Writing the perfect LinkedIn post. One of life’s great mysteries. It’s right up there next to whether or not Avril Lavigne was replaced by a doppelganger, or if Lea Michele can actually read…
Here’s the tea. What ‘perfect’ looks like is completely dependent on your audience and what you’re trying to achieve. You don’t wanna be targeting 55 year old marketing managers but only using Gen Z language that they’ll never understand.
But there are some rules that apply to pretty much every post you’re gonna write, and they’re a great guideline if you want to get started/boss up your whole LinkedIn vibe. Let’s dive in, babycakes.
The Hook
We cannot stress the importance of this. Mess it up, and your post will never get any traction. It’s the first thing everyone sees. In most cases, it’s the only thing they see. You want to use this line to entice people to click ‘see more’.
Make a promise about what you’re going to tell them in the post. Maybe it’s how to get more clients online in 3 steps, or how to deal with awkward conflict in the workplace. You might be telling them a story about something outrageous that happened to you in 2015, or offering them advice that you learnt when changing careers. Or you could be telling them the best way to blow dry a poodle.
Whatever it is, make sure you’re capturing their attention in a way that speaks directly to them. It should be clear from that one line what they’re going to get out of reading your post over all the other posts on the platform. No small task, but don’t be afraid to get out there!
The Meat of The Matter
This is the meat in the content sandwich that you're making. Or panko-breaded, sesame-glazed tofu. Whatevs.
What you write in this bit is fulfilling the promises you made with that tasty hook line. Yum yum.
Whatever you’re writing about, it’s important to offer them some kind of value. It could be knowledge or actionable tips, or it could be expressing an opinion that makes them change their perspective. Keep your lines to as few words as possible, or people will get bored and switch off. Hate to be the bearers of bad news, but that’s how it is, mama.
Try to avoid industry jargon, you might think it makes you look smarter - but really it just means less people are going to understand what you’re on about.
Don’t forget to show off your personality, people like that and it will help you stand out. Authenticity is the way forward, luv.
Hashtags
Please, for the love of Beyoncé, do not use too many. We’d say 3 is the sweet spot. If you overload your post with hashtags, you’re going to look like a desperate spammer - and it actually doesn’t help you with reach. Sometimes the algo will throttle reach if there’s too many hashtags in a post.
Try and keep them broad, and use a mixture of hashtags with lots of followers and less. (Less here means 20k, not like, 200.) Nobody is searching up #TipsForMillenialBusinessOwnersMaking8FiguresInEastAnglia, okay, bubbale?
Images
Yah, this post is about writing, but images will serve you well on LinkedIn most of the time. They support your writing! The algorithm updates regularly, so do your research to see what kinds of pictures are working at the time you’re posting.
Usually, pictures of you are good. We’re talking 3rd person photos of you over selfies from experience, but selfies do work, too! Try to avoid anything too corporate or overproduced, especially on your personal profile. People don’t usually love those unless they’re in a carousel.
You’re ready to get out there and start creating fabby content. We’re so proud of you! On the other hand, if this all sounds quite time-consuming, we can do it for you. 😉
Till next time, chicas!