In a fast moving digital world, standing still is not an option.
It means trying new tactics and experimenting. It means failing fast and often. The social web allows you to do that.
The challenge is that you will need to handle the heat if you get it wrong.
Content inspiration and creation is an art and a science of revelation, experimentation and testing. You need to discover the type of content that resonates with your target audience and is an online game you have to play. It means finding what works on Facebook, Twitter and now even LinkedIn.
LinkedIn discovers content
LinkedIn has been providing a publishing platform for 100 global influencers since 2012, which it expanded to 500 in 2013. They announced in February 2014, that it was opening it up to another 25,000 members and then over the next few months giving access to all its members. As a creator of content this is great news.
It brings Linkedin to life!
Sure you could do a little update before on Linkedin that linked to other sites but now you have an interface that looks almost like WordPress. Its easy and quick to create and edit. It allows you to post an article with images and links.
Do you have access to LinkedIn’s publishing platform?
If you go to your LinkedIn homepage (not your profile page) you will need to look at the “Share an update” box and look for a pencil symbol next to the paper clip.
If that is visible you are ready to publish on Linkedin!
Just hover over the symbol and it will reveal the text “create a post.” Then you click on that and it will take you to a page ready to put your title in, write a new post or paste an article from your blog, website or a previously created article.
This is how it looks before writing the headline and the text.
This means you can start publishing content including images and links to the 300 million users on LinkedIn.
If you don’t have the function live on your account, then you can request it by visiting this page on LinkedIn and fill in a form to apply for early access. As part of that application LinkedIn will want two examples of professional content you have produced and written online.
Why should you publish?
Publishing online is only new in the scheme of things and it takes some courage to put your thoughts in front of an audience of millions of people. But the potential benefits of taking that step are mind boggling.
Launching my blog just 5 years ago was the first step in creating and exposing my thoughts on the open web. It was daunting, exciting and addictive. It still is.
This feature on Linkedin is another opportunity to participate but why should you do it?
Here are some to consider:
- Increase your credibility to your community on LinkedIn and also to the world
- Display your passion and insights to future employers
- Increase traffic to your other digital assets such as your website or blog by linking to some of your other online content
- You will also have access to some analytics to provide demographic insights including seniority, industries and regions that are viewing your content
Here is what my readership split looks like.
This will provide some insights and breakdown into the type of followers that is reading your content.
Here there is my demographic graphic which reveals the following split:
- 1,728 senior executives
- 1528 are from advertising and marketing
- 564 are from Sydney Australia (with New York at 299, being my next largest audience by region)
It’s not extensive at this stage but a cool and graphical high level snapshot of your followers. The stats feature is hard to find but you can access it here if you are already a publisher on LinkedIn.
What have I learnt?
I have now published 23 posts and it has been fun to find out what works. My most successful post which was first published on my blog and was then published on Linked (“Why You Should Forget Facebook“) hit a nerve!
The results so far:
- Appeared on the homepage of LinkedIn
- 250,000 plus views
- 10,000 shares on LinkedIn
- 956 comments
- 3,300 facebook “likes”
- 1,568 Tweets
- Became the #1 article for the week
Some insights after that experience and continuing to publish and see what works are:
- It helps to have a large number of connections on Linkedin. 500 plus is good. Bigger is better.
- A significant community on Twitter is important. This will drive traffic to Linkedin and promote more online sharing of your posts.
- They need to be insightful and quality posts. So pick your best. Fluffy is not going to cut it on LinkedIn.
- It helps if they are about business, careers or employment
- They need to be full articles not excerpts
If you need more insights and resources on how to use LinkedIn’s new publishing platform checkout this resource on LinkedIn.
The experiment continues.
What about you?
Are you ready to publish to LinkedIn. Do you have access? If you have been publishing posts on LinkedIn what has been your experience?
Look forward to your feedback, stories and insights in the comments below.
This article was originally published by Jeff Bullas
Published: June 4, 2014
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