My first LinkedIn posts got a few hundreds views with just a few likes ????
That was 5 years ago.
Since then, I went from posting useless content people didn’t like, to getting 100k+ views with only one single post.
And now I’ll be super happy to share the tactics to reach your first 100K views in just a month.
We’ll discuss the differences between articles and posts and dive deeper into what makes content go viral.
It won’t be easy, but if you find your target audience and start generating amazing posts on LinkedIn that people will love – you will own this game.
But before jumping to the actual tips and strategies, let’s step back and find out the reason why LinkedIn Content is so powerful.
Why use LinkedIn for Content Growth?
TikTok and LinkedIn are new social media wonders of the 2020s.
And just as TikTok is the Instagram of the new generation and works pretty well for the B2C market, LinkedIn is the #1 social media platform for B2B and the professional world.
And as every social media, the goal of LinkedIn is to show more ads and subsequently to earn more money.
But the problem they have is … lack of cool content writers.
For people to be engaged with a platform, you need to have amazing content that they would love and keep them on the platform.
So if someone writes a nice post that engages people, the algorithms of LinkedIn will boost it on a bigger audience.
This results in more people seeing the post -> liking it -> and scrolling the newsfeed more.
As a result of it LinkedIn will show more ads.
That’s why you can get 2-3x more views than followers you have.
Can you do the same with Fb or Youtube with no ads?
No (N-O).
They already have more content writers and creators than actual readers and viewers, so when you open Fb you see 1 ad every 4-5 posts.
So let’s find out how to get your first 100k views on LinkedIn!
There are 2 main factors that come into play:
- The content you’re posting;
- The type of engagement you get after you posted it.
Let’s go and analyze each point in detail.
How to write good content on LinkedIn? (LinkedIn Posts vs. Articles)
You have 2 options to share your content on LinkedIn:
- Articles;
- Posts
Both of them are different, and most of people start with “Articles” (I don’t know why, but it happens).
So let me share the difference and show you what way (if you’re just a beginner) need to follow.
The Pros and Cons of LinkedIn Articles
First we’ll start by checking what’s good and what’s not so great about using LinkedIn Articles for content growth on the platform.
LinkedIn Articles Pros:
Articles have (almost) no word limitations.
LinkedIn posts have a limitation of 700 characters. You can’t write content that’s longer than the limit of characters.
On the other hand, LinkedIn Articles allow you to write to your heart’s content.
That is until you reach 14K words of content, which is the current limit for posting LinkedIn articles on LinkedIn pulse.
Of course, it should be more than enough for you to share everything you want to say on any given topic.
LinkedIn Article Longevity (The Long-Term Effect)
People can find your articles even in a month or a few after you posted it.
However this doesn’t work the same way for posts.
Here’s how it works with LinkedIn posts:
- You post.
- People see this post in their newsfeed.
- In 3-10 days other people make good viral posts and your LinkedIn post stopped showing to your audience.
When it comes to LinkedIn Articles, people can find them:
- Via Google
- From your LinkedIn Profile
As a result, people can find your article much more easily in the future.
LinkedIn Articles as SEO
Last, but not least, LinkedIn articles have the “SEO” effect.
If your articles are good enough and get a certain amount of backlinks, they will rank in the search results of Google.
This in turn will lead to more views on your article and more people seeing it.
Subsequently, they will be able to check out your profile and learn who you are and what you do, which means more traffic for you in the long run.
LinkedIn Articles Cons:
A tiny amount of (instant) views compared to LinkedIn posts
Since your posts appear in people’s newsfeed, they can easily find your new posts when they open their LinkedIn.
Also…
Linkedin wants more people to stay on their platform -> to show them more ads -> to earn more money.
So when you see 1 post -> you scroll below and see another -> and then see one more post. As a result of it they spend more time.
When it comes to LinkedIn articles -> people scroll below and see nothing. Yeah, they just see “other articles”, where LinkedIn doesn’t put ads. So it doesn’t make any sense for LinkedIn to boost such a type of content.
So, LinkedIn doesn’t boost your LinkedIn articles, as they do with LinkedIn posts.
LinkedIn Articles Take AGES to Write
Posts are quick, easy and instant. You can write one in under an hour (even under 10 minutes) and forget about it for the rest of the day.
On the other hand, writing a good article requires time, patience, effort, research and more.
Even if you just want to expand on an idea you have or share your expertise, formatting your article, ensuring the flow is good and actually writing it in a long-form manner will certainly take you AT LEAST a few hours. The average blog post writing time in 2020 FOR EXPERTS is more than 6 hours. Let that sink in.
The Pros and Cons of LinkedIn Posts
Now, LinkedIn posts are something you are probably already familiar with even if you haven’t visited the platform.
They are a short-form type of content that can take the form of an image, shared link, text, video or a combination of text and visual content.
However, they are also what appears on the newsfeed of LinkedIn and as mentioned, the platform DOES want to keep people scrolling their newsfeeds.
This leads to more traffic and views for the pieces of content that are truly engaging.
Now, let’s check out what makes LinkedIn posts so special.
LinkedIn Posts Cons
Short-term effect
As I said before, Linkedin posts are booming in the first week.
And after that, it’s hard for people to find it on LinkedIn:
- They can’t see that on their newsfeed…
- They can’t find it on Google…
And they can’t find it on your LinkedIn profile (well, they technically can… but it’s pretty hard to do)
LinkedIn Posts Pros
LinkedIn posts get much more views comparing to LinkedIn articles
I’d love to share my personal example:
I told you “why” it happens above, so let’s move on to the JUICE of how and what you need to do.
If you’re a beginner – you need to start with posts on LinkedIn.
Ok, of course you can share your article as a post:
But from my experience, it doesn’t bring lots of views, and it’s just easier to make a post, rather than write an article -> and share it as a post.
Let’s dive deeper on how to write posts to get your first 100k+ views:
Telling a story with your LinkedIn Content
That seems like an obvious thing to do, but there are a lot of people who still think that if they put the link to their website and post it – they will get more clients and leads.
Come on!
We’re already in the 2020s and today NOONE clicks on links if there is just “hey, we wrote this amazing article … bla-bla-bla … check it out here”.
Why does this happen?
Because we live in an era of ads. We watch ads every single day. And just because ads are everywhere we ignore 99% of it.
So just forget about that quick sales pitches. They WON’T work.
What should you do instead?
Tell a Story with your post.
It’s impossible to sell anything with just a pitch (unless you’ve spent years to ingrain yourself in the consciousness of people and a simple ad does the trick … like Coca-Cola with their ” Holidays are coming”), but it’s possible when people feel and understand the story behind a product.
Here’s an example of one of my posts and how I use posts to tell a story to my readers and viewers.
Provide useful and Valuable Information
Make sure that your posts help businesses improve right away. In fact …
What is the best LinkedIn post?
Great question with many answers.
But what I always tell on it is – “the best LinkedIn post changes readers’ business once they finish reading it”
LinkedIn is a professional network where people talk about business.
So, to get engagement and make your posts viral – help other people improve something in their area.
Cats and Memes won’t work.
(Frankly speaking, they will become viral, because it’s … cats! But you won’t get traffic and leads from these posts)
What you can share:
- tactics that you used to reach X% of growth,
- your favorite tools that you can recommend
- a story from your life about something (for example, “How I raised XYZ millions of dollars)
- and many other valuable things that lead to “Oh, I need to try this”
For example, this is the post where I share a checklist:
Optimize your Content for Mobile Engagement
Do you know that more than a half of users open LinkedIn from their mobile devices?
LinkedIn Mobile Users
That doesn’t look “OMG really?” because we use mobile devices every single day.
But it means that we need to adapt the content we write to mobile devices.
Ok, what to do?
“Divide your text by paragraphs every 1-2 sentences”
So it’ll be muuuuuch easier for mobile users to read your post.
Here is a great example of it:
Getting Initial engagement on your LinkedIn Posts and Articles
Now the tip I’m going to share with you mostly works for psots. However, it doesn’t hurt to try it with articles.
The idea is that you need to play around the LinkedIn algorithm to be able to achieve more views and user growth.
Not everyone can make a viral post unless they know a few ways to hack the algorithm.
By saying “hack” I mean LinkedIn Engagement pods.
In a few words – a LinkedIn engagement pod is a group of people (usually this group is closed), where everyone is ready to support each other with mutual engagement.
If you’re the part of this “pod” you will need to like others’ posts but at the same time, you will get likes and comments as well.
I’m not 100% in this formula, because I don’t work for LinkedIn, but from my experience it totally makes sense.
Here’s what LinkedIn does after you make a post:
Step #1 – LinkedIn shows your content to a small group of people
Step #2 – If they engaged with your post LinkedIn starts showing it to all of your 1st connections + to friends of your friends
Step #3 – If 2d or 3d connections will like or comment on your posts, your content will appear in their network as well.
And now I’ll show you the way to automate getting initial engagement.
Yes-yes-yes, you can get likes and comments from real people (who are also LinkedIn content makers) automatically.
You’ll need to use Lempod
After installing you’ll have a new icon on an extension bar, just click on lempod logo and that’s it.
Now it’s time to find and join awesome pods. Click on “Marketplace” and use keywords to find the most relevant pods to you. When you find them, just click on “Request access” button.
When admins of that pod accept you, you can share your LinkedIn posts and get likes and comments.
Just copy the link to your new LinkedIn post.
Open lempod, click on “My posts” and add the URL you just copied.
Now, you need to choose the pods you want to share your post to.
Now you’re able to choose comments people will leave on your posts.
When you’re ready, just click on the “Start engage” button.
When it’s done, you’ll see results and them amount of views you’re getting each hour.
Summary
It’s not easy to get 100k views, but it’s possible.
Should you do it with LinkedIn Articles or Posts?
Yes. You should. With Posts.
What you just need to do:
- Post great content that people will love;
- Get initial engagement, so more people see it at the beginning.
And once you do it, you’ll feel like:
