But with millions of posts flooding users’ feeds daily, how do you make sure your content gets noticed? Hashtags may be the answer. LinkedIn hashtags are searchable, which increases your content’s reach and gets your posts in front of more of the right people.

In this article, we’ll dive into why hashtags matter, how they boost your brand’s visibility and how to use LinkedIn hashtag analytics to add fuel to the fire of your LinkedIn marketing strategy.

Table of Contents

• What are LinkedIn hashtag analytics?
• Why tracking LinkedIn hashtag analytics is important for your business
• How to generate LinkedIn hashtag analytics

What are LinkedIn hashtag analytics?

LinkedIn hashtag analytics reveal how popular specific hashtags are on the platform and how they impact content performance.

For example, hashtag analytics offer insight into how many people see your posts because of the hashtags you use, which hashtags get the most traction and how much engagement your posts get because of those hashtags. Understanding the data behind your hashtag strategy will help you fine-tune your approach and content to reach more of your target audience.

Why tracking LinkedIn hashtag analytics is important

On LinkedIn, 40% of users organically interact with a page weekly, making it an excellent choice for brands that want to get noticed without paid promotion. Adding LinkedIn hashtags to your organic content can help it reach an even broader audience, but you need to be strategic to make the most of them. This is where LinkedIn hashtag analytics come into play.

Here are the top reasons why you should keep track of LinkedIn hashtag analytics.

Identify the best hashtags for your brand

Have you noticed that a particular hashtag has a high follower count and consistently drives engagement on your company’s posts? Those are good signs that you should keep using it. Analyzing these metrics over time will allow you to pinpoint the exact keywords and phrases that resonate the most with your audience.

Understand which hashtags compliment your brand

Prioritize relevancy over popularity to reach the people most interested in what you’re sharing. For example, suppose you’re a social media marketer at a B2B marketing software company for small businesses. You might opt for the more specific #smallbusiness hashtag, with around 800,000 followers, over the general #marketing, with over 20 million followers. Despite its smaller follower count, picking the more relevant hashtag will help you cut through the noise and speak directly to your ideal customers.

Subscription design service Superside recently used this approach for a LinkedIn post promoting an upcoming webinar, using very niche hashtags like #aitutorial and #3dmoviestylecharacter with a broader but still targeted hashtag #characterdesign, which has over 14,000 followers.

Track the sentiment for certain hashtags

A solid social media strategy also tracks how people feel about the content you’re putting out. Monitor what hashtags drive more positive or negative engagement to ensure your content hits the right notes.

For example, creating a Listening Topic in Sprout Social will enable you to analyze the topic’s most common keywords and hashtags and see a breakdown by sentiment for related keywords and hashtags.

Monitor your competitors

Incorporating hashtag analysis into your competitive monitoring will help you optimize your social media strategy by staying competitive and increasing your share of voice more relevantly. For example, if competitor posts with specific hashtags consistently get high engagement, that’s an indicator that those hashtags are hitting the mark with their audience, and you may want to start incorporating those or similar keywords into your content.

Sprout’s Listening solutions make this process easy. They enable you to gather key metrics like volume, engagement, likes and impression breakdowns for specific competitor hashtags, or a broader overview of your competitors’ top hashtags.

How to generate LinkedIn hashtag analytics

Not all social media analytics are created equal. Knowing how to generate this data will make all the difference in maximizing your post reach and engagement. From leveraging built-in LinkedIn tools to browser extensions to third-party social media management platforms, here are the primary methods for generating LinkedIn hashtag analytics.

Use the native LinkedIn hashtag analytics

LinkedIn offers follower count numbers for all hashtags. To see how many followers a hashtag has, use this URL formula:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/keyword

For example, if you wanted to see the follower count for #socialmediamarketing, you would enter the following URL into your web browser:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/socialmediamarketing

The follower count will be displayed prominently at the top of the page. It’s not the most efficient system, but this method will show you the popularity of specific hashtags. From there, make a shortlist of industry-specific hashtags and test them to see how they affect performance.

Use a LinkedIn hashtags analytics extension

Hashtag Analytics is a free Google Chrome extension by Engage AI. The tool allows you to check hashtag follower counts directly on LinkedIn, get real-time insights while scrolling through your feed and get hashtag suggestions as you write your posts.

It also offers additional data like hashtag follower growth over time, the maximum number of likes and comments based on the top 20 recent posts and the total reach of a post after incorporating hashtags.

To start exploring hashtags, add the extension to Chrome, log into LinkedIn, and access the tool icon in your browser.

Use a third-party social media scheduling tool

Creating a tag for different hashtags in Sprout Social will enable you to track how each one performs in engagement, reach and clicks across your posts. Say, for instance, you work for a virtual event software company and want to compare posts with #eventprofs to ones with #eventtech.

Creating a tag for each hashtag will enable you to generate Tag Performance Reports that provide metrics like impressions, engagements, engagement rate (per impression) and top posts. This data will help refine your social media strategy and drive more meaningful interactions with your target audience.

Harnessing the power of LinkedIn analytics

It’s challenging for brands to stand out in the ‘pay to play’ social media landscape. Fortunately, hashtags are an easy way to boost your content and organically get it to the right people. Just make sure you monitor your hashtag analytics to see which hashtags drive the most results to maximize your LinkedIn content efforts.

Of course, hashtags are just one feature that can affect content performance. If you want to dive even deeper into the world of LinkedIn performance data and learn more about the best platforms to track metrics, check out our roundup of the top LinkedIn analytics tools on the market.

The post How to use LinkedIn hashtag analytics to boost content reach appeared first on Sprout Social.

The network has over 1 Billion members spread across 200 countries, and has the highest user rate in the US, with an audience reach of over 214 million users.

Given how powerful the medium has become in B2B marketing, read on to find out how you can leverage LinkedIn analytics—a powerful tool to track, gauge and optimize your business presence on this platform.

Table of contents:

• What are LinkedIn analytics?
• Why track LinkedIn analytics?
• How to access LinkedIn analytics
• The most important LinkedIn metrics to track
• How to create LinkedIn analytics reports in LinkedIn
• Tips for using LinkedIn analytics
• 3 LinkedIn analytics tools for your brand

What are LinkedIn analytics?

LinkedIn analytics is a collection of metrics that measure the effectiveness of your posts, updates and strategy on the platform. It’s statistical data that enhances your LinkedIn marketing efforts.

With LinkedIn analytics, you can discover valuable insights into who your audience is, and how they’re responding to your company page and its content.

Why track LinkedIn analytics?

Tracking LinkedIn analytics allows you to use data to improve your marketing strategy. Regularly monitoring this data can help you make better outcomes and get the most out of your investment.

Here are the main ways LinkedIn analytics can help you improve performance.

Understand how your audience engages with your brand

Linked analytics includes the analysis of engagement metrics, such as likes, comments and shares, which can help you increase your social media engagement. For example, you can use these insights to understand what content connects most with your target audience. Then tweak your future posts to match your target audience’s likes and interests.

Learn how you stack up against the competition

LinkedIn analytics facilitates social media competitive analysis. Compare key metrics, such as follower growth and content effectiveness, to find areas where you excel and areas you need to improve. This approach refines your social media strategy and gives you a competitive edge in the market.

Deliver maximum ROI

LinkedIn metrics such as lead generation, conversions and campaign performance help you identify the most effective strategies to maximize your social media ROI. This can guide you to allocate resources where they yield the best results. Consider it as a data-driven approach to optimize your marketing efforts for maximum impact and business growth.

How to access LinkedIn analytics

Here’s how to access your LinkedIn business page analytics:

Step 1. Log in to LinkedIn. Open the company page and go to your LinkedIn admin view.

Step 2. Click on Analytics on the left side of your screen.

Step 3. Once in the Analytics tab, you’ll see detailed insights organized into Content, Visitors, Followers, Leads, Competitors and Employee Advocacy.

You can dig further to see detailed metrics and trends.

Step 4. For a quick overview of the last 30 days, see the snapshot on the right side of your feed.

Note: You must be a page admin or have “analyst” access to track analytics.

The most important LinkedIn metrics to track

Having access to so much data can get overwhelming. But you don’t have to fixate on each metric you see. Use your goals to know which metrics need your attention and what they mean for your business.

Below are some key LinkedIn analytics metrics marketers should know about.

Visitor metrics

LinkedIn visitor analytics help you learn about the people viewing your company page on the platform. These people are not necessarily followers or customers, but they’ve shown some level of interest in your LinkedIn presence.

• Page views: The total number of times your page was viewed during a specified date range. This metric includes multiple views from the same user.
• Unique visitors: The total number of unique users that have viewed your company page. This number excludes multiple visits from the same user, which makes it a good indicator of how many people have shown interest in your profile.
• Visitor demographics: This section shows who’s viewing your company page. You can filter this information by location, industry, job, company size and seniority.

Use tools like Sprout Social to measure day-to-day changes in addition to averages over time.

Follower metrics

Followers represent people who have actively subscribed to your company page and content. In a way, they make up your brand’s community on LinkedIn.

When you understand who your followers are and where they’re coming from, you create more engaging content. Plus, you can assess your brand’s popularity on the platform.

• Total followers: The total number of users following your company page. Depending on your goals and industry, the follower count reflects your brand’s popularity and trust.
• Organic followers: The number of followers you gained without spending money on advertising. These users found you through search engines, shares or feeds, and have shown genuine interest in your brand or content.
• Sponsored followers: The number of followers you gained through advertising. This metric helps you gauge the success of sponsored posts and campaigns.
• Follower trends: Track the number of new followers within any given date range. Are your followers increasing or decreasing over time? The follower metrics graph also shows whether there’s a sudden drop or spike in organic or sponsored followers.
• Follower demographics: Learn about who your followers are. You can filter this data by location, seniority, industry, company size and job function. Use demographics to create more targeted content that resonates with your followers.

Sprout also aggregates audience demographics data for you. As shown below, Sprout breaks it down clearly by seniority and job function.

Engagement metrics

Engagement metrics provide insights into your LinkedIn post analytics and campaign performance. Specifically, these help you understand whether your target audience connects with your content and how they respond to it.

• Impressions: The number of times your post was shown to LinkedIn users.
• Average daily impressions per page: The average times a user sees any content linked to your page each day during the reporting period. This excludes impressions on posts shared by other users.
• Video views: The number of times your video content was watched by users.
• Reactions: The number of people who reacted to your post. LinkedIn reactions include Like, Celebrate, Support, Funny, Love, Insightful and Curious. Getting a reaction means your content has elicited a response (read: engagement).
• Comments: The total number of comments on your post. Getting the conversation started is a prime indicator of engaging content. Tracking comments also tells you which topics resonate most with your target audience.
• Post clicks: The number of times users clicked on links, media, the “more” icon or your organization’s page from your post during a certain time.
• Shares: The number of times your post was shared by LinkedIn users. Posting shareable content helps you increase reach, visibility and brand awareness.
• CTR: The click-through rate (CTR) is a percentage of the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions on a post. This metric shows the extent to which your content is inspiring the audience to click on your company name, content or logo.
• Follows: The total number of Follow clicks on your sponsored content.
• LinkedIn engagement rate: LinkedIn calculates the engagement rate using a standard formula: Clicks + Likes + Comments + Shares + Follows/Impressions. This metric is expressed as a percentage and sums up the average engagement level of a post.
• Total engagements: The number of interactions users had with your post throughout its lifetime, including likes, comments, shares and clicks.

Sprout’s dashboard enables you to track and visualize engagement data for your LinkedIn page.

How to create LinkedIn analytics reports in LinkedIn

Depending on your account level, you can export the analytics data or take screenshots for a closer look. Here are the reports available in LinkedIn’s native analytics:

• Campaign Performance/Ad Performance: Get key details about your campaigns and ads. Download metrics like spending, impressions, click-through rate and engagement rate to see what’s working.
• Audience Network Campaign Performance/Audience Network Ad Performance: See how your campaigns and ads perform on LinkedIn and beyond. Activate the LinkedIn Audience Network and compare stats. Also, get a breakdown of metrics for LinkedIn, Audience Network and overall performance.
• Demographics: Learn more about your audience. Check out details like company names, job seniority and functions of members interacting with your campaigns and ads.
• Conversion Performance/Conversion Ad Performance: Compare the types of conversions your campaigns and ads are getting to understand the real impact.
• Leads: Find out who’s interested in your product. Check responses to Lead Gen Forms associated with your campaigns and build your guest list of engaged individuals.
• Conversation Ad CTA Performance: Track button clicks for each action in your conversation ads to see what’s catching the most attention.
• Placements Campaign Performance/Placements Ad Performance: Explore how your campaigns perform on LinkedIn and Audience Network. Understand where you’re getting the most traction for better planning.

Tips for using LinkedIn analytics

Creating insightful LinkedIn analytics reports with Sprout Social is simple and fast. Just follow these steps:

Step 1: Access Sprout’s reporting tools

Sprout offers a suite of reporting tools specifically designed to measure your LinkedIn performance. Besides an overview, Sprout also provides context for metrics and reporting features within the platform. This includes an Inbox Activity Summary and an Inbox Volume Widget.

