We have all been there, you spend time writing a post on LinkedIn, you know when to publish and what you want to say. You are satisfied with the post content and you click publish. But...
It doesn't look good in the feed!
Your sentence is cut in half.
Your paragraphs are too big and hard to screen through.
Your opening line is not shown as it should be. The last sentence is missing and only shown after "see more".
Yes, something like this:
Now what?
Well, you have three options:
- to try to fix the post by editing it (no one guarantees it will look good and some stats are showing it will lower your reach),
- delete a post and try again (awful if you already got some impressions and engagement),
- or just leave it even though it's not what you wanted. And the post won't get the visibility it deserves.
Each time this happens, the same thoughts come to your mind.
Ohh if only there's a way I could preview my post before publishing it!
Guess what?
There is!
And, in this blog post, we are going to show you how to do that.
We'll tell you exactly how to preview your LinkedIn post before you hit that publish button so you can make sure it looks perfect in the feed.
So, let's get started!
Why is it important how someone sees your post in the feed?
The short answer becouse Linkedin is seeing a click on the "see more" button two times more important than a like.
So, if you want more views, unique impressions, and likes, you want to get as many people as possible to read your post in full.
When I first started using LinkedIn, I didn't think much about how my post would look in the feed. In fact, I didn't think much about anything; I heard that LinkedIn is a great platform to be on, so I would just write something, add a photo or video and hit publish.
As you can imagine, my posts didn't get much engagement.
That confused me. Other people's posts were getting tens of thousands of likes, comments, and shares.
At first, I thought it was because of the number of connections. But, even when my number of connections increased, my posts still weren't getting much engagement.
Then I started thinking about all the other reasons why my posts didn't get much engagement, like the quality of my content, the topics I write about, the time I post, how much I engage and comment on other LinkedIn posts, etc.
As I started improving those things, my engagement started to increase, but nothing changed dramatically.
So I started analyzing other people's posts, the ones that got a lot of engagement. And noticed that some posts, even though the content wasn't that great or any better than my posts, got a lot more engagement.
Why?
The posts that got a lot of engagement were doing a great job at getting people to click "see more" and were formatted in a way that made them easy to read.
The posts that didn't get much engagement, on the other hand, looked cluttered, and it was hard to know what the person was trying to say.
That's when I realized that:
It's not just the quality of the content that matters but also how it's presented!
I mean, think about it: When you are scrolling through the feed, how do you choose when to stop and read the post?
You probably stop when the post catches your attention, right?
But what makes a post catch your attention?
It's usually those first few sentences that are visible in the feed without having to click "see more".
If those first few sentences manage to catch your attention, the first objective of the post is complete: to make you stop and click "see more".
But...
What happens when you click "see more" and the post has a lot of paragraphs and is hard to read?
You probably just scroll down and move on, right?
On the other hand, if you click to "see more" and the post is nicely formatted and very easy to read, you are more likely to read it all the way through and engage with it. This would mean that the second objective of the post is also complete: to make you read it all the way through.
And, you can be sure that others are doing the same thing.
The reason why this happens is that we live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with information and we have very short attention spans. Our attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to just 8 seconds now.
This means that we have to work harder to make our content stand out and be easily digestible if we want people to read it.
The good news is that there are 2 things you can do to make sure your posts get noticed and stand out in the feed:
- Make sure the first couple of sentences are interesting and make people want to click "see more".
- Make sure your posts are formatted in a way that makes them easy to read.
Both of these things will increase the chances of your posts getting noticed and, as a result, getting more engagement.
But, how can you be sure if the post is going to look good in the feed, are the first few sentences that would be shown going to be interesting enough, and is the post going to be easy to read?
The answer is simple: you need to test Linkedin post before publishing.
In this way, you can make sure that the first few sentences are interesting and that the post is formatted in a way that makes it easy to read.
Before we go into how to preview posts on LinkedIn, let's first cover the differences in how people see your posts.
Differences in how people see your post
The way people see your post in the feed depends on 2 things:
- The device they are using: Mobile, tablet, or desktop
- The type of the post: Text, image, video, etc.
To help you understand the difference, let's take a look at examples for each of these.
On tablet
Before clicking "see more":
After clicking "see more":
On desktop
Before clicking "see more":
After clicking "see more":
As you can see, the post looks different on each device, and the main differences are in the first few sentences that are shown and the formatting.
Text, Image, and Video
For these, I don't think there's a need to show plenty of examples since it's pretty self-explanatory, and I am pretty sure you've already seen a bunch of text, image, and video posts.
Now that you understand the difference in how people see your post let's move on and take a look at how you can preview your LinkedIn posts.
How to Preview a LinkedIn Post
For those that are new to LinkedIn or are not familiar with it, previewing a post is simply checking how it will look in the feed before you publish it.
And, as we already mentioned, this is very important as it can make a huge difference between a post that gets noticed and one that doesn't.
So, how can you preview your LinkedIn post?
The answer is: By using AuthoredUp.
You see, LinkedIn itself doesn't have a preview function built into its platform, and that's why we decided to create AuthoredUp, the all-in-one LinkedIn content creation tool.
When I noticed the importance of previewing posts, I started looking for a way to do it that doesn't involve posting and then deleting/editing the post.
However, to my surprise, I couldn't find anything that would allow me to do that. LinkedIn doesn't have a preview function and there were no tools that would allow me to preview my posts.
That's when the idea to create a LinkedIn post preview tool was born.
A tool that would allow LinkedIn users to preview their posts before they publish them.
A tool that would save them time and help them create better content.
A tool that would increase engagement on posts.
And, that's how AuthoredUp came to be.
With AuthoredUp, you can preview your post before you publish it and make sure that it looks the way you want it to.
You can format LinkedIn posts in a way that makes them easy to read - put text in bold and italics, and add emojis to make your post even more engaging.
You can also save posts as drafts and come back to them later.
But, for the sake of this article, we are going to focus on the preview function.
Before we tell you how to preview posts on LinkedIn, we first need to tell you how AuthoredUp works.
AuthoredUp is pretty very simple to use; it's an extension that you can add to your browser, be it Chrome, Brave, Edge, or Opera.
After you add the extension, simply go to LinkedIn, click new post and enable it.
Once the extension is enabled, your post editor will change from this:
To this:
As you can see, the post editor is now much more user-friendly and has a lot more features; however, the biggest difference is that now, on the right side of the editor, you have the preview function that allows you to see how your post will look like in the feed.
Plus, another feature that is very useful and that I want to mention here is the "Preview Size" function. Here's what it looks like:
This feature allows you to see how your post will look on different devices, so you can make adjustments if you need to.
Okay, now that you know the basics of AuthoredUp, let's see how you can use it to preview your LinkedIn post.
Preview LinkedIn text post
Previewing a LinkedIn text post is very easy with AuthoredUp, all you have to do is write the post in the editor, and on the right side of the screen, you'll see how your post would look in the feed.
You can make adjustments to your post if you need to, and once you're happy with it, you can publish it.
Here's what that looks like:
As you can see previewing a LinkedIn text post is very simple and it is done automatically. You don't need to do anything.
You can also see what would post look like in the feed before people click "see more":
This allows you to make adjustments to your post and make sure these first few sentences people see are interesting enough for them to click "see more". Also, this applies to all types of posts: Text posts, posts with an image, and posts with link.
Preview post with an image
If you want to preview a post with an image, the process is the same. Simply add the image to your post, and on the right side of the screen, you'll see the preview image within your post:
The process is the same when you want to add multiple images (2 to 9) and see how the post with images will look like.
Preview Linkedin post with links
Previewing posts with links is as easy as previewing any other type of post. Just add a link you want, and the right side of the screen will show you what your post would look like.
Here's an example of a link preview:
So there you have it, a quick and easy way to preview your LinkedIn post without having to publish it first.
You can also preview other types of posts - documents and pdfs, videos, you name it.
AuthoredUp has got you covered.
Install the extension, and you are ready to go!
Conclusion
When we started creating AuthoredUp, we had one goal in mind: To create a LinkedIn post preview tool, that would enable Linkedin content creators to know how their content would look in the LinkedIn feed after publishing.
However, as we were developing it, we thought:
Why just make a LinkedIn post preview generator when we can make something much more powerful? Something that can bring more impressions and engagement on LinkedIn posts. Something that generates real results from LinkedIn content creation.
So AuthoredUp is not just a LinkedIn post preview tool and LinkedIn post preview generator; it's an all-in-one LinkedIn content creation tool.
With AuthoredUp, you can:
- Preview the post on LinkedIn and see how the Linkedin post mockup will look in the feed before publishing
- Format LinkedIn posts however you like, you can put text in bold and italics, and you can add emojis and bullet points to make your post even more interesting
- Keep all your ideas and drafts in one place so that you can generate content for LinkedIn even faster.
- Drag and drop or paste images
So if you are looking to build a LinkedIn community around yourself or your company and generate followers, clients, candidates, and leads through the content you publish on LinkedIn, we highly recommend you try out AuthoredUp.
Whether you're just starting out with creating and publishing content on LinkedIn, or are a seasoned pro, AuthoredUp can help you get the most out of LinkedIn.
Get the AuthoredUp TODAY and start creating content that gets results!
Want to learn more about formatting on Linkedin? Check these articles:
Can you preview your Linkedin post before posting?
Yes, you can. You can preview all your Linkedin posts with AuthoredUp. Not only you will be able to see how each post looks on a mobile, tablet, and desktop devices, but you will also be able to see how your post headline looks. Use that to optimize the hook and get as many Linkedin users to click see more button.