LinkedIn Post Format: You Should Know These Content Formats

1. Overview of LinkedIn Post Formats 2022
2. Which tools can be used to create the LinkedIn post formats?
3. Conclusion on LinkedIn Post Formats

LinkedIn is the social network which probably offers the most exciting features for publishing your posts - simply because there are many different technical possibilities. Which these are, which format is suitable for which use case, which LinkedIn post image sizes exist, examples of successful LinkedIn formats, tools and more you will learn in this article by our guest author Viktoria Kux.

Overview of LinkedIn Post Formats 2022

Let's start with an overview of the different LinkedIn post formats currently available:

• Text
• Image
• Image gallery
• Video
• Document post with the ability to present PDFs as sliders
• Carousels
• Surveys
• Events
• LinkedIn Audio Events
• LinkedIn Live
• Jobs
• Articles and LinkedIn newsletters

In the following, I will present the individual LinkedIn post formats in more detail. What image or file sizes and other criteria should be taken into account when using them and when is which format actually suitable? In addition, in this LinkedIn post guide, I will show you my personal best practice examples. If you want to delve deeper into the popular LinkedIn content formats 2022, you will find what you are looking for here.

Text Post

Those who publish content on social media know the unwritten law "No post without a picture or video!", as pure text posts in most networks are easily overlooked or played out worse compared to attention-grabbing photos and videos. LinkedIn is an exception here. If you create good content, you can also achieve good results with a pure text post on LinkedIn. How to successfully create a LinkedIn post, you can read here.

Good to know: The text can be up to 1,300 characters long.

Pure text posts are always suitable when you really have something to say (e.g., a topic worthy of discussion from your industry or if you want to explain a matter in more detail) or maybe there is no suitable image or video material to accompany it. Ideally, you should try to end text posts with a question to boost interaction under it and thus encourage commenting.

Image Post

In addition to a text post, LinkedIn also offers some LinkedIn image formats. Users* stay put when scrolling on images or videos, so I would always recommend integrating such if you have suitable material related to the topic. It doesn't matter if you choose a landscape or portrait format - the following dimensions are recommended here as the optimal LinkedIn image size: 1,200 x 627 pixels or 1,920 x 1,080 pixels.

Maybe it's also worth creating an infographic related to the topic?

Image Gallery Post

If you share several images at the same time, LinkedIn creates a kind of album or gallery, like the one you know from Facebook. Here, a maximum of nine photos are possible. I can only recommend a photo gallery if it is desired by you, e.g. if you want to share a series of images from the last event. As soon as you share a series of infographics, you should rather revert to another format, e.g. Embed document (PDF) as a slider or use carousels (coming soon - see below).

Video Post

Video content is currently not being pushed as strongly on LinkedIn as on other platforms, therefore the expected reach is limited. But what is important to know is that LinkedIn prefers videos that are uploaded natively compared to videos that are integrated via an external link, e.g. to YouTube.

For native LinkedIn videos you should consider the following sizes:

• Resolution: 256 x 144 pixels - 4,096 x 2,304 pixels (landscape format)
• Length: max. 10 minutes
• File size: up to 200 MB
• Format: MP4

If you want to try the LinkedIn video post format, I can recommend not to upload long-form content here, but rather to consider which short video teasers you could share for further, longer content e.g. on your websites, blogs or YouTube channels. We have shared further tips on Video content on LinkedIn in a separate post.

Document Post (PDFs as Slideshows)

LinkedIn is the only social network where you can upload PDFs. The individual pages of the PDF are then displayed as a kind of slideshow or slider. To date, you can use this function to use popular carousel formats, as you know them for example from Instagram, also on LinkedIn. PDFs can also be downloaded by users* and saved, so it is always recommended to integrate a corresponding copyright and further contact options and links in the PDF.

Tip for design: To create a good slider, you should put the title on the first page, present one idea per page and use the last page for a call-to-action. As a tool I can recommend Canva, because you can also easily save graphics you have created for other platforms as PDFs.

Take a look at my other article where I show you how to create successful Instagram graphics - almost all the tips can also be applied to LinkedIn.

