Social Media "Hacks" Must Stop

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Social media “hacks” are getting out of control. People are treating these “hacks” like sentence starters rather than guidelines. For example, LinkedIn has a “three-line rule.” Jasmin Alic explains what that means with Chris Do in their conversation on Youtube. Here’s an excerpt from The Futur’s blog post “2025 LinkedIn Strategies That Create Real Growth w/ Jasmin Alić” explaining the “three-line rule” if you don’t have time to watch the video:

“Think the first impression of your post doesn't matter? Think again. LinkedIn only shows three lines in the feed preview, and according to Jasmin these lines need to contain your entire value proposition. "If you fail there," he explains, "no one's even going to be able to read the rest of the post." The key? Make your hook one line, use a strategic space, and ensure your second line works in harmony with the first.”

This is a great tip, but too many people end that third line with phrases like “here’s how,” “here’s why,” “learn how,” “learn why,” or end with some generic boring cliffhanger. Sound familiar? I’m sure you’ve seen this format and possibly used it. In fact, my last post used some variation of the above before I changed it. Why: because it sounded like every other LinkedIn post. 

I fell into the trap that I warn my students against. I teach high school ELA and whenever I provide a sentence starter, the students want to copy exactly what I wrote instead of writing their own sentence. As a result, all of their writing sounds the same because they all used the same template: mine. And this is what some of these LinkedIn posts are becoming. Everyone is trying to convince people to care about their content because they offer a unique perspective, yet they sound like everyone else. 

While the “three-line” rule is a good rule to use, don’t forget to add your personality to the copy. In other words, stop being lazy with your copy. 

What to learn how to a write a unique LinkedIn post using the “three-line rule,” here’s how…more