Step 2: Familiarize yourself with available metrics

Sprout’s reporting tools cover various metrics for LinkedIn, including Company Pages, Ads and personal profiles. For Company Pages and Ads, metrics are accessible at both the Profile and Post levels. For personal profiles, metrics are only available at the Post level.

Profile metrics provide data for the past year, while Post metrics cover the last 90 days and ad metrics cover the last 180 days.

You can also view Audience Growth to find out your net audience growth, organic followers gained, paid followers gained and followers lost.

Step 3: Choose your LinkedIn analytics report

Sprout offers two main reports for LinkedIn:

• LinkedIn Pages Report: This report helps you analyze and benchmark all your LinkedIn page activities. Use it to understand page-level activity and determine your top-performing pages. You can also compare the impact of sponsored vs. organic content.

• LinkedIn Paid Performance Report: This report focuses on paid campaign-level data from LinkedIn. Use it to analyze the success of your paid campaigns.

Step 4: Customize the report

In the LinkedIn Pages Report, make the data work for you. Use filter groups in the Filter Menu to select the specific profiles you want to analyze and set the reporting period at the top of the report. This enables you to tailor the report to your specific needs. Customize your LinkedIn analytics report by selecting specific campaigns or ad accounts to include in the analysis. This way, you can focus on the most relevant data when creating LinkedIn analytics reports.

Tips for using LinkedIn analytics

Knowing what each metric means isn’t enough. To truly win on LinkedIn, you need to analyze and leverage this data and create strategic content that clicks with your target audience.

Here are four ways to use analytics to boost your LinkedIn marketing strategy:

1. Know your audience

Check visitor and follower demographics to better understand your social media target audience. Think:

• Where are most of your followers located?
• What industries or departments do they work in?
• Are they entry-level employees? Or do they hold senior positions?

This information will help you create more relevant content that’s more likely to attract leads and drive conversions. Also, compare visitor demographics with your followers to ensure your content aligns with your page information.

2. Understand your audience’s behavior

Use LinkedIn analytics to learn about how your audience interacts with your posts and content from other industry brands.

• What motivates your audience to engage with your content?
• What are their preferred topics or formats?
• Does your audience like to share content?

Every audience is different. Understanding how yours behaves will help you set realistic goals, spark engagement, schedule posts and create better content.

3. Understand what type of content works best

Different content types may spark more engagement for various reasons. Think: audience preferences, the nature of your business, your brand voice or even the LinkedIn algorithm.

Keep track of your posts’ performance to identify the content types that receive the most engagement, traffic and overall results. For example, you might find videos get more comments than written or image-only posts. Or that your audiences respond more to thought-provoking questions or interactive polls.

Regardless, experiment with different content formats and continually analyze analytics to know what works best. Then, replicate successful strategies to grow on the platform.

4. Reveal new topics and trends

Tracking LinkedIn analytics helps you stay on top of trending topics in your industry. For instance, you can see which posts are getting more engagement and whether there are certain topics your audience is showing more interest in. You can also look into trending LinkedIn hashtags to get a sense of popular topics.

Also monitor competitor benchmarks to spot any sudden increase in engagement. Analyze their pages to identify the topics gaining traction. Use this information to adapt your content strategy to align with current industry interests.

3 LinkedIn analytics tools for your brand

LinkedIn’s native analytics lets you track metrics related to overall page performance, visitor and follower demographics and individual post engagement. But if you want to dig deeper, you might want to use a more robust social media analytics tool to extract in-depth data.

Below are three popular LinkedIn analytics tools for professional marketers:

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform that lets you track in-depth analytics for LinkedIn and other social media networks—all from a single dashboard.

Track metrics for organic and sponsored posts, learn about your audience and keep tabs on growth and engagement for multiple company pages.

Generate comprehensive reports or customize them based on chosen metrics. You can also compare your performance with competitors to benchmark KPIs.

Sprout also offers LinkedIn management tools for streamlined content planning, publishing and engaging with your audience.

Inlytics

Inlytics is a specialized LinkedIn analytics platform that lets you monitor performance, optimize your profile and track engagement and audience data.

Its visual dashboard displays real-time and historical analytics to help you understand your content’s effectiveness. You can also collaborate with team members, schedule your posts and publish better content with data-driven recommendations and insights.

Brand24

Brand24 is a social analytics tool that focuses on brand mentions and sentiment analysis. It helps measure brand awareness on LinkedIn and analyze audience preferences.

The tool also measures campaign effectiveness through LinkedIn hashtag analytics, providing insights into reach and engagement.

With features like AI-driven LinkedIn performance monitoring, Brand24 categorizes mentions and helps in precise brand perception assessment. It simplifies report creation and helps you track your brand’s performance more effectively.

Use LinkedIn analytics to create a data-driven strategy

Track LinkedIn analytics to grow on the platform. Learn about your audience and campaigns to create more effective strategies and spend money where it matters. Use the in-depth insights to connect with your followers, build brand awareness, expand your network and generate a loyal following with the help of data-driven content.

Sign-up for a free trial of Sprout’s Analytics tool to gain deeper insights into what your customers like, spot trends and prove your social efforts are indeed worthwhile.

The post LinkedIn analytics: The complete guide for tracking metrics in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Whether it’s a brand promotion, video, news update or even a meme, visual content rules the social media landscape. What has become so important is effectively conveying your brand on social media through images and video.

The visual face of your brand is oftentimes the first thing your audience sees and possibly the one thing they remember. It’s difficult to reuse the same image across all social networks unless you have a free social media image resizing tool like Landscape.

Sprout Social’s very own tool is free to use to resize, crop and scale social media image sizes. And along with our resizing tool, we’ve provided all the specific dimensions and a few quick tips to help you decide which image best fits each position.

Before we get into it, here are some additional resources:

• Easily reference this social media image sizes list in our always up-to-date Google Doc.
• Bookmark our social media video specs and ad guide!
• Download free social media images that are already optimized!

Easily manage multimedia content with Sprout

Sprout’s Asset Library simplifies publishing and asset management by providing you with a centralized location to store images, videos and text.

Quickly create, organize, edit and publish assets directly from the Asset Library to deliver on-brand, visually engaging posts for any connected social network.

Start Your Free Trial

Social Media Image Sizes Per Network

These links will make it easier for you to navigate to the specific social media image sizes per network:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• TikTok
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• YouTube
• Google My Business

Facebook Image Sizes

With 2.96 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the world’s largest social network. For that reason alone, it’s important to have attractive and engaging images that are optimized for the platform.

Remember that different devices, whether it’s mobile or desktop, render differently. Make sure that you are choosing dimensions based on where you want the majority of viewers to see your image.

Learn more about Facebook image sizes

Get specs and tips for implementing the best visual content on Facebook with these guides:

• Always up-to-date list of Facebook ad sizes & specs
• The Picture-Perfect Facebook Cover Photo Size
• Facebook Event Photo Size & Dimensions Guide

Facebook Profile Picture

Say cheese: your profile picture represents you or your brand on Facebook. This is the round photo that appears on your timeline layered over your cover photo. Your profile picture will also appear when you post to other walls, comment on posts or when your profile is searched.

Facebook profile picture image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 320×320 pixels
• Minimum file size: 180×60 pixels
• Displays:
  • 176×176 pixels (desktop)
  • 196×196 pixels (smartphones)
  • 36×36 pixels (most feature phones)
• Recommended file type: JPG, PNG
• Profile pictures are cropped to a circle

Facebook Business Page Profile Picture

Facebook changed its Profile image for Business Pages to appear to the left side of the screen. The new look helps Facebook Business Pages follow a similar appearance as personal accounts. However, the dimensions are the same, but the photo appears on the page slightly different.

Facebook Business Page profile image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 320×320 pixels
• Minimum file size: 180×60 pixels
• Displays:
  • 176×176 pixels (desktop)
  • 196×196 pixels (smartphones)
  • 36×36 pixels (most feature phones)
  • Recommended file type: JPG, PNG
• Profile pictures are cropped to a circle

Facebook Profile and Business Page Cover Photo

Your Facebook cover photo will only appear on your Facebook timeline, and it stretches across the entire screen, which gives you more freedom to choose something creative or supplement your profile picture. Where your profile picture might be a good choice for a picture of you or a brand logo, use this space to post something that speaks more toward you as an individual or as a brand.

Facebook profile and Business Page cover photo image guidelines

• Ratio: 16:9
• Minimum required size: 400×150 pixels
• Recommended image size: 851×315 pixels
• Mobile display size: 640×260 pixels
• Max file size: 100kb
• Recommended file type: JPG, PNG
• Notes:
  • The left side of your cover photo will be covered by your profile picture. On mobile, it could be 75% of your profile picture will overlap into the cover photo.
  • Images with a logo or text may be best as a PNG file
  • Business Page dimensions are exactly the same as personal accounts.

Facebook Shared Image

A shared image is one of the most common forms of sharing on Facebook. These images will always appear on your timeline, and ideally they will show up in most of your followers’ News Feeds — though with the Facebook algorithm determining which content will be served, it’s unlikely that everyone will see your post. The more people engage with your post, the more likely it is that the rest of your followers and their followers will see that activity.

Facebook shared image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1080×1350 pixels
• Maximum file size: 8MB
• Recommended file type: JPG, PNG, GIF
• Appears in feed at a max width of 470 pixels (will scale to a max of 1:1)
• Appears on page at a max width of 504 pixels (will scale to a max of 1:1)

Facebook Shared Link

Another great tool in your Facebook belt is the ability to share a link. It’s very similar to posting a shared image, but it gives you even more fields to work with. You can choose to create a shared link with a small square image to the left and text on the right, or with a larger rectangular image on top with text underneath.

Facebook shared link image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1080×1350 pixels
• Displays:
  • 479×246 pixels (desktop)
  • 320 pixel width (mobile)
• Minimum size: 200×200 pixels
• Maximum file size: 8MB
• Facebook will scale photos under the minimum dimensions. For better results, increase image resolution at the same scale as the minimum size.

Facebook Event Image

Facebook Events help capture the attention of users and cut through the noise on Facebook. Reminders are sent to your audience and having a good space with an even better image is important. Make sure you have the right dimensions down for a Facebook Event cover photo.

Facebook Event image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1920×1005
• Facebook will scale down to minimum dimensions: 400×150 pixels
• Facebook recommends for best results, choose photos that are 400×150 pixels.

Facebook Fundraiser image

Facebook has added the ability to create a fundraiser for charitable organizations or personal causes. The cover photo for these fundraisers slightly varies from a typical Facebook cover photo, with a minimum size of 400×150. The best experience across many display types will come from a higher resolution image, though.

Looking for Facebook ad sizes?

Facebook ad formatting can be even more complex than organic posts, so for more guidelines, check out our complete guide to every Facebook ad size!

Find more information on the image sizes for Facebook, visit the Facebook Help Center.

Twitter Image Sizes

With 436 million monthly active users, Twitter is one of the social media networks that your customers will most often use to discuss your brand.

X (fka Twitter) Profile Photo

Your X profile photo is the main image that represents you or your brand across the network. It’s going to be seen across the site in a number of places by a number of people so make sure it’s of the highest quality. Here’s the places your profile photo will be visible on the site.

• On your page: The largest display of your profile picture is on your homepage and can be viewed by your followers as well as individuals who stumble upon your page.
• In-stream: A smaller version of your profile picture appears in a follower’s X stream every time you Post or are Reposted.
• Who to follow: Your profile picture is also going to appear next to a link to your page in the “Who to follow” box. This is located directly to the right of your X stream on desktop. Choose a recognizable image here.

X (fka Twitter) profile photo image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 400×400 pixels
• Maximum file size: 5MB
• Image types include: JPG, GIF or PNG

X (fka Twitter) Header Photo

Your header photo is the image that spans the top of your X profile page. It’s quite a bit larger than your profile photo so make sure to save it at the highest resolution possible. Because you have more room to be creative with this picture and it will likely be the first thing your visitors see, make it something captivating.

X (fka Twitter) header image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1500×500 pixels
• Maximum file size: 5MB
• Recommended file type: JPG, GIF or PNG

X (fka Twitter) In-Stream Photos and Shared Links

X users can attach photos to any of their Posts. Depending on whether you’re attaching one or many photos or sharing a link, the way photos crop and display in stream will vary slightly.

Fortunately, in 2021, X made waves with #TwitterCropIsGone, eliminating the sometimes-unfavorable automated cropping for vertical images that had often become the subject of memes and in-jokes among users of the platform. Extremely wide or tall images with unusual dimensions may still get cropped, but for most images in standard 4:3 or 16:9 dimensions, you won’t have to worry as much about centering subjects around automated cropping.

The following are some best practices to get an optimal result, and you can also preview the end result in Sprout’s Compose window before you publish.

Recommended sizes for images by types of Posts:

• Recommended image sizes:
  • Minimum: 600×335 pixels
  • Landscape: 1024×512 pixels (minimum) and 1600×900 pixels (recommended)
  • Square: 1080×1080 pixels
  • Portrait: 1080×1350 pixels
• Recommended aspect ratio: 16:9
• Maximum file size:
  • 5 MB for JPG, PNG on mobile and desktop
  • 5 MB for GIFs on mobile
  • 15 MB for GIFs on desktop
• Maximum number of images per post: 4 images

Find more information on in-stream photos at the X Help Center.

