For ages, LinkedIn has been considered as a place to get a new job. Some even now, thinks along the same lines. However, one should take into account that LinkedIn has over 900 Million users. This number is fairly huge, which makes this social site, a top-tier site and even without a niche focus, this network is huge.
LinkedIn does have a Niche focus though, and it is carrier and profession. Getting a job or talking about it is an important part of being on LinkedIn. This network can be leveraged in several ways and there are plenty of benefits that can come out of it.
Here, we will discuss several ways to do content marketing on LinkedIn.
1