LinkedIn's hard ceiling for a text post is 3,000 characters, roughly 500 words. Hitting that ceiling is rarely the right move. The well-performing personal posts mostly run 800-1,500 characters because mobile readers fatigue around the 1,500-character mark. The first 200 characters matter disproportionately because they sit above the See more truncation in the feed. Beyond the absolute limit, character count interacts with the algorithm: very short posts (under 100 characters) get less dwell time and lose distribution; very long posts (over 2,000) lose readers mid-scroll unless the writing is strong enough to keep them. Comments, by contrast, allow much shorter responses and have their own dynamics.
Examples
- An observation post at 200 characters often outperforms the same idea stretched to 800.
- A hook-story-lesson post at 1,200 characters tends to outperform the same content at 2,500.
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Frequently asked questions
Related terms
Preview text
The portion of a LinkedIn post visible in the feed before the See more truncation. Roughly the first 200 characters.
Hook
The first line of a LinkedIn post. It is shown above the See more fold and decides whether anyone keeps reading.
LinkedIn algorithm
The ranking system LinkedIn uses to decide which posts appear in which users' feeds.
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