It’s time to learn how to craft a great plain-text LinkedIn post. You might be wondering: why bother? Well, LinkedIn is one of the most powerful ways you can expand your influence and grow your business.
Today, it is the largest professional networking site with over 740 million members in over 200 countries! WOW!
By maintaining a professional profile on LinkedIn, users can curate their own personal brands to help foster new opportunities and connections with people they wouldn’t be able to meet without social media.
At Evyrgreen Networking, we talk a lot about the importance of showcasing your profile, expertise, recommendations, and connections, as well as posting regularly to stay top of mind with your network.
Even though LinkedIn is powerful, so many people still forget how important it is to curate your presence and share things with your network! Don’t know where to start?
We recommend you start with the tried and true plain-text LinkedIn post. Let’s discuss how to craft a great one below.
What Is A Plain-Text LinkedIn Post?
Simple! A plain-text LinkedIn post is simply a post that doesn’t have any images, gifs, video, media of any kind, or special features. It’s a simple post that only includes text. Plain-text LinkedIn posts can include hashtags and emojis, but nothing else. LinkedIn allows plain-text posts to be up to 1,300 characters long.
Why A Plain-Text LinkedIn Post?
They sound boring, but plain text posts do surprisingly well on LinkedIn! You just need a hook to draw people in, then you need some meat to get your audience to keep reading and at the very end, make sure you have a call to action. This last part is very important; without it, people will not take action.
Let’s discuss these three parts in greater detail.
1. The Hook
When writing your hook, your objective should be to get your reader immediately interested in what you have to say. A “hook” is the first line or opening of your story. Its whole purpose is to grab your readers’ attention. This is more important than ever on a website like LinkedIn, where users are constantly browsing a feed packed with posts, polls, ads, images, and beyond. So in this case, a good hook isn’t just nice to have, it’s crucial for fostering engagement on LinkedIn. There are so many ways you can write a great hook, but here are our recommendations:
- Start in the middle of the action
- Be emotive.
- Say something unexpected.
- Don’t give your topic away! Keep your reader wondering what you’ll say next.
2. The Meat
Time to get into the meat and potatoes. What’s the point of your whole post? What exciting story, information, or event do you want to share with your followers? This is the time to get creative, descriptive, or even fun with your language. A good hook will grab people’s attention, but the meat is what’s gonna have them stick around. Here are our recommendations for writing a good meat section:
- Don’t be too wordy.
- Break up your text into manageable chunks.
- Stay on topic.
- Call out to the reader if you can.
- Have fun while keeping it professional.
3. The Call to Action
This is one of the most important parts of posting that people forget the most! Your call to action is an explicit prompt you assign the reader to DO something next. What’s the purpose of your post? Did you just want to reflect? Do you want answers to a question? Did you want to start a conversation? Whatever that is, make sure your call to action addresses the reader and gets them to get involved. Here are some great calls to action:
- “Let me know in the comments.”
- “Please give this post a like.”
- “Follow me on Instagram for more.”
- “DM me.”
- “Please connect me with someone who can help.”
- “Give me recommendations.”
- Etc.
Got the gist? Let’s take a look at some examples:
Example #1: Plain Text Post about what a CEO does
Example #2: Plain Text Post about Tagging People Or Not
Example #3: Plain Text LinkedIn Post about Target Market
As you can see, all of these examples have great hooks, meat, and calls to action. But all in all, the best way to start growing your influence on LinkedIn and make great plain-text LinkedIn posts is to start practicing! Find your voice, your niche, and figure out what makes you the most comfortable and resonates with your network.
Want to learn about all the different kinds of posts you can share with your network on LinkedIn besides plain-text posts? Check out our full-length, extended article called “19 Types of Posts to Post on LinkedIn” here!
If you want more tips on how to leverage LinkedIn for your business, check out our 30 Linkedin tips booklet you can get here! For more helpful articles, check out the rest of our blog.