LinkedIn QuickTip: Always Put a Description in Your LinkedIn Status Updates

When posting a status update that contains a Web site link on your LinkedIn account, always put in a short description introducing the Web site content. Don’t rely on the text in the Web site to tell readers what’s in the link you’re posting.

Here’s why.

Some online brand management services, such as Hoot Suite, will not display a link’s text when displaying your LinkedIn upgrade, even if LinkedIn displays that text from your post. This means that people who are reading your posts through a site like HootSuite may only see the raw LinkedIn link, without any text to tell them why they should click on the link.

For example, if I only put in a link into my LinkedIn status update without introductory text, here’s what the update looks like in LinkedIn:

It looks pretty good in LinkedIn. But here’s what the status update will look like in HootSuite

Putting in the link this way makes it devoid of any explanation to the HootSuite reader what the link will look like or why they should read it. And with more people using sites like HootSuite to view their LinkedIn updates, you want to entice them to read your stuff. And this won’t entice anyone.

Now if I put in introductory text for my link on my LinkedIn status update, here’s what it looks like in LinkedIn.

This looks just as good as the link-only LinkedIn status update.

But the real difference comes when you’re viewing my LinkedIn updates in Hootsuite. Now, my LinkedIn update looks like this in HootSuite

See the difference. The 2nd update will use the introductory text I put in LinkedIn to tell the reader what the post is all about. While the 1st update will only display the link without telling the reader what it’s all about. And I’m willing to bet that anybody looking at my LinkedIn status through HootSuite will be more likely to click on the second update than the first.

So for clarity’s sake and to get more HootSuite readers interested in your content, always add text to your LinkedIn updates along with your links.

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Follow Joe Hertvik on Twitter @JoeHertvik. You can also add Joe to your professional network on LinkedIn by clicking here.