Why Nobody Likes Your LinkedIn Post
Nathanial Bibby
The LinkedIn Growth Expert | $500M Revenue Generated | 2x Best Use of LinkedIn Winner | Host of LinkedIn's #1 Weekly Show - Monday Night Live
Meet Bridget.
A financial advisor who has been on LinkedIn for a few years now.
She has built up her network with existing clients, colleagues and some ex-boyfriends from a previous life.
She is now ready to use it to build her career and get more clients.
Bridget just got a new job.
She has decided to kick things off to a good-start by posting an article on LinkedIn.
She decides to write on the state of the global financial markets and manages to source some interesting statistics from various research reports.
It's important to mention, that Bridget is no 'newby' to social media.
She knows that the key to success is to generate 'likes' and 'comments' which will get the article viewed by more people and ultimately open the flood gates for new customer enquiries.
After 3 late nights of researching, writing, spell-checking and sourcing artwork her masterpiece is complete.
Beaming with excitement, she posts the article and anxiously waits...
And waits....
She waits for the sound of notifications, likes and comments to come flying out of her laptop.
Waits for her new boss to share it with his network...
Waits for her old clients to wish her well in her new role..
Waits for all the stockmarket traders to tell her how valuable they found her statistics.
Crickets.
She couldn't help but wonder, why is that nobody likes my posts.
Can you relate?
You know those LinkedIn profiles with one post on them.
Where they've tried to post something.
Not got much of a result,
Never do a second post.
I speak to people all the time that haven't got the results they wanted.
I'm not suprised.
It's unchartered territory.
There are some key things about LinkedIn and the behavior of its members which is very new and unless you know what these differences are, it's very hard to gain any traction.
If you're reading this, I would assume that I don't need to tell you the power of LinkedIn.
It would be safe to assume that you know your clients are on here (especially those in B2B, Financial Services or Real Estate).
I won't spend much time on this, only to say that a study by ReachForce found that 44 percent of B2B marketers have generated leads through LinkedIn, proving that it’s a valuable place to generate leads.
A research report was done on the 3,000 of the most successful LinkedIn posts and the results show us some invaluable insights about what makes a long-form post on LinkedIn successful.
I want to share with you some of the biggest tips so you can apply them to your posts on LinkedIn but first - let's just highlight that the customer journey is not the same as it was 5 years ago and that people are relying on the internet much more in their decision making process.
In management consulting or B2B often your first impression is being created online - is your digital presence doing your career/brand/business justice?
Digital Reputation Tip: Google your first name + last name and see what you search results show-up. Are you controlling what people see at different stages of the customer journey?
OK, so back to our story... How do we help Bridget?
These are the key things that I have broken down into 15 research-based key tips which I have picked up along the way and through my research while becoming a Pulse contributor on LinkedIn.
You might be saying, at this point, “Oh my, how am I ever going to get all this stuff done, Nathanial?”
Everything I am going to suggest here is doable.
I’m going to break it all down for you so you can get everything done, achieve results, and feel confident about your digital presence.
The key is to get the setup done and then follow a manageable schedule that you can maintain consistency with.
Always keep your goal in mind, and track what works and what doesn’t.
Figure out which 20% of things get the most results.
Then invest 80% of your time into them.
For me, I do on average 1 post a month because I know I can commit to that in the busy months and the more easy-going months.
The research this we reference throughout this article is absolute gold.
A big thank you to Noah Kagan for taking the time to give us such detailed insights into LinkedIn posts.
15 Research-Based Tips on Writing Engaging LinkedIn Posts
These insights really are the steps we go through when our copywriters are putting together content for our clients, we're giving away all this value so pay attention.
This isn't our opinion, this is what the research says works. If you've worked with me before you know I like to base everything on measurable results; "the numbers never lie".
1. Make your titles between 40 and 120 characters' long
Your headline should also be specific to your career field.
Use keywords that may be used in a recruiter’s search for your speciality.
Some creativity is good to set you apart from the competition, but it’s unlikely that a recruiter will be searching for a “healthcare ninja,” so don’t go overboard with originality and imagination.
Since a mere 120 characters goes quickly, so you can’t write a novel, but you do have room to make one solid statement about who you are.
Think about how you got to this point in your career and what problems you want to solve for an employer going forward.
2. Use 5 subheadings for optimal results
3. Posing a question in the headline doesn't work the best
4. "How to" titles are good
5. Lists perform well, getting slightly more engagement
For an example, see this article which uses a list of 7 key traits;
>> 7 Traits of Magnetic People
6. The optimal number of images is 8
Including 8 images when you publish on LinkedIn is associated with a greater number of LinkedIn shares, likes, comments, and views.
Make sure that 1 of those 8 images is at the top of the post. Many people include an image in the very beginning to act as a sort of header image.
It's not always best to add videos or other multimedia assets to your posts.
Unfortunately, the data indicates that the inclusion of multimedia assets are associated with fewer post views.
7. Best to write long-form content on LinkedIn.
Posts between 1900 and 2000 words perform the best and gain the greatest number of post views, LinkedIn likes, LinkedIn comments, and LinkedIn Shares.
