September 12, 2016
This “new-and-improved” LinkedIn feature makes it even easier to land more business from the site.
LinkedIn has seen some seismic shifts in recent months, from opening up its own freelance marketplace to revamping its paid advertising tools.
Long story short, the world’s largest social media network for professionals wants more of us doing business with one another directly on the platform.
Introducing the New LinkedIn Blogging Platform
To that degree, LinkedIn recently unveiled an all new blogging experience for its 450 million users.
The new-and-improved blogging tools make it “even easier for you to reach and engage with your audience on LinkedIn,” the company announced. “LinkedIn is the only platform where the audience you want to reach is waiting for you, and hungry for professional content. Writing your insights or posting interesting reads can have a direct impact on how you advance your profession or career.”
It can also land you lots of new business.
Here’s why – because LinkedIn has built in such incredible analytics, you’re able to instantly see who is engaging with your content, and then message each of those readers directly on the platform.
(WATCH: How to see who is engaging with your LinkedIn blog posts.)
The Secret to Success – View Stats
With each you post you publish on LinkedIn, there is a “View Stats” option that allows you to see the individual names, faces and profiles of the professionals who are enjoying your content:
This is where the concept of content marketing shines its brightest.
When someone reads your LinkedIn blog post and then likes it, shares it or comments on it, he or she is already “warmed up” to you as a prospect.
Even better, you now have context to create a conversation with that person on LinkedIn. And it’s super easy to do, because the “View Stats” option puts all your prospects in one place for you to talk to!
(WATCH: How to see who is engaging with your LinkedIn blog posts.)
Here’s a simple script you can use for each person that engages with your LinkedIn posts. You can send it as an invite if you’re not already connected to the person, or use it as a 1-on-1 message if you’re already 1st degree connections:
“Hi [FIRST NAME] – so glad you enjoyed my post “[INSERT POST HEADLINE].” What was your favorite part? Excited to get connected more deeply here on LinkedIn and learn more about what you’re up to professionally as well! – [YOUR NAME]”
By asking a question (“What was your favorite part?”) in your message or invitation, you’re prompting that person to reply and sparking a back-and-forth exchange based around how your content helped him or her.
It also opens the door to move that person more deeply into your sales funnel.
How It Works
For example, say you wrote a blog about how Authors and Speakers can use LinkedIn to get more readers or land more speaking gigs. You could then follow up with each Author or Speaker who engaged with your content by inviting him or her to a more detailed webinar you have that delves more deeply into the strategies you outlined in your blog post.
In addition, LinkedIn has made it far easier for your blog posts to get indexed and “discovered” by anyone on the network:
“We’ve also updated our tagging and distribution system to help surface your articles on LinkedIn,” the company says. “You can now add hashtags to an article before you publish, making it easier for professionals to easily discover and search for your content in the Feed (hashtags are now searchable on mobile and coming to desktop very soon).”
All the more reason to blog as often as you can over on LinkedIn!
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