The problem with a lot of stats that come out on social media (and anything really) is that they don’t always provide you with insight that’s immediately actionable.
OkDork and Search Wilderness analyzed 3,000 of the most successful LinkedIn Publishing posts that provided extremely powerful data that can help you dramatically increase the results of your next post on LinkedIn.
I was so blown away by the data presented in their original post that I had to reach out to the original authors on Twitter to 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, actionable information.
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1. The Optimal Title Length Is Between 40 and 49 Characters
If you exceed 49 characters, your title is going to be cut off in some areas of LinkedIn, specifically in Pulse’s sidebar menu. It will reduce the chances of someone being enticed to read your article if it pops up for them in an area that doesn’t show the entire title.
2. Your Posts Should Have 8 Images
Interestingly, posts with exactly 8 images performed at least 2.4 times better than those with 7 or less!
3. Forget About Videos & 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 video or multimedia asset showed a slight reduction in views, any amount above that had view counts dropping off a cliff.
4. Use Five Sub-Headers For Optimal Views
Posts with exactly 5 headings that divide its sections performed best with 9 headings coming in as a close second.
5. 1900-2000 Words Is Optimal
Posts with 1900-2000 words performed 50% better than the next best word count (1800 words) and at least 100% better of any word counts beneath it.
6. Being Switzerland Pays Off
Posts on LinkedIn with a neutral sentiment performed at least 70% better than those with either positive or negative sentiments.
7. 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.
Posts on LinkedIn with a Flesch-Kindcaid Readability Score of 80-89 performed best, considered “Easy” and requiring the education level of an 11 year old.
8. “Likes” Are The Most Significant Driver of Success
Getting that thumbs up on your LinkedIn post has a strong correlation with higher overall views. As soon as someone in your network hits the “like” button, your post becomes viewable to more of your 2nd level connections, thereby increasing the viral effect of your post!
9. Publish Your LinkedIn Posts on Thursday
We noticed a long time ago that our blog traffic and social media posts for Top Dog Social Media performed much better on Thursdays. Analyzing the top 3000 LinkedIn Publishing posts showed a similar trend: Thursdays get the most views.
10. Questions Don’t Make Great Titles
LinkedIn posts where the headline poses a question perform poorly, giving the lead to those that chose to make a statement instead.
BIG THANKS
A big thank you must go out to Paul Shapiro (@fighto) from Search Wilderness and Noah Kagan (@noahkagan) from OKDork for gathering these incredible stats. Follow them if you want incredible and reliable information within the online marketing world and be sure to thank them for their hard work. Make sure you also check out the original article that lays out all of their findings in greater detail.
Sources:
We Analyzed The 3000 Most Successful LinkedIn Publishing Posts [OkDork]