Signing up for LinkedIn to find jobs or list your work experience has become a professional rite of passage. But what else can you do on the platform to maximize your career growth?
While LinkedIn started as a digital space for resume sharing and job searching in 2003, it has evolved into a comprehensive professional networking site, boasting nearly 1 billion users globally. If you’ve been a long-time LinkedIn user, you likely noticed a shift in 2012 when LinkedIn became more content-focused with the introduction of its feed and the ability to post updates.
As LinkedIn continues to grow as a powerful social media platform with more multimedia features, professionals are increasingly harnessing its potential to connect and engage with others, amplify their company’s voice, drive business development through lead generation, and even enhance their own personal branding and industry influence.
Whether you’re aiming to become a LinkedIn Top Voice, elevate your leadership presence, or simply explore the platform’s possibilities, mastering the art of posting on LinkedIn is essential.
Don’t know where to get started? The “Start a post” feature can be found on the LinkedIn homepage. LinkedIn’s help page provides a detailed tutorial on how to navigate to the create a post function.
1. Define Your Intention, Keep Etiquette in Mind
- Clarify Your Purpose: Define your post’s purpose clearly. Whether it’s a personal update, team highlights, product launch, event invitation, industry insight, or conversation starter, ensure your message is focused.
- Consider Your Audience: Think about who you are addressing and adopt a voice that resonates with them. While you may be targeting a specific audience, remember that your content can reach a broader audience. Be mindful of how your message might be perceived by others.
- Align with Company Goals: When posting about company-related topics, make sure your content aligns with your company’s messaging. Familiarize yourself with your company’s social media policies. When expressing personal views, clearly state that your opinions are your own and use discretion to determine if the topic is suitable for LinkedIn.
- Maintain Professionalism: Social media posts can sometimes be taken out of context or misinterpreted. Ensure that you communicate with respect to avoid misunderstandings.
2. Make a Strong Opening, Be Concise and Authentic
- Lead with Intrigue: Start with a compelling statement or question. LinkedIn truncates text after 250 characters on desktop and 65 on mobile, so make the first few words count.
- Hook Your Reader: Use a surprising fact or statistic, bold statement, or question to grab attention.
- Stay Focused: The optimal length for updates/announcements is 20-50 words, and opinions/commentary is 100-200 words.
- Humanize Your Posts: Professional doesn’t have to mean dull. Define your personal voice. Aim for an accessible and conversational tone when appropriate. With the glut of content we’re faced with every day, you have a chance to stand out with content that is fresh and has personality.
3. Amplify Posts with Visuals
- Images and Videos Go Far: Posts with images receive twice the engagement, while those with videos can receive up to five times more interaction.
- Tag Always: Mentioning others, such as colleagues, partners, sponsors, leaders, influencers, journalists, news outlets, or companies, can significantly expand your post’s reach and boost engagement. When you tag someone, they receive a notification, which can encourage them to share your content, further increasing its visibility.
- Use Hashtags Wisely: Limit each post to no more than three hashtags to keep your content organized and easily discoverable. Ensure hashtags are relevant to the post’s content and target audience, diversify them, and maintain a balance between popular and niche hashtags.
Connect, Grow, and Thrive
Your LinkedIn journey is truly your own adventure, so go at your own pace. If you’re new to or nervous about the content creation process, you can leverage AI tools to brainstorm ideas, draft copy, or find hashtags, but don’t forget the human touch—the point is to be authentic and connect with people to grow and work productively together.
Need help boosting your organization’s social media channels or training your employees to navigate LinkedIn? Sun PR’s network of writers, media experts, and digital strategists can help you find the right social media strategy tailored to your goals. Learn more about our offerings here.
