Say it right: Picking the right post types on LinkedIn
-Saee Nikte, Word Wizard at Noob Community. Creatives by Bandita Deka.
Even if your content is top-notch, your posts won’t always work the best. Been there? It’s not because of some unfathomable LinkedIn algorithm. It’s simply about mastering the art of posting wisely.
You already write smart. Now post smart too.
Your audience has a clear aim when they come on LinkedIn. They know what knowledge they want to acquire. Now it’s up to you to match their level of clarity and offer them your content in the most efficient manner.
In this article, we talk about how to choose the suitable post type for your content. Here’s a quick glance at what we will be covering:
- The Classic Text+Image
- Text+ Carousel
- Videos
- Engagement Options
- Text Only- Long Form & Short Form
1. The Classic Text + Image
Only text did no one any good ever (other than Shakespeare probably). Your feed has to be a good mixture of multimedia content. Pizza alone is great. But pizza + your favourite series? Oof. Exactly like that. Okay, maybe not “exactly”. But you get it.
Images help the best when your text has multiple points of focus or aspects in it. A good infographic can bring your entire text together by highlighting the key points.
Use infographics, graphics and images to support certain portions of your text. It will give your written content more weightage and value.
Use photos for human interest stories, to create a bond, to make people relate more to you beyond your organisation. Show them your values. Show them your personality.
Your images are something that will stay with the viewer for quite some time — as opposed to texts which we tend to forget much quicker.
It’s not always show, rather than tell. Sometimes it’s show and tell.
2. Text + Carousel
We won’t spend too much time on this. ‘Classic Text + Image’ had a glow up and now it only answers to ‘Text + Carousel’.
Don’t stick to only one image if you have a lot to say / show. Break down your content and post it up as multiple creatives.
Users won’t spend too much time on one image. They will move on to the next post. No one wants to read tedious, small-font infographics. Your graphics should be the easiest to understand — and for that — split them up into multiple creatives.
Post more photos related to you / your work / your organisation. Show them what it is like to be you / work with you.
3. Videos
The thing about LinkedIn is that it’s (still) highly text based. People come here to consume content in written form. Unlike the Meta apps, LinkedIn has still not altered itself to completely suit (and further shorten) people’s attention spans.
So do videos on LinkedIn work? Yes!
Being naturally more attention-grabbing in nature, they do perform very well. But here’s what you should keep in mind. Let your video be a breath of fresh air among the long, paras over paras of written text.
Keep your videos short. Use them as promos for their larger version (which you have maybe posted on another platform). Or use them as quick recaps. Keeping your videos up to 3 minutes max is a smart choice. Fast cuts and speedy music will keep your viewer interested.
People want to read a lot on LinkedIn, but not watch a lot. They already have too many platforms vying for their attention for video content.
Quick Tip: Make sure your videos have subtitles. These are busy professionals watching your video — perhaps in their crowded commute — it has to be as accessible as possible.
4. Engagement Options
A two-way communication with your audience is essential. It shouldn’t be just you writing and posting. Even your followers should be able to talk to you. Now, how to do this?
Use LinkedIn’s engagement options optimally.
LinkedIn polls allow you to find out what your followers are looking for, what they want to know more about. This way, you can create content which is specific to them. Ask them specific questions and take a poll. Your audience is one of your main sources of content generation. You can even go beyond this and connect with the voters directly.
Get to know your audience through these polls. This is one easy way of decoding and breaking down your target audience. You might find hidden gems here. It can also help you to scrape out the products/services/content that no one needs.
Polls are a wonderful opportunity to get feedback on your products/services. Ask them for scope of improvements, ask them what works/doesn’t work for them. And then, play accordingly.
Every once in a while, you can use polls simply to start up a conversation too! Get to know your audience, and they get to know you!
5. Text Only- Long Form & Short Form
When should you go for text only?
Use these posts to communicate an idea, an innovation or a course-changing opinion on your feed. This gives you tons of credibility which makes people turn to you for -
- More advice (giving you more engagement)
- For trust-worthy information about your niche.
Use the long-form for ideas involving multiple areas of focus. Don’t cram a long conversation into a short post. It will invalidate your content and won’t allow you to say all that you want to convey.
Long-form is where your ‘how-to’s come in. Juice out all the written content here — but of course — without being too long and boring. You have to find the sweet spot.
This is also a good way to bring forth case studies, highlight expert opinions by you / your employees or discuss your initiatives.
Long-form is a good idea when you want to push that particular content. Google prefers long-form over short. You can use more keywords here and it serves your SEO purposes beautifully. But make sure your text challenges the reader in some way or the other, which makes them want to keep reading further.
Go with the short form when it’s a singular idea/opinion/quote.
Keep. It. Short.
Yet, not too short. If you know what we mean. LinkedIn’s algorithm looks at whether people are hitting the ‘Read More’ option on your post. Your text has to be more than 5 sentences long for that option to appear. If people click on that option, LinkedIn’s algorithm will push your post.
This means -
Your first 5 lines have to absorb your reader’s complete attention. Keep it as catchy as possible.
Quick Tip: Make sure your feed has the best of both worlds. Long and short form will work in tandem to give your page the best results.
And there you go! Here’s all you need to know when posting that amazing content you are churning out.
You already write smart. Now post smart too.
Let us know if you have any other insights or if you have questions. Drop in a comment below and we will get back to you.
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