Amazingly, as of 2024, over a billion LinkedIn accounts have been created from over 200 countries and regions. With a Daily Active User (DAU) of 134.5 million unique users, this data encourages almost everyone to use LinkedIn to build a reputable and authoritative online presence.
According to Forbes research, LinkedIn is hailed as the most popular social media platform for B2C marketing, with Facebook coming in second in 2024!
What does it mean to stand out on LinkedIn these days? Have more connections and followers? Organic growth and people sharing your content? Or the occasional “760 people had viewed your profile” notification from LinkedIn?
It’s all very subjective and depends on your end goal on LinkedIn at the end of the day. That’s the core reason why you’re on LinkedIn anyway.
If you’re just starting or looking to expand your reach and influence on LinkedIn ~ keep reading!
The first optimization strategy to stand out and be more noticeable on LinkedIn is always going into the fundamentals. Starting with your LinkedIn profile.
Optimize your LinkedIn Profile basics
The first impression matters, starting with a clean and neat profile picture
Your LinkedIn profile picture serves as your online first impression.
Opt for a clean, neutral background to avoid distractions for an ideal profile picture.
Remember to smile in your picture. Research shows that smiling makes you appear more likable, competent, and influential
Have a compelling headline
Your headline, limited to 220 characters, serves as your elevator pitch. It’s your opportunity to stand out and articulate the value you bring to the table.
Instead of relying on LinkedIn’s default headline (usually your current job title), craft a unique one that showcases your expertise and unique value proposition.
Here are 4 ways to create an effective headline:
- Highlight your unique traits and value proposition.
- Keep it simple and easy to understand.
- Avoid overused adjectives like “best” or “expert.”
- Use relevant keywords to enhance visibility.
Remember, your headline appears next to your name in search results, making it crucial for making a great first impression.
Strategy #1: Be an authentic voice
When you know of your value proposition, be an authentic voice and not appear as disingenuous. There are tens of millions of content creators, yet if you want to compete and stand out on LinkedIn, be authentic, honest, and, most importantly, yourself.
Why be yourself? It’s simple because authenticity builds trust and, somehow, more credibility.
Where to begin? For starters:
- Profile photo and cover image should be clear and reflect who you are.
- Craft a compelling biography of yourself and what you offer and specialize in.
- Skip the bombastic words that add no value except confusing your audience.
- Include real volunteer work and interests that display or add to your personality and voice.
And speaking from experience, peers or mutuals may even reach out to you with similar interests looking to connect and bond over common interests.
Strategy #2: Start posting consistently (re-posting isn’t nearly enough)
On average, a post’s organic reach can range from 10% to 30% of your connections or followers. For example, if you have 300 followers, 30 to 90 people might view your post organically.
Obviously, the number can increase significantly if your engagement rates are much higher than the average and your content is more relevant to your target audience.
In a study conducted by Neil Patel over a span of 30 days, the ideal frequency to post on LinkedIn is once a day to achieve optimum results. If posting twice a day is needed, spread your post to at least 7 hours from the last time you posted.
The study concluded that posting too frequently on LinkedIn can affect the previous post’s organic reach.
However, publishing a post for the sake of fulfilling the ideal once-a-day post isn’t gonna work. If there is nothing valuable to share, or if it just doesn’t make sense, don’t.
That’s why it’s so important to have a content plan for the next 2 weeks at a minimum.
To simplify, these components are key factors that make a LinkedIn post highly engaging. Ensure you have everything below on the checklist before hitting that post button!
- Headline (sub-headline if necessary)
- Image(s) that tell a story.
- The first sentence should be an engaging hook to capture the reader’s attention.
- Call-to-action for your user, whether to visit your website or share their personal experience in a comment, are some ways you can increase your engagement in your posts.
- Research and include 3 – 5 hashtags at the bottom of your LinkedIn post.
Observe the 25 articles posted in 2023 that had the best engagement rates deemed by LinkedIn.
Use this list to identify trending topics, inspire your content calendar, and create your own posts that people will engage with.
Strategy #3: Utilise images like infographics to receive 2x the engagement and shares
A picture is worth a thousand words. It tells a story and is usually the first thing that captures your audience’s attention. Neuroscientists from MIT have found that the human brain can process entire images that the eye sees for as little as 13 milliseconds.
So, utilizing rich media content in your posts, like infographics, illustrations, and videos, often performs better and reaches a larger audience.
This is an example and a great illustration of using an informational and eye-catching infographic from Nikki Siapno, founder of LevelUpCoding with over 120K LinkedIn followers.
