Five LinkedIn tips from John Espirian

Over brunch with two dozen founders, business leaders and marketers, John Espirian dished out LinkedIn tips and expert insights on the platform we all use, but don’t always feel confident navigating.

We can happily confirm that John Espirian is as lovely, and relentlessly helpful, in real life as he is on LinkedIn. We were genuinely honoured to have him as our guest speaker at the first YS does Brunch event at Bristol’s Square Club. 

He shared so much that was useful, it’s hard to get it all down in one place. But as a starter, here are five things (and one bonus tip) that John covered during the session that will make LinkedIn a considerably more valuable, informative, and enjoyable place to be.  Nothing on this list takes longer than ten minutes, so you have no excuse not to start today!

1. Comment, comment, and comment some more

This was a big one. Comments are the best route to LinkedIn visibility. The algorithm favours users who post regular, insightful comments (beware the generic “great post”). If you don’t have time to post, just comment on other posts that are doing well – John reckons a good ratio is 10:1 – ten comments on other posts, to every one post you do yourself. 

Bonus tip: If you’re talking to someone you want to impress, move from the comments into your DMs for maximum impact.

2. Sort your profile out

There are three pieces of data from your LinkedIn profile that follow you around the web – your name, your photo, and your professional headline. Keep your photo updated regularly, and make sure the first 40 characters of your professional headline are as engaging as possible, as this is the part that LinkedIn uses to judge how and when to display you to other people.

3. Optimise your posts

When you do post, make it count. LinkedIn is (allegedly) cracking down on Insta-style personal posts –  although we’re not really seeing that happen in practice yet. Put some emotion in the opening lines of your post, so people are intrigued enough to click ‘see more’. 

Keywords are good, hashtags less so. They reinforce your personal brand, but don’t work for searchability. If you do use them, put them in a vertical list at the end of your post. 

Also, think about whether you really need to include an external link, as the algorithm will mark you down if you do. Previously tried and tested hacks like adding a link as an edit after posting, or including a link in the comments no longer trick the system. 

Finally, reply to all comments as soon as you can – the first ‘golden hour’ is no longer a thing, but a response in the first four hours will show LinkedIn that you’re checking back regularly.

4. Spring clean your feed

LinkedIn tip number four is to make some edits to ensure you’re seeing the content that’s most useful to you. You can unfollow people while remaining connected to them. You can even customise your feed, currently to even avoid ads, so you only see posts on specific topics from specific connections. Cut the sales guff and the humble brags and you’ll feel so much better. 

5. Use video

We all know that video gets better engagement, so why is it so hard to do? It’s time to bite the selfie video bullet. John told us that 70% of all LinkedIn traffic comes from the app, so stick to portrait mode. Keep them less than a minute long and make them as informative as possible, and the algo will thank you. 

And while we’re here, here are some quick LinkedIn tips on what not to do:

Don’t…

• Post too often – no more than four times per week. Otherwise, you’ll cannibalise your own hard work.
• Get stuck in LinkedIn jail – if you try to connect with too many people, you’ll get barred. 
• Let your invites stack up: unanswered DMs aren’t a problem, but unaccepted connection requests will tell LinkedIn you’re not interested.
• Use engagement pods – they’re spammy, they don’t get you in front of the right people, and LinkedIn is cracking down on them.
• Just send a connection request – add a personal message based on something you’ve found on their profile (think languages, shared groups, location).
• Use LinkedIn’s AI – in a sea of generic self-promotion, the AI is still a long way from helping you to stand out.

We covered this and so much more in the room and attendees left feeling inspired and empowered. 

Our biggest takeaway from John’s LinkedIn tips wasn’t the workarounds and algorithm hacks – although they were brilliantly useful – it was that actually being yourself matters more. Informative, entertaining content told well to the right audience will help you more than anything else, and that’s exactly what we got from John.

If you’d like some help with LinkedIn, we offer LinkedIn subscription packages for every level. From a profile polish to outsourcing all posting, because PR begins with your story.