When creating professional content for social media, we want to grow our network, retain existing relationships, and improve our reputation in our fields. People spend less time on LinkedIn (and similar sites) than on other social media, so why spend time on it? There are two main differences:
It is also important to note that while there are good arguments for hosting your blog, driving traffic to it will be much more difficult. An alternative might be to host your blog but link the articles to your LinkedIn feed, but more on that later.
There are two main types of text content on LinkedIn. You can create posts directly in the feed- they are similar to Twitter posts, but they don’t have small character limits. The other is full articles, which act similar to blog posts. Both formats also allow for photos and videos. Articles will also include creating a short-form post for your feed.
How often to post depends on who you ask. People focused on building their networks on LinkedIn will often post daily, whereas others will take a more relaxed weekly or monthly schedule. It’s important to remember that any posts are better than no posts. Even if you can’t keep to a regular schedule, you can still leverage LinkedIn content to build your network.
What to post will depend a bit on your schedule. If you post daily, you will likely be relying more on short posts and videos than on long-form articles. If you only post once in a while, that does not mean you have to create longer articles.
Currently, there is a LinkedIn character limit on posts of 3,000 characters. This is far more than Twitter, but it means that you are still limited on the depth of your post. These are good for short ideas that you can fit in a paragraph or two. When the post relates to an article or external link, you can leverage this space to summarize the longer content and post your thoughts on it.
The main advantage of posts is that the engagement will be much higher than on articles- people scrolling through social media, even LinkedIn, have limited attention spans, so they are more likely to read a short update than clicking through to a complete article. It makes including summaries and thoughts with your links essential- most viewers will only read that part.
Also, keep in mind that they can only view the first few lines on the feed. This space should do its best to hook people in and convince them it’s worth reading the rest of the post or to click through to the link.
Posts help remind people that you exist and to drive engagement. Articles are where you show off your skills more thoroughly. Thought leaders are the LinkedIn equivalent of influencers, and longer content is part of building that authority. Even though fewer people are engaging with that content, it is still valuable because the people who do read it will be the ones who most see you as an expert.
Articles also have longevity and fra better search engine presence. Posts are like a firework- they flash bright but quickly disappear. Articles have a long, slow burn which can grow in influence as you create more content.
The common wisdom is to include images with all your posts. They help catch the reader’s eye and cause your post to take up more space in the feed. If you have the skills, sites like canva can help you create your graphics, and infographics are a reliable way to make easy engagement. However, a link below in the tools section explains how and where to get stock images. They may be cheesy, but they work.
Like images, videos can be a great way to catch people’s attention. There are two types of videos I often see on LinkedIn. More informal, short videos like TikTok or LinkedIn posts are one option. The other is longer, edited content like YouTube tutorials or LinkedIn articles (though those arguably would be better placed on YouTube and linked in your feed).
Videos have a bit of an advantage over posts in a couple of areas- they don’t have the character limit, and they can help create a human connection which is essential even in business. The main downside is that even a shorter video can be more work than text, requiring several takes to get right.
Don’t be a leach- if you want others to engage with your content, it’s not unreasonable to do the same. You might even learn something! You can also look critically at what they did- what worked for you and what didn’t. What are people saying in the comments? How can you apply this to your content?
It’s also helpful to follow up with the comment section on your posts where appropriate. Unlike other social media sites, this usually won’t be a toxic soup, but people are genuinely interested in what you have to say. Answering questions and saying thank you rewards people who take the extra step to engage with your content.
It’s essential to recognize that there are no hard rules here- experimentation is good. What works for you may be completely different from everyone else’s advice. For example, you’ll often see advice to use images or video in all your posts, even if you have to use stock photos, making your post more visible. However, you can also find examples of highly successful people in their LinkedIn networking that never use images because they are doing something different.
I usually have two prompts for content- what you are doing now and what you want to learn. In the context of LinkedIn, I would probably only choose the first. Your goal is to show off your skills, not add additional work (though it’s still an option).
If you are looking for content, here are a few prompts to get you started: