7 tips to build an engaging LinkedIn post to grow your personal brand

If you’ve stumbled across this blog post, chances are you’re considering building your personal brand on LinkedIn. (Do it!)

There are many benefits to building a personal brand. You’ll connect with other professionals within your industry, build your portfolio, showcase your expertise, and in many cases, open doors for new career opportunities. 

Writing your first LinkedIn post, especially when you’re used to the generic “I am thrilled to announce . . .” posts, can be tricky. How do you write an engaging post? How do you write a compelling hook? How do you know what your community wants to see?

I’m here to walk you through tips that helped me grow my personal brand on LinkedIn from scratch.

My own personal branding journey on LinkedIn

I have been writing on LinkedIn for over 2 years. I began working on a personal brand after seeing people like Sophie Miller from Pretty Little Marketer change their entire lives because of their personal brand. As a college dropout who just got their foot in the door, I was willing to try anything.

Within the first year, I had reached over 750,000 impressions, grew my audience to over 4.5k followers. 

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Fast forward to now. I have been named as one of the Next 50 Creators by Revgenius and have been invited to be a guest on a bunch of podcasts. I’ve done sponsored brand posts with NordPass and I’ve been featured on Hubspot and ICYMI by Lia Haberman. 

I have also helped the Pod at HeyOrca start their LinkedIn journey (peep Joe and Alyssa’s profiles) using these exact prompts and tips you will read below. 

7 things to remember when building an engaging LinkedIn post

Before we get into my tips on how to craft engaging content, you should first know who you’re trying to reach and why.

You can take HeyOrca’s 2-hour Social Media Community Foundations course created by the CEO of HeyOrca himself, Joe Teo and community expert, Christina Garnett. The course will help you determine who is in your community, your shared identities, and how you measure success. This will help you figure out a plan even before you go to optimize your posts for engagement.

By the end of it you will receive a certificate that you can add to your LinkedIn!

Now to the content writing. . .

1. Craft a compelling hook

If there’s anything you NEED to master it’s your hook. The first two sentences will determine if your post is worth a read. Don’t make it a whole paragraph because people will have to click "see more" and could lose interest. Focus on making those initial lines impactful.

Here’s a hook that will likely be overlooked by your community:

"Through Social Media Manager surveys and webinars I've hosted with HeyOrca!, I've noticed that pricing your social media services as an agency or a freelancer is a big pain point. These findings inspired this week's webinar in collaboration with our Social Media Community Manager, Qetsiyah Jacobson!"

This isn’t a hook I recommend using because of the following reasons:

• It’s too long: long hooks get cut off by LinkedIn. Keep it to 1-2 sentences max.
• It’s too formal: people don’t care for super formal posts. Writing in a casual tone is easier to read and digest
• It lacks value: people are selfish. They want to know what is in it for them. At no point in this hook am I promised any type of value.

Here’s how I rewrote the hook to include all of the above:

"I’ve hosted 60+ webinars and this is one of the most popular topics our community asks me to cover:"

The reason it is a great hook is because it establishes trust and expertise, it is short thus easier to read and the reader being promised some kind of insight.

Your hook doesn't always have to be a statement you can also ask a question you know your community might be looking to get answers to. A great example of this is this post by Christina Le.

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2. Use clear and concise language

The best advice I’ve ever gotten is: “Always assume the reader doesn’t know anything about the subject you’re writing about.” 

Your friends should be able to read and understand your post without prior knowledge. Avoid overly technical language that might alienate a broader audience. Write out acronyms the first time you use them instead of going directly to the short form.

Example:

• "Cost per lead (CPL) is a critical metric. Here's how to optimize your CPL effectively."
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Saffron always makes sure old and new followers understand what she is talking about by writing out the words public relations and putting PR in brackets.

3. Add value with actionable insights

People LOVE numbers. It adds to your credibility and provides a tangible result. When you provide value, make sure to include actionable insights your audience can implement. By sharing tried and true methods that have worked for you, you’re positioning yourself as an authority in your field.

This is a hook that I would not recommend using:

"From analyzing our marketing data and hosting strategy sessions with our team, I've realized that cost efficiency in lead generation is a significant challenge. These insights inspired this week's discussion on the strategies I used to reduce our CPL."

Along with being way too long, this isn’t the best hook because it doesn’t promise the reader with an end result. The example below is straight to the point and gives you a promised end result.

Example:

• "These are the strategies I used to reduce our cost per lead (CPL) by 30%."

Another great example is this post by Alyssa who has hosted over 106 webinars. She is sharing tried and true methods from experience.

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4. Incorporate questions in your LinkedIn post to drive engagement

If you want your community to engage, simply add a question to the end of your post. People love sharing their expertise and opinions, which increases the likelihood of comments.

Make sure to respond to comments. The more you do so, the more likely your community is to comment on your next post.

Example:

• "What strategies have you used to reduce ad spend?"
• "Have you faced similar challenges in your marketing campaigns? Share your experiences!"

When sharing his ideas about an influencer campaign, Samir added a question at the end of his post to allow his community to share their thoughts.

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5. Add eye-catching visuals to increase engagement

Want to make good content even better? Try adding images, videos, GIFs, or PDFs to grab your reader’s attention or even switch up your content (by the way, you can schedule those all via HeyOrca). 

Jayde I. Powell has a weekly video content series on LinkedIn.

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6. Provide context and backlinks 

Backlinks are a great way to increase engagement, source original ideas, and give more context for anyone who wants to dive deeper into your post’s topic.

Backlinks can be external (ex, from a blog or study that you didn’t participate in). You can also backlink to your own content.

If you mention complex terms or concepts, provide brief explanations or context. 

Example:

• "For more on optimizing cost per lead, check out my earlier post on effective marketing strategies."

7. Keep it professional but personable

A lot of people think that LinkedIn is very serious, professional content. I’m here to say that’s not true! Having a personality isn’t unprofessional. Authenticity resonates well with audiences, makes you stand out, and can make your content more relatable. 

Example:

• "When I first started in marketing, I made countless mistakes. Here's what I learned and how you can avoid them."

If you are not in the mood to write long think pieces you can keep it short and fun like Mariya Spektor.

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Summary 

Getting started with your personal brand on LinkedIn is more attainable than you think! 

And the best part is that you don’t need to know all the answers right away. A lot of the process is figuring out who you are, what you want to talk about, and who you’re trying to talk to. Plus, if each post isn’t a winner, that’s ok too. I’m also still learning in my personal branding experience. 

My recommendation is to keep at it, take the tips in this blog post to heart (especially the hook!), and don’t be afraid to try new things.

Good luck!