Sometimes clients ask me about whether sharing posts of a personal nature on LinkedIn is appropriate.

In general, I find it perfectly acceptable to share personal posts on LinkedIn. In fact, some of my personal types of posts have generated more views and comments than any of my business-oriented posts. When that happens, I’ve featured those posts on my LinkedIn profile.

Some Ideas for Sharing Personal Posts on LinkedIn

  • Include a tip or other type of message in your post. Whenever possible, I make a point of including tips in my personal posts. For example, in a recent LinkedIn post, I encouraged older people to include photos of themselves in their posts. Too often, people over 55 become self-conscious about being in photos. To help make my point, I included a photo of my husband and me taken at our 50th wedding anniversary celebration, and wrote a bit about it.
  • Include posts that will inspire others. One of my recent clients is 92 years old and is very active as a partner with the Juice Plus nutritional supplements company. I believe that stories like hers are an inspiration to older folks who want to continue to be involved in the business world.
  • Use personal posts to publicize community and business organizations. For example, I recently graduated from a leadership program sponsored by my county’s economic development organization. Over the course of this 10-month program, I regularly posted about ways in which I was learning more about my community. After reading these posts, two colleagues of mine applied and were accepted for the upcoming leadership program.
  • Honor people you admire. Recently, a friend of mine who worked until the age of 81 retired, so I wrote a tribute to her on LinkedIn. My post was about why she’s been such a powerful role model for me and how much she means to me. People are interested in our lives beyond what we do for a living.
  • Have fun with your posts. My birthday is just before Christmas, and I don’t often draw much attention to it. Last December, I decided to make a bigger deal of my birthday. So, I posted a photo of me wearing my Mrs. Santa dress and holding a birthday cake. In my post I encouraged people to celebrate themselves and the ways they contribute to the world. Over 23,000 people have viewed it, making it my top-performing post ever. I thought this photo would be an appropriate one to feature with this blog post.

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 55 and up, to become more effective using social media, especially LinkedIn and Facebook. She works with business owners, business development professionals, business consultants, job seekers, and more – ranging from entrepreneurs to people in large corporations. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.