Instagram Image Sizes

Instagram is one of the most popular photo-sharing social networks. It’s the best place to showcase your visual creativity, even down to making a compelling grid out of the way your photos’ thumbnails display in sequence.

Instagram Profile Picture

Instagram is based on visuals, which should be an indication of how important it is to follow these image size guidelines. Ensure your profile image is recognizable so users can find you even easier through search or explore.

Instagram profile picture image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 110×110 pixels
• Recommended aspect ratio: 1:1, 4:5

Instagram Photo Size (Feed & Ad)

Because Instagram is all about sharing visual content – both images and videos – that appear in your followers’ feeds, it’s important to use higher resolution photos. Whether you’re posting natively in the app, via desktop or through a social media management tool, these guidelines below will help you put your best foot forward.

Instagram photo size (feed & ad) image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1080×1080 pixels or 1080×1350 pixels
• Recommended minimum width: 1080 pixels
  • Images with a width between 320 and 1080 pixels will be kept at the original resolution as long as it fits the recommended aspect ratio listed below
  • If images are a lower resolution, Instagram will enlarge to a width of 320 pixels
  • If images are a higher resolution, Instagram will shrink it to a width of 1080 pixels
• Recommended aspect ratio: 1.91:1 or 4:5
  • Images will be cropped to fit a supported ratio
• Maximum file size: 8MB
• Recommended file type: JPG and PNG
• Maximum number of images per post: 10 images

Instagram Photo Thumbnails

When someone goes to your page, they’ll be presented with all of your content arranged in rows of thumbnails. These smaller renditions of your images and videos will expand when clicked and include a place for people to comment.

Instagram photo thumbnails image guidelines

• Thumbnails will appear at 161×161 pixels
• Recommended image width: 1080 pixel
• Feed aspect ratio: 1:1

Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are a popular source of visuals on the app. There are both video and image options available to publish. And while this feature was originally meant to be ephemeral, it’s possible to upload your own content and build a strategy around Stories engagement.

Instagram Story image guidelines

• Recommended resolution: 1080×1920
• Minimum resolution: 150×150
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
  • Aspect ratio for Instagram Story images published through Sprout: 4:5 to 1.91:1

For those looking for more info on Instagram ad sizes, including video specs, check out this guide!

TikTok Image Sizes

With 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok has grown considerably over the last few years. With nearly half its users under the age of 30, TikTok is becoming the social platform for younger target audiences.

TikTok Profile Image

All TikTok users have the option to upload a profile image to their accounts. This is the perfect opportunity for businesses to showcase their personalities through branding or to highlight a specific campaign.

TikTok profile image guidelines

• Minimum image size: 200×200 pixels
• Recommended file type: JPG, GIF or PNG

Looking for more TikTok specs? Our Always-Up-To-Date Video Specs guide can answer those questions.

LinkedIn Image Sizes

With 467 million registered users, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. Where other social networks may be good drivers of traffic and customers, LinkedIn is a great place for you to source great employees and to connect with other industry leaders.

LinkedIn Personal Profile Image

LinkedIn started using a new layout for personal profiles and kept the box logo with company pages (more on that below). However, the personal profile dimensions for LinkedIn is very straightforward. This is the main image that represents you on your personal profile. So anytime someone takes a look at your profile for some quick info, this is the prominent image that represents you. It’s important to get the size right.

LinkedIn personal profile image guidelines

• Minimum image size: 268×268 pixels
• Recommended image size: 400×400 pixels
• Maximum file size: 3MB
• Recommended file type: JPG or PNG

LinkedIn Cover Image

LinkedIn’s background image is a newer feature for your personal profile. It’s a little bit trickier to find something that really fits that space well, but if you get it right, your profile will look great.

LinkedIn cover image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1128×191 pixels
• Maximum file size: 3MB
• Recommended file type: JPG or PNG

LinkedIn Company Logo Image

One of the two brand logos that you should be uploading to LinkedIn is the standard company logo. This is the bigger of the two and is going to show up right next to your brand name on your LinkedIn homepage. This image also appears in the “Companies you may want to follow” section. The more enticing the photo, the more likely you’ll gain followers.

LinkedIn Company logo image guidelines

• Minimum image size: 268×268 pixels
• Recommended image size: 400×400 pixels
• Maximum file size: 3MB
• Recommended file type: JPG or PNG

LinkedIn Company Cover Image

Unlike the personal background image, the company or standard business background image covers the entire top of the page. The image appears much larger than the personal dimensions, giving businesses a bit more space.

LinkedIn Company cover image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1128×191 pixels
• Maximum file size: 3MB natively
• Maximum file size: 5MB via Sprout
• Recommended file type: JPG or PNG

LinkedIn Shared Image or Link

This size works for LinkedIn posts that share a photo or a link with an image to a blog post or article to your company page’s feed.

LinkedIn shared image or link image guidelines

• Recommended image size for links: 1200×627 pixels, based on mobile scaling
• Recommended file type: JPG or PNG

LinkedIn Life Tab – Main Image & Company Photos

The Life tab on LinkedIn company pages lets you provide a more in-depth look at the day to day experience of your company’s employees. Currently, the two types of images you can upload here are the main image, which serves as a hero and highlight to your page, and the horizontal scrolling gallery of other company photos beneath.

LinkedIn Life tab image guidelines

• Recommended size for main image: 1128×376
• Recommended size for company photos: 900×600
• Recommended file type: JPG or PNG
• The Life tab only appears on the mobile app, and not the mobile web version of LinkedIn, so exact display sizes will vary by device. Upload the recommended size for the best experience.

Find more information in the LinkedIn Help Center.

Pinterest Image Sizes

Pinterest Profile Picture

When setting up your Pinterest account you have the option to do so using Facebook, Google or email. If you choose Facebook or Google, Pinterest will pull in the profile image that you have set there.

If you’re using email, or would prefer to use a different photo, you can do that too: just upload a square photograph (the larger the better) and Pinterest will resize it to fit. Like other social sites your profile picture on Pinterest should be something closely tied to you or your brand.

Pinterest profile picture image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 165×165 pixels
• Maximum file size: 10MB
• Recommended image type: JPG and PNG

Pinterest Pin Sizes

When adding a pin to your board, it’s important to remember that Pinterest puts a limit on the width of the image but not the length. This gives you the opportunity to add a photo that’s square or one that will scale to be even taller. Just remember to make sure you’re creating large images because they add more value, not just because you can.

Pinterest Pin sizes image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 735×1102 pixels
• Recommended ratio: 2:3
• Recommended file size: 20MB max, but only 10 MB when publishing via Sprout
• Recommended file type: JPG, PNG, GIF
• Note: Larger are resized to display at a width of 238 pixels with scaled height in feeds.

Text Guidelines

• Title character count: 100 characters max
• Textbox character count: 250 characters max

Pinterest Board Display

Creating boards is one of the most important things that you can do on Pinterest. Not only is it important to choose a photo that is enticing to your audience, it’s important to choose one that’s relevant to that particular board.

Pinterest Board display image guidelines

• Final display: 222×150 pixels (large thumbnail)
• Final display: 55×55 pixels (smaller thumbnail)

Find more information in the Pinterest Help Center.

YouTube Image Sizes

YouTube has more than 2.5 billion unique users every month and is available on hundreds of millions of devices. Millions of brands have already realized that YouTube is a great opportunity to reach their fan-base.

YouTube Channel Profile Image

YouTube allows you to select different profile image borders, but the dimensions stay the same. Ensure your YouTube has a profile image set up before you select your border.

YouTube Channel profile image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 800×800 pixels
• Minimum image size: 98×98 pixels
• Maximum file size: 4MB
• Recommended image files: PNG or GIF (no animations)

YouTube Channel Cover Photo

Spice up your YouTube channel with some “channel art.” When users click through your YouTube videos to your channel, some appealing images could entice them to stay on your page longer and watch more of your videos.

YouTube Channel cover photo image guidelines

• Recommended file size: 2560×1440 pixels
• Minimum file size: 2048×1152 pixels
• Safe area for mobile and web (without text and logo cropping): 1546×423 pixels
• Maximum file size: 6MB
• Recommended image files: PNG or GIF

Across Different Devices

There are a lot of different platforms and devices that users can stream YouTube on so it’s important that you review your creative across devices and confirm that the most important parts of your image, such as text or logos, are displaying legibly in the “safe zone” noted above.

Find more information in the YouTube Help Center.

YouTube Video Uploads

Uploading your content to YouTube is the one of the most important parts of establishing your presence on the site. Videos can tell viewers something about you as a person, or it could show off something that your business might offer.

YouTube video guidelines

• Videos must maintain a 16:9 aspect ratio. Smaller videos such as 4:3 will be pillarboxed to fit.
• YouTube Shorts must maintain a 9:16 aspect ratio and 1920×1080 pixels.

For more on the specifics of YouTube video optimization, or to size video on any other social network, check out our complete guide to social media video specs.

Google My Business Image Sizes

Google My Business has become an essential platform for businesses with local, brick-and-mortar presences to gain visibility and conduct their review management strategy.

Types of Images for Google My Business

• Logo: Your recognizable logo image. May not be available for all types of businesses–see Google guidelines for more detail.
• Cover photo: A photo of your business that will typically be the first one shown. Choose a photo that gives the best overall representation of your place of business for this photo.
• Business photo: You can use your other business photos to highlight different elements of your business or offices and help show off what local visiting customers should look for when they stop by.

For all three types of images, Google’s official guidelines recommend the below specs for the best appearance on the platform.

Google My Business image guidelines

• Recommended resolution: 720×720 pixels
• Minimum resolution: 250×250 pixels
• File size maximum: 5 MB
• Image file type: JPG or PNG

The post Always up-to-date guide to social media image sizes appeared first on Sprout Social.

One strategy for driving growth and visibility on the network is using the right hashtags. In this post, we’ll walk you through finding, using and optimizing LinkedIn hashtags to get more eyes on your content.

We’ve also rounded up the top 30 most popular hashtags on the network so you can hop on relevant trends and boost your LinkedIn marketing strategy.

Table of contents:

• What are LinkedIn hashtags?
• How to use hashtags on LinkedIn
• How to find and follow new hashtags on LinkedIn
• Tips for optimizing your hashtags on LinkedIn
• The most popular LinkedIn hashtags in 2023

What are LinkedIn hashtags?

LinkedIn hashtags are keywords or phrases that categorize content. This makes it easier for users to find and engage with topics they’re interested in. You can add hashtags to posts, comments, articles, profiles and even pages on the platform.

Hashtags help your content become part of a larger, dynamic conversation happening on LinkedIn. They’re powerful tools for increasing the visibility of your posts, reaching people with similar interests or in the same industry, and tapping into trending topics.

How to use hashtags on LinkedIn

There are several ways you can incorporate LinkedIn hashtags to increase your visibility. Let’s look at examples of how and where to appropriately use them on the platform:

How to add hashtags to your LinkedIn business page

Wondering where to add hashtags first? Your LinkedIn business page is a good place to start.

Head over to your page and click on Edit Page on your left. Find and click on Hashtags under the Community tab and then add up to three hashtags by tapping + Add a hashtag.

Adding hashtags to your page helps it pop up in relevant search results. But it’s also a great way to find and interact with your target audience—people who are interested in your brand, industry, products and services.

How to add hashtags to your LinkedIn posts

Posts are the bread and butter of LinkedIn feeds. Help your posts rank for relevant keywords by sprinkling in carefully selected hashtags. Use the # symbol when typing out your post to add keywords and hashtags.

You can weave hashtags naturally within your post content or place them all together at the end if you feel they’re diluting your post’s impact.

How to add hashtags to your LinkedIn articles

Publishing articles on LinkedIn? Give them more exposure by adding relevant hashtags. You can hashtag some keywords within the body of your articles or add them all at the end so they don’t interrupt the flow of your content.

When you publish your articles, your hashtags will become clickable and searchable. It’s a great way to contribute in-depth insights and opinions to trending discussions and topics.

You can also add hashtags to your posts when you go on to share your articles. Here’s an example of what that could look like:

How to add hashtags to your LinkedIn comments

Finally, you can include hashtags directly in your comments when interacting with other people on the platform. Here’s an example:

Try to always use hashtags naturally within your comments to avoid looking like a spam bot. Also, use them sparingly or not at all if they’re not highly relevant to the topic.

How to find and follow new hashtags on LinkedIn

You know how to use the hashtags. But how do you find the right ones for your brand? Let’s look at three ways to find and follow hashtags that matter to your business.

Use the LinkedIn search bar

The easiest way to find hashtags on LinkedIn is to directly search for them on the platform.

Head over to the search bar at the top of your LinkedIn page and type in keywords that are relevant to your industry, business and content.

For example, a marketing agency could search for hashtags like #digitalmarketing or #contentmarketing. They can also browse additional suggestions in the drop-down, like #digitalmarketingtrends or #contentmarketingexperts.

Clicking on a hashtag lets you see related content and gives you the option to follow users who create discussions surrounding the topic.