Naturally, you would expect a post to receive 2x the engagements and shares compared to a post with no rich media content.
Here’s another example of an illustration that helps declutter your post and instead insert informational content into the image while focusing on key points on your LinkedIn post. The infographic was created by Rob Dance and re-posted by Reno Perry with proper attribution.
At the bottom of the infographic, to encourage re-posts, sometimes, you just have to remind your audience to repost it if they found it helpful.
You could also engage in discussion and provide insights in your post’s comment sections or public comment sections to initiate a discussion and increase engagement metrics like reactions, comments, longer scroll time, and more.
Strategy #4: Analyze demographics and behaviours
If you have a sizable network and audience, there is a reason why most of them followed you in the first place. Do you know your demographics well enough?
It’s impossible to make a well-informed decision without knowing your network’s demographics simply because our messaging and strategies are not targeted but generic.
Knowing your audience can enable targeted marketing and outreach to be more relevant to your audience.
Businesses can refine their content strategy by examining what types of content resonate with different demographics. This includes choosing the right topics, content formats, and posting times to maximize engagement and reach.
Find out why people are following you and dive deeper into the behaviours of your audience. You can use filters that include Job titles, Industries, Seniority, Locations, and more.
According to LinkedIn, you can gain insights into details like search appearances, post impressions, profile viewers, and more.
If you have a LinkedIn Page, you could also set up monitoring for pages you consider to be competitor to track and benchmark your Page’s performance against your competitors on LinkedIn.
Strategy #5: Use Hashtags appropriately
Hashtags on LinkedIn play a pivotal role in content visibility and targeted reach.
Hashtags are a strong tool for your posts to become discoverable to users who follow or search for those hashtags, expanding your content’s reach beyond your direct connections.
They also reach people with similar interests and are even more commonly used for those following trending topics.
Using relevant and specific hashtags helps you connect with people interested in particular topics, industries, or job roles.
Quick ways to research hashtags on LinkedIn
Use LinkedIn Search
Search for keywords related to your industry, role, or interests. Similarly, to narrow it down, you could also find similar influencers and industry leaders within your niche.
In the posts that are performing and trending, find out the hashtags used and research if they have the potential to be included in your posts.
Explore LinkedIn’s content suggestions
LinkedIn sometimes provides hashtag suggestions based on your content and interests. Consider exploring those options and see which fits best.
If you want to do more in-depth research on hashtags, HootSuite provides a Hashtag generator, but it may be best not to copy-paste everything you get. Instead, look for inspirations and have an Excel sheet to track these hashtags that you may revisit in future posts.
Crafting hashtags can take time and research, so take your time crafting the ones that work for you!
Strategy #6: Initiate engaging polls and surveys
LinkedIn is a fantastic platform not just for networking but also for gathering insights.
What better way to gather feedback and insights than polls and surveys?
Whether you’re looking to understand industry trends, gather feedback, or spark conversation, LinkedIn polls are a handy tool.
To create a poll, start by navigating to your LinkedIn feed. At the top, you should be able to see “Start a post.” Click on that and Look for the “More” icon’. The “Create a poll” button can be identified here.
Questions are the heart of your poll or survey. Think of a question relevant to your audience and engaging enough to encourage critical thinking, opinions, and responses.
Once your question is ready, input the response options. Ensure that clear and concise options cover a broad spectrum of possible answers. LinkedIn allows a maximum of four options, so only choose the top 4 relevant options!
Select a timeframe that aligns with your urgency and expected engagement level. Polls on LinkedIn can be conducted for a duration of 1 day to 2 weeks.
Once you’re done, hit the post button and promote your poll by encouraging reposts and encouraging opinions, feedback, and advice in the comments. Doing so can help boost your poll’s visibility and organic reach.
Strategy #7: Contribute to articles in a specific skill to earn a Top Skill Badge
A top skill badge can elevate your profile by indicating your proficiency and expertise in a specific skill. A badge like that can grab the attention of most viewers looking at your profile.
On top of that, you should also see an increase in organic reach from searches. Recruiters often look for candidates through keyword searches related to a key skill to perform a job. With a top skill badge, your profile appears on the searches more often, making you an obvious candidate for recruiters.
Remember, your LinkedIn profile represents you online and publicly and needs consistent regular attention and updates.
Consistently applying these strategies and staying engaged on LinkedIn can help boost your brand, expand your network, and unlock new career opportunities.
Your LinkedIn profile serves as a powerful tool in helping you stand out and achieve your professional goals.
