By Martin BUREAU / AFP
Want to boost engagement and increase your reach on LinkedIn? Here are some tips to help you post wisely on the professional social network.
Want to boost engagement and increase your reach on LinkedIn? Here are some tips to help you post wisely on the professional social network.
The results of a study conducted by Richard van der Blom, in the "Creativity and Innovation Network" report, on 2,000 posts published between February and March 2023, give an overview of the best practices to follow to improve posting performance on LinkedIn.
Timing is everything
To obtain the favors of the algorithm, the most important thing is to follow a regular rate of publication, according to an infographic shared by Dominique Hoppe on the professional social network. According to the report, you should publish between one and three posts per week, respecting an interval of at least 18 hours per post to avoid "cannibalization," in other words to avoid that one post overshadows the others.
When it comes to times, favor Mondays between 9:30 am and 1:00 pm, Tuesdays from 8:00 am to 11:30 am, Wednesdays from 9:00 am to about noon, Thursdays from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm, Fridays from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm, Saturdays from 10:00 am to 1:45 pm, and Sundays from 12:30 to 2:45 pm.
In addition to these preferred times, you will also need to pay particular attention to generating engagement within the first 90 minutes of posting.
The most engaging formats
Some posts are more engaging than others. According to the research, the PDF document comes out on top with a reach of 2.2x and 3.4x, followed by the survey, with a reach of 2.1x to 2.9x, and finally the carousel format, with a reach of 1.8x to 2.3x. Articles, newsletters and even external links are at the bottom of the ranking, with a reach of 0.1x to 0.2x, 0.2x to 0.9x and 0.4x to 0.5x respectively.
The study also advises adding between two and six hashtags, not to comment first on your posts, but to respond to the comments, which can lead to more than 20% growth in the first hour. Otherwise, try to respond to comments within 12 hours.
Longer posts also perform better. To generate more engagement, posts should be 1,200 to 1,600 characters in length.
Other recommendations
For active users, creator mode can be an asset. According to the study, if a user posts at least twice a week, the creator mode can increase reach by between 15% and 35%, on average.
Also, depending on the type of engagement, a post can be boosted differently. So while a "like" brings an additional view, a click on "see more" can generate four more. Sharing and commenting have even more weight, generating seven and 12 additional views respectively.
What not to do
The study recommends avoiding doing several things so as not to penalize the reach of your posts. For example, don't use more than 10 emojis per post and no more than four on the same line, don't mention more than 15 accounts per post, and don't modify your post within 10 minutes of its publication.
