In order to expand your LinkedIn presence, you have to post regularly! But figuring out what to post (and how often) can be intimidating … which is why we asked LinkedIn guru Jennifer Darling for her advice on creating engaging content:
While most people wouldn’t hesitant to post pet pictures, memes, and lengthy rants to other social media platforms, LinkedIn demands that its users share a more-professional level of content. But Jennifer says would-be posters shouldn’t let this quality benchmark scare them away.
“So for posting on LinkedIn, I made up this funny word: Blarticle,” says Jennifer. “Because there are blogs, which are more conversational in style, and then there are articles, which you think of as more professional and polished. You want your LinkedIn content to read like something between those two. You don’t want it to be so conversational that it’s not professional, but you don’t want it to be so academic that people can’t read it.”
Just like all other social media users, LinkedIn users skim content more often than they read it fully. So you’ll want to make sure your content is easy to peruse, says Jennifer, and that your main talking points are simple, concise, and easy to pick out.
“You don’t want your content to be too long or too short,” says Jennifer. “If it’s too short, you won’t get the benefits of SEO. So your content needs to be longer than 350 words; 500 to 750 words long is a really good place to be. You don’t want it to be too long, because [LinkedIn users] don’t have long attention spans.”
What Should You Post on LinkedIn?
As far as what you should actually post to LinkedIn, Jennifer recommends that newbies start by coming up with one broad business- or industry-related topic to talk about each month. Then, they should piece that topic out into a series of short-, mid-, and full-length posts, as well as a few videos. (Savvy Butler followers might recognize this concept as a LinkedIn-specific form of content stacking.)
“You take that one concept, and you talk about it in one longer blog or a video,” says Jennifer. “Then, you create a couple mid-length posts of about 1,300 characters. No more than that, because otherwise you’ll overwhelm people. And then, you’ll want to post short posts every couple days – all revolving around that one concept.”
Don’t Be Afraid to Re-share Other People’s Content
If that posting frequency sounds intimidating, don’t worry. Jennifer’s got one last content-related trick up her sleeve, which will help you post a lot more content without putting in a ton more work.
“You should share articles from publications and magazines that are relevant to your audience, and you should share other people’s content and information,” says Jennifer. “I have LinkedIn connections who also teach people how to use LinkedIn, and I share their stuff. And people say, ‘Well, why are you sharing your competitors’ information?’ It’s because the people who are seeing that information don’t see that as ‘my competitor’s information.’ They just see it as me providing a resource.”
Sharing other people’s content can position you as a “guru” who’s continuously reading and learning and sharing information about your industry. You can also use other people’s content as a jumping-off point from which to flesh out your own ideas.
If you want more great tips on getting the most out of LinkedIn, head over to the Butler Branding YouTube channel to listen to our full interview with Jennifer. We’ll be sharing more of her content in the future, both here and on our own LinkedIn!
