10 Ways to Optimise LinkedIn Content

1) POST CONTENT AT OPTIMAL TIMES

In my experience, the optimal time to post on LinkedIn followed your typical working hours. This makes sense as historically LinkedIn is a platform of professionals, used to get jobs and used by recruitment companies. The best time for posting content was before and after work. So typically before 9am and after 5pm.

To be really specific, I found around 8.45am to be the best time for me, followed by 5.15pm (UK time) and then lunchtime. If you are posting a video, 80% of people watch content without sound, so you need to remember that content posted during the day will probably be followed by subtitles.

I would recommend that you take the guesswork out of this by taking a free trial of Shield Analytics, who provide stats and analytics for LinkedIn profiles. With different audiences, optimal times of posting will vary and I personally jumped on a free trial to find the best and worst times to post for my audience. This provided me with data to confirm my optimal times and I'll put a link to Shield at the end of this article.

2) GRAB ATTENTION WITH THE FIRST LINE OF TEXT

In your copy, make sure that you use a hook to capture the attention of your audience. As people are scrolling through their feeds, your goal is to give them a reason to stop and take notice of your content.

On LinkedIn, only 1-2% of people currently create content, but as more people join the platform, there will be increased competition so you need to stand out. A person's time is valuable, so you must give them every reason to pause and consume your posts.

3) INCLUDE YOUR MAIN MESSAGE EARLY

When you are creating your content, it's helpful to stop for a second and ask yourself if your message is clear enough. Sometimes we can get so caught up in writing a post, that we forget our audience will be seeing this post for the first time. Imagine you're a stranger reading the content. Does it read clearly?

Taking inspiration from Tim Ferriss, if you had to keep only one sentence of your content, what would it be? Make sure this sentence features early on in the post. You want your best advice, knowledge or suggestions to be consumed from a quick glance. We can't be certain that text at the end of our content is consumed unless we have confidence that the content is of significant value.

For video content, you could take a leaf out of Gary Vaynerchuk's book and include the most engaging snippet of the video at the start in a short preview. This will encourage the viewer to watch the full video for context, which will increase your watch time.

4) FORMAT YOUR POST TO THE SPACE AVAILABLE

This tip may seem quite small but it's actually very important. Different content looks different in your audience's feed which means you have less space to get your message across. This will also vary depending on the device your content is being consumed on.

By implementing Tips 2 and 3, you can maximise the space provided before the 'See More' button. For text content you have five lines of space available but only three lines when posting videos, images and carousel documents.

With video content, you may want to consider having a colour palette for personal branding, so even at a glance, your audience knows it was your post.

5) TAG AND MENTION BUSINESSES AND PEOPLE

If your post features a business or a person, be sure to tag them in the post for collaboration and employee advocacy. This will increase the likelihood that they engage with the content as they will receive a notification. If they comment on your post, the content will be shown to their audience which can lead to more engagement and opportunities.

I would recommend that you use all the features on LinkedIn where relevant. This is because other social media platforms, like Instagram, have been vocal about favouring users in the algorithm when they use their latest features.

For example, when Instagram brought out the ability to create polls in Stories, the algorithm favoured anybody using the poll feature, as by doing so, you're essentially marketing this new feature to your followers.

6) PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR AUDIENCE

This one is a no brainer! But again, it's really important to stop and actually consider the value you are providing to your audience. A great target with every post is to try and leave the viewer in a better position than they were previously because they've read your content.

If the answer can regularly be 'Yes' to this question. You will go very far as a content creator.

7) USE 3 HASHTAGS

I have a complete guide to LinkedIn hashtags which you can read here as an article or watch my video on YouTube. But for a surface-level introduction, LinkedIn suggests that you use 3 hashtags and I would recommend that you do this to ensure your content looks professional.

In my in-depth article about hashtags, I explain the best hashtag strategy right now, I show you how to select your hashtags and discuss the benefits of creating a hashtag for your personal brand or business.

8) INCLUDE A CALL-TO-ACTION

If somebody has got to the end of your post, you don't want to leave them thinking "Ok now what?!" If your content has been consumed from start to finish, this means the reader is engaged with your message. Therefore, you should maximise this opportunity and direct them onto other content that they might also enjoy.

You don't want people to fall on your content by chance, you should guide your audience to resources based on what they have already just consumed. Relevancy is important and if you take the time to consider what call-to-action matches the content, it will be far more effective and appreciated by your audience.

9) PROVIDE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES IN THE COMMENTS

The comment section is the ideal place to extend the content you have created. Maybe your content was inspired by a podcast or a blog article? Why not share the link to this resource in the comment section so your audience can enjoy it too?

Caring is sharing!

10) REPLY TO PEOPLE IN THE FIRST 2 HOURS

Reply to people! If somebody has taken the time to leave a comment, then make sure you get back to them! When your content is posted, LinkedIn evaluates its quality to see whether it should prioritise the content and serve it to more of your connections.

Remember, an algorithm evaluates your content. Not a human being. LinkedIn has set evaluation criteria and every reply on your post will be a signal to the algorithm that the content is being consumed and that there is activity on the post.

BONUS TIP!

Encourage conversation in the comments by asking people questions so they comment again and again. Bring the social to social media and avoid short, blunt responses to those who took time out of their day to contact you.

Thank you for reading!

Now I know those 10 tips are a lot to remember! But don't worry, I'm not going to expect you to remember all that information. I've created a LinkedIn Content Checklist PDF with these 10 tips for you. Just sign up to my free weekly newsletter to be automatically sent the checklist!

I'm also really excited to share that I'm a contributing author for SHIELD Analytics. This was a result of a video I recorded in 2019 expressing my love for the tool! I'd recommend looking at your analytics on a free trial like I did. But do feel free to use "JOE10" to receive 10% off any paid plans in the future. You can get your free trial here.