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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.

1. Post Copy

This LinkedIn post demonstrates post copy formatting. — This post from the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions LinkedIn page demonstrates how text formatting makes post copy easier to read and more aesthetically pleasing.

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:

Be concise. If you can say it with fewer words, do it.
Format your copy. Breaking up walls of text in longer posts by adding spaces between paragraphs, using lists, and even including emojis will make your posts easier to read, and make them stand out more in newsfeeds. This is demonstrated in the LinkedIn post reference above.
Use an engaging tone that matches your brand voice. While you want to stay within the realm of your brand voice in your copy (ex. A B2B IT software company will likely have a more serious tone than a B2C toy company), you still want to come across as welcoming and encourage conversation.

Read our blog post on LinkedIn post examples for an analysis on the way top brands are formatting their LinkedIn posts and copy.

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**Use social media marketing expert Justin Welsh's "The Operating System" to grow your personal brand on LinkedIn.**

2. User profile and company page tags

This post from the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions LinkedIn page includes both a profile tag and a page tag within the post 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:

It causes your posts to show up in newsfeeds within the tagged account’s network, leading to more post impressions, and higher potential engagement
It increases the likelihood that the tagged account will engage with your post, taking actions like leaving a comment, or liking or sharing the post
It adds variety to your post copy
It allows you to attribute 3rd party content to the author when you share it. Ex. if you share an article from another company, and want to give them credit in your post.

Get more post tagging best practices from this article on LinkedIn social media marketing tips.

3. Media (images and video)

This LinkedIn post demonstrates an image included in the post. — Here is an example of a LinkedIn image post from the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions page. Note that it does not include the link preview caption that link preview image posts have, as shown in the image for the next tip.

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:

Use images that are 1200 x 627 pixels for the best display in both image posts, and link preview images (see more on these below).

Basic LinkedIn video specifications to follow when creating and posting videos:

Max video length: 10 minutes
Video dimensions: 256 x 144px - 4096 x 2304px
Max length: 10 minutes
Video file size: 75 KB - 200 MB
File format: MP4
Frame rate: Less than 30 frames per second (FPS)

Benefits of including images and videos in your LinkedIn posts:

Videos posted on LinkedIn receive an average of 3 times the engagement of text posts.
Posts with a visual element stand out more in the newsfeed.
Images and video offer another opportunity to communicate information within the context of your post.

4. Links and Link Preview Images

This is an example of an auto generated preview link in a LinkedIn post. — LinkedIn post preview links auto generate a clickable linked image, as well as a headline and caption from the webpage.

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:

Try link shorteners like bitly, or the link shortening tools built into platforms like Sprout Social and Buffer to make posts.
Posts including links can have up to 45% more engagement than posts without links.
LinkedIn drives the most referral traffic out of any social media platform for B2B. companies. Take advantage of this by posting relevant links to your website and blog when possible.

Looking for video and image ideas to share on LinkedIn? Check out this article on LinkedIn content marketing.

5. Hashtags

This LinkedIn post demonstrates a hashtag included in the post copy. — Including LinkedIn hashtags in posts increases their engagement potential. Hashtags can be added within post copy, as in this example shown from LinkedIn Marketing Solutions.

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:

Conduct hashtag research using the LinkedIn follow page to see what hashtags are most popular in your niche.
Research hashtags in your industry to see what conversations are happening about those topics, and cater your own content to those conversations so that it becomes a part of them.
Aim to include at least 2-3 hashtags in your LinkedIn posts. These can be included organically within the post copy, or in a list at the end of your post similar to the popular caption format used on Instagram.
If you want to go over the 2-3 hashtag suggestion, include them in a list at the end of the post so your post copy doesn’t look spammy.

6. Post Likes and Reactions

This LinkedIn post shows the reaction options that users have to react to a post. — The emoji menu above represents the options a user has when choosing to "like" a LinkedIn post.

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:

Like
Celebrate
Support
Love
Insightful
Curious

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.

7. Shares

This LinkedIn post shows the post share button. — LinkedIn posts include a share button that will share the post within the network of the user sharing it, as shown in this post from LinkedIn Marketing Solutions.

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.

8. Comments

This image shows a LinkedIn post comment response from a post author. — LinkedIn post authors can respond to LinkedIn comments, offering a great avenue for engaging with people and increasing post impressions.

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:

Always respond to comments on your posts.
Try responding with an answer to the comment as well as a follow up question to expand. the conversation and prompt additional comments and engagement.
Like every comment you receive.

9. LinkedIn Polls

This LinkedIn post includes a poll. — LinkedIn polls like this poll from the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions page allow users to vote on their preferred answer, and then the post displays the results once the poll closes.

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:

Ask for customer’s opinion on a new product or service your company introduced.
Create a poll about trends in your industry.
Ask for predictions about the future of your industry, or biggest changes your industry will see this year.

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.

Bonus Personal Branding Tips and Insights

About the Author

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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.
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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.

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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: