PipeflowHow LinkedIn distributes posts
When you publish something on LinkedIn, part of your network sees it first. If these people react, comment or stay to read, LinkedIn shows the post to more people. If it stays quiet, the post fizzles out.
That leads to the most important point: reach on LinkedIn comes from conversations. A post with five thoughtful comments is worth more than one with twenty quick thumbs up. And your network helps decide how far you get. If you are only connected with twenty people, even a good post won't reach many.
Your profile as the foundation
Anyone who finds your post interesting clicks on your profile next. That is where they decide whether to follow you or connect with you. A clear photo, a headline that says what you do for whom and a short About section are therefore a must. What that looks like is covered in the guide to the LinkedIn profile for the self-employed.
For small businesses, the personal profile of the owner usually reaches more than a company page. Why that is so is explained in the article Company page or profile.
The opening decides
In the feed, people only see the first two or three lines of your post, then comes „see more“. These lines have to spark curiosity. A few patterns that work well:
- An observation: „Last week a customer asked me why our quote is two pages longer than the competition's.“
- A clear opinion: „I think most websites of trade businesses are too modest.“
- A mistake: „I made the biggest mistake of my first year as a self-employed woman when setting my prices.“
- A moment from your day: „Today our apprentice finished his first piece of work entirely on his own.“
Formats that work
Different formats work on LinkedIn. For small businesses, these are the most important:
- Text with your own photo: the classic. A real photo from your business almost always works better than a stock image.
- Document posts: You upload a PDF that people can flip through like a carousel. Good for checklists and step by step explanations.
- Plain text: For a personal story or an opinion, text alone is sometimes enough.
- Polls: use sparingly. A good question can start conversations, too many polls feel random.
Commenting is the underrated lever
Many people only think of their own posts when it comes to reach. Yet often more people see your comments under other people's posts. A good comment on a post by a customer, an industry association or a well known person in your region brings you into new networks.
A good comment adds something: your own experience, a question, a different perspective. „Great post“ achieves nothing. For example, set aside ten minutes every day to write two or three genuine comments. That is often quicker than writing a post of your own.
Grow your network deliberately
The more relevant people are connected with you, the more see your posts. After every meeting, every trade fair and every networking event, connect with the people you met. Send a short personal note with it, but no sales pitch.
Good candidates are customers, suppliers, partner businesses, people from the chamber of commerce or regional business groups, and former colleagues. For an electrical business in the Mühlviertel, that could be builders, property managers and architecture firms in the region.
Links, hashtags and mentions
Many people observe that posts with a link to an external website get less reach, because LinkedIn prefers to keep people on the platform. That is not proven in every case. Test it yourself: write the post so it makes sense without a link, and put the link in the first comment if needed.
Hashtags play a smaller role on LinkedIn than many think. Two or three relevant ones are plenty. Only mention other people or businesses if they really appear in the post, for example as a partner on a project. Tagging people at random so they react is annoying.
What you can skip
Some tricks keep doing the rounds. They might bring a few reactions in the short term, but no trust:
- Comment groups: Groups where everyone comments on each other bring reactions from people who will never become your customers.
- Calls to comment: „Write YES in the comments“ looks cheap and rarely leads to real conversations.
- Posting daily at any cost: Better one good post a week than five empty ones.
- Connection requests with a sales message: They burn contacts before they are even made.