Are you writing great content on Linkedin but not attracting enough views? Do you want to know how to increase the amount of views and shares you receive on your posts and articles? Here you’ll find some simple ways to improve engagement on your Linkedin posts.

Text Only Posts

You might be scratching your head at this, thinking “but videos have more engagement!” Although this is mostly true for other platforms like Facebook and Twitter, this same tactic doesn’t work for Linkedin.

The preferred method of posting on Linkedin is linking to useful content. Most of the time these are links with an image or just and image itself. Infographics are great but remember to never post it as your own if you haven’t created the image yourself (give credit to whoever did create it), but it is ok to share.

The problem is, this we realised this strategy wasn’t working as well as it once did. Over time, viewing figures for updates were going down a lot. But…. engagement on text-only posts were performing much better than any other kind of update.

I’m sure you will agree from your own experience that you will often see a short text-only post in your feed that has lots likes and comments. Whereas how often do you see an update get that amount of engagement when it contains a link to a blog or a third-party site?

But why do text only posts work?

If you think about it, it makes sense that Linkedin doesn’t want to display too many posts containing links to third-party sites. Every time you click one of these links, you leave their platform and this means you spend less time on there.

This leaves Linkedin a smaller window of opportunity to show ads or upsell their other services such as Linkedin Premium. They are trying to avoid anything that might cause you to leave their platform. They aren’t alone though, most other social media platforms have the same idea, especially Facebook, who have recently changed their algorithm.

But how do you make these text-only posts effective?

Keep it short! Nobody wants to read a wall of text, and if you do make a longer post: USE PARAGRAPHS! This sounds like something that should be taught in primary school, but it is surprising the amount of people who just write massive blocks of text. They might have just made the greatest point anyone has ever made, but my eyeballs don’t fancy putting themselves through the torture that is reading that. So: break up your points!

Here’s the thing that gets people talking….controversy. Take a stand. if you have an opinion on a new and relevant topic, share it and invite comments. You don’t need to literally invite people to comment, but everybody will have an opinion. Here is the opportunity for people to DEBATE AND TALK. See I capitalized that? That’s because I see Linkedin as the more mature social media platform. If you don’t understand that what I mean, then go on Facebook and read the comment section and get yourself involved in some childish bickering.

And if you do have a really good point, people might start to see you as a thought leader in your field. And wouldn’t that be nice? (And….Profitable?)

Also, include links in the comments. Make the initial text posts only, but then include the link you want to share in the comments, that way, linkedin won’t penalize you for sending people to a third party site and people will still be sent to your content. This also applies to images: post them as replies.

Like you own posts

Your big-headed narcissist… just kidding. What’s the point of the like button appearing right next to your own social media posts? Don’t be afraid to do this. Because really, ignoring this button is a mistake because liking it yourself will actually improve your engagement. And anyway…. If it’s a belter of a post then you should be proud of it.

Engage with comments

Pay attention to comments on your posts. Anyone that takes the time out of their day to interact with what you say is worth of a reply…or a whole debate. Even if it’s not a positive comment (this is for all readers.. because we at strategy social media don’t get negative comments, we’re great… ) But smugness aside, the more people commenting on your posts is a positive thing and a chance to let people know what you are all about. But this is very important the you engage with these yourself.

Conclusion

Remember that Linkedin wants to keep it’s users on the platform, so trying to send people to third party links encourages users to go somewhere else. Use content that is engaging and keeps the debate in the same place. Keep your updates short, sweet and relevant and that is how you will get the most out of engaging with your linkedin audience.

Do you agree? Tweet us @StrategySMedia and let us know your opinion.