LinkedIn
Playbook
Set yourself up for success on the world’s biggest professional network.
The playbook should be used as a guide, and all advice is purely that.
LinkedIn now has over 1 billion members.
Incredibly, only 1% of these members ever post content.
By creating and posting any form of content, you will instantly be in the top 1% of people using LinkedIn.
The world of LinkedIn can be overwhelming, so this playbook will break down and simplify the best practices to optimise your efforts.
Setting Up Your Profile
Your profile is your shop window. Don't overlook how it can make or break your success on LinkedIn.
If you don't create a good profile that acts as the point where someone will decide whether to contact you, any work you do to create and post content will be less effective.
See it as your personal homepage.
Headline
Make sure your headline has more than just your job title. Adding a personalised explanation will help people get to know you in a 'people buy from people' world.
The character limit is 220. But keep in mind that only the first 40 characters are visible when you comment on someone’s post.
URL
The default URL LinkedIn gives you has numbers after your name, like:
/darrenwestall-224092b2/
Change this to something that looks better when shared and is more memorable:
/darrenwestall
Find this in the top right of your profile under 'edit public profile & URL.'
Your default banner in LinkedIn doesn’t add any value to someone visiting your profile.
Use something that looks good, and lets visitors know who you are and what you do.
The size for personal banners is 1584 x 396 pixels.
Banner
About Section
Write about how you help people, solve problems, and add value to your ideal customer. Be creative - give people a reason to connect with you.
It is your chance to show your market why you should be the one they contact for help.
Use your first sentence carefully. The rest of your text is hidden under a ‘...see more’ link. If your first sentence doesn’t make a viewer want to click that, it’s not good enough.
Include the best ways to contact you at the end - it’s the call to action that makes the difference.
Profile Photo
Pick a photo that looks like you now, not ten years ago. Avoid distractions in the background. Wear what you'd wear to work and choose an expression that represents you. First impressions count.
Make sure you set it to public. To do this, click on your profile picture and select the toggle on the bottom left to ‘anyone’.
It is so simple, yet often forgotten.
Ensure your contact details are up to date – email address, phone number, website – make it easy for people to get in touch in their preferred way.
Contact Information
Featured Section
Pinning your best content
Ensure profile visitors see your best content first by pinning these to your profile.
Click the three dots in the top right of any content you have posted. The first three are what stay visible on your profile.
Pinning your website pages
Pin links using the 'link' option on your featured section to give your network direct access to your landing pages, live vacancies, testimonials, etc.
Your media choices
It is important to visually show your audience what you do. You can think of this section as giving evidence to support what you do and to bring it to life.
Paiger Links allows you to add a custom image or GIF to your media directly to your website.
Building Your Connections
The strength of your LinkedIn network is incredibly important.
A strong LinkedIn network consists of both quantity and quality - make sure your connections are relevant and aim to develop your network regularly.
With an upper limit of 30,000 connections, you have the scope to build a big network. But don’t just add people for the sake of it. Irrelevant connections are less likely to engage with your content, diluting its reach.
Try to connect with 10-15 people every day that would add value to your network.
The benefits of building connections
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LinkedIn is unique in that each time you connect to one person you also connect to everyone that they know and everyone that those people know.
That’s extremely powerful.
People are more likely to trust people they are familiar with.
Building connections today benefits your future ability to network.
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LinkedIn actively pushes your content to your new connections.
The key is to get those new connections engaging with your content so that they keep seeing your posts.
Encourage conversations in your comments and engage with any content they publish.
Nurture relationships with your connections
Engage with your network on LinkedIn. Focus on building relationships. Having two-way conversations with the people who interact with you is crucial.
Actively comment on others’ posts, but be thoughtful when you are doing so. One well-thought-out comment is better than 100 “I agree”.
LinkedIn is aware of messaging activity, too. Chatting privately with someone on LinkedIn makes them more likely to see your future content. Momentum and consistency will keep your network and reach expanding.
Interact with posts. Answer questions. Offer advice. Be helpful. Be generous with your expertise. The more you give, the more you get in return.
When to Post
Consistency is key
Maintaining a regular posting frequency is critical to success.
Aim for a consistent rhythm rather than posting for three days in a row and then silence for a week. Start with three weekly posts, split over Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Use Tuesday and Thursday as an opportunity to comment and engage with your network’s content.
Once you start to see traction, you’ll naturally want to post more. Build up to daily posts. And weekends? With Paiger, scheduling posts ahead of time is simple.
Posting times
Optimal posting times hinge on your audience specifics.
Generally, LinkedIn sees 90% of activity from 7:00am to 9:00pm.
However, you must think about your audience and when they will likely be online.
What is their time zone? When will your candidates seek jobs (this will likely be outside their typical working hours)? When will your clients be online?
For example, a nurse is going to be online at different times than a construction worker.
For simplicity, the rule of thumb is to aim for posting between 8:00am to 11:00am in your time zone.
Again, consistency is key here. Aim to post around the same time each time you post, as it conditions the algorithm to serve your content reliably to your audience.
What to post
You don’t need to overthink the content you create.
Focus on how you can add value to your audience.
Give genuine advice and share knowledge, insights and opinions.
Try to avoid being promotional all the time.
It can be tempting to talk about your services, but doing this repeatedly without adding any other value can be detrimental.
Use the conversations you’re having as inspiration for topics.
Have there been any questions that someone has asked you that you could use for a post?
What pain points are they experiencing right now?
Share your success stories and your struggles.
Adding that personal touch to your content shows that you are human and your audience can relate to you.
Frame your idea against these questions.
If it answers ‘yes’ to at least one, it’s a good idea for content:
Is the concept novel or a fresh perspective on an existing idea?
Can your audience act on the idea right away?
Will it make a significant impact on their work and life?
Click here for one month of post ideas 💡
THE FOUNDATIONS OF A WELL WRITTEN POST
Write like you talk ✍️
Be you, be real, be human. Avoid using complicated language and jargon.
Start your post with a hook 🪝
Your first one or two sentences need to grab attention. To do this, include a bold statement, opinion or question. Create interest.
Aim for short sentences of a maximum of 12 words 🩳
End your post with a conclusion, question,
or call to action to encourage engagement 💬
Keep your posts broken up into short paragraphs.
Use white space so that it is easy to read 🤓
The optimal length of a good post is around 1,000 characters 📝
There are some exceptions to this, but we’ll touch on them later.
Adding emojis can enhance the message you’re trying to convey and add personality to your posts. But judge whether it is appropriate for your audience and industry 🤔
TYPES OF POSTS TO USE
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TEXT AND IMAGE
These are the most straightforward posts to get right.
They are perfect for storytelling, adding personality to your posts, and grabbing attention.
The key here is to keep your images relevant. Avoid generic stock photos and opt for genuine photos. GIFs can also be effective.
Using photos with people in them, for example, a selfie or a picture of your team can yield higher engagement, as people are interested in people.
Designed images that use your brand's colours and themes can increase brand awareness.
Don’t add images for the sake of it. You know, the ones we mean, a random picture of you flexing at the gym when your post is about something unrelated.
It does you no favours.
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text only
Text only is excellent for longer, meaningful content.
Sometimes, words speak at a sufficient volume, and they don’t need any visuals. Simplicity can work well.
Using text only for storytelling or educational content can be impactful.
Text-only posts are less popular, so they can stand out of the crowd and draw attention when done right.
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VIDEO
Videos are great for adding value to your audience in a format that is easy to digest.
Note that these need to be posted directly to LinkedIn - don’t use links to YouTube or Vimeo.
The most engaging videos are between 1 and 2 minutes – make them at most 3 minutes, as people will likely lose interest. Aim to make the first few seconds interesting enough to grab attention so that people continue watching.
A video of yourself talking about something that adds value to your audience is better than a promotional video.
Use conversations that you’ve had with customers and clients and share these in your video. For example, you can share that market information you’ve shared on 1-1 calls with your audience.
Including subtitles enhances accessibility, catering to those with hearing impairments and many users who watch videos without sound.
Keep accompanying text shorter to avoid distracting people from the video. Aim for no more than 500 characters when posting videos. Keep it relevant to the video to touch on the topic, pique interest and encourage people to watch it.
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DOCUMENT POSTS
Often referred to as Carousels, these posts are great for educational and informative content. These are created using PDFs and appear as slides when posted.
Aim to keep the accompanying text shorter for these to avoid diverting attention away from the document's content.
The number of slides can contribute to engagement.
Aim for between 5-15 slides. The optimal amount is 12. Avoid having too many slides; anything over 20 will likely be too long.
Using your brand style is essential. Stick to the correct colours and fonts to remain professional and increase brand awareness.
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polls
Polls can gather opinions, spark conversations, and capture leads. But it’s essential to get this right.
The simplicity of your question is key.
Ensure it is broad enough to engage a wide audience but avoid being too vague and generic. Getting this balance right is essential.
Ensure you articulate your poll's context and objectives in the accompanying text. Telling people why you are doing the poll can increase buy-in and encourage people to interact. Again, keep this below 500 characters to avoid losing interest before people have voted in the poll.
