10 Data-Driven Steps to Dominate LinkedIn Publishing
The problem with a lot of data and stats is that they often don’t provide you with any insights that you can act on. That’s why I love data that provides insights with solutions to improve marketing processes. Which is what OkDork and Search Wilderness found after analyzing 3,000 of the most successful LinkedIn Publishing posts, it offered compelling data that can help you dramatically increase the results of your next post on LinkedIn Publisher.
I was so blown away by the data presented in their original post that I had to reach out to the original authors and ask if I could create an infographic with it. Thankfully they agreed and that gives me the great pleasure of providing you with this top-notch and actionable information on sharing articles on LinkedIn, in a handy infographic and article.
Data-Driven LinkedIn Publishing Tips
1. The optimal title length is between 40 and 49 characters.
You LinkedIn Publisher posts will perform best with a title between 40 and 49 characters long. This number has remained the same for many years now.
If you are creating a longer title, aim for 60 and 69 characters.
2. Your posts should have 8 images.
Interestingly, posts with precisely 8 images performed around twice as well as those with 9 to 11 images and over 2.5 times better than those with 7 or less!
3. Forget about videos and other multimedia.
The data from OkDork & Search Wilderness indicates a strong correlation between the use of video and multimedia with significantly lower post views.
Although using 1 or 2 videos or multimedia assets showed a slight reduction in views, any amount above that had view counts dropping off a cliff.
4. Use "how-to" and list-style headlines.
A headline can make or break a LinkedIn Publisher post. To have the best success with your posts, keep these headline tips in mind.
Don’t write question posts: LinkedIn posts where the headline poses a question perform poorly.
Do write how-to posts: These posts perform best across the board regarding LinkedIn Publishing metrics.
Do write list posts: These posts perform well, getting slightly more post views, post likes, LinkedIn post comments, and LinkedIn shares than non-list posts.
5. Divide your post into 5 headings to attract the most significant number of post views.
Posts that are divided into sections by precisely 5 headings perform best, with 9 headings coming in as a close second.
Additionally, using headings (H1, H2, H3) to break your post into easily digestible (and readable) sections will help your post perform better.
6. 1900-2000 words are optimal.
LinkedIn Publisher posts with 1900-2000 words performed 1.5 times better than the next best word count (1800 words) and over 2 times better than any word counts beneath it.
It is worth noting that the optimal word count has remained the same over several years.
7. Being Switzerland pays off.
Posts on LinkedIn with a neutral sentiment performed at least 1.7 times better than those with either positive or negative sentiments.
Posts written using positive language tend to get the most LinkedIn shares and likes, while neutral language posts tend to see more comments and post views than both positive and negative sentiments.
8. An 11-year-old should be able to read it.
The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease test analyzes text to determine how difficult the language is to comprehend as written on a scale of 1-100. A score of 30 is considered best understood by university graduates, while a score of around 65 is considered “Standard” difficulty and is easily read by those from 13-15 years as well as by 80% of adults.
Although LinkedIn is a business platform, full of well-educated adults, it may surprise you to know that posts with a Flesch-Kincaid Readability Score of 80-89 (easy) and requiring the education level of an 11-year-old performed the best.
9. Promote your LinkedIn Publisher post on other social networks.
It is vital that you promote your LinkedIn Publisher posts.
A good rule of thumb is to follow the 80/20 rule. You want to spend 20% of your time creating content and then 80% of your time promoting it.
An essential part of promoting your LinkedIn Publisher posts is to share them on other platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.
10. The number of likes will increase your views, shares, and comments.
The best way to predict how well your LinkedIn Publisher post will perform regarding views and engagement can be best predicted by the number of likes it gets. More post likes will increase the number of LinkedIn shares, post views, and comments according to correlation data.
Adding a call to action at the end of your post encourages people to click the like button, which is an effective way of gaining more views and shares.
BONUS TIP: Publish your articles to LinkedIn on Thursday.
We noticed a long time ago that our blog traffic and social media posts performed much better on Thursdays. Analyzing the top 3000 LinkedIn Publishing posts showed a similar trend: Thursdays get the most views.
Summary of LinkedIn Publishing Data
To get the maximum number of post views…
- Your title should be 40-49 characters long.
- Include 8 images in your LinkedIn Publisher post.
- Don’t embed multimedia such as YouTube videos into your LinkedIn Publisher post.
- Write how-to posts. They perform the best. You may also write a list post, but they don’t perform nearly as well as how-to posts. Don’t write a question post.
- Divide your post into 5 sections with headings (h1, h2, h3).
- Write between 1,900 to 2,000 words.
- Your writing should have a neutral tone.
- Write your post so it can easily be understood by the masses, preferably within an “easy” readability score of 80-89 which is easily read by an 11-year-old.
- Cross-promote your LinkedIn posts on Twitter and other social networks.
- LinkedIn post likes are the common denominator of the other LinkedIn metrics. More post likes will increase LinkedIn shares, post views, and comments according to correlation data. You can encourage people to like your post with a call to action.
- Publish your post on Thursday for the maximum number of views.
Big thanks for the data
A big thank you must go out to Paul Shapiro from Search Wilderness and Noah Kagan from OKDork for gathering these incredible stats. You can also check out their original article that lays out all of their findings in greater detail.
A Final Word to Dominate LinkedIn Publishing
The data that has been gathered should guide you but does not need to be followed precisely. For example, rarely do my blog posts have eight images in them but many of the other suggestions I do follow as I have seen the results first hand.
It’s vital for you to test what works for your unique business and for your target market. Let this data guide you to dominate the LinkedIn publishing platform.
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