8. Use 12 year old English
There has been a lot of research released highlighting the correlation between conversational, easy-to-understand English and engagement online.
Using a simple language, is safer than complicating it :)
9. "Likes" are the key to more engagement
Get likes and the comments and shares take care of themselves.
LinkedIn post likes are the common denominator between the other LinkedIn metrics.
More post likes should also get you LinkedIn shares, post views, and comments according to correlation data.
You can encourage people to like your post with a call to action.
10. Publish your LinkedIn posts on Thursday (ideally)
In order to get the maximum number of post views, this is what the data says...
11. Keep the conversation alive
If someone shares your post, make sure you thank them, if someone makes a comment go back to them and keep the conversation going...
- Positive Comments - get involved and spread the word...
- Negative Comments - don't respond unless you have to...
- Connect with people who engage
- Liking - like and comment on other people's posts - you know how good it feels to get good feedback; so spread the love...
12. Leverage your time and reach with complimentary thought leaders
It is always a good idea to build a network of professionals in complimentary industries who are also industry authorities who can help build your social momentum.
They will help build your content and contribute to comments, engaging with your posts and also add value to you by featuring you in their content from time-to-time.
A great example of this is this article:
>>6 LinkedIn Experts Share Secrets to Success
13. Share your content
If you want to get your content read on LinkedIn, don't just share it on LinkedIn: Share it everywhere you can!
Other social networking sites and your email newsletter are a great start.
Sharing content in LinkedIn groups is the fastest way to generate immediate traffic to your post - make sure the group is relevant to the topic you're addressing!
And, while I don't recommend you creating a blog post and summarising it on the LinkedIn publishing platform, I do recommend creating a LinkedIn publisher post and then summarising it on your blog to a link back to LinkedIn!
14. Optimise your profile
Needless to say, every post that you publish might lead people back to your profile. If you want to be considered an authority on the subject, you'd better have an optimised LinkedIn profile.
Here are some examples of profiles that have been professionally optimised:
Ashwin
Craig
Helen
If you'd like to get your profile professionally optimised by our team at Bibby Consulting Group - just email me here.
15. Use persuasive language
Do you know what the 5 most persuasive words are in the human language? These are the top 5 words for influential writing.
- You
- Free
- Because
- Instantly
- New
How many people use the words I/we/me instead of "you" is astonishing.
The research behind these words has shown over and over that they work. For instance, immediate words like “instantly” trigger mid-brain activity and feed our zest for quick gratification.
The NLP masters out there are fantastic at this.
Where to try these words:
Calls-to-action, headlines, email subject lines, headings, opening sentences and paragraph headlines.
Get more >>
189 Powerful Words That Convert
While you'll want to experiment with different publish times and days to gauge the way your audience responds, this data should serve as a baseline to get Bridget and you posting engaging content that positions you as an authority in your network.
Ready to Get Started?
If you're looking for a little inspiration before you start whipping up your first LinkedIn Pulse post, I'd recommend checking out Hubspot's article:
>> The Top 20 LinkedIn Pulse Articles of All Time
Well, that's my LinkedIn posting tool-kit summed up in an article. What other tips do you have for LinkedIn publishing?
I'd love to hear what you have to say, as will the other readers in the comments below. Appreciate the feedback, thank you.
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About the Author
Nathanial Bibby (pictured right at the Melbourne CEO Sleepout 2016), is the Managing Director of Bibby Consulting Group, who have assisted over 5,000 companies with their digital marketing.
As one of the world's most sought-after experts on digital and social media marketing strategy.
He is a regular contributor to industry related media and a professional keynote speaker.
Connect with Nathanial on LinkedIn.
Want to fast-track your results?
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2 年Better late than never. I'm very happy I scrolled to the end. I have been trying my best to post insightful content but I end up getting impressions but not likes and comments. I'm trying to get people to engage with my content. I'll try some of the tips to see how they work. Thanks, Nathanial Bibby for curating this article.
Member of the Board at UN Today. Founder of THEY SAID SO.
4 年In my opinion, it's not about "Likes", but about the fact that people have processed the content. There is no point in having a "Like" if the content was not "consumed". And this is immeasurable unless people put a relevant comment (because they can also put any nonsense, like "great article", and they haven't really read it).
Instructional Designer & eLearning Developer | LMS & Digital Learning Specialist | Helping Businesses Scale Training with AI & Data-Driven Solutions
4 年Nathanial Bibby I think Data never lies, and your content is thought-provoking. However, the question I have for you at this point is, if you have a tremendous amount of connections on LinkedIn, and you post something that resonates with what they do and talks about in their posts, then why is it that they will only view your post, and not like or comment on it? What drives their attention and get them to engage? I love the CTA idea - what else in your experience, data aside, generates engagement?
Happily Retired | Lifelong Learner | Sharing Knowledge & Embracing New Opportunities & Adventures
4 年Hi Nathanial, great post, even thought it is already some years old now. The question is, is it outdated ? probably not. However the Key message I picked up is really to understand how LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, works. All efforts are useless and frustrating if you post just the wrong way. Not sure, but did you post an updated Version ? Many thanks...