Avoid listing too many answers. Aim for between 3 and 4 and make the last one “other, see comments,” which can be great for increasing comments.
The optimal duration of your poll is one week.
Repurpose the results of the poll. These can make a great 2nd post to discuss the results and spark more conversation.
INCREASING POST REACH
If you’ve spent time setting up a profile that turns visitors into conversations and conversions.
You’ve chosen the frequency and types of content you’d like to post and are proactively building relevant connections. Great work!
Now, when you’re posting, we advise some techniques to maximise the reach and engagement of your posts and increase visits to your profile.
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COMMENTS
Encouraging people to comment can boost your reach.
Keep the conversation going by replying to comments.
ENGAGE WITH YOUR NETWORK
Build relationships with your network.
Regularly engaging with your network's posts and adding value by commenting will increase their likelihood of seeing your content.
Plus, others are more likely to return the favour by commenting on your posts.
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STRATEGIC TAGGING
Mentioning others in your content can be beneficial if they contribute to the discussion by commenting.
Make each tag meaningful and relevant, and try to use tags to express gratitude or celebrate success.
Tagging encourages engagement and potential sharing of your content. But be warned - if you tag contacts and companies that do not then engage with the post, this can be detrimental to your post’s reach.
Avoid too many tags – no more than 8 – which could activate a tag penalty, and LinkedIn could mark your content as spam.
If you’re in doubt about whether someone will engage when tagged, we suggest you tag them in a comment as failure to engage doesn’t impact your post in the same way.
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HASHTAGS
Keep this rule of thumb and you won’t go wrong - 3-5 hashtags is optimal.
Don’t overthink it - opt for hashtags relevant to your post and your network.
Hashtags are not critical but can be a tool for content discovery. Users might find your posts when searching for specific terms on LinkedIn.
Where you include your hashtags isn’t essential; you can have them in your text or add them at the bottom of the post - whichever works for you #ContentPro #LinkedInLife #Paiger
MEASURING SUCCESS
LinkedIn provides you with some high-level measures that are accessible from your profile.
Use these to guide whether or not your efforts are getting the desired results. Check them weekly.
Increasing profile views is good, but dig deeper and see who is viewing your profile. If they are the right people, that's great.
Post impressions over the last seven days indicate how much reach you get from your posts.
As you test and see what engages your audience most, you want to see this increase over time.
Search appearances indicate how ‘findable’ you are – ensure your profile is optimised to get the right people to discover you.
Analytics
Review your top performing posts over a longer period – we suggest 90 days.
This allows you to re-use the best, perhaps with a different angle or image.
Don’t overthink likes and comments on an individual post level.
Not everyone who takes value from your content will engage with it, so being overly critical of your content performance can result in giving up too soon.
Your Business Results
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to being successful on LinkedIn. Every individual's targets will be different, so set your targets, whatever they are, and measure, test and adjust until you see positive changes, whether this is new business, new relationships or increasing brand awareness.
Track and review ‘lagging’ indicators – such as X inbound messages received in the last three months. These give you the real results. ‘Leading’ indicators, such as the analytics above, show you if your efforts resonate with the right audience, but the business end is the most important. Is your investment generating tangible revenue?
Your Social Selling Index
LinkedIn also provides you with a performance diagnostic tool called SSI.
Four components calculate your Social Selling Index score to a total score out of 100.
Once you reach an SSI of 70+, each of your posts on LinkedIn reaches more of your network.
If you are starting to take your approach to LinkedIn seriously, or you’ve decided to spend more time creating content, check your SSI score now, then again in a month.
Along with the business results and analytics mentioned above, your SSI is a steer to guide your futureactivity to get more from LinkedIn.
Find the right people
Identify better prospects in less time using efficient search and research tools.
Establish your personal brand
Complete your profile with the customer in mind. Become a thought leader by publishing meaningful posts.
Build relationships
Strengthen your network by finding and establishing trust with decision-makers.
Engage with insights
Discover and share conversation-worthy updates to create and grow relationships.
FINAL TIPS
Invest three months of LinkedIn effort before judging how beneficial it is for you and your business.
In that three months, at a minimum, implement these habits:
Post 3x times a week, and try to vary your content type. Stick to 2-3 content themes to build awareness of what problems you can solve for your audience.
Send 10-15 connection requests to relevant people every day. Building connections whilst posting regularly is the quickest way to see results in your efforts.
Comment on 5-10 relevant posts, ideally from people you want in your network, each day.
Finally, the right technology can make all of the above easy.
Book a demo to learn more about how Paiger can help you create and continually build your personal brand.
Thousands of recruitment agencies use Paiger to attract, engage and convert clients and candidates.