Use social listening to identify trends

Monitor conversations and posts in your industry, especially involving thought leaders and influencers, to spot trending topics. Note the hashtags these people are frequently using in their discussions.

Use a social listening tool like Sprout Social to keep an eye on specific topics and keywords.

A big advantage of using Sprout is you can also identify popular hashtags being used on other platforms and then check whether they’re worth following on LinkedIn.

Use ‘Followed Hashtags’ to find more related hashtags

The third way to find relevant hashtags is to look at the ones you’re already following. On the left side of your LinkedIn feed, you’ll see a list of followed hashtags (right below Groups.)

Click on Followed Hashtags to view suggestions for related hashtags you might be interested in.

Tips for optimizing your hashtags on LinkedIn

Hashtags are tricky—if you misuse or overuse them, they can do more harm than good. Use them strategically to boost impact and reach.

Here are four tips on how to optimize your LinkedIn hashtags.

Use LinkedIn analytics to refine your hashtag strategy

Improve your strategy over time by understanding how the hashtags you’re currently using are contributing to your brand’s visibility and engagement on the platform.

Use LinkedIn hashtag analytics to track the performance of posts with specific hashtags. Access the platform’s built-in analytics tool or use a third-party software like Sprout for in-depth data exploration and a visual perspective.

Based on hashtag analytics, tweak your hashtag choices for future content. For example, you might find #digitalmarketingtips is more popular with your target audience than #marketingtips. Or, you might find certain hashtags increase your reach but others get you higher engagement.
Click here to learn more about using overall LinkedIn analytics.

Use hashtags sparingly and strategically

Don’t spam your posts and articles with hashtags. Use a mix of niche and popular hashtags to balance reach and targeted engagement.

In LinkedIn posts, we recommend using 3-5 hashtags that are most relevant to your content. Here’s an example of how Pipedrive does it:

The post above strategically incorporates a mix of niche, popular and branded hashtags to join broader (e.g. sales and CRM) and more focused (e.g. AI) conversations on the platform.

Experiment with different hashtags

Growing on LinkedIn means you need to continuously test and improve. This includes experimenting with your hashtag strategy.

Let’s say you’re in the financial sector and regularly use #finance. Add more depth, relevance and reach by introducing niche hashtags like #fintechinnovation or #wealthmanagementtips to posts and articles that align with these content themes.

The benefit of testing different hashtags is you often stumble upon keywords that resonate highly with specific target audiences. You’re also able to rule out hashtags that might not be working as well as others—saving space for better ones.

Pro tip: Sprout’s hashtag tracking tool lets you measure the performance of your chosen hashtags across multiple social media platforms, including LinkedIn.

Track your competitors

Keep an eye on your competitors to see which hashtags they’re using and which ones seem to be working for them. Competitive monitoring gives you a window into trending topics and helps you find and incorporate relevant hashtags into your own content.

For instance, if you notice that a competitor is getting lots of engagement with #AIinMarketing, consider how you can use this hashtag in your own posts.

Does the hashtag align with a blog post or an article you are planning? Can you add a unique perspective to the conversation under this hashtag? Remember, the goal is not to copy but to find inspiration and identify trends that you can adapt to your own strategy.

30+ of the most popular LinkedIn hashtags in 2023

To make it easier for you to join trending conversations, we’ve put together a list of the top 30 LinkedIn hashtags relevant to marketers and business professionals. These trending hashtags should give your brand a starting point when implementing your marketing strategy for 2024. Trending hashtags on LinkedIn update quickly, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for trending topics you can capitalize on.

1. #innovation – 38,411,129 followers
2. #management – 35,598,286 followers
3. #humanresources – 32,898,825 followers
4. #digitalmarketing – 27,095,863 followers
5. #technology – 26,161,748 followers
6. #creativity – 24,925,069 followers
7. #future – 24,304,980 followers
8. #futurism – 23,219,190 followers
9. #entrepreneurship – 22,469,540 followers
10. #careers – 22,286,006 followers
11. #markets – 22,001,983 followers
12. #startups – 21,011,950 followers
13. #marketing – 20,178,414 followers
14. #socialmedia – 19,491,703 followers
15. #venturecapital – 19,100,660 followers
16. #socialnetworking – 18,826,357 followers
17. #leanstartups – 18,782,560 followers
18. #branding – 17,838,214 followers
19. #advertisingandmarketing – 17,002,362 followers
20. #motivation – 15,629,846 followers
21. #personaldevelopment – 14,529,875 followers
22. #investing – 14,249,587 followers
23. #jobinterviews – 14,171,761 followers
24. #sustainability – 13,162,614 followers
25. #personalbranding – 10,350,194 followers
26. #education – 9,545,127 followers
27. #customerrelations – 8,514,104 followers
28. #productivity – 8,363,545 followers
29. #sales – 5,826,765 followers
30. #socialentrepreneurship – 5,746,331 followers

Elevate your LinkedIn hashtags strategy

Hashtags can drive engagement to your LinkedIn posts and put it in front of the right audiences. Start by finding the right hashtags and place them strategically in your posts and articles to join relevant conversations happening in your industry.

Use Sprout Social’s LinkedIn management tools to take your marketing strategy to the next level. Track posts and hashtags, monitor conversations, keep an eye on the competition and measure performance all in one place.

The post LinkedIn hashtags: The complete guide for 2024 [+ trending hashtags] appeared first on Sprout Social.

What sets LinkedIn apart is the fact that it’s a more professional social network. Instead of interacting with regular B2C consumers, you’re interacting with business professionals. B2B companies thrive here—but they still need to figure out the best content to share.

Throughout this article, we’re going to talk more about what the LinkedIn algorithm is, how it works, the types of posts your brand should be creating and more. Let’s get started.

• What is the LinkedIn algorithm?
• How does the LinkedIn algorithm work?
• What kinds of posts get LinkedIn engagement?
• The importance of employee advocacy and the LinkedIn algorithm
• Additional tips for maximizing your reach on LinkedIn

What is the LinkedIn algorithm?

The LinkedIn algorithm is a program created to put engaging posts in front of users, ensuring that each LinkedIn user sees the most relevant content to them at the top of their feed. Just like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms, LinkedIn’s algorithm is meant to provide the best possible experience for each of its users.

This means the algorithm pays attention to the types of posts and profiles that each LinkedIn user interacts with and caters their feed to feature similar content—all in the name of increasing overall use and engagement on the platform.

Ultimately, the LinkedIn algorithm determines what content is prioritized in your LinkedIn feed, as well as the amount of reach your content receives in the feeds of others.

How does the LinkedIn algorithm work?

By default, your LinkedIn feed is sorted by “Top Updates.” These posts are populated based on your activity (think: accounts you regularly interact with via “Likes,” shares and comments).

However, LinkedIn does allow you to sort updates chronologically if you choose.

In general, a few best practices on how to thrive in the wake of LinkedIn’s algorithm include:

• Users should encourage genuine, meaningful conversations versus self-promotion and jargon
• The algorithm (allegedly) does not favor a particular post format (think: text, images, video and so on)
• People should “post things that encourage a response” rather than simply drop links and expect engagement

That said, these tips don’t tell the whole story of the LinkedIn algorithm. Pointers such as “encourage conversations” and “post things that encourage a response” are standard principles of social media at large.

However, there are four main factors that the LinkedIn algorithm takes into account when deciding which content to showcase to each of its users. Those factors are as follows.

Post quality

First, LinkedIn’s algorithm does a quick check to decide if your post is up to snuff. Does it violate spam guidelines? Or does it pass all of LinkedIn’s professional community policies? Spammy content obviously won’t be shown as often (if at all) to users. Clear content will take priority. And low-quality content will lie somewhere in the middle.

Some examples of spammy content according to LinkedIn are:

• Emoji or reaction polls meant to artificially boost engagement
• Posts misrepresenting LinkedIn platform functionality meant to artificially increase engagement
• Chain letter-type content that requests likes, reactions, and shares
• Excessive, irrelevant, or repetitive comments or messages

There’s an automatic filter used to filter out obviously spam content. Posts that are a bit more nuanced are sent for human review before deciding whether they pass the quality test or not.

LinkedIn shared a flowchart detailing what this process looks like:

Post testing

If your post passes the initial quality control, next it’ll be put to the test. The LinkedIn algorithm will start showing your post to your immediate and extended networks, keeping an eye on engagement. And if your post does well, garnering a lot of engagement, the algorithm will start to spread your post’s reach to an even wider audience.

Engagement is a strong sign that your post is high-quality and of interest to LinkedIn’s users, which is why this is the base measurement for whether or not the algorithm will push your post out to more people.

Member activity

However, LinkedIn won’t push your post out to random users. Their activity on LinkedIn—interests, hashtags they follow, posts they interact with, etc.—has a major impact on the types of posts they’ll see. This member activity helps LinkedIn’s algorithm ensure they’re pushing your post out to people who likely have something meaningful to comment on your post, improving engagement even more.

Relevancy to users

And similarly, LinkedIn’s algorithm pays attention to how relevant your post or your profile is to other users. For example, first-degree connections are going to see your content first. People LinkedIn can already see that you’re connected to will be prioritized. And more than that, the connections that LinkedIn sees you regularly interact with will also be prioritized.

Then, LinkedIn will look at the piece of content and how relevant it is to your extended network. Things like the post’s topic, language, mentioned people or companies, and other factors play into who will see your post.

All in all, the LinkedIn algorithm does a great job of putting the most relevant content in front of the right users to maximize engagement and the user experience.

What kinds of posts get LinkedIn engagement?

For starters, let’s break down the basics of an effective LinkedIn content strategy.

Even if the LinkedIn algorithm itself doesn’t prioritize a particular type of content, these are the types of posts that typically receive engagement and go hand-in-hand with the platform’s best practices.

Question-based posts

Posts that pose a question should be the bread and butter of anyone looking to grow on LinkedIn.

After all, questions serve as a call-and-response to encourage conversations among your audience. When your posts are posed as a question, others are naturally encouraged to answer rather than simply pass you by.

Here’s an example of what this could look like from design company Superside.

Oftentimes, questions are used as a hook to pique the interest of followers and encourage them to read through a longer-form post.

Listen: questions are natural conversation starters. Like, literally.

If the LinkedIn algorithm wants us to “encourage conversations,” we should be asking (and answering!) questions constantly. Coming up with questions doesn’t have to be rocket science, either.

“What new marketing tools can you recommend?”

“What marketing trends do you think are totally overhyped right now?”

“In your opinion, what makes the “perfect” client or customer?”

The beauty of LinkedIn is that most people are chomping at the bit to get in front of others in their industries. Asking questions is a simple way to get those conversations started.

Timely updates and industry insights

Posting about topical, time-sensitive news proves to followers that you have a pulse on your industry.

And LinkedIn makes it easier than ever to piggyback on fresh stories thanks to the “LinkedIn News” feed.

Additionally, new studies, factoids and statistics can also spark conversations among your audience. This post from The Economist is a prime example, featuring an interesting study coupled with a visual representation of data to catch the eyes of users.

And speaking of visual…

Visual content

Visual content performs well across all social channels and LinkedIn is no different.

There’s a reason why the most active accounts on LinkedIn are consistently coupling their posts with visuals.

For example, infographics are a time-tested way to score engagement and shares as people can digest your data at a glance.

Meanwhile, professional quotes like this one from Forbes are popular, too. (hint: you can whip up images like this in no time with free tools such as Canva).

Note that LinkedIn isn’t quite as “suit and tie” as it once was. Although professional content is still the platform’s focus, we’re seeing a rise of memes and humorous content similar to those that usually perform well on any social platform. Here’s a good example from Semrush.

Employee-centric content

Businesses and solo accounts alike should strive to show off their human side on LinkedIn.

From employee showcases to office photos and team-building sessions, employee-centric content is a welcome break from purely promotional pieces.

Recognizing your employees on LinkedIn is an awesome way to boost morale and score engagement from your audience at the same time.

Event coverage

If your business is out “in the wild” at an event or conference, make sure to let your followers know.

Event coverage represents an opportunity to both educate and entertain your audience, reeling in those ever-so-important “Likes” in the process.

And again, behind-the-scenes conference coverage is a welcome break from promos and links. This is especially true if your event has notable speakers or lots to see—or if members of your team are speaking at the event.

Video content

It’s no secret that LinkedIn loves video content, releasing their own native video format back in 2017.

As a result, marketers should make a point to upload to LinkedIn’s platform when possible rather than simply dropping a YouTube link.

Bear in mind that video marketing on LinkedIn doesn’t have to represent a big-budget production. Sure, some brands will publish full-blown commercials. That said, we also see plenty of off-the-cuff vlogs, short-looping videos or quick tutorials like this one from Visme.

As noted earlier, LinkedIn continues to roll at new features as the platform continues to evolve. Among those is LinkedIn Live, which is similar to Facebook Live in terms of its format.

Broadcasters receive reactions and comments from viewers in real-time, opening up new possibilities for businesses looking to cover events and conduct Q&As. Conventional wisdom tells us that fresh features will be favored by the LinkedIn algorithm, so expect to see more and more brands experimenting with it in the near future. Plus, these live Q&As are a great prompt for engagement just like question-centric posts are.

