There is nothing worse than putting your heart and soul into great content only to see it tank – and then watching enviously as someone else’s very average contribution seem to fly.

LINKEDIN FOR EXECUTIVE BRAND BUILDING

Despite that, LinkedIn remains an excellent way to build your brand and boost your positioning in alignment with your career goals especially for those with executive careers.

Did you know that there are –

• 774 million members on LinkedIn in 2021?
• Of which only about 4.9% regularly create content ?
• And about 18.6% are regular engagers? (Thanks to Richard Van Der Blom for these stats).

 If you’re one of the 4.9% congratulations!  You’re in an elite category and you should definitely keep going. 

But it can still feel like a crazy beast with constant changes and upgrades, with no-one really knowing exactly what the algorithms do (although there are some very convincing wild ass guesses out there), and let’s face it, you’ve got more important things to do with your actual role and family responsibilities than spend hours trying to decode.

So to help my clients (who by the way get consistently amazing results with their content), I’ve created a handy checklist for them to refer to every time they post to ensure their content gets more bang for its buck. Here are seven things to consider when you start your LinkedIn posting journey.

1. Slightly longer is better but not too long – Aim for 1300 to 1400 characters (they do better according to research by Richard van der Blom). LinkedIn recently increased the character limit to 3000 characters including spaces. Use all 3000 at your peril. Remember it’s a limit not a challenge.
2. Write an attention grabbing opening line that intrigues – and makes people want to click on the read more text that they initially see in their feed. Think of the first sentence of your opening paragraph like a hook. You want to hook people in so they can’t wait to read more. A couple of key things – ditch intellectual headlines and appeal to emotions. It works every time. Or write a headline that intrigues – so people are so curious that they can’t wait to find out more. What ever you do, don’t think of an opening line like an essay header. Keep it brief, intriguing and human.
3. Why should the reader care? Don’t assume the reader knows why they should care. In the body of your post itself, you need to explain to the audience (your connections) why they should care about this. i.e. How this impacts on your career is ……, or how this impacts on customer is …….. , typical signs that things are going wrong include……. Once again, don’t assume.
4. Call to Engage (CTE) – every post. Add a call to engage and use capitals so it makes it easy for people to see, and to know how to engage i.e. COMMENT BELOW or YOUR THOUGHTS? Or DARE TO SHARE TO INSPIRE A WOMAN SOMEHWHERE. Comments are the gold in terms of engagement. The more you get, the better your post will do.
5. Hashtags – hashtags are signposts that direct your post into “feeds”. The latest guidance is to stick to about three (two from the hot 100 list and one tailored/niche). This is the hot 100 hashtag list that I refer to almost every time I post – for my first 2-3 hashtags
6. White space is your friend – Space your text out so it’s easy to read especially if people are on a mobile device. Keep sentences short and add line returns between sentences. Keep paragraphs brief. Remember, most people are skim reading on their way tot work or between meetings. Make it easy for them to digest your content with short sentences laid out with extra space.
7. Credit the photo/video/content source at the bottom of the post – [CREDIT Annabel Crabbe ABC and photographer Luis Ferreiro]. Not only is this the right thing to do, but it can save time later when people ask you for references.

PRO TIP – use relatable language. The average reading age on LinkedIn is about 12-14yo. Avoid business speak and buzz words even if your market is CEOs. Your content will do far better.

BUILD YOUR BRAND IN JUST 30 MINS PER WEEK

As I mentioned previously, many of my executive clients use LinkedIn to build their brand and future proof their careers.  In a COVID crazy world where networking is hard, LinkedIn is the ideal choice, not just for them, but also for you. Post consistently, engage regularly, but don’t let it overwhelm you. Set an appointment with yourself once or twice a week and get out there and enjoy the real world in between.