Travis Balinas
LinkedIn is a powerhouse social network for professionals who want to make their presence known in their industry; and, it’s a necessary platform to grow your business and advance your career.
One way you can grow your reputation and influence is through its publishing platform, which is a tool that allows users to write and publish original content to be featured across the site through its curated news feed, Pulse.
Similar to a blog, publishing original content is a great way to get exposure for you and your business. However, without an active audience, it can have a short lifespan. When you publish original content on LinkedIn, you have access to 347 million users on the world’s largest professional social network.
Below are a three tips on how to get the most out of the LinkedIn Publishing Platform:
1. Figure out your audience
Before you start writing, decide whether your post is intended to reach your existing customer base or if you want to elevate yourself professionally within industry circles.
To stay top-of-mind and be seen as a trusted source for your client base, focus on content that is useful for clients. For example, if you’re in real estate, write about selecting a contractor or a top 10 list of design sites.
2. Insert calls to action
In addition to boosting your reputation and influence, your content can help grow your business. For me, helping my business grow comes from collecting leads from content downloads. To boost my content downloads, I insert an image that serves as advertising within the text.
For example, a few months ago I published a post about email marketing that included a recent guide I wrote. Instead of making the guide the primary focus of the post, I promoted it to readers through an ad. While my call to action in this case was to download my guide, yours may be to join your email newsletter or take a tour of your website. Inserting an ad is just another way to get value from posting on LinkedIn.
3. Lead with an original title
It can be an easy to breeze through creating a compelling title, but a good title entices people to read your content. Even your best post can have minimal success if the title doesn’t grab your audience’s attention. The tips below can add a boost to your titles:
- Write three to four titles and ask a friend or coworker which one they are most likely to click on.
- Make your title 40 – 49 characters long.
- Don’t ask questions. Question posts perform poorly, compared to statements.
In conclusion, LinkedIn has given users an amazing opportunity to build their online reputations. While publishing long-form content to LinkedIn is only one way of utilizing LinkedIn, it is the best tool to catapult your influence. If you would like to explore LinkedIn’s publishing platform further, we’ve got you covered with our how-to guide.
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