Awards and accomplishments

Building an audience on LinkedIn means flexing your influence and showing off your accomplishments.

Did you score a mention from a major publication? Make a best-of list? Don’t be shy about letting the world know.

Accomplishment-based posts are “Like” magnets as fellow users give you a virtual pat on the back for a job well done.

Bite-sized advice

A growing trend on LinkedIn over the past couple of years is the use of punchy, text-based posts.

No links. Nothing salesy. Just a bit of advice or a quick story and that’s that.

These sorts of “words of wisdom” posts get shared like crazy and seem to point to the idea that LinkedIn favors native content over external links. Regularly sharing meaningful tips with your audience can help cement yourself as an influencer without hammering your followers with promo after promo.

Of course, figuring out the best types of posts for the LinkedIn algorithm really boils down to looking at your analytics. With the help of Sprout’s LinkedIn integration, you can see directly which types of posts score the most engagement and spot trends among your top-performing content.

The importance of employee advocacy and the LinkedIn algorithm

As a side note, businesses on LinkedIn can’t afford to ignore the role that employees play in winning reach from the algorithm through tactics like LinkedIn employee advocacy.

Employee advocacy is the practice of having your employees promote your brand and its content online—or in this case, specifically on LinkedIn. Getting your company and its content in front of as many people as possible means encouraging your employees to re-publish posts and engage with your brand’s page.

Visme’s social media strategist reshared a post from Visme sharing a big launch from the company. This helps the brand’s news reach even more people.

Here’s another example from the marketing person at Ahrefs sharing a blog post he wrote for the Ahrefs blog. Ahrefs also reshared this post on their own LinkedIn page to expand reach as much as possible.

The takeaway here is that your employee’s activity on LinkedIn has a direct impact on your brand’s reach. The point here isn’t to micromanage your team, but rather empower them to promote your business effectively. Employee advocacy tools like Sprout’s Employee Advocacy platform can actually streamline the process to do exactly that.

Additional tips for maximizing your reach on LinkedIn

To wrap things up, let’s talk about some quick strategies that gel with the best practices of the current LinkedIn algorithm.

Publish more than external links

As we’ve seen, LinkedIn isn’t a platform to just dump links and walk away. Visual content, video posts and even text-based posts perform extremely well on this platform. Plus, social platforms would prefer you keep users on-site rather than bounce.

Makes sense, right?

While you should absolutely promote your blog posts or case studies, also consider how posting bite-sized advice or LinkedIn exclusive content makes your page more compelling to follow.

Tag brands and users in your posts

Much like tagging on Twitter or Instagram, tagging fellow companies or employees is a smart way to give a post additional reach and send notifications to the users who are tagged.

According to LinkedIn’s best practices, @mentions should only be done to “people who are likely to respond.” LinkedIn also recommends limiting @mentions to five per post.

Use up to three hashtags per post

Hashtags on LinkedIn make your content discoverable and help define your business’ audience.

As noted by our guide hashtag analytics and LinkedIn themselves, stick to three hashtags per post. LinkedIn recommends using specific, niche hashtags (#businesswriting) versus solely general ones (#business).

Engage with other LinkedIn posts

The more proactive you are about “liking” (or other reactions) and commenting on content, the better.

Note that activity on your personal account can help boost someone else’s content (and vice-versa).

Remember: LinkedIn wants its users to have conversations. Given that LinkedIn requires less of a commitment in terms of content creation and distribution, having those conversations should be a top priority.

Publish at the optimal times

Finally, don’t neglect the importance of timing when it comes to maximizing your engagement rate.

Based on our best times to post on LinkedIn research, weekdays during the morning and early afternoon are optimal. This makes sense considering the platform’s professional audience who are likely browsing during their breaks.

However, you can also take advantage of Sprout Social’s “Optimal Post Timing” feature when scheduling your content to publish at just the right times for your specific answer.

As for how often to post on LinkedIn, there’s no one “right” answer. Some major brands publish daily, others just a couple of times per week. For personal accounts, publishing daily (or more often) isn’t uncommon.

We recommend experimenting with frequency while keeping track of your engagement over time. With Sprout’s publishing suite, you can keep an eye on your analytics and publish to LinkedIn all in one platform.

And with that, we wrap up our guide!

What are you doing to rise in the new LinkedIn algorithm?

As LinkedIn continues to grow and roll out new features, it’s crucial to understand the platform’s algorithm. Keep the above content types and tips in mind and watch as you grow your reach on the platform.

And with more and more users flocking to the platform, you need to make sure your conversations stand out from the crowd. Expand your strategy with our free LinkedIn for business worksheet.

The post How the LinkedIn algorithm works in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Staying relevant and capturing your audience’s attention is a constant challenge for marketers. And now that brands rely on video content more than ever, it’s critical to use the correct social media video specs and advertising video sizes.

To simplify marketers’ efforts, we created a complete guide of every single social media video spec and advertising video dimension.

Before we start, here are some additional resources that keep the information in one place:

• Easily reference our social media video specs in our always up-to-date Google Doc.
• Looking for image sizes? Check out our social media image sizes guide for help.
• Want to get better results with video? Download our social media video content workbook.

Social Media Video Specs & Ad Sizes By Network

We’ve gathered data on each social network’s specific video sizes and specs. Simply click the links below to jump to your desired network:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Twitter
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Snapchat

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Facebook Video Specs

Facebook video is consumed at higher rates each year, so it’s no wonder why so many marketers search for the correct Facebook video specs.

There are simply so many types of videos you can share on Facebook and the platform updates its design frequently. Each video format has different dimensions and specs, which can make it confusing to know whether or not you’re uploading the correct format for organic or paid posts. Follow the specs below to optimize your posts.

In-Feed Shared Post Video (Landscape & Portrait)

The most common type of video on Facebook comes from shared posts. This type of video lives in your Facebook Feed, and can be shared by brands or your friends. While it’s not as easy to get organic reach on Facebook, it’s still a viable way to share video.

You can choose between two video orientations: Landscape and Portrait. Here’s a look at the video specs for both.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1280×720, 720×1280
• Minimum width: 1200 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 16:9, 9:16
• Max file size: 10GB (3GB max in Sprout)
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV
• Video length: 1 second to 240 minutes (45 minutes max, if uploading in Sprout)
• Bitrate: 256kbps
• Frame rate: 30fps

360 Video

Facebook’s 360 Video allows users to get a complete 360-degree view by scrolling with a cursor on the web, by touch or turning the device on mobile.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution depends on the type of content:
  • Monoscopic: 5120×2560 maximum
  • Stereoscopic: 5120×5120 maximum
• Aspect ratio depends on the type of content:
  • Monoscopic: 2:1
  • Stereoscopic: 1:1
• Max file size: 10GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV
• Video length: 1 second to 30 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fp

Facebook Reels

The convenience of cross-posting your Instagram Reels to Facebook expands the reach of your videos. This format appears organically in feeds but often gets priority on Facebook feeds.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080p
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: No file size limit
• Recommended video formats: MP4
• Video length: 3 seconds to 90 seconds
• Frame rate: 24fps – 60fps (30fp recommended in Sprout)

Facebook Stories

Similar to Instagram Stories, you can post Facebook Stories to extend the reach of your posts. Users who may not follow you on Instagram will be able to view and interact with your Stories.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080p
• Minimum width: 500 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 9:16 and 4:5 to 1.91:1
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4 or MOV
• Video length: 1 second to 60 seconds

Facebook Video Ad Specs

There are more than 10 million advertisers now on Facebook and having the right specs for your ads can be tricky. Each type of Facebook video ad is different, so let’s break down the specs for each type of video you can produce.

In-Feed Video Ads

These Facebook video ads are the sponsored equivalent of in-feed posts, and they follow similar guidelines to in-feed video posts.

Video guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080 minimum
• Minimum width: 120 pixels
• Minimum height: 120 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 1:1 (for desktop or mobile) or 4:5 (for mobile only)
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Video length: 1 seconds to 240 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fps

Character limits

• Primary text: 125 characters
• Headline: 27 characters
• Description: 27 characters

Carousel Video Ads

Facebook Carousel Video ads allow brands to showcase multiple videos (or images) and a landing page link within a user’s Facebook feed. It has grown in popularity because its unique scrolling feature allows users to see more content before clicking. In fact, Digiday estimated Carousel Ads to be 10x more effective than standard social media ads.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080 minimum
• Aspect ratio: 1:1
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Video length: 1 seconds to 240 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fps

Character limits

• Primary text: 125 characters
• Headline: 32 characters
• Description: 18 characters
• Landing Page URL: Required

Collection Video Ads (Mobile)

The Facebook Collection ads showcase multiple images and a main video above it. This is perfect for displaying multiple products (or various colors of a single product) plus a video. The ad type has been popular so far with retailers and clothing companies as an instant storefront or lookbook.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080 minimum
• Aspect ratio: 1:1
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Video length: 1 seconds to 240 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fps

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters
• Headline max: 40 characters
• Landing Page URL: Required

Instant Experience Video Ads

Facebook Instant Experience ads open up a full-screen experience after the first click, which can be further customized with a variety of interactive features. This can include multiple video experiences, including features to auto-play on loop.

Video Guidelines

• Minimum width: 720 pixels
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV
• Video length: Up to 2 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fps

Slideshow Video Ad

Facebook’s Slideshow videos were built for advertisers wanting to reach audiences with slower internet connections. Instead of a regular video, slideshows are just that–a slideshow of images or video in an ad display.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 1:1
• Recommended video formats: MP4 or MPV
• Slideshow duration length: 15 seconds

Facebook Stories Ads

Facebook added the Stories feature – photo or short video posts that are only available for 24 hours. In addition to user-generated organic posts, Stories ads are available to run between sets of posted Stories. While most users will be sharing immediate and organic updates from their phone’s camera, the guidelines for this format are similar for both paid and organic ad posts.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080
• Minimum width: 500 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MPV and GIF
• Video length: 1 second to 2 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fps

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters
• Headline: 40 characters

For more information on the video specs for Facebook, visit the Facebook Help Center.

Instagram Video Specs

Instagram launched video capabilities in 2013 and quickly saw enough success to start advertising on the platform in 2015. Since then, video only continues to grow as an engaging social format. Needless to say, Instagram videos are absolutely worth the investment.

Carousel Video

Since 2015, Instagram crafted its video formats to allow three different styles: landscape, square and vertical. However, like the app, Instagram and how video is presented has evolve. Gone are the days of IGTV and Instagram Video. Video can be natively included as a post or carousel post, or they can be uploaded as Reels, but more on Reels later.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080, 1080×1350
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV
• Video length: 3 seconds to 60 minutes
• Frame rate: 23-60 fps

Instagram Reels

Introduced in 2020, Instagram Reels are another option for your video strategy on Instagram. These short-form, easily digestible videos are becoming the preferred type of content in Instagram feeds.

Fortunately for social content creators looking to easily generate a lot of content for Instagram, most of the video specs for Instagram Reels are fairly similar to other formats on the platform.

As Instagram has started to add separate tabs for different content types, thumbnails will be cropped differently on each view. If the viewer is on the first tab that has all content types, the thumbnail will be cropped to the traditional square post size of 1:1–center your subjects and plan to avoid undesirable vertical cropping.

Video Guidelines:

• Resolution: 720p minimum
• Aspect ratio: 0.01:1 to 10:1; 9:16 recommended
• Max file size: 4GB max (1GB in Sprout)
• Recommended video formats: MP4 or MOV
• Video length: 3 seconds to 15 minutes
  • Recording in-app is limited to 90 seconds; users can upload videos up to 15 minutes
• Frame rate: 23-60 fps

Cover Photo Size:

• Size: 420p x 654p
• Aspect ratio: 1:1.55

Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are short-form videos that display for 24-hours on your profile. Followers and users can access your Stories directly from your profile; followers have the luxury of accessing your Stories directly from their feed, where Stories for accounts they follow display directly at the top of their screen.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080
• Minimum width: 500 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Video length: 1 second to 90 seconds
• Frame rate: 23-60 fps

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters

Consider leaving roughly 250 pixels of the top of the video free from text to avoid covering them with the profile icon.

Instagram Video Ad Specs

Instagram’s advertising revenue has significantly increased over the last year. In fact, Instagram reportedly earned $43.2 billion in ad revenue in 2022. The push for Instagram advertising is real and marketers have to be ready to take advantage with engaging videos.

Carousel Video Ad

Much like Facebook’s Carousel Ads, Instagram offers a similar feature. Carousel ads allow users to see more of a product or feature than a single image or video. With Instagram, your carousel video ads can have 2-10 cards with a full-width call to action below the ad.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080
• Aspect ratio: 1:1
• Max file size: 4GB (video) 30MB (image)
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Video length: 1 second to 2 minutes
• Number of Carousel cards: 2 (minimum) to 10 (maximum)
• Frame rate: 23-60 fps

Instagram Stories Ads

It didn’t take long for Instagram Stories to feature ads within users’ story feeds. Brands can seamlessly integrate their video content between other Instagram users’ Stories.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080
• Minimum width: 500 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Video length: 1 second to 60 minutes
• Frame rate: 23-60 fps

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters

Consider leaving roughly 250 pixels of the top of the video free from text to avoid covering them with the profile icon

If you’re looking for further information including images, check out our complete guide to all the Instagram ad sizes.

