- Five tips on how to go viral on LinkedIn.
(upbeat ambient music) LinkedIn
is an incredible platform to help you build your startup
and get your word out.
It is one of the few platforms
where you can build great content
and get a lot of eyeballs without pay.
Today, we're gonna look at how you can go viral on LinkedIn.
- [Narrator] This is Raw Startup.
- We have two guests
that have been very, very successful on LinkedIn
to help guide us.
So Maiken and Robin, how did your best post on LinkedIn do?
- So the post had more than 155,000 likes,
it had more than 10 million views.
And I think about a 3000 re-shares
and more than 2000 comments to it.
- So I got about just over 400,000 views,
a couple 1000 likes and comments on this,
super impressive for me.
- Not bad at all.
And imagine all those views,
all those people that see the posts
and all this by building great content,
none of this was paid.
In this video, we'll give you very, very specific tips
on how to go viral on LinkedIn,
but also show you examples
of posts that have done really well.
We'll give you some incredible tips
on how to go viral on LinkedIn.
With that, let's get started.
Tip number five, grab attention with a strong headline.
This is crucial, get their attention
or they'll scroll right by.
- Some of the most viral posts that I've done
has started with a really, really strong headline.
One of them that you would see here on screen
is the one where I talked about my failures.
The whole first line was, I failed a lot in my life
and it's something that everybody can relate to
'cause we talk about failures enough,
but when people see that they go, you know what?
I can relate to that
and it makes them wanna read the next thing
that's in that post itself.
And that's the beauty of LinkedIn,
it allows you to write really long posts,
but if you don't have a strong headline,
nobody's gonna read the long post that you write.
So have a strong headline, it's absolutely key.
- People can only see the first two lines,
the first two sentences off your post
when they're seeing your content on their feed.
So you better make sure those two first sentences
are really catchy to get their attention.
And I'm not saying you should be doing these
tacky click bait headlines like,
this woman's on an alien in front of her office.
What happened next will leave you speechless.
Like we're not there at all,
but try to keep in mind that
you need to capture people's attention at this point.
And the headline needs is to make them
want to read more into the subject you're talking about.
Most of the time I actually write the entire post,
and then I do the headline at the end when I know like,
what is the key output of this?
Like what is the teaser for it then?
And then the teaser is pretty much
what I would use for the headline.
So you want to make sure that your headline stands out
and breaks out from the other content
people are consuming on the platform.
And the way to do that on LinkedIn
seems to be through the headline of your post.
So definitely make sure your headline is on point
because that's the pattern breaking
that you're doing on LinkedIn.
- So break the pattern with a great teaser,
not the entire story and no aliens please.
tip number four, have a point of view and be controversial.
Don't be controversial just to be controversial,
but it's okay to have an honest opinion
that not everybody agrees with.
- If everybody just agrees
with your statement that you're doing,
it won't spark as much conversation.
So if you want to provoke people
to share their opinion on a specific matter
and get lots of comments,
which also accelerates the spread of the post on LinkedIn,
definitely try to do something that
makes people more involved in that piece of content
and makes them wanna share their opinion.
I think it's also important in this aspect
to remember that LinkedIn is first and foremost,
a social media platform.
- Yeah. - And
the way they want to build community
is through interactions.
So LinkedIn's algorithm also spreads content
much more if there's a lot of interactions
and comments on a piece of content.
So I would say that's also your recipe
for doing a viral post.
- It's not about trying to create division,
there's enough other platforms out there,
I'm not gonna name them right now,
but I think we all know them
that where you can be anonymous,
you can post basically whatever you want.
That's not really what LinkedIn for,
this is about presenting yourself, your point of view,
because it also says who you are right on the post,
who you work for,
so you always have to bear that in mind as well.
So have a point of view,
I mean, like this post here that we seeing right now,
I've spent over two decades in marketing
and some of the largest tech companies that you've heard of
and also some you've never heard of cause they failed.
And you know, just here is about how marketing leaders,
are just being asked to really be great at everything.
And it's just not really realistic.
You can see it got over a 100,000 views,
over a 1000 comments and so on and likes
because it's something that so people care about.
It's like, yeah, and people wrote a lot of great comments
about why they think this is true,
they might even write comments
about why they don't think it's true, but it's fine.
Be on LinkedIn like you are when you are in the office,
when you're in the office,
you try to connect with people on a human level.
You talk about kids and family
and talk about success and failing.
So you don't go into an office
talking about your religious beliefs
or your political beliefs, right?
So 'cause that just creates division,
be like you are in the office.
That doesn't mean being a robot nobody's
wants to interact with a robot in the office,
it means being your authentic self in a professional way.
- Tip number three, post about what's in the news.
And you might just learn a new word here,
Maiken, go ahead please.
