When most marketers think about the value of LinkedIn, they immediately think about the ability to connect with other business owners and professionals. While this is certainly a good thing, there are other ways that entrepreneurs should use the social network to their advantage. LinkedIn’s system for post creation and link sharing make it an ideal platform for content marketers trying to reach a business-minded audience. Recently, Search Wilderness examined 3,000 of the most popular published content on LinkedIn to see what worked the best. Using the Search Wilderness report and some of our own observations, here are seven tips to improve your LinkedIn publishing.
Make your titles between 40 and 49 characters long
One of the key takeaways from the Search Wilderness study was that the optimal length for titles is between 40 and 49 characters. The amount of views peaks at this length and tapers off in both directions. This shows that viewers don’t like short headlines that don’t provide information or headlines that are long and uninteresting.Time Your LinkedIn Posts Correctly
Like all social networks, there optimal times of the day to post content for a particular audience. This is even more pronounced on LinkedIN. Most Linkedin posts get maximum viewership when they are published in the downtime of normal office hours. Most people read Linkedin articles early morning (7 to 8 am), lunch time (1 to 2 pm), or early evening (4 to 5 pm) of a workday. Only a relatively small portion of LinkedIn users get on the site on the weekend or late in the evening.Research on Business Topics that Would Appeal to Prospective Clients
When deciding on the topics to use for a post, research business information and topics that would catch the attention of potential clients. This will mean thinking outside of the Facebook and Twitter box for creating posts and content. Users on LinkedIn are in a business mindset, so headlines or content that would catch their eye if it were on Facebook, may not work on LinkedIn.You should have at least one image in your post.
According to the Search Wilderness report, LinkedIn audiences prefer posts with a lot of images. The view count of articles increases with the number of photos. Including up to 8 images when you publish on LinkedIn is associated with a greater number of LinkedIn shares, likes, comments, and views.Don’t Add Videos or Other Multimedia
Though LinkedIn has support for a wide array of multimedia assets, such as YouTube, SlideShare, TED, Getty, Vimeo, and Lifestream, the data from Search Wilderness indicates that the inclusion of multimedia assets, other than images, are associated with fewer post views.Use Popular Headlines Styles
The same things that make a good post headline make a good content headlines for LinkedIn. Try to do “How-tos”, “Top 10s” and lists when appropriate for the subject matter. Also use the LinkedIn headline buzzwords mentioned in another article on this site.Make a Post Organized and Easy to Follow
Making content easy to read and digest will increase the number of shares. A good way to do this is with headings. According to Search Wilderness posts that are divided into five headings attract the greatest number of post views.
The advanced content creating features on LinkedIn make it the perfect platform for business owners who want to use their content to reach other professionals. Using these tips can help marketers gain the attention of more members of their target audience. Read this article to see more statistics that show the value of LinkedIn for marketing.