For more information on the video specs for Instagram, visit the Facebook Help Center.

TikTok Video Specs

TikTok has quickly gained attention in the social space. Fortunately, TikTok’s focus on easy to create and share videos means it’s not hard to start producing video content for the platform, and there are plenty of trends to inspire TikTok content creation.

TikTok In-Feed Videos

TikTok videos are all about the ease of creation, editing and sharing, so it makes sense that specs are more or less oriented around typical mobile phone dimensions. One key trait to keep in mind if you’re trying to repurpose video content across platforms is that videos uploaded from another file source, rather than recorded on the app, can be longer than 60 seconds.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1920
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 72MB (Android users) and 278.6MB (iOS users)
  • 1GB maximum in Sprout
• Recommended video formats: MP4 or MOV
• Video length: Up to 3 minutes recorded in-app or 10 minutes when uploaded from another source
• Frame rate: 23-60fps

TikTok Feed Ads

TikTok ads are a rapidly evolving opportunity for brands. The in-feed option for paid TikTok content is fairly similar to the formatting for existing organic content. To fine-tune paid content for the best performance, be sure to consult TikTok’s business center for the latest tips.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 540×960, 640×640 or 960×540
• Aspect ratio: 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9
• Max file size: Up to 500MB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV, MPEG, 3PG or AVI
• Video length: 5 seconds to 60 seconds
• Bitrate: 516 kbps minimum
• Frame rate: 23-60fps

Character Limits

• Ad description: 1-100 Latin alphabet letters and 1-50 Asian characters

Twitter Video Specs

X (formerly Twitter) is a popular space to share and interact with different social media videos. For marketers, it’s all about keeping a user’s attention with enthralling and click-worthy video content. In the sports and entertainment industry, Twitter is often the go-to for sharing video content, so it’s critical to learn the correct Twitter video specs.

Twitter Landscape & Portrait Videos

Twitter provides two formats of in-feed video content to share with your followers: landscape and portrait. These specific formats are only available for uploading video directly to Twitter, rather than sharing YouTube or other links.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1280×720 (landscape), 720×1280 (portrait), 720×720 (square)
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square)
• Max file size: 512MB*
• Video length: 0.5 seconds to 140 seconds*
• Frame rate: 30fps or 60fps

*Twitter Pro Media users can upload files up to 1GB and videos up to 10 minutes.

Character Limits

• Maximum count: 280 characters.

Twitter Videos Ad Specs

Looking to promote your video through paid ads on Twitter? Luckily, you can use the same exact formats from Twitter organic videos. Stick to the same specs for both organic and paid video to ensure maximum visibility.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1280×720 (landscape), 720×1280 (portrait), 720×720 (square)
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square)
• Max file size: 512MB
• Video length: 0.5 seconds to 140 seconds
• Frame rate: 30fps or 60fps

Character Limits

• Maximum count: 280 characters.

For more information on the video specs for Twitter, visit the Twitter Help Center.

YouTube Video Specs

As the second-largest search engine behind Google, YouTube is an essential network for video content. For marketers, YouTube is a great space to promote, educate and share video content around your brand.

As YouTube continues to grow as a destination for video content, it hosts everything from short-form promotional videos to full-length movies and TV. This means users are streaming content on all sorts of devices, which could have different levels of zoom or overscan.

While there’s no hard and fast rules from the platform on how to approach the video editing concept of “title safe” areas where text like titles and subtitles aren’t cut off, you do want to avoid placing these types of visual elements right at the edges of your video area. Read on for more specifics on each format available on YouTube.

Video Player (Standard YouTube Video)

While YouTube allows users to upload various types of media formats and use plenty of different dimensions, organically, there’s truly only one format for the video player. Organic videos should all follow a 16:9 ratio, but can be uploaded 4:3. However, the smaller ratio will automatically pillarbox the sides to still make it fit in the player.

YouTube has seven recommended dimensions and ratios for standard YouTube videos:

Video Guidelines

• Resolution:
  • 4320p (8k): 7680×4320
  • 2160p (4K): 3840×2160
  • 1440p (2k): 2560×1440
  • 1080p (HD): 1920×1080
  • 720p (HD): 1280×720
  • 480p (SD): 854×480
  • 360p (SD): 640×360
  • 240p (SD): 426×240
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 default
• Max file size: 256GB or 12 hours, whichever is less (5GB max in Sprout)
• Recommended video formats: MOV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4, MP4, MPG, AVI, WMV, MPEGPS, FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm, HEVC (h265)
• Video length: Up to 12 hours, dependent on file size
• Frame rate: 24, 25 or 30fps

YouTube Shorts

Introduced late 2020, YouTube Shorts have recently made its debut as another short-form video feature. These videos are a new way to watch, create and discover short-form content. Because people are watching more short-form videos globally, using Shorts is a new way to reach wider audiences to entertain or educate.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution:
  • 4320p (8k): 4320×7680
  • 2160p (4K): 2160×3840
  • 1440p (2k): 1440×2560
  • 1080p (HD): 1080×1920
  • 720p (HD): 720×1280
  • 480p (SD): 480×854
  • 360p (SD): 360×640
  • 240p (SD): 240×426
• Aspect ratio: 9:16 or 1:1
• Recommended video formats: MOV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4, MP4, MPG, AVI, WMV, MPEGPS, FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm, HEVC (h265)
• Video length: Up to 60 seconds

For more information on the video specs for YouTube, visit the Google Help Center.

YouTube Video Ad Specs

Standard YouTube videos are pretty straightforward, but there are a few video ad formats to learn if you want to advertise on the network. According to data from Google, brands advertising on YouTube with Discovery ads see incremental conversions.

Skippable, Non-Skippable, Mid-Roll, Bumper Video, In-Feed Display Ads

We’ve put these five YouTube video ads specs together because in the end, they all play through the standard YouTube video player. That means all of these ad types follow the same dimensions as the non-ad videos, but only differ in video length. Let’s look at each ad type:

• Skippable Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played before, during or after the content and becomes skippable after 5 seconds. This ad format is the only one allowing advertisers to monetize views from any viewing device.
• Non-Skippable Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played before the content and users must watch the full 15 seconds maximum ad (can also be added during or after video).
• Mid-roll Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played mid-view (like TV commercials) and is only available for videos 8 minutes or longer. Ads are added either manually or automatically. Mid-rolls can be skippable, but users must watch 30 seconds or the entire ad (whichever is shorter).
• Bumper Video Ads: This YouTube ad type is played before the content. This short 6-second max video cannot be skipped and is usually optimized for mobile views.
• Display Ads: These ads are shown in users’ search queries and sometimes appear in the right video column when watching a video. These ads are static, which means they don’t automatically play. However, once the video is clicked, the type of content displayed can simply follow the standard video player guidelines.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1920 x 1080 (horizontal), 1080 x 1920 (vertical), 1080 x 1080 (square)
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (horizontal), 9:16 (vertical), 1:1 (square)
• Max file size: 256GB
• Recommended video formats: MPG
• Video length:
  • Skippable Video Ad: No maximum, but recommended 15 – 20 seconds for awareness, 2 – 3 minutes for consideration, and 15 – 20 seconds for action.
  • Non-Skippable Video Ad: 15 or 20 seconds, depending on marketing
  • Mid-roll Video Ad: 30 seconds minimum
  • Bumper Video Ad: 6 seconds maximum
  • In-Feed (Display) Video Ad: 15-20 seconds for awareness, 2-3 minutes for consideration

For more information on the video specs for YouTube, visit the Google Help Center.

LinkedIn Video Specs

With 66% of consumers finding short-form video the most engaging type of in-feed social content, LinkedIn adopted the use of video on the platform. If you’re looking to incorporate video into your LinkedIn marketing strategy, then it’s important to do it with the right specs. While some technical requirements may match other networks, there are some specs that are specific to LinkedIn.

LinkedIn In-Feed Video

While before the only video format you were able to upload was a shared video, LinkedIn has expanded its capabilities to upload your own videos into the platform.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 256×144 (min) and 4096×2304 (max)
• Aspect ratio: 1:2.4, 2.4:1
• Max file size: 5GB (5GB max in Sprout for Company and Personal Pages)
• Recommended video formats: AAC, ASF, FLV, MP3, MP4, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, MKV, WebM, H264/AVC, Vorbis, VP8, VP9, WMV2, WMV3
• Video length: Up to 10 minutes
• Frame rate: 60fps
• Bitrate: Up to 30mbps

For more information on the video specs for LinkedIn, visit the LinkedIn Help Center.

LinkedIn Video Ads

As of 2018, LinkedIn now offers video ads. The requirements are a little bit different than in-feed video, so be sure to consider them when developing ads for your paid campaign.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions and resolutions:
  • Vertical (4:5): Min 360 x 450 pixels, Max 1536 x 1920 pixels
  • Vertical (9:16): Min 360 x 640 pixels, Max 1080 x 1920 pixels
  • Landscape (16:9): Min 640 x 360 pixels, Max 1920 x 1080 pixels
  • Square (1:1): Min 360 x 360 pixels, Max 1920 x 1920 pixels
• Aspect ratio:
  • Vertical: 4:5, 9:16
  • Landscape: 16:9
  • Square: 1:1
• Max file size: 200MB
• Recommended video formats: MP4
• Video length: 3 seconds to 30 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fps

Character Limits

• Ad name: 255 characters
• Headline: 70 characters recommended; 200 characters maximum
• Introductory text: 150 characters recommended; 600 characters maximum

For more information on the video specs for LinkedIn ads, visit LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help.

Pinterest Promoted Video Specs

Pinterest allows video upload for business accounts only, so they have specs designed for brands to get the most out of the highly visual and inspirational lifestyle content frequently shared on the platform.

Shared Video Pins and Standard Width Video Ads

In addition to ads, Pinterest Business Accounts can upload organic video content. There are two formats: standard and max width video. Below are the dimensions for standard width video ads and standard Pins.

Video Guidelines

• Aspect ratio: 1:1, 2:3, 4:5, 9:16
• Max file size: 2GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or M4V
• Video length: 4 seconds to 15 minutes

Character Limits

• Title: Up to 100 characters
• Description: Up to 500 characters

Max Width Video Ads

Pinterest allows you to publish standard width and maximum width video ads. Maximum width videos expand across mobile users’ entire screens. These specs apply only to maximum width video ads; standard video ad specs can be found above. Note that maximum width video ads are only paid ads.

Video Guidelines

• Aspect ratio: 1:1
• Max file size: 2GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or M4V
• Video length: 4 seconds to 15 minutes

Character Limits

• Title: Up to 100 characters
• Description: Up to 500 characters

For more information on the video specs for Pinterest ads, visit Pinterest Business Help.

Snapchat Video Specs

Snapchat is still an active network for younger generations to share video content. Whether it’s through FOMO-inducing filters, Snapchat is a hotbed for video sharing.

Single Videos and Single Video Ad

This video format is the most common across the channel and is the main way users communicate back and forth through the app. However, your business can post videos to its story so others can see what your business is up to. Just follow these specs:

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1920
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 1GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4 or MOV
• Video length: 3 seconds to 180 seconds

Character Limits

• Brand: 25 characters
• Headline: 34 characters

Long-Form Story Video Ad

Snapchat currently offers one main video format for ads, which is known as the Story Ad. However, the Snapchat Story Video Ad is what users see in between viewing users’ Stories.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1920
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 1GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4 or MOV
• Video length: 3 seconds to 180 seconds

Character Limits

• Brand: 25 characters
• Headline: 34 characters

For more information on the video specs for Snapchat, visit the Snapchat Ads Help Center.

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But with a market that’s flooded with options, you may have a hard time choosing the best LinkedIn analytics tool for your business. This post helps you narrow down your options and provides you with a list of the top choices. Let’s take a look.

Why do you need a LinkedIn analytics tool?

LinkedIn analytics refer to a set of metrics used for measuring how your Page and posts are performing on the platform. LinkedIn analytics tools help you keep track of those metrics and understand the effectiveness of your strategy.

According to the latest LinkedIn stats, the platform is the most effective channel for generating B2B leads. However, those leads don’t appear out of nowhere. You need to actively work on producing content that would attract your target audience and turn them into valuable leads.

With the help of a LinkedIn analytics tool, you can get key insights into your audience and better understand how to engage them. You’ll be able to see what types of content resonate with the audience, what information they’re seeking out and so on. This helps you strengthen your strategy to make more effective use of LinkedIn for your business.

Which LinkedIn analytics tool is the best and why?

The native LinkedIn analytics tool offers a range of essential insights into your Page performance. But if you need to dig a little deeper than that, you should consider using a third-party tool. Ideally, these tools should offer data-backed suggestions on how to improve your performance. This includes suggestions such as the top content types and the best times to post on LinkedIn.

The best LinkedIn analytics tool for your business depends on your unique needs and operation size. For example, agency users would want a tool that lets them generate multiple client reports.

