While there are plenty of guides on how to fashion the perfect Facebook post or craft a sweet tweet, what works on LinkedIn?

A new study just might have the answer.

Minimise

A comprehensive report from OkDork analysed 3000 of the most successful LinkedIn posts and come up with a bunch of interesting results.

Less is more

Who said Twitter is the king of short form content?

OKDork found that posts with titles between 40 – 49 characters long performed best, while titles over 70 characters long were the worst performing.

Posts with photos also garnered higher shares on average, with eight images being the optimal figure for maximum engagement.

Finally, LinkedIn users prefer a neutral, informed tone in their posts. This isn't the place for potentially inflammatory content.

New vision

Interestingly, posts that featured multimedia content, such as videos, performed more poorly than text-only updates.

How-to's beat questions

It seems LinkedIn users want to consume content, not provide it.

Headlines including a "How-To" call to action perform best, followed by List posts.

On the other end of the spectrum, headlines asking a question see the lowest user engagement. 

So for example the heading "5 Facebook Marketing secrets" will perform better than "What makes Facebook Marketing work?"

Easy does it

Finally, LinkedIn users prefer a neutral, informed tone in their posts. This isn't the place for potentially inflammatory content.

LinkedIn posts that are neutral in tone perform twice as well as posts that convey overly positive or negative sentiments.

To find out more visit okdork.com.

If you enjoyed this article then subscribe FREE to the twice weekly SMK Digital Bulletin, click here now or visit www.smk.net.au/subscribe.

Also, click here download a FREE SMK Insghts Program. This FREE programs features 131 must-know social stats covering Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram. Keep on top of the latest social facts and figures relating to usage rates, demographics, spending trends, content performance and best practice benchmarks. A MUST for every marketer!