Algorithmic gymnastics

Francis Grabowski, Associate Consultant at Bladonmore, looks at how to make more out of your LinkedIn messages.

Lots of companies feel they should be doing something on social media, but they’re not quite sure what is right for their business and how to make themselves heard. Often, if there is no dedicated team, the people that end up creating social posts have just their own personal experience from X, Facebook or Instagram, where things work slightly differently. What works well there doesn’t necessarily translate to what works well on LinkedIn.

The most appropriate content changes from business to business, dependent on your audience and your goals, but there are some quick wins anyone can implement to make the most of the inner workings of LinkedIn. These small changes to the way a post is crafted will help you to get more from the time you’re spending crafting posts on LinkedIn.

1. Create a post that LinkedIn regards as high quality

When you do that, it will share your post further and wider. You might think that it will be a bit too hard to contort your post into shape to do so, but there aren’t that many things you need to do to have your post rated as high quality.

Firstly, only use three hashtags or less, and make those hashtags generic. LinkedIn takes your hashtags, finds people who interacted with posts using the same ones and shows your post to them. It might be more fun to turn your post into a hashtag that is a pun, but it won’t help your post perform better. Use your hashtag to signpost the industry or job role of your ideal audience.

Don’t tag lots of people or include a host of links in your post, one will do just fine. Finally, encourage responses. If you finish your post with a question, inviting people to take part, then their responses will signal your post’s quality to the algorithm and encourage it to share it more.

2. Grab attention in the first 240 characters

Remember that everyone using LinkedIn is using it the same way that they use all social media: they’re scrolling. Users scroll down seeing more than the first few words of a post, its accompanying image or the first few seconds of a video. Whatever format of post you are using, you’ll only have a few words to grab their attention, so front-load your message and provide context and detail later.

3. Use rich media

Images and video get far more interaction than text does. Rich content increases engagement by 98%, so at the very least attach an image to your post. You can make it easy on yourself by creating a library of branded, editable, image tiles that can be used when you don’t have anything else.

4. Humanise your brand

Show the human faces of your business. People, in general, want to interact with other people. They’d rather hear from someone in the business than from the faceless entity that is the business itself. So, wherever possible, talk about the people in your business, use their pictures, or reference the people who have been involved in the work that you’re discussing.

5. Keep it short

You might well have a lot to say, but that doesn’t mean that LinkedIn is the place where people will read it. On average, users are spending something like 17 minutes on the platform each month. Use your post to invite them to read more or head to your website for the full story. Hitting ‘read more’ and seeing the hundreds of words open in your feed is likely to be an immediate turn off.

6. Measure and adapt

The final piece of advice, and one of the most important, is to measure and adapt. Start with a plan that has lots of different types of content, presented in different formats and posted at different times, but all with one goal in mind. A singular goal will help make your posts more comparable when it’s time to review your success. Once you’ve got a better idea about what is helping you achieve your goals on social media, change the plan accordingly and start doing more of it.

If you’re looking for help creating content for your social media programme – or anywhere else, get in touch.