A company’s first LinkedIn post is an important milestone that sets the tone for their social media presence. It’s the first impression many people will have of your brand on LinkedIn. While there’s no one “perfect” first post, there are some best practices companies should follow when crafting that inaugural message.
In the opening paragraphs, we’ll go over some quick answers to key questions around a company’s first LinkedIn post:
– The post should introduce your company and values to the LinkedIn community. Don’t assume people already know who you are.
– Keep the focus on your audience’s interests, not just promoting your brand. Provide value.
– Include links to your website, products, services, and other social channels. Make it easy for people to learn more.
– Leverage images, video, and other rich media to make your post stand out.
– Use an authentic, approachable voice that aligns with your brand identity.
– Encourage engagement with questions, polls, or calls-to-action.
With those quick tips in mind, let’s dive deeper into how companies can make the most of their first post on LinkedIn.
Craft an Introduction to Your Brand
The first thing your initial LinkedIn post needs to do is introduce your company to the world. Remember, you’re new to the platform, so assume most readers may not be familiar with your brand, products, services, mission and values. This is not the place to get deep into your offerings, but rather provide a high-level overview of:
– What your company does
– Key products, services, or areas of expertise
– When the company was founded and by whom
– Your company’s purpose, vision, and values
– What makes your company unique
For example, a consulting firm might say:
“Hi LinkedIn community! We’re Company XYZ, a management consulting firm founded in 1995 by entrepreneurs John Smith and Jane Doe. We’re passionate about helping organizations improve performance through strategic planning, process improvement, and leadership development. Our collaborative approach puts client needs first to drive sustainable results. We can’t wait to share our insights with you!”
Keep it conversational but professional. You want to sound approachable while still representing your brand appropriately. Share what gets you excited about your company! This helps establish your brand personality right away.
Focus on Providing Value for Your Audience
While it’s appropriate to share an overview of your company in your first post, the focus should be providing value to your audience. What does your target audience care about? How can you help them?
Rather than hard-selling your products or services right off the bat, consider taking an educational approach adding value. Some ideas include:
– Sharing an original data study or survey results on a topic relevant to your industry.
– Providing tips, best practices or insights your audience would find useful.
– Highlighting an important trend in your industry and how you’re responding.
– Linking to a helpful resources page on your website.
– Recognizing a milestone or achievement for your company.
The goal is to start building relationships with engaged followers who want to keep hearing from you. That means creating content focused on their interests, not just yours. Establish your credibility by showcasing your expertise.
Include Links to Drive Traffic
Once you’ve introduced your brand and shared valuable content, your first post should always include links to drive traffic to your website, social channels and other resources. This gives readers a clear path to learn more about your offerings.
Specifically, you should include links to:
– Your company website homepage.
– Product or services pages that go deeper into what you offer.
– Your contact page, online request form or booking links.
– Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
– Helpful resources, downloads, content offers or sign-up forms.
– Any relevant press releases or recent company announcements.
Links should go to pages that are fully optimized and aligned with the context of your post. For example, if you share tips about customer service, link to resources on how readers can improve their own customer experience.
Here is a table summarizing some of the key pages to link to:
| Page | Description |
|---|---|
| Homepage | Entry point to introduce your brand, offerings and services |
| About Us | More details on company history, mission, team |
| Services/Products | Showcase your key offerings in more depth |
| Resources | Whitepapers, ebooks, blog posts, videos, etc. |
| Contact | Way for readers to get in touch and convert to leads |
| Social Channels | Expand reach by linking to all social media accounts |
Quality over quantity when it comes to links – a few strategically placed ones are better than cramming in too many. Link text should describe what readers will find on the other end.
Leverage Rich Media
While text content is crucial, you also want to incorporate visual elements to make your post pop. TheSaying goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Images, video, charts, infographics and other multimedia can help reinforce your message and get more attention.
Some best practices for visual elements include:
– Incorporate an image of employees, products, services, office, etc. Images showing real people help humanize your brand.
– If introducing leadership team, include headshots. Helps connect faces to your brand.
– Infographics, stats visualizations and charts add credible data to back up your message.
– Videos bring your post to life. Can be an overview, demo, employee interviews, facility tour, etc.
– Memes and quote graphics if they align with your brand personality.
– Custom graphics with your branding, logo, taglines, etc. Reinforce visual identity.
– Screenshots of website, product pages, resources, and other assets.
Aim for a mix of visual elements – not just one image. Break up blocks of text and reinforce key points visually. Just be sure any visuals align with your brand style and tone. And optimize them for LinkedIn’s feed with large enough text and quality resolution.
Establish Your Brand Voice
Every company has a unique brand voice and personality. Your first LinkedIn post is a great way to establish yours. But keep in mind LinkedIn tends to call for a more professional tone than other social networks. Some tips on finding the right brand voice:
– Align with brand guidelines on tone and voice if they exist. Stick to approved terminology.
– Be conversational but not too casual – it’s still business communication.
– Show genuine enthusiasm and passion for what you do.
– Share your expertise, but avoid coming off as arrogant.
– Use natural language. Avoid overused marketing buzzwords and jargon.
– Showcase your brand personality – are you bold? Innovative? Approachable? Playful?
– Develop an authentic voice that feels true to your people and culture.
Also important is maintaining consistency across posts – don’t drastically change tone and voice regularly. While you can show some range, frequent switching can dilute your brand identity.
Review competitor brands on LinkedIn to see what tones resonate best. But ultimately your voice should be unique to your brand.
Prompt Engagement
You want your first post to spark engagement and conversation, not just be a broadcast. That means incorporating interactive elements like:
– Questions to get readers commenting below the post.
– Polls or surveys to collect data and feedback.
– Calls to action – invite people to follow you, visit your site, sign up for content, etc.
– Requests for readers to tag someone who would find your post helpful.
– Asking readers to share the post or specific elements if relevant.
– Hashtag references to connect with larger conversations.
Without being pushy, you want to prompt readers to take action beyond just passive consumption. This helps extend your reach as people share and respond. Just be sure not to ask for engagement without providing value first.
Best Practices Summary Table
Here is a summary of some of the best practices covered for a company’s first LinkedIn post:
| Practice | Details |
|---|---|
| Introduce your brand | Provide an overview of your company, products/services, mission, values, and differentiators. |
| Focus on value for audience | Create helpful, educational, or entertaining content focused on your audience’s interests. |
| Include strategic links | Drive traffic to website, products, resources, and social channels. |
| Incorporate rich media | Images, videos, charts, etc. Visuals reinforce your message and make it more engaging. |
| Establish brand voice | Find a tone aligned with brand identity – professional yet approachable. |
| Prompt engagement | Questions, polls, CTAs, hashtags, etc. Spark conversation and sharing. |
Keep these best practices in mind, but also let your unique brand identity and culture shine through. Balance professionalism with approachability and focus on serving your audience.
Conclusion
A company’s first LinkedIn post sets the stage for their entire presence on the platform. It’s important to make a strong first impression by balancing your brand introduction with value for your audience. Keep the focus on your followers by crafting helpful, engaging content that establishes your brand purpose, personality, and expertise. Set the right tone from day one by following LinkedIn best practices while injecting your unique identity.
With a strategic first post that provides value and drives organic engagement, you can build genuine connections that carry over into future content and interactions on LinkedIn. Rather than being overly promotional, strive to be insightful and establish trust and credibility. If you make a helpful first impression, your audience will be eager to keep following along.