LinkedIn posts can go viral thanks to one of the most “viral-friendly” algorithms.

In 2019, I got my first interview through LinkedIn.

In 2020, I secured two coveted roles by using LinkedIn to further my personal brand.

Every year, LinkedIn’s impact on all of our careers is increasing. And guess what, we can control that impact to make positive changes in our careers.

LinkedIn can help you develop an authentic and profitable personal brand. 

In my case, it was about finding suitable jobs. Using the platform, some authors l built a sizable email list. Many users use that to build their business or sell their courses.

The opportunities are endless.

Many articles are focusing on what to do to build a profitable brand. The suggestions boil down to this:

How you should use Linkedin Posts to build your brand

• Post regularly: The suggestions range from twice a day to 3 times a week. Whichever you choose, you should stick to the frequency.
• Experiment with different types of posts: Although text-only posts perform better than most others, experiment with polls & other formats. Images often do well too.
• Use work-related keywords: Work, business, leadership, boss, supervisor, etc. interest readers. Keep them in your first sentence and that’d entice readers to read more.
• Interact with others: Comment thoughtfully on thought-leaders’ posts. My posts on Simon Sinek or Tony Robbins’ posts often give me new followers & connections.

But more importantly, you should add the following secret sauce to most posts to increase their reach.

Secret Sauce: The users are in the platform for a reason — you must address that through your LinkedIn posts

Users are on LinkedIn to find jobs, build their brand, kill time, grow their network, increase their online presence, or because they are frustrated or feeling down.

The secret sauce comes into play with the last reason. You can do either of the following —

1. Make your readers feel good by sharing questions that are easy for them to answer, a personal feel-good story, sharing other people’s stories through images & text, or posting uplifting advice.
2. Highlight how people are being wronged through similar posts

(Some creators take it too far by creating stories that don’t sound realistic. But even those give them huge reach)

Example- Uplifting advice

Example — Highlighting how people were wronged

While these are both great posts and deserve the appreciation they are getting, many mediocre/false posts also go viral as they exploit this secret sauce.

Example — Fake motivation

The image above has been circulating on LinkedIn for years. It keeps making an appearance and gets thousands of likes. It comes with a message showing how the wolf pack is structured to show their organization, and maybe leadership skills.

Unfortunately, it’s not true and not supported by science.

To summarize on LinkedIn posts

LinkedIn values interactions. The more interaction LinkedIn posts get, the more people they reach.

Adding emotional elements in a post paves way for more interactions.

If you are planning to reach more people, you should also use this secret to further bolster your posts.