One Simple Trick to Improve Your LinkedIn Posts

Three lines. That’s how much room LinkedIn gives you to write a compelling hook for your post before the words, “…see more” cut it off from view and interrupt the flow of your content. In response, many LinkedIn publishers opt to squeeze as much text as possible into the three-line limit and to avoid the cut-off altogether. On surface level this approach makes sense—people appreciate brevity, and if you can convey everything you want within the three-line limit, why not do so?—and it does look more aesthetically pleasing than a post whose words gradually disappear—but there is one significant drawback to avoiding the “see more” feature: it may work against LinkedIn’s algorithm for post visibility.

In theory, there is nothing wrong with short and sweet LinkedIn posts that stay within the three-line limit, so long as they lead to likes and/or comments. But that is the thing, creating valuable, intriguing content worthy of a “like” in less than three lines (approximately 210 characters) is no easy task. LinkedIn loves long-form posts, not only because they are more likely to contain the type of valuable insights that LinkedIn prides itself on, but because long-form posts often foster more engagement within the app than shorter ones.

Quite bluntly, the more time that users spend on the app the more money LinkedIn makes, so LinkedIn wants people to write long posts—they want people clicking that “see more” button and reading on. However, there is no denying the appeal that sub-three-line posts have. They don’t require people to click “see more” to know what the post is about; they can gather everything they need in just three short lines. Longer posts, by contrast, often fail to capture the attention of LinkedIn scrollers because they fade away into obscurity before catching the reader’s attention. So, what if you could have the best of both worlds? What if there was a way to combine the attention-grabbing aspect of shorter posts with the attention-keeping aspect of longer ones? Well… there is.

Writing short posts is okay every once in a while, but when the time comes to write a long-form post you may want to consider employing the cliff-hanger strategy. Within the first three lines of your long-form post try to write as compelling of an introduction as possible—something that makes the reader want to read on and “see more.” It is important to note that you do not want the words in your post to fade away—you want them to end abruptly and completely. To ensure this happens, as soon as you finish your sub-three-line hook, press “enter” as many times as is necessary to prompt the “see more” option. It could be a few words or 200 characters. So long as you hook in the reader before “see more” pops up, you will give your long-form post the best chance at success in LinkedIn’s algorithm.