See more fold

LinkedIn does not show long posts in full in the feed. It shows the first few lines, cuts the text and adds a “see more” (or “…more”) link. Everything above that cut is what most people read. Everything below it exists only for readers who decide to tap.

Before and after

Here is the same post with two openings. It is an example, written for this page.

Before

Hi everyone! Hope your week is going well. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about hiring, and after many conversations with founders and managers I wanted to share some thoughts on

…see more

After

We stopped asking candidates for cover letters.

Here is what we ask instead, and what changed:

…see more

The first version spends every visible line on warm-up. By the time it reaches the topic, the cut has arrived, and a reader scrolling past has learned nothing. The second makes a specific claim in one short line, then promises exactly what comes next. The reader knows what the post is about and has a reason to tap.

That is the whole job of the text above the fold: tell the right reader this post is for them, and give them a reason to expand it.

Why the cut point moves

The fold is not a fixed number of characters. Where it falls depends on the device, the screen width and your line breaks, so the same post can cut in a different place on a phone and on a laptop. A post with an image, document or video often gets even less room for text before the cut.

The word itself comes from newspapers, where stories above the physical fold of the front page were the ones people saw first.

Checks before you post

1. Put the point first: the claim, the result or the question. Context can come after.
2. Keep the first line short. A one-line opener followed by a line break gives readers a clean hook. Our hook examples show dozens of shapes.
3. End the visible part with a reason to continue, such as a promise of steps or an open question.
4. Check both views. Paste your draft into the free Post Preview to see where it cuts on mobile and desktop.
5. Skip the tricks. Fake cliffhangers, or blank lines used only to force a tap, annoy the people who expand and find little. They also undo the dwell time you were hoping for.

The fold vs the character limit

The fold is where the feed cuts the preview. The character limit is the maximum length of the whole post, listed on our LinkedIn limits page. A post can be far under the limit and still lose most readers at the fold.

For more opening lines to test, try the free Hook Generator and follow the method in how to write a LinkedIn hook. For the layout below the fold, see how to format a LinkedIn post.