At the bare minimum, the tool should let you track key performance metrics for your LinkedIn Business Page. This includes follower and visitor metrics, update metrics, profile metrics and lead metrics. Additionally, you should be able to measure your standing in the competitive landscape. Some tools even let you track metrics related to LinkedIn employee advocacy.

Beyond these basics, you can look for an analytics tool that supports other aspects of your LinkedIn strategy. For example, if you’re running LinkedIn ads, you need a tool that keeps track of your paid campaigns.

Keeping this in mind, here are 12 of the best LinkedIn analytics tools in the market to help you make the right choice.

1.     Sprout Social

Sprout Social’s powerful LinkedIn analytics features put it at the top of our list. The platform gives you a comprehensive look into your LinkedIn performance through key metrics.

What makes Sprout stand out is the ability to help you visualize your LinkedIn data, making it easier to analyze your performance.

An overview of your LinkedIn Page performance helps you understand your Page growth over time. The Performance Summary shows you changes in impressions, engagements and post link clicks. And the Audience Growth chart helps you visualize the number of followers gained or lost over time in a color-coded graph.

For more in-depth insights, Sprout breaks down your performance at the post-level. So you can understand what resonates with your audience based on engagement rates and content types. This informs your LinkedIn strategy by helping you develop more effective content.

Meanwhile, the Paid Performance Report shows you how your LinkedIn ads are performing. This reveals paid metrics such as ad spend, impressions, engagements, clicks and web conversions. You can really drill down on specific campaigns and ads to identify your top-performing ones.

Beyond this, Sprout offers the following key LinkedIn analytics features:

• Tag Performance Report to analyze volume and performance patterns of tagged messages
• Competitor Report for advanced social media competitive analysis
• Inbox Team Report and Case Performance Report to measure the productivity of teams and individual members

Pricing: Starts at $199 per month

Free trial: 30 days

2.     Keyhole

Keyhole offers a powerful Profile Analytics tool to measure your LinkedIn performance. The dashboard gives you a summary of your activity and performance during a given time period. You can keep track of the number of posts, engagement rate and average likes per post during this period.

The tool helps you visualize your post performance with a chart depicting the timeline of posts and engagements received. You can access comprehensive analytics to compare your performance against the competition. The dashboard lets you benchmark your account size, engagements, share of voice and sentiment against theirs.

One of the main highlights of Keyhole is the data-backed suggestions on how to optimize your performance. It gives you recommendations on the best time to post and optimal post length to grow your social media engagements.

Pricing: Starts at $99 per month

Free trial: Limited to 3 account trackers and a sample of historical data

3.     SocialPilot

SocialPilot provides you with detailed insights to see which LinkedIn posts are the most visible and engaging. This helps you fine-tune your content strategy and get more out of LinkedIn marketing.

You can access comprehensive audience insights to research trends in reach and growth patterns. SocialPilot even shows your most active fans so you can amplify their voice for better brand advocacy.

Pricing: Starts at $30 per month

Free trial: 14 days

4.     SocialInsider

SocialInsider offers a powerful analytics tool for LinkedIn. It lets you track your engagement evolution along with vital metrics such as reach and impressions. This gives you an idea of your most impactful strategies so you can optimize your content mix for greater results.

The tool comes with competitor analysis features to see how you stack up. You can keep track of your competitors’ follower growth, engagement rate and campaign performance from this tool.

SocialInsider provides detailed post analytics insights to inform your social media content strategy. These insights help you understand optimal caption lengths, hashtags and content formats. You can then optimize your posts for performance based on this information.

Pricing: Starts at $149 per month

Free trial: 14 days

5.     Brand24

Brand24 is an analytics tool with a focus on social listening insights. It lets you measure brand awareness and presence through brand mentions. These insights help you assess the impact of your latest LinkedIn efforts on improving reach and brand awareness.

You can use the tool to analyze sentiment and understand how people feel about your brand. This gives you an idea of what they like or dislike so you can fine-tune LinkedIn strategy accordingly.

Brand24 helps you measure the effectiveness of your campaign with hashtag analytics. Beyond hashtag volume, it keeps track of metrics such as reach and engagement. This paints a clearer picture of how your campaign hashtags are performing.

Pricing: Starts at $99 per month

Free trial: 14 days

6.     Social Status

Social Status is a full funnel LinkedIn analytics tool. It lets you track top-of-funnel metrics such as reach and impressions. You can measure middle-of-funnel metrics like video views and engagements. Plus, it shows you the effectiveness of your LinkedIn efforts through bottom-of-funnel link clicks.

The Content Feed gives you a comprehensive look at your post performance metrics. This helps you visualize the type of content that makes an impact with your target audience.

Pricing: Starts at $9 per month

Free trial: 14 days

7.     RivalIQ

RivalIQ gives you comprehensive insights into your LinkedIn post performance. You can easily identify your top-performing posts and replicate them for your content strategy. It helps you visualize how your posts are performing by post times. This allows you to optimize your publishing strategy to target optimal post times.

This LinkedIn analytics tool lets you measure hashtag performance by activity and engagement. You can then use these insights to inform your hashtag strategy and maximize your LinkedIn reach.

Pricing: Starts at $239 per month

Free trial: 14 days

8.     DrumUp

DrumUp is a social media management tool that offers comprehensive LinkedIn analytics. It lets you track key performance metrics such as shares, comments and clicks. This paints a clear picture of the types of content that works for your brand so you can fine-tune your strategy.

You can use smart filters to perform a deep-dive analysis and quickly identify your top-performing content. Plus, you can easily spot trends by tracking changes in engagement metrics.

Pricing: Starts at $15 per month

Free trial: 14 days

9.     Iconosquare

Iconosquare is one of the most comprehensive LinkedIn analytics tools in the market. It gives you engagement insights so you can track how they correlate to your content efforts. You can then refine your strategy to boost engagement and improve your brand presence.

The tool helps you visualize your community growth on LinkedIn. It gives you a detailed breakdown of your audience demographics. So you can optimize your efforts according to where they are and what languages they speak.

Pricing: Starts at $49 per month

Free trial: 14 days

10.  Talkwater

Talkwater comes with powerful analytics for audience insights and social benchmarking. Additionally, it offers tools for media monitoring, customer feedback analytics and social listening. It lets you measure your competitors’ social media performance and analyze where you stand. This helps you identify areas for improvement and opportunities to capitalize on.

This analytics tool provides comprehensive audience insights to inform your targeting efforts. You can use it to discover new audiences and uncover prospects that are ripe for purchase.

Pricing: On request

Free trial: No info available

11.  Inlytics

Inlytics is an analytics and scheduling tool specifically designed for LinkedIn. It provides you with real-time and historic visualizations of your content performance. You can use it to track metrics such as impressions, reactions, comments and engagement rates.

One of the most useful features is the Profile Improvement Recommendations. You can get actionable suggestions on how to optimize your profile and improve visibility. Plus, your audience engagement insights will help you understand your audience better. This will then inform how to optimize your content to better resonate with them.

Pricing: Starts at $12.50 per month

Free trial: Free plan with limited analytics

12.  Hootsuite

Hootsuite offers advanced analytics to measure the return on your LinkedIn marketing strategy. This lets you visualize your organic and paid metrics in a single dashboard. So you can better understand how your organic content efforts and your ad campaigns are paying off. It shows you your top-performing posts and best times to post to help you optimize your strategy.

The tool provides you with reports that compare your LinkedIn performance against that of your competitors. These insights can inform how to duplicate their success and leverage missed opportunities.

Check out our list of Hootsuite alternatives to evaluate whether your current tools are hitting the mark, or if it’s time to try something new.

Pricing: Starts at $99 per month

Free trial: 30 days

Which LinkedIn analytics tool will you choose?

When choosing the best LinkedIn analytics tool for your business, it’s important to clearly assess your needs and budget. This will help you narrow down the features that are important to you and the ones you can sacrifice.

If you’re marketing on other social media platforms, make sure to look for a tool that provides analytics for those other channels as well. This will streamline your social media analytics efforts so you don’t have to switch between multiple tools. Learn more about the top social media analytics tools that offer analytics for LinkedIn.

The post Best LinkedIn analytics tools to maximize your marketing appeared first on Sprout Social.

That’s where LinkedIn automation tools come in, helping you streamline your efforts and get more out of your LinkedIn strategy. Let’s find out some of the best tools to help you with LinkedIn automation.

Table of contents:

• What is LinkedIn automation?
• Best all-in-one LinkedIn automation tool
• LinkedIn automation tools for publishing
• LinkedIn automation tools for lead generation
• LinkedIn automation tools for analytics

What is LinkedIn automation?

LinkedIn automation involves using social media automation tools to automate certain LinkedIn tasks. Auto-publishing posts and pre-populating lead generation forms are some examples of LinkedIn automation. These automation activities help you save time and streamline your efforts for higher returns.

Note that LinkedIn prohibits some types of automation activities. So it’s important to only use trusted tools that will ensure you’re adhering to the platform’s user agreement

Best all-in-one LinkedIn automation tool

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social offers a robust set of LinkedIn management tools to assist with automation. These tools let you automate your publishing, response management, and overall analytics, such as LinkedIn hashtag analytics. This puts it at the top of our list, making it the best all-in-one tool for LinkedIn automation.

The platform’s publishing features let you draft and schedule your LinkedIn updates to automatically go out at a set time. You can add these updates to a queue and automate them for not just one but multiple LinkedIn Pages. Sprout even lets you automatically target people based on industry, company size and job title.

Sprout simplifies your response management by allowing you to monitor and respond to your LinkedIn comments in one place. The LinkedIn Contact View automatically pulls up a user’s previous interactions with your Page. This gives you the context you need to personalize your response.

One of Sprout’s standout features is the ability to automatically collect performance data for your LinkedIn Page and posts. This helps you analyze your publishing strategy and understand how you can improve it for better growth and engagement.

LinkedIn automation tools for publishing

With LinkedIn’s limitations on most automation activities, publishing is where you have the most leeway. Here are a few LinkedIn automation software solutions to help with LinkedIn publishing and scheduling.

2. SocialPilot

SocialPilot comes with a comprehensive solution to automate your LinkedIn publishing tasks. This includes the ability to draft your LinkedIn post and schedule it to auto-publish at a later date. Plus, you can draft and schedule a first comment to boost visibility and engagement for your posts.

One of the top features of SocialPilot is its AI Assistant, which helps you automate caption creation. Enter your prompt and select a tone to instantly generate captivating caption ideas. The AI Assistant even provides strategic hashtag recommendations to get your content in front of the right audience.

3. Loomly

Loomly is a social media marketing platform to streamline your publishing efforts. It provides you with an endless feed of post ideas based on trending topics, current events and more. This saves you plenty of time in brainstorming content ideas for your LinkedIn publishing strategy.

The platform comes with a Hashtag Manager to automate your hashtag strategy and drive more visibility for your posts. Use the UTM parameters generator to quickly create custom UTM tags to include in your posts. Once you’ve finalized your post, schedule it for Loomly to automatically publish it at the desired time.

4. NapoleonCat

NapoleonCat offers a powerful set of tools to manage your LinkedIn publishing. It provides you with one dashboard to create and schedule posts for multiple LinkedIn Pages. This allows you to prepare several updates in advance and free up time for other important tasks.

You can even optimize your scheduling based on the platform’s suggestions on the best times and days to publish. That way, you don’t have to manually search through your previous posts to see how to improve your publishing schedule.

5. Agorapulse

Agorapulse has one of the best social media publishing tools for LinkedIn automation. A standout feature is the Writing Assistant, which uses AI to enhance your content. All you need to do is create your initial copy and apply a “filter” to automatically improve it. This will help you develop compelling LinkedIn posts to drive more engagement. You can then schedule your improved post to automatically go out at a time of your choosing.

LinkedIn automation tools for lead generation

Prospecting and nurturing leads on LinkedIn is a time-consuming process. Use the LinkedIn automation tools below to improve your lead generating efforts.

6. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator comes with powerful features to automate your lead generation. It provides recommendations on which accounts to prioritize based on several factors. This includes factors such as firmographics, connectivity and recent growth. That way, you can focus your time on nurturing accounts that have the best chance of converting.

Sales Navigator automates the process of identifying buyers based on intent signals. It notifies you when they’ve engaged in certain activities that indicate intent. This allows you to engage them when they’re in the market and more likely to buy.

7. Dripify

Dripify lets you build an automated sales funnel to fully automate your lead generation process. You can build a prospecting sequence using certain LinkedIn actions and time delays. Then select the conditions that will trigger an appropriate automation action. For example, you could set up an introductory message to go out one day after a prospect accepts your connection request. This allows you to proactively manage your lead generation and nurturing efforts.

8. Wiza

Wiza is a powerful email finder tool to improve your LinkedIn prospecting efforts. The tool instantly converts your LinkedIn searches into a clean prospect list. This provides you with valid contact information so you can connect with your most valuable prospects. It even removes emojis, prefixes and suffixes to normalize people’s names.

Wiza further enriches your list with datapoints such as firmographics, career and social media links. This gives you an even more comprehensive look into your prospects to help you enhance your outreach efforts.

