Value Is Still Key to the Best Types of LinkedIn Content to Post

For the longest time short copy and vibrant visuals were the driving forces behind strong social media content. However, we’re seeing a continuing trend on LinkedIn: longer, meaningful text-based posts with no production are among the best types of content to post on LinkedIn, receiving high engagement and sparking valuable conversations online.

What’s the deal with this? Why are these types of posts so valuable? And are they here to stay?

The short answer is text-only posts, when done right, are engineered to be engaged with. They are relatable, they are punchy, and they focus on a topic that people find themselves wondering about but just haven’t talked about yet. 

But most importantly, text-only posts present the opportunity for someone to learn. People are more compelled to engage with a topic-based, text-only post from someone they may not know. 

So let’s get into some examples! What types of text-only posts have we seen get high engagement on LinkedIn?

1. Unpopular Opinions

This is by far the most common and high-performing content on LinkedIn. After all, it’s in our nature as humans to love contradiction and alternative opinions. We all want to be more informed and be able to have more intelligent conversations with our friends, family and coworkers, and fresh opinions equip people to do so. 

See Carey Lohrenz’s post above about how multitasking isn’t actually as horrible as we think it is. 

Quick tips:

• Make sure your contradiction is the first sentence to grab people’s attention. Sometimes it helps to add a lead in like “Unpopular opinion” or alike, but it isn’t required. Make your decision based on how you want the post to read
• Don’t stop there! Give people the other side of the story. In Carey’s case, the enemy of productivity is actually a lack of focus, not multitasking
• Finally, end with a takeaway. Leave people feeling like they have learned something from your post. Leaving Carey’s post, I know I need to “take inventory” on what is in my Span of Control and focus in on it

2. Confident Statements

Confidence is key both online and offline. When you can make a statement based on something you believe in, people can feel the passion and can’t help but engage with it. 

And if it’s something they also believe in, they’ll want to engage with it so their connections see it as well. Remember, when someone reacts to or comments on a post on LinkedIn, it shows up on the feed of their connections and followers – your 2nd and 3rd connections.

Give your followers content that they want to fill their connection’s feed with. 

Quick tips:

• Be diligent about spacing out your sentences and making it easy for someone to read. Remember, people are most likely reading these on their phones, so smooth flow is crucial.
• Again, focus on that first sentence. What is going to stand out to someone among the rest of their content? One way to do this is by capitalizing the last word to emphasize our point. Seems simple, but if you imagine it lower case, it reads entirely different!

3. Listicles

Listicles? Yes, they are for more than just BuzzFeed! They are a strong tool for content marketing across the board from social posts to blogs to white papers (we’ll save those for later posts…). 

There are two reasons for this: they grab people’s attention and explicitly state their value. So give them a try.

And yes this one is from me! I try to practice what I preach 🙂 

Quick tips: 

• Don’t be afraid of emojis. While I’m personally not a fan of their overuse, scattering them throughout where they make sense can help pull a post together and give it a pop of color. 
• Ask questions! By simply inviting people to contribute to this piece, they did!
• Use hashtags with a high following. By utilizing #advertising #branding and #marketing, I was able to get on the feeds of people that didn’t know me, but were interested in this topic. The result: over 50% of the reactions on this post were from 2nd and 3rd connections. 

While visual content will always have its place on social media (and for LinkedIn we are seeing a plethora of incredible, high-value video content), text-only content is a cornerstone to the platform and is here to stay.

So what are you waiting for? Get posting! Creating valuable LinkedIn content is central to an effective brand strategy for nearly every thought leader.

If you have any questions or want to discuss your LinkedIn strategy, reach out to us at info@zilkermedia.com!