Not sure where to begin with your LinkedIn content strategy? Here are three important considerations when planning and executing your content for this particular social media platform.
Marketing Strategy
LinkedIn Algorithm
The algorithm takes into account three key factors when deciding to showcase a post or not in a user’s feed.
The first consideration is the content quality. Is what your posting relevant? LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritizes content that is relevant to the user’s interests and professional network. How many users are engaging with your post? Posts that quickly gain engagement (reactions, comments, and reposts) are more likely to be shown to a broader audience.
The second factor is the timing of the post. Posting during peak hours (typically weekday mornings and early afternoons) can increase visibility and engagement.
Lastly, you want to think about how frequently you’re posting. Regular posting can keep your content in front of your audience, but overposting can lead to diminishing returns.
Target Audience
Just like with any marketing effort, it’s crucial to know the ins and outs of your target audience. Understanding your audience’s demographics, interests, and professional backgrounds helps tailor the content to their preferences. Once you have a grasp on the segmentation of your target audience, you need to clearly communicate the benefits and relevance of your content to the user.
Utilizing a Call-to-Action (CTA) in your post is one way to potentially increase engagement from your target audience. You can do this either from direct engagement which encourages actions like commenting, reposting, or visiting a link. You can also experiment with conversation starters which is where you pose questions or ask for opinions to drive comments and discussions.
Psychological Principles
Exposing yourself to a few simple psychological principles will allow you to increase attention and interest, tug on a user’s emotions, and provide social proof.
When creating visual appeal, remember that humans process images faster than text, so incorporating eye-catching visuals (photos, infographics, and videos) can help grab attention. Using bullet points or other ways to break up large blocks of text has a similar effect. You can also foster curiosity through compelling headlines or opening lines with questions, statistics, and bold statements.
You can pull in a user’s emotions through storytelling and taking into account empathy. Sharing personal anecdotes or success stories can evoke emotions, making the content more relatable and memorable for a user. Posts that resonate with the audience’s challenges and aspirations tend to get more engagement.
Finally, we have the concept of social proof where high reactions, comments, and reposts signal popularity and credibility, thus encouraging more interaction.
Content Types
Based on our experience, LinkedIn’s algorithm loves it when you switch up your content. We recommend evenly distributing all types of content such as text + PDF, text + graphic, text + video, and text-only for optimal performance.
Once you’ve decided on your content type, how should you go about writing an engaging LinkedIn post? In addition to a catchy headline, which we’ve already discussed, you need to draft compelling, scannable, and concise content that could include things like insights, practical tips, or a story. Your LinkedIn posts should spark conversation while remaining authentic to you or your business. Researching and leveraging hashtags is another strategic way to increase engagement while also positioning yourself as a thought leader within your industry.
Tactics
After many years of creating and executing content strategy on LinkedIn, we have some advice that will help you as you ramp up your LinkedIn marketing efforts.
Responding to and engaging with comments can foster a sense of community and increase the number of users your post is shown to.
When utilizing hashtags, select a mix of trending, industry-specific, and branded hashtags to increase visibility.
Regularly review LinkedIn’s built-in analytics to understand what type of content resonates most with your audience, then adjust your strategy accordingly.
Be ready to experiment with different types of content such as polls, LinkedIn live videos, articles, etc.
