As far as business connections go, there is not a social media tool more powerful than LinkedIn. Creating and maintaining an active LinkedIn account is a must-do for professionals across all industries. However, it is not enough to simply create a LinkedIn account and post to it. One must remain well versed in the best practices for LinkedIn use. Most recently, the creators of LinkedIn have updated the platform to include new functionality for users.

New Types of LinkedIn Posts

In 2021, the social media outlet released an update that allowed for new ways to share content. Up until this time, the most popular types of posts were Standard Posts as well as LinkedIn Articles. It is “standard” to share a message, link, photo, document, and/or video when posting to LinkedIn. On the other hand, the “articles” post type allows users to publish written stories to their page in a blog-style format.

Now, there are two new post types that are getting a lot of attention: The Organic “Carousel” Posts as well as the new Poll Posts. There has been a surge in users sharing scrollable posts and images on LinkedIn that prompt users to follow along visually—this is known as the “carousel” post. Additionally, polls have become increasingly popular amongst users who want their connections to weigh in on a certain topic or question.

Active individuals on LinkedIn should also note that there are new icons that can enhance their posts. New choices have been added so that users can celebrate an occasion, welcome a new colleague to their team (share their profile), recognize an employee’s achievement, share a new project milestone, or celebrate a work anniversary. Content of this category is often aimed at offering a service, sending a referral, sharing coaching tips, pushing recruitment, and/or finding volunteers.

Finally, LinkedIn has begun to offer options to share live video. This is obviously following in the footsteps of other social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. However, live video sharing requires more effort and third-party integration, according to Later.com.

Your Account Versus a Company Page

LinkedIn has always allowed users to create personal accounts as well as business pages. Today, there are more ways than ever to build out and optimize these LinkedIn account types to amplify presence on the platform.

New options exist for users looking to create a killer personal profile. Recently, the outlet has added a “Name Pronunciation” option so that individuals can add an audio file next to their nametag.

When it comes to managing a company page on LinkedIn, the platform is now providing more ways to promote business and build community. Users should start by creating a new page or becoming an admin of an existing page. From there, admins can track page analytics on LinkedIn using the platform’s growing data infrastructure.

The best of the best LinkedIn users will implement their personal profile to share company page content, and vice-versa. When used in conjunction, there are seemingly endless options for account promotion.

Interacting on LinkedIn

One of the best ways to establish meaningful connections on LinkedIn is to interact with other users and pages. In 2021, LinkedIn’s creators added the ability to “react” in various ways to posted content. Not only can users “like” content, but now they can also click to “celebrate”, “support”, “love”, mark as “insightful”, and/or show they are “curious”.

For a while, interactions with LinkedIn content came in the form of comments, shares, and likes. All of these interactions are meaningful because they create mutual links between two different communities of people. Most commonly, LinkedIn users will see content that was “liked” by others in their connection base. Once content is posted, users and page admins can now “pin” important posts to the top of a selected account so that visitors will see this content first—regardless of posting date.

The next best way to create mutual connections is to “mention” or “tag” a company page or personal profile. Mentions literally create a link between two accounts to lead users from one page to another. All these common interaction possibilities combined with new reaction icons provide users with more ways to establish meaningful connections.

When and Where to Post

As communities grow on LinkedIn, users and page admins must implement proper timing when posting to LinkedIn. For example, posts to LinkedIn that occur early in the mornings during weekdays tend to have better exposure, according to new data from TSL Marketing.

What’s more, users have found out that it’s not always the best option to post to their entire community of followers or connections. Some posts simply don’t appeal to everyone! LinkedIn allows users and page admins to post to LinkedIn Groups, send direct messages to small groups of people, and publish public/private content. Discerning between “when and where” to post always comes from users knowing the content they share and who might be the most interested audience to share with. Plus, content tends to get greater reception when users actively inquire with their community about content they enjoy or which groups they are involved in.

How to Share Content

At this point, most people understand the basics regarding how to share content on LinkedIn. However, many individuals and businesses are lost when it comes time to develop a greater plan for sharing content. Here are a few tips to understand when sharing on LinkedIn:

• Create ethical appeal: Showcase content that establishes oneself as a thought leader or expert in some industry
• Post industry news: Pair this with a thought-provoking question
• Do not over-promote: It’s OK to “toot your own horn” now and again. But generally, LinkedIn connections don’t want to constantly hear about how amazing you / your company is. Show them why your page deserves attention rather than telling connections what to think
• Make connections: Turn interactions into connections with a short message as to why you might be a useful addition to a person’s community
• Cross-networking: If you have meaningful connections on Twitter (for example), be sure to transcend these connections over to LinkedIn as well

“As digital marketing professionals and thought leaders in this industry, it’s important we keep up to date with all of these new capabilities,” said Noelle Stary, Lead Marketing Strategist, and founder of 20 Lemons, LLC. “And since we love our community so much, we’re glad to offer this list to make LinkedIn easier to navigate.”