EP #015: 5 stats I wish every executive knew

Hey there - I’ve met with 270+ executives this year to help them understand how vital LinkedIn is to their career and their company.

Here are the six numbers I end up sharing with them the most:

+150%: Impact of photos on posts

LinkedIn loves photos. After June’s algorithm change, posts that include an image are now the top-performing posts on LinkedIn. If you use a photo with your post, it will absolutely do better…

…provided that the image is:

1. Original - no stock images. Photos from your phone work best.

2. Relevant - it needs to relate to the content of your post in some way.

Don’t know where to start? Scroll through the photos on your phone. Favorite any that have a good story to go along with them. Tie that story to something about your work, and you’ve got a solid post.

4X: Growth in engagement when you post 2X more

There’s one rule for LinkedIn: high-quality content, published often, grows an audience.

Provided your content is high-quality, there is no downside (and significant upside) to posting more frequently.

When we take a client posting 2-3 times per week and shift them to posting 5 times per week, we see a 3.7X increase in likes on their posts. This disproportionate increase is worth noting.

Want to grow faster? Post more frequently.

One caveat: don’t post within 8 hours of another one of your posts. This tends to cannibalize your first post, so both posts end up getting less views.

1/3: Views received if you have a link in your post

LinkedIn doesn’t want you driving traffic away from LinkedIn. So if you publish a post that has a link, LinkedIn is going to show it to less people.

So, how do you drive traffic to the link?

1. Include the link in the comments. If it’s the first comment, a lot of people will see it, OR

2. Edit your post after the first hour. After that first hour, the link will have a minimal impact on the post’s performance

-88%: fewer likes received by a repost

LinkedIn highly rewards original content. In fact, after LinkedIn’s June algorithm update, reposts started receiving 88% fewer likes than before the algorithm change.

When we study the top creators on LinkedIn, we find that 98.9% of their content is original content, and just 1.1% is reposts.

If you want to grow an audience, you need to share original content.

1,050 characters: Average length of a top post on LinkedIn

If you want to be brief, go to Twitter (or X.com or whatever). LinkedIn likes deeper insights.

So don’t be afraid to write. Wax poetic if you want. When we look at top creators on LinkedIn, their average post is 1,050 characters in length.

Pro tip: avoid paragraphs on LinkedIn. People like to skim (particularly on mobile devices). The “one paragraph per sentence” format that is so popular on LinkedIn is popular for a reason - it breaks up text, invites skimming, and performs better.

Want to go deeper?

Here are three data reports you should check out - no email gate, just read, enjoy, and apply to your business.

1. The State of LinkedIn - 10 lessons from an analysis of 1,015 client posts in May 2023

2. The data behind LinkedIn's algorithm change - an analysis of 1,396 posts 30-days before & after the change

3. Best Practices for LinkedIn Company Pages - an analysis of 10,000+ posts from Company Pages

Other questions keeping you up at night? Send them my way and I’ll do my best to track down the answer.

Until next week,
Justin

Justin M. Nassiri | Founder & CEO
M: 650.353.1138 | E: [email protected]
250 Fillmore St Suite 150, Denver, CO 80206
www.ExecutivePresence.io

We specialize in helping top-tier executives boost their visibility, activate their network, and position themselves as thought leaders via our premium, fully-managed LinkedIn service.

Our unique process involves ex-McKinsey, BCG, and Bain consultants conducting monthly hour-long interviews with our clients, and turning them into impactful daily LinkedIn posts to establish their unique voice and authority. On average, our clients see a 500% bump in engagement in their first 30 days with us. Data is continuously analyzed to improve engagement and identify impactful messaging that you can use for conferences, podcasts, and internal communications.