stand out in the feed, but they also are favored by the LinkedIn algorithm. These include:
- LinkedIn Articles - A blogging-like tool within LinkedIn.
- Polls - Polls that users can engage with.
- Carousel Posts - A series of images in a slide format.
- Auto-play Videos - Short or long-form videos that play in the feed.
- Events - Event landing pages within LinkedIn.
Step outside of typical content structures to tap into these unique posting tools available on LinkedIn. These are great ways to cultivate engagement, as many of them require engagement via clicks - like a poll that requires a choice to be made or a carousel that requires a viewer to click through to see the full post.
3. Long-Form Content
Contrary to many other social networks, long-form content performs extremely well on LinkedIn. Posts that are 300-500 words long routinely get traction on LinkedIn. The business culture of LinkedIn seems to value lengthier insights over short and snappy videos, and a clever feature within LinkedIn's design automatically adds a "see more" link for content that's over 3-5 lines of text. This forces users to expect that most content will be hidden behind "see more," and expect to have to interact with the post to read further.
However, long-form content doesn't mean a "giant wall of text." Make your long-form posts easier to read with line breaks, emojis, bullet points and links to create a flow and scannability. Here's an example of a long-form post from our LinkedIn business page:
While this post is over 750 characters, it's still easy for readers to scan - making it feel less overwhelming and more informative.
4. Respond to Comments
It's important to take the time to follow up with people after they leave a comment - not only does this show appreciation, but it can boost your engagement on LinkedIn as well. When you respond to a comment, it sends a notification to the original commenter, prompting them to revisit your post. It also shows anyone else viewing the post that you're active on the platform.
If you see multiple comments rolling in on one post, jump in as soon as possible to respond to comments and be a part of the conversation.
However, if you see comments trickle in, give yourself a few hours or even a few days before responding. This will help boost activity on the post after it's already been live for a while and received the initial burst of views. LinkedIn is a much slower-moving social network, so you can take more time in replying to comments without losing out on engagement.
5. Make Sure Your Personal Profile is Optimized, Too
Even if you're focused on growing your business page, it's critical that your personal LinkedIn page is up to snuff as well. Take a look at the personal pages of the people in your company who are most often using LinkedIn - this will likely be your CEO, CFO, sales team and marketing team. Make sure each of their profiles follow best practices for an effective LinkedIn bio:
- Bios have a clear goal in mind (convey experience, attract new employees, impress clients, etc.)
- Bios are written in first person, not third person
- Bios are personalized
- Bios are authentic
The better your personal page, the better it reflects on your company. Additionally, updating a personal page sends notifications to your connections, which may prompt them to visit your company's page after reviewing yours.
Finally, don't neglect keywords and hashtags. LinkedIn has its own micro-algorithm that the website uses when people make searches on LinkedIn. Using keywords in your personal profile, business profile, articles and posts can help LinkedIn point more people to your page. Use keywords that are relevant to your position/industry - for example "marketing coordinator" or "inbound marketing." Don't stuff your page full of these phrases, but make sure to sprinkle them naturally throughout your bio text. Similarly, each post you make should include exactly three hashtags (no more, as LinkedIn only takes the first three from our testing).
LinkedIn is a unique social media platform, but with a dedicated audience. Since it primarily attracts a business audience, it's an essential tool for many B2B companies. However, you need to consider the audience of LinkedIn and what type of content performs well in order to drive engagement. Using the 5 techniques above, you're more likely to receive engagement on both your personal and business LinkedIn profiles.
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BizzyWeb is a Minneapolis-based digital marketing and web design agency that helps companies get the high-quality leads they need to grow and thrive. Our tactics include inbound marketing, SEO, advertising, web design, content creation and sales automation. We are an accredited HubSpot Platinum Partner and we offer full-service HubSpot onboarding, enablement and strategy for new and current users.
