One of the first steps to taking advantage of LinkedIn as a marketing channel is understanding the tools you have to work with on the platform.
Posts are one of the predominant features on LinkedIn. Functioning similar to Facebook posts, LinkedIn posts allow you to share content that appears in people’s newsfeeds, and are added to your LinkedIn profile or LinkedIn company page once published. Knowing the different aspects of a LinkedIn post will allow you to take advantage of the opportunities they present, and to improve content engagement.
Whether you aim to grow a LinkedIn company page, build your own personal brand on LinkedIn, or to leverage it as an entrepreneur to promote your business or side hustle, this breakdown on the basics of LinkedIn posts can help you get more ROI out of the platform.
Review the LinkedIn post feature breakdowns below, and include the associated tips for each feature in your own LinkedIn marketing strategy.
Post copy is one of the core components of a post on the platform. LinkedIn posts have a 700 character limit, and this real estate should be used to catch reader’s attention, and deliver key information about the content you are sharing.
Best practices to follow for LinkedIn copy:
Read our blog post on LinkedIn post examples for an analysis on the way top brands are formatting their LinkedIn posts and copy.
As with other platforms like Facebook and Twitter, you can tag other user and business accounts (company pages) in your post copy. Using the “@” symbol before a profile name or company page name in your post copy will embed a URL to that page within the text. This feature is useful for several reasons.
Advantages of tagging LinkedIn company pages and profiles in your posts:
Get more post tagging best practices from this article on LinkedIn social media marketing tips.
LinkedIn posts give you the option to include images and video in your posts. By clicking the media button, you can upload this additional content to add another level of value and quality to your posts.
With image posts, you can add a single image, or multiple images in a carousel format similar to that of an Instagram post or website image carousel where users can click or scroll to see additional images in the post.
LinkedIn image size specification:
Basic LinkedIn video specifications to follow when creating and posting videos:
Benefits of including images and videos in your LinkedIn posts:
Another opportunity offered by LinkedIn posts is the ability to include links within your post copy. Posts including links can have up to 45% more engagement than posts without links, meaning you not only will have more engaging posts, but can also take advantage of post links to drive traffic to your blog or website.
Tips for linking within LinkedIn posts:
Looking for video and image ideas to share on LinkedIn? Check out this article on LinkedIn content marketing.
Hashtags are a bookmarking and conversation driving feature on LinkedIn as on other social media platforms. Including a hashtag in a post categorizes it with other posts that include the same hashtag, bringing them together into a list where people interested in the same topic can view and join conversations as they unfold.
Tips for Including Hashtags in Your Posts:
LinkedIn posts offer users the opportunity to engage with a post in several ways. This includes the standard “like” option seen across platforms like Facebook and Instagram. LinkedIn posts take post engagements a step further, enabling users to select from a menu of reactions when liking a post.
LinkedIn Post Reaction Options:
This variety of post engagements offers another level of insight in regard to how people are reacting to your posts and their thoughts on them. These can be measured in one batch of likes or engagement, or broken out if you want to analyze that level of detail for your LinkedIn post engagement.
Shares are another standard post engagement method that LinkedIn posts feature. Shares are invaluable, as they are the gateway to new audience segments among your followers, unlocking more impressions and potential new followers each time your post is shared.
Comments are another key element of a LinkedIn post, and a massive opportunity for community engagement. When someone comments on your posts, there’s a chance your post shows up in the newsfeeds of that individual’s followers, offering your post expanded reach.
This is why responding to every comment you receive on your posts is critical. It opens up the opportunity for engagement with that individual, builds on your organic relationship with them, and gives your post the opportunity to reach new people you otherwise might not have.
LinkedIn Comments Best Practices:
Polls are a social media feature that is popular in Instagram stories and on Twitter. LinkedIn reintroduced its polls feature (the platform used to have polls, and has since brought them back) to take advantage of this engaging post type, and you should, too.
Polls are simple to create, engage audiences in an informal and interesting way, and offer you the opportunity to conduct free market research to get your audience’s opinion.
LinkedIn Poll Ideas:
LinkedIn posts are at the core of the platform, and represent the avenue through which your brand gets discovered audience engagement takes place. Leverage the post features explained above in your LinkedIn marketing strategy to drive better engagement on your content, and to raise awareness for your brand.
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Hi, I'm Justin and I write Brand Credential.
I started Brand Credential as a resource to help share expertise from my 10-year brand building journey.
I currently serve as the VP of Marketing for a tech company where I oversee all go-to-market functions. Throughout my career I've helped companies scale revenue to millions of dollars, helped executives build personal brands, and created hundreds of pieces of content since starting to write online in 2012.
As always, thank you so much for reading. If you’d like more personal branding and marketing tips, here are more ways I can help in the meantime:
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