9. Expandi

Expandi is a tool for automating and personalizing your LinkedIn outreach efforts. It lets you build automation workflows for different scenarios based on the prospect’s behavior. For each sequence, you can include a combination of nine actions and add a time delay in between.

The platform lets you set up omni-channel outreach automation based on the prospect’s action. Expandi even comes with dynamic placeholders to build hyper-personalized messages for each prospect. This improves the chances of your prospects engaging and turning into valuable leads.

10. Octopus

Octopus is an advanced LinkedIn automation software tool for simplifying your lead generation. It helps you reach your target audience through personalized and automated connection requests. Octopus then automatically sends out “thank you” messages to prospects who accept your request. It helps you ramp up your engagement efforts by messaging hundreds of your first-level connections at once. You can further warm up your new prospects by automatically endorsing their skills.

LinkedIn automation tools for analytics

You can’t optimize what you can’t track. So you need to stay on top of your LinkedIn performance to see what needs improving. Here are a few tools to help you automate your LinkedIn analytics.

11. LinkedIn native analytics

LinkedIn Page analytics give you a comprehensive look into your Page’s performance. The built-in analytics tool automatically tracks your visitors, followers and leads. This gives you a better understanding of the people you’re attracting and how to best engage them.

The analytics dashboard gives you access to post-level insights on your content performance. This shows you a detailed breakdown of how each post is performing in terms of reach and engagement. So you can understand the types of content that resonate with your audience.

12. Keyhole

Keyhole helps you visualize your LinkedIn analytics data using easy-to-read charts and graphs. The platform simplifies analytics with automatic reports on different performance metrics. It automatically identifies your top posts based on engagements, impressions and engagement rate. So you don’t have to scour through every single post to see which ones are the most popular.

It shows you the top industries of your followers and compares their company sizes. It even compiles reports on the top hashtags driving the most engagement for your brand. All these insights help you fine-tune your strategy to maximize your impact.

13. Klipfolio

Klipfolio is the perfect tool for building a custom Linked analytics dashboard to track metrics that matter to you. This custom dashboard will automatically pull up reports to measure your LinkedIn performance. You can add pre-built metrics such as clicks, likes, comments, impressions and engagements. Plus, there are metrics to understand your followers by company size, industry, function and location.

14. Unmetric

Unmetric lets you fully automate your LinkedIn reporting process with the option to choose from 30+ types of reports. The platform gives you a comprehensive picture of your brand’s performance and compare it against up to 15 other brands. It lets you create a schedule to automatically generate reports on your LinkedIn performance. Unmetric then sends the report to your inbox and to the inboxes of relevant stakeholders.

Do more for less with LinkedIn automation

Having a solid LinkedIn marketing strategy is one thing. Effectively executing that strategy is another. Things can easily get out of hand when you’re running on limited time and resources. So it helps to automate some of your LinkedIn tasks to boost productivity and maximize outcomes.

Sprout helps you save time with powerful tools to automate your LinkedIn tasks. Use these tools to streamline the time-consuming aspects of publishing and community management. Sign up for a 30-day free trial to see how you can do more with Sprout’s LinkedIn management tools.

The post LinkedIn automation tools for your brand in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

A strong presence on LinkedIn provides your business with a professional digital presence and an opportunity for your brand to be seen by 930 million members and 75 million businesses.

One of the key components of building your brand on LinkedIn is creating a LinkedIn Business Page. This page serves as a hub for your company to showcase your products or services, share valuable industry insights, and attract potential clients or employees.

If you’re new to LinkedIn or want to optimize your LinkedIn business page, we’ve created this resource for you. In this guide, we’ll walk you through six simple steps to create an engaging LinkedIn business page to help you stand out and achieve your business goals.

Table of contents:

• What is a LinkedIn Business Page?
• How to create a LinkedIn Business Page
• How to manage a LinkedIn Company Page

What is a LinkedIn Business Page?

A LinkedIn Business Page, or a Company Page, is a dedicated profile representing your company or organization on LinkedIn to members. It is a standalone profile (independent of the founder or employees) that serves as a digital presence for the company where people can learn more about it. This includes the latest news, updates, events, life at your company and job openings.

Unlike a personal profile page, a Business Page talks exclusively about your company and includes several customizable sections, such as Home, My Company, About, Products, Posts, Jobs, and People. This way, you can effectively use LinkedIn for your business marketing and build a professional image for your company while still adding a human element by featuring your team members

How to create a LinkedIn Business Page

Building your LinkedIn Business Page may seem confusing, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a powerful tool for establishing your brand’s online presence and connecting to a vast network. You might be wondering how to get started, what information to include, and how to get started.

Follow these steps to create an optimized LinkedIn Page.

Step 1. Login to LinkedIn

To create a LinkedIn Business Page, you must first be signed in to your personal profile. You need a personal account as an admin to create and manage your company page. On the navigation bar, click the “For business” dropdown to display multiple options. In the dropdown menu, navigate to the end of the list and select “Create a Company Page+.”

Step 2. Select a Page type to create

A new page comes up next with three different options for the type of page you want to create. You can choose either:

• Company Page: to build a new page for a small, medium, or large business that is non-educational.
• Showcase Page: to create a sub-page connected to an existing company page. Be careful not to choose this option if you’re building your LinkedIn page from scratch.
• Educational Institution: to build a page for school, university, or any other type of educational institution.

Select the option that best fits your organization; in this case we’ll select company.

Step 3. Fill in your Page identity

After clicking on the Company Page, a new page pops up where you are asked to fill in important information about your company. Pages with complete profile information get 30% more weekly views and are often favored by the LinkedIn algorithm.

The first three fields are for your company’s identification. This includes:

• Name: Type in your company’s name as you want it to appear on your company page. Be sure to include your company’s name to make it searchable.
• LinkedIn public URL:As you fill in your company’s name, LinkedIn will suggest a custom URL based on the inputted name for your company page. For instance, the URL for our Sprout Social Page is https://www.linkedin.com/company/sprout-social-inc-/. You can customize it to make it more unique and easy to remember.
• Website: Enter your company’s website. This shows up right on your profile and allows people to easily visit your website and learn more about your product when they want to.

As you fill out this form, LinkedIn provides placeholder text as cues to guide users on what information to fill out in a particular field. Advanced features like conditional logic and field rules are also applied to prevent people from choosing an existing name option.

Step 4. Input your Company details

Next, you must fill in additional company information. LinkedIn requires these details to properly understand and categorize your company so people can easily find you.

• Industry: Type in your industry and pick from LinkedIn’s lists. This will help LinkedIn properly categorize your business and recommend it to users interested in that particular industry. Choose something closely related if you can’t find your specific industry on the list.
• Company size: Pick your company size depending on your current number of employees. LinkedIn uses this to categorize companies as small, medium, or large businesses and personalize their offerings.
• Company type: Select the type of organization your company is. Options provided are public company, self-employed, Government agency, nonprofit, sole proprietorship, privately held and partnership. If you aren’t sure, reach out to confirm.

Ensure to fill in the correct information in the three fields, as they’re all required. Remember, the more optimized your profile is, the better its chances of performing.

Step 5. Upload a logo and tagline

The next step is uploading your company’s logo. LinkedIn recommends that the logo size be 300 x 300 pixels, and the file must be in JPG, JPEG, or PNG.

On LinkedIn, your company’s logo is a critical component that must be rooted in your brand’s personality. Use a color palette that compliments your brand personality, conveys specific emotions to your target audience and stays true to your vision and industry.

Next, enter your tagline which will be included right below your name and logo. Simply put, your company’s tagline is the short form of your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). The whole idea is to sell your company’s benefits in a matter of minutes as soon as they land on your company’s profile.

LinkedIn’s tagline has a character limit of 120 characters, so it’s best to keep it concise. Aim for brevity, avoid using slang and maintain a professional tone.

Once you’re done, read and check the verification box to confirm you have the right to act on behalf of the company. Then click on the “Create Page” button, and voila, your LinkedIn page is created.

Step 6. Fill out your LinkedIn profile

After creating your business page, you’ll be redirected to a new page. This is where you have to complete your company’s profile. Right on top is a meter reflecting your progress as you complete more sections and action cards representing incomplete page sections under the meter.

Now, you can start editing your page and filling in information. Let’s discuss what each section is about.

About

The About section appears “above the fold” when users check out your product. This is the place to highlight a brief overview of your company, including your story, mission, values and what sets you apart.

Canva’s About statement opens up with a clear and concise mission statement that immediately sets the tone for its goal. The section also touches on the company’s history, a comprehensive list of its product offerings, its long-term vision, values and positive impact on the world.

You should also note that the About section also displays your website, industry, company size, headquarters and specialties which include your company’s keywords.

Product

Although relatively new, LinkedIn’s Product Page was made with the aim of helping companies showcase their products. Check out Zoom’s LinkedIn Product Page.

According to LinkedIn, you can have up to 10 additional products, arranged alphabetically, that summarize the product description, its category and the connections with the product as a skill.

If you click on any product, the product page opens up. Here, you can display more specific information about the product, like a product description, product media and connections who use the product.

Life

Leverage the Life section on LinkedIn to provide information about your company’s culture. Here, you can find information about company leaders, culture highlights, photos of employees and testimonials from clients and employees.

Jobs

The jobs section shows a compilation of all open roles in your organization.

People

The People tab on your LinkedIn Page is a directory of all current employees currently working for that company. This section includes the employee’s name, job title, and location. Admins can customize this section by adding a header, subheader, call to action, or showing their employee’s qualifications.

There’s also an “Employee distribution” graph that displays the number of employees a company has in different locations and which is more dominant.

How to manage a LinkedIn Company Page

Creating the Company Page doesn’t mean the work is done. As with any social platform, it takes time to build an audience and a presence with the right strategy. But that’s not to say that it can’t be done.

There are two ways to manage your LinkedIn company page. First, you can manage your page Natively on LinkedIn via Page Admins or use a more effective tool like Sprout Social. Let’s take a look at both in detail.

Natively in LinkedIn via Page Admins

To manage your LinkedIn page, you first need Admin access to the page. Here’s how to do that.

1. Log in to your LinkedIn account and navigate to your homepage.

2. On the left side of your LinkedIn homepage, you’ll see a My Pages section. This section shows every page you’re an admin of on LinkedIn. Click on the correct page you want to manage from the list.

3.You’ll be redirected to an admin page where you can complete your profile and manage everything, including your Feed, Activities on your page (comments, mentions, reactions, or reposts), and your LinkedIn Analytics.

4. Monitor your LinkedIn analytics using the in-built analytics tool. You can track data on the number of visitors, followers, leads, content, and even competitors. Filter by date, type (sponsored or organic), and demographics, then you can export your report.

5. You can add multiple competitors to your page and monitor their follower metrics, organic content metrics and trending competitor posts.

Use a LinkedIn management tool such as Sprout Social

A better way to manage your LinkedIn company page is to use Sprout Social. Chances are, you’re probably marketing your business on social media, and you need a tool to effectively manage all your social channels on one platform, even LinkedIn.

Let’s take a look at how to use Sprout Social to manage your LinkedIn Business page and some of the benefits that Sprout Social offers.

1. Schedule your LinkedIn posts ahead of time and create a LinkedIn calendar

After writing your LinkedIn post, you can publish it immediately or schedule it in a queue to go out later.

Although there’s a native LinkedIn scheduler, several limitations may hinder your ability to schedule effectively. For instance, you can’t tag people or other pages, and there are limited posting options for articles, newsletters, etc.

Sprout offers advanced scheduling features like auto-schedule with Sprout Queue and ViralPosts to pick optimal times when your audience is most active on LinkedIn.

All your scheduled posts appear on the scheduled date on the social media calendar, not just for LinkedIn.

2. Organize and store brand assets in the asset library

With Sprout Social’s Asset library, you can store, organize and categorize your brand assets to enable team members to stay focused and aligned with the pre-approved content available. Think of this as an internal knowledge base that’s efficient for information retrieval, fosters collaboration amongst team members and prevents loss of information.

3. Collaborate with team members

On Sprout’s dashboard, you can collaborate with team members effectively. For instance, you can set up approval permissions for collaboration and approval before publishing a post to your LinkedIn page. You can also tag your messages to group and categorize posts based on your workflow.

4. Track and analyze your LinkedIn analytics

Sprout provides in-depth LinkedIn analytics to assess the effectiveness of your LinkedIn marketing efforts. You can track data on engagement, keep tabs on follower growth, learn about your audience and monitor post performance for organic and sponsored posts. Generate comprehensive reports or create customized reports to track specific metrics that matter most to your business goals.

Start taking advantage of LinkedIn Business page tools

Your LinkedIn Business Page is a valuable resource for establishing a strong online presence for your company. Creating an effective one requires careful planning and execution. In this guide, we’ve outlined steps to help you optimize your page and attract a wider audience of potential clients.

For more detailed guidance on using LinkedIn for business, download our LinkedIn strategy template. In there, you’ll find in-depth tips, recommendations and strategies for building your brand on LinkedIn.

The post How to create an effective LinkedIn Business Page in 6 steps appeared first on Sprout Social.