What posts go viral on LinkedIn and why?
There’s many so-called experts out there in LinkedIn land giving false advice and worse misleading advice as to how to create content that goes viral.
So in my series of LinkedIn Newsletters on “How to become a LinkedIn Rock Star” I have been exposing the myths of content marketing on LinkedIn and giving real advice that actually works based on real data and my own experience.
One lie to get out of the way immediately is that the LinkedIn alogrithm is penalising your posts and you’re getting less views/engagment because of it. Not true.
I’m having record amounts of engagement/views as this post will demonstrate so the key here is to stop blaming LinkedIn and take responsibility for your own content. Instead of moaning that your views are down why don’t you create engaging and and interesting content that people on LinkedIn actually want to engage with not what you think that they do.
Follow the data and you can’t go wrong.
This weekend’s posts are four fantastic examples of what LinkedIn users actually want to see and more importantly engage with. I’ve put an extra one in from Thursday in a similar vein to make my point too.
Firstly there are people out there who say don’t post at the weekend but actually my best days for posting are actually at the weekend, especially Saturday.
I believe that this goes to the heart of what false gods on LinkedIn tell you what not to do.
They say they only post business content and only do it once a week and never on a weekend.
Well actually the reverse is true: 1) post non-business content, 2) post it multiple times a week and 3) save your best ones for the weekend!
The reason for the latter point is that people who work for other companies, and are not entrepreneurs like myself, do not post at the weekend and only post Mon-Thurs because that’s when they perceive that people are on a business platform.
Well I have news for them, that’s not true and the data backs that up. The same people who are on LinkedIn during the week are still looking for content at the weekend.
But there is less content because these MNC employees don;t post then.
So I get a greater share of voice because there is less content to see at the weekend.
I am sharing all weekend as I find it an extremely engaging experience.
I share engaging, personal, local, topical, compelling and most importantly non-business content at the weekend and it works, the data says that it does.
There are also self-appointed LinkedIn police who say that the kind of content that I share should not be allowed on LinkedIn and that I should post it on other platforms.
This is clearly bad advice and rubbish. The data backs me up here.
My non-business content goes viral because people like human stories, personal points of view, local stories and stories that they can relate to, most of the time these are not business stories.
These are personal stories or personal opinions on a local topical subject that they can empathise with or have a strong opinion about.
Also I, and most of the people that I know including most of my clients, are not actually on any other platform apart from LinkedIn!
On LinkedIn I can talk to adults about adult topics that cover literally anything that anyone wants to talk about!
There are no limits, no restrictions here as to what you should or should not share. Try it and your audience will soon tell you whether your content is engaging or not. Everyone is different so if you don’t try it and test it you won’t know.
So if you don’t believe me here are FOUR posts that went viral and gained true engagement and by that I mean comments, on the last Friday/Saturday and Sunday on LinkedIn. Plus one from Thursday in a similar personal and local context.
The first three all got over 100 comments and are still going, the latter two got more than 100 likes and almost 100 likes but a similar amount of views as the first three and also ticked the box of being personal, engaging, relevant, local, topical and very much of the moment:
1. Singapore is a relxing place survey
https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=8785475131207255769&li_theme=dark
2. Not a Lau Pa Sat Girl
https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=8454094461771183217&li_theme=dark
3. Beer and Ice Cubes
https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=8781216352839220394&li_theme=dark
4. Meeting Naomi Black
https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=9110316508207506608&li_theme=dark
5. Bring the only Singaporean Founder in the room!
https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=7239650109595673336&li_theme=dark
What do you think?
If you don’t have the time to do this yourself my team and I would love to help you with your original and authentic content creation and sharing on LinkedIn to enable you to find new clients or get a new job, our service details are here on this LinkedIn SmartLink: https://www.linkedin.com/smart-links/AQGS3feLbTqHug
