There are three types of content you can write on LinkedIn:
- Post
- Articles
- Newsletters
In today’s lesson, I will talk about posts that are the most important and leave articles and newsletters for future issues.
LinkedIn posts are kind of mini-blog posts and they don’t take too long to write. Unlike Medium, they are short, punchy, and attention-grabber. They have a specific format, though. Once you learn it, you can create a post in less than 20 minutes.
LinkedIn is more about life lessons and personal stories rather than long-form Medium articles. They get a lot of views (clicks), likes, and comments because they are quick to read and easy to comment. It is also very easy to send people an invitation to connect or to get them to follow you.
If you have followers or connections, your post will go in front of all of them in their Newsfeed. Unlike Medium, LinkedIn’s algorithm is very good.
The LinkedIn algorithm favors posts compared to videos, images, or articles. Videos used to be big on LinkedIn, not anymore.
LinkedIn has over 660 million registered users and out of that only, 1% create content. The rest are all consumers, ready to consume good content.
Let’s figure out how to write a good LinkedIn post. But before that, we need to dissect a LinkedIn post.
Anatomy of a LinkedIn Post
A good LinkedIn post has a special structure.
It has a First Line, a black line, a third line, and a ‘…see more’ button.
Let’s have a look at them one by one.
First Line
The first line is super important. It is usually a hook to grab the readers. Here are some examples:
The traditional path in life is broken:
Attention is the new digital currency.
The worst LinkedIn content is:
You’re looking at a quitter.
I almost quit blogging two weeks ago. — Tim Denning.
The first line could be a question as well. Here are some examples:
Have I told you this before?
Not a bad picture, right? — Niharika
Are you trapped in a ‘bullshit job’?
Second Line
Usually, after the grabbing statement, the second line is kept blank, intentionally. The reason is, that the LinkedIn feed shows only three lines. After that, there is a ‘…see more’ button. By keeping the second line blank and giving partial information in the third line the LinkedIn writers invite the readers to click the ‘…see more’ button.
Third Line
The third line is to inject drama into the equation. Give them a partial answer to the question. Or write a leading statement that intrigues the readers.
See More Button
The “…see more” button is on the right-hand side of the text. Your third-line statement should entice readers to click that button. When they do, it is counted as a view.
When readers click the ‘…see more’ button they see 3 to 10 short paragraphs of writing which they will gobble up in less than 30 seconds.
I will get to how to write those paragraphs in the ‘do’ part of this article but first I want to give you a list of ‘don’ts.’
Because the ‘don’ts’ are more important than ‘dos.’ They can mess up your posts and they will get lost in the vast sea that is LinkedIn.
But if you take the advice and don’t use any of the ‘don’t,’ your posts will be circulated to thousands of readers.
So here the are:
The ‘Don’ts’ Of LinkedIn Posts
There are a number of things you must not do on LinkedIn. I want to list them right in the beginning.
- Don’t write a wall of text.
- Don’t have big paragraphs. No more than 3 lines per paragraph.
- Don’t write long posts. 1 to 10 paragraphs are the best.
- Open with a powerful line or a question.
- Don’t write more than one post a day.
- Don’t use stock photos. Any photo which features you is great, including selfies. On LinkedIn, people want to see your real-self.
- Don’t share other’s people’s stuff on LinkedIn. LinkedIn doesn’t promote those.
- Don’t provide links in the body of the post.
- Don’t share your Medium articles. A better strategy is to break them up and make several posts from them.
Now that we have got ‘don’t’ out of the way, let’s concentrate on ‘dos’ of LinkedIn
Types Of Posts You Can Write
Most people think LinkedIn is a platform for professionals and you can only write about work-related topics. That might have been true a few years ago. Not anymore. In the past few years, LinkedIn has become a platform for everyone. It is not like Facebook, thanks heaven for that, but you can write a variety of posts on it and get a lot more views and engagement than you ever can on Medium.
True, you get paid on Medium but on LinkedIn, you can sell your services and products through the power of content writing. No hard sell required. You just be yourself and share your knowledge. Soon, people see you as an authority in your field.
In the rest of the article, I share several examples from my writing to show the different kinds of posts you can write.
Once again, I am no LinkedIn guru and what I am sharing below is my humble opinion. To me, my success on the platform is phenomenal, but it is nothing compared to what others are experiencing.
With little ado, here they are:
1. Your Story
Your story is always a good point to start. Start with your story. The rest will flow from there.
2. Change Story
The other kind of stories you can tell are the change stories. Where you changed or something changed by the action you took. Here is an example:
3. Lessons Learned Story
This is the third kind of personal story you can tell, where you have gone through some tough times or experiences and learned lessons from them.
4. Your Industry Update
You can share snippets of information about your industry and educate the readers like that. These kinds of posts demonstrate your knowledge in your field and establish your expertise amongst your readers.
5. Polls
Polls do extremely well on LinkedIn. They get propagated a lot. I like them because they give you excellent real-time data from engaged viewers. The following two polls helped me design the ‘Write Your Book’ course.
6. Videos
Videos used to be huge on LinkedIn, but for some reason they do not have the same kind of reach as they used to. But they still have their uses. I created my first video ever to introduce myself.
You should try to create a video once a week or so, because it gets people to know you better. Seeing you in flesh and blood, sharing a tip, or showing a bit of your life is a great way to build a bond with your audience.
Anastasia Forrest, a realtor, and the author plays guitar and sings a song once a week.
7. Things From Everyday Life
You can pick any aspect of your life and write a short post about it. You never know which one is going to hit the cord with the audience. I wrote about my journal writing. I thought little of it as I have written about it on Medium so many times. But it turned out my most viewed post.
8. Travel Stories
Travel stories always generate a lot of interest. Going away on a holiday is not a problem at LinkedIn. With Medium, I had to pre-write a bunch of articles and schedule them before going on a vacation. But with LinkedIn, I can just share where I am and what I am doing. They not only make an interesting read but also give me an opportunity to write something different, or something off the cuff.
9. Inspirational Posts
Inspirational posts are big on LinkedIn. They always get a lot of engagement. People genuinely like reading them and feel inspired. And they are very easy to write.
Have a read of the one below. Pay special attention to the white space and word art (symmetry) which attracts the
10. Provide A Solution
11. Tell stories
Tell brief stories to illustrate your point or to entertain. They make people stop scrolling and read. Make sure they are not too long and don’t have big paragraphs. Here are two of mine. Apologies, I couldn’t fit the complete stories in the images. The links are below if you want to read them.
Conclusion
I only have been writing on LinkedIn since January 2022, but in three and a half months I have written over 100 posts. In future articles, I will share more examples with you. But for the time being, I think I have given you enough to get started.
Now it is your turn.
Follow me on LinkedIn if you like. I will read your post and leave you a comment.
If you are interested, here is a list of my other articles about LinkedIn.
How To Get Started On LinkedIn
Lesson Learned During 30 Day LinkedIn Sprint
One Cool Way to Grow Your Audience Beyond Your Wildest Dream
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Photo by Jonathan Cooper on Unsplash