5 ways to make your LinkedIn posts shine

Originally published on LinkedIn.

I got the greatest compliment!

"I just love the content you post, it's eye catching and thoughtful and inspiring. That is why I attended the New Tech Seattle that night, it was because of your posting. Can you give me tips on what I can do to improve my own content & posting?"

Check out my tips, tell me what you think, and share yours!

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Tip #1: Include an image (or video)
This is #1 for a good reason: people like images. They catch the eye and subtly communicate information about the post.

• When linking to external content, double-check that you like the default image before posting.
• When you don't like the default image or it there isn't one, then choose something relevant to upload. This extra effort might take you a few minutes, but it's worth it! If I don't have a great photo on my phone (e.g. from an event), then I love the free images from Unsplash.
  
• Be careful posting multiple images in the same post - sometimes they can look really bad because of the way LinkedIn crops the view. You can preview how they'll look in the draft, and then you should weed out images that look bad or use a collage tool to combine into one image.
  

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Tip #2: Lead with the headline
Treat your post like a newspaper. you want the important stuff 'above the fold' so that it's visible in case people don't click on '...see more.' You could choose...

• A question meant to generate thought or responses
• An attention grabber with compelling information/news ('Did you know...') or a call to action ('Check this out...')
  

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Tip #3: Keep it short(-ish)
Some rules are made to be broken, and I regularly break this one. BUT, it's a good starting point. The current max length is 1,300 characters, and I've literally only gotten close to that ceiling once (see below). If you think you need a longer post, help your reader's eyes by:

• Using emojis (e.g. ✔) as bullet points
• Separating blocks of text with an extra line
  

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Tip #4: Use (but don't abuse) @ tagging
If you're writing about a person or an organization - totally tag them! When I write about events, I typically tag the organizer, the host (might not be the same organization), and featured contributors.

Lately, there's been a lot of talk about 'spam posts' - i.e. tagging everyone you know so that it shows up in their notifications. My take is don't tag everyone, but do tag people you're sure will want to see the post. I use tagging to invite people to events since LinkedIn Events is still in Beta...

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Tip #5: Use appropriate hashtags
Hashtags are a newer feature in LinkedIn, and I'm seeing a decent amount of adoption. As much fun as it is to make up your own random, funny hashtags...don't...

• Use the LinkedIn search bar to research relevant keywords (e.g. #networking) - you'll see how many people follow the hashtag, and of course you can opt in to following it.
• People seem to be more likely to follow a company page than a company hashtag. For example, F5 Networks has 159,917 followers vs #f5networks has 134 followers.
  

What are your tips?