It has become a common practice for businesses to update their followers with social media posts that use captivating graphics. For most social networks, this definitely works. Time and time again we’ve seen graphics effectively drive engagement and increase the reach of our clients’ updates.
But just including a quality graphic isn’t enough—your business needs to craft an update that allows your audience to share your content as efficiently as possible.
How do you do this? Create a link post versus a photo post by utilizing LinkedIn’s open graph capabilities. This way, your followers are prompted to share your update not only with your link already attached, but also with the the original messaging you worked so hard to create!
Don’t worry. This is easier than you think!
5 Steps To Crafting The Perfect LinkedIn Link Post Update
1. Make A Shortened Link
LinkedIn analytics are more or less stripped down to the bare minimum, making it extremely difficult to analyze how many clicks have occurred on your promoted content. We suggest uploading your links to bit.ly, which tracks all clicks directly from LinkedIn.
2. Customize LinkedIn’s Open Graph Post
This is probably the most important step. Your link will register as a “linked” post, which will pull any images, meta title information, and descriptions. This will be the “meat” of your post and when shared will automatically be included in your connection’s followers’ stream of social updates.
Do not delete this.
3. Short, Sweet and Branded!
LinkedIn’s open graph will pull in more information than you need. LinkedIn followers want you to get right to the point so they know exactly what they are sharing, and you’ll want to include only vital information to describe your content. Simply click on the meta title and description to edit.
Stock images are boring. Branded teaser images are a surefire way to capture the interest of your followers. To maximize on engagement, make a branded graphic (180 x 110 pixels) for you content.
4. Craft A Valuable Description
Give your audience a peek into the meat of your post by providing connections with some information they will learn once they click on your link. Keep this to a few short sentence within the update itself.
5. Posting After Business Hours
LinkedIn connections may not have time to sign on during the week. By the time the weekend rolls your business could be missing out on some valuable engagement from your followers. Consider posting at least once on the weekends to round-out your LinkedIn schedule.
As with Twitter, you should also promote other users’ content in order to reach LinkedIn users outside of your network.
Find this post helpful? Looking to leverage your social assets more effectively? Email us today to learn how we can help you develop your social strategy.
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