Format requirements:

• File formats: PPT, PPTX, DOC, DOCX, or PDF
• Size: maximum 100 MB and 300 pages

Carousels

Some LinkedIn creators have already unlocked the latest function: the LinkedIn Carousels Post Format. Once this feature has been rolled out to all users*, the upload as PDF, only to display sliders, will be obsolete. When this will be the case is not yet known.

LinkedIn Surveys

One of the most popular functions in 2022 to generate interaction on your own post is the survey. You can ask an interesting question with up to four possible answers. Even if the actual voting is not counted as interaction, the survey is a "scrollstopper" and usually there is a lot of commenting underneath. It is important here that the survey should be related to your topic, about which you usually write on LinkedIn, and has relevance.

Tip: Nobody wants to see more surveys on the topic "home office or office?". Mostly, engagement triggers are quickly exposed as such and users are annoyed!

LinkedIn Events

With LinkedIn, you can also promote events, whether online or in person. You probably already know this function from Facebook.

It is possible:

• Add your contacts as speakers
• Send invitations to the event to your network
• Share the event itself via LinkedIn post
• Send the event link via direct message
• Promote events through ads

Tip: You should plan your event at least 2-4 weeks in advance so that you have enough time to promote it on and off LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Audio or LinkedIn Live can also be combined perfectly here.

LinkedIn Audio Events

Similar to Clubhouse, there is also the possibility to participate in live audio events on LinkedIn. All members can listen as listeners at these audio events. To host an audio event yourself, certain criteria must be met:

• Audio events can currently only be created from personal profiles, not from company pages
• You must have more than 150 followers
• Hosts must have adhered to LinkedIn's community rules to date
• Hosts must be located outside of China, as the function is not available there

More information on the access criteria of LinkedIn in audio events can be found here.

LinkedIn Live

There is also livestreaming on the business platform LinkedIn. To get your LinkedIn account approved for this, you need to apply. There are a number of access criteria for setting up and hosting LinkedIn Live, which should be met, among other things your page needs more than 150 followers.

Important: You cannot stream directly from LinkedIn. An external tool is needed for this, e.g.:

Restream

Socialive

StreamYard

Switcher Studio

Vimeo

Zoom

Webex

The livestream should be at least 10 minutes and a maximum of four hours long and can be posted in the feed afterwards, making it accessible to everyone who couldn't be there live.

Live videos are suitable for example for interviews, live reports from an event or live presentations (e.g. board meeting).

LinkedIn Jobs

Of course, LinkedIn is and remains a business network, where it's also about finding jobs or new employees. Therefore, there is a separate area "Jobs", where job advertisements are published. Anyone* can create their own job advertisements on LinkedIn. The first advertisement is free, appears in the search results and is shown to contacts. Honestly, with free ads, success is not to be expected, which is why I advise you to inform yourself together with the HR department or external recruiters about the other recruiting offers from LinkedIn.

Here you will find an overview of LinkedIn Talent Solutions.

LinkedIn Articles and Newsletters

You don't have your own blog? Not a problem, because on LinkedIn itself, there is the opportunity to write longer articles. Ideal to prove your own expertise or to publish longer texts that exceed the LinkedIn post size. Images and links can also be integrated.

Good to know: Articles within LinkedIn can also be found via Google search.

Some users* also have the opportunity to use the article feature for a regular newsletter series. You can invite your followers on LinkedIn to subscribe to this newsletter and they not only get a push notification when a new newsletter has been released, but can also have it sent by email. You can find out if you have this feature if you click on "Write article" when creating a new post.

Which tools can be used to create the LinkedIn post formats?

I would like to share my favourite tools for creating all LinkedIn post formats with you:

• Canva Pro for photos, graphics and PDFs
• For advanced Adobe Photoshop for photos, graphics and PDFs
• Adobe Premiere Pro for videos (for advanced)
• CapCut or Adobe Rush for short vertical videos (beginner level)

Conclusion on LinkedIn Post Formats

In summary, I can only recommend you to plan different post formats in your content strategy for LinkedIn. There is no universally valid magic formula for social media that will make you rich and famous overnight. Therefore, you should test what works best with your network and your target group and therefore achieves the best results for you. Especially when networks roll out new functions, it is worth jumping on early and testing them, as you are usually rewarded with a reach push.