- What you would refer to as newsjacking
within the world of PR
actually works really well on LinkedIn too,
so the idea behind it is that you tap into actual news
and agendas that are already in the media
and then you create your own content based on that
and with a clear reference to the trending news,
but it might be with a small twist
or your own opinion on it.
For instance, I can give an example, a couple of weeks ago,
it was all over the news
that Apple had reached a trillion dollar valuation.
And because Robin mentioned that,
polls were becoming a thing on LinkedIn.
Now I thought that,
well, I might try out doing a poll on this subject,
on their evaluation
and ask people what they thought about it.
And that piece of content turned out to perform really well.
And it was later picked up by LinkedIn News
and reshared by them as well.
But it really is about tapping into
what is already trending,
what is already on top of people's minds
and then doing your own thing to that.
- So Maiken's most popular post
was also sort of newsjacking, let's hear about that.
- Yeah, yeah, I did.
It was a post about Whitney Wolf
and when she did the IPO with Bumble, her startup.
And I think it's about a year ago now,
but that was also like,
it was all over the news that week
that she had done the IPO.
But I felt like everything that was written in the media
and also the post I was seeing about it on LinkedIn,
it was very superficial.
It was all about her success
and the fact that they did the IPO.
And I found out that she had been a part of Tinder before
and was a co-founder there be,
before like there was some sexual harassment lawsuit
and everything.
So like all of the hardships she went through
to get to where she was that day,
that was actually something,
I found it very inspiring to read about.
And I decided like
this is something I wanna share with my friends.
So I just did a post about that and posted it on LinkedIn.
And then there were some people also just like
commenting on my wording on the post
because I had this like, I'm not sure what to call it,
but I had this very direct quote at the end of the post
saying something like,
I think this is the best way to say fuck you,
or, in a professional way,
like her come back to everything
she was like put through on Tinder
and then she did the IPO of Bumble afterwards.
So the post had more than 155,000 likes,
it had more than 10 million views.
And I think about 3000 re-shares
and more than 2000 comments to it.
- It's insane.
I mean, I think Maiken's being very humble,
that is like an insanely viral post.
I don't expect many people will see that kind of a reality.
I certainly haven't,
I've had some posts that have taken up,
but never to that extent, it's really impressive.
So for me personally,
I had a post about Airbnb and Brian Chesky.
It was right when the pandemic was starting.
And Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb came out and said,
that their bookings
basically went to zero after the pandemic started.
But they started seeing a couple months later
that their booking certainly went up to about 90, 95%.
But they had spent zero marketing in the last few months
because everyone was kind of like hunkering down
and making sure you were just protecting your business.
And I wrote a little bit about it,
like wow, it shows the strength of a super (indistinct).
He was just on the news that day talking about this how,
so unheard of that a company suddenly does so well
while spending any money on marketing,
but it only comes 'cause they've earned the right to do so.
So I got about just over 400,000 views,
couple 1000 likes and comments on this.
Super impressive for me.
- Tip number two, be authentic, vulnerable and funny.
So what do you think Robin, can you be funny?
- Funny or snarky?
You know, people seem to like when I rant on LinkedIn,
I'm very positive, both of you know me well,
I'm very positive and I am most of the time,
but sometimes something just annoys the shit out of me
and I'll rant about it on LinkedIn.
And for some reason,
those posts always seem to do very well.
So I guess people like the ranting side of me,
but I usually try to do the rant
in a kind of funny way
or in a way that where people can nod along
'cause they've experienced the same thing.
So for example, I wrote something a couple of months ago
where I said,
"Connection acceptance does not make me a warm lead.
Sincerely, all of us."
'Cause we've all experienced this,
you know, you get like a connection request,
you say, okay, sounds interesting.
And then the moment you hit, yes,
then you instantly get bombarded with a sales pitch
and you're like, oh, what the hell?
And I wrote this and it got 155,000 views
and it got so many 1000 likes
and it's just like me being a little snarky, a little funny,
but it's very short.
Like this is again, one of those where
the story is in the headline, one of those examples.
And so I think being funny, being vulnerable is also good.
One of my other most,
I would say viewed posts is about
when I talk about the things that I've done wrong,
or where I've learned from,
where I've made mistakes in the past
and people can relate to it
because there's perception
when you reach a certain in career milestone
like, oh, they've just had a smooth linear career.
And for all of us, it's never been the case.
I know you Heini, you've been as successful
as many times as you've screwed up, same with you Maiken,
it's just true of all of us.
And the more we share that, the more people understand
that we're all just in this together.
- I would also say like my writing style on LinkedIn
is pretty much as I would speak in real life as well.
Because it's not like you're writing a legal deposition
or a letter to the president.
So it shouldn't sound like that either
when you're writing content on LinkedIn,
it just sound
like the tone of voice that comes natural to you.
I think that's why
a lot of people don't post that much to LinkedIn
because they think they have to use this
very formal business language and do it so correct
that the result is they end up posting nothing
instead of just doing something.
So definitely don't overthink it,
just go the Nike way and just do it.
- The number one thing that's stopping people
from going viral on LinkedIn is not posting anything.
You're never gonna know unless you try.
And I talk to so many people, literally every single week.
Like, I don't know if I can post on LinkedIn,
what if nobody cares?
What if I don't have a point of view?
Well, you'll never know unless you try.
It's true of anything in life.
So just go for it.
Be brave.
- And yes, "You miss every shot you don't take."
Thank you, Michael Jordan for that quote.
It's true in basketball as well as LinkedIn.
By the way, before we get to number one,
we actually have some bonus tips on the end,
smaller tips that are very applicable
to help you go viral on LinkedIn.
Here we go, tip number one, tell a story.
- I think the kind of posts format I do mostly on LinkedIn
are posts built on a storyline like small articles
I would call them.
For instance about something inspiring,
like overcoming hardship, making difficult career decisions,
building a startup and so on.
And I have to say, if there's like one kind of story
that really has it all, it's definitely the startup story.
So I think we all have that advantage
being in this community as well, being in this sphere.
So the story about overcoming challenges and hardship,
and either making it big
or learning some valuable lessons along the way,
that seems to be something that resonates
well with people these years.
And as a founder,
you have to overcome a lot of shit doing your journey,
but hey, at least you can turn those lessons
into some awesome content afterwards, right?
- At least it'll be a great LinkedIn post.
(chuckles) - Yeah.
You're already lifted. - Yeah, yeah.
- So why not share it? - Yeah.
Yeah. - Totally.
(laughing)
That's why the best marketing is done emotionally first
and then supported by facts and logic.
You know, it's not the other way around.
And it's the same
when it comes to things that go viral usually,
for example, this one here, you're looking at,
it's a post I had recently about,
when I was 21, I was living in Copenhagen in Denmark.
And I was kind of not really happy with my life
or where it was going,
and I bought a one way ticket to California.
I didn't have a job, didn't have a place to stay,
never been, didn't know a single person.
And then I just gave it all away just
because I wanted to live the dream in Silicon Valley.
And I posted that story a little bit
with a picture of me when I was sitting
in my small apartment in Copenhagen
applying for every job I could on Craigslist.
And it's just a way of both me sharing my journey,
that how far I have come and also it just takes a while,
but also something that everybody can relate to.
You know, if you're early in your career,
sometimes it seems like it's so far away,
when I read of all these successful people out there,
it's like every journey just starts with a single step,
it's up to you to take that step and decide when and how,
but you've got that in you as well.
And it might take longer than you think,
it might go shorter, you never know,
but you'll never know until you start.
And I shared that and I think in an open and vulnerable way,
and as I like to do,
and it got a great response and it makes me inspired
when I see the comments I get of like,
how you're really inspiring me
to go do something similar with my life,
'cause it not going in the direction that I want.
And that's really what all I ask for on LinkedIn.
- But I found that there are some general aspects
in the way that you construct a piece of content
to gain better traction as well.
So at first you wanna capture people's attention,
like we already talked about,
like with the catchy headline or intro,
then present like an actual story
or some information that you want to share.
Then you have like some kind of turning point or a conflict,
a point of no return.
And then at the end,
some kind of learning that came out of it all
so that you can wrap it up nicely at the end.
- Not quite done yet.
We still have a couple of bonus tips.
So more practical tips for you on LinkedIn.
- I wanna share two bonus tips as well,
precisely five, number one is reusing your content.
I think there's a lot of also
when you're starting posting on LinkedIn,
there's a lot of stress and like,
God, I gotta come up with content all the time.
It's stressful, what am I gonna say?
You know, I worked with a great CMO at one point
who had this phrase calling it, plucking the chicken.
When you have great content, you gotta pluck it
until it's dry, until there's nothing left to pluck.
You have a great post two months ago,
think about reposting it in a different light
and some different wording, but more or less the same,
reuse your content over and over again,
it's a gold mine to be had there.
Tip number two is also about, if you really wanna engage,
then you can all start asking questions
back to your audience.
That's what I see a lot of great people
who do that on LinkedIn.
I do that all the time where I say,
okay, here are five great leadership skills
that I look for when I hire leaders,
what do you think at the end of that post?
'Cause then people will comment as well.
So it's a great way of getting
the community engaged in the posts itself.
So asking questions is a great way to like
hack that a little bit.
Let's have tape number three from Maiken.
- There are days that I see are performing better
than other days on LinkedIn,
especially Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays,
and the morning hours between nine and 12 o'clock,
that's also where I'm gaining more traction in general.
I think it's just like the sweet spot
when most people are using LinkedIn.
So that probably has some thing to do with it.
- Okay, if you have other great tips or LinkedIn stories,
put them in the comments.
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(upbeat ambient music)