How to Write Engaging Content

By Nigel Cliffe

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How to write engaging content

The default layout when viewing a person’s activity was previously ‘All activity’, but I always take a look at a person’s own posts and articles to see what value they are truly adding on LinkedIn.

I wonder what the purpose is of this change in order?

It doesn’t look like it will encourage more activity and views of Articles? Shame. However, that got me thinking and wondering what the best answer was to the question: ‘How to write engaging content?’ How do you create content for LinkedIn that drives people to click for more information, encourages them to ‘React’ to the post, urges them to share the post and, most importantly I reckon, how do you produce content that prompts people to comment and inspire them to open a dialogue (putting the ‘social’ in social media)?

Here are my top tips (in no particular ranked order) that may sound simple but are often forgotten:

Share Tips, Advice and Recommendations

In my view, social media is designed to be a helpful community. People on LinkedIn in particular (including you!) have skills, experience and knowledge – don’t let them go to waste! If you can add value to your network, go ahead!

Ask Questions!

Equally as important as offering solutions to your target audience’s pain points, is asking questions. People feel valued if you’re interested in their options online as well as offline. The answers you get in return are always insightful, enlightening and eye-opening too! Always aim to facilitate and ignite debate and discussion.

Be Bold!

Don’t shy away from stating your opinion, even if it is a little ‘out there’ and controversial. Provocative statements catch the eye of scrollers. However, always make sure you elaborate on your attention-grabbing statement and have a logical argument to back up your case!

Share Your Experiences

Nothing resonates more with people than stories. Sharing case studies and tales of how you helped clients overcome challenges with out-of-the-box thinking helps develop your professional reputation.

Embrace Your Creativity

How you present your content is important. Think videos, infographics, striking visuals or unusual imagery. Make people curious and hungry for more information – make them need to stop and read the rest of your post. The images you use in your content are the ‘pull-factor’ of your posts.

Be Original!

Social media is now ubiquitous. Your content needs to be able to stand out against all the ‘white noise’. The answer to ‘how to write engaging content?’ often lies in being original. If you’re sharing someone else’s article, add something to it. Contribute your own unique slant. Explain why you found it interesting or why you disagreed with it.

Discuss Topical Issues

When we have to make small talk with strangers at networking events and the like, we often default to newsworthy issues, recent political events, the football results, what we thought of the latest popular TV show. Publishing content relating to hot topics within your industry (along with your own angle) is likely to strike a chord with your Followers and Connections.

State a Statistic

Surprising statistics that are relevant to your industry often spark comments with people offering their opinions. Doing so also shows you’ve done your homework, are well informed and have your finger on the pulse with the latest trends and data within your industry.

Consider Layout

People often appreciate the use of bullet points, emojis, numbers and paragraphs of no more than 3 lines to help make content easy to process. Think lots of white space and simple sentences when looking at how to write engaging content. When writing LinkedIn articles, you should also make use of the italics, bold and heading features.

Be Concise but Embrace Puns!

No matter how brilliant your content, people are busy. Get to the point and get to it fast, but if you can incorporate some well-placed puns or play-on-words, perhaps a suitable joke, then do so! Social media doesn’t have to be all serious!

How do you make your content engaging? Let me know over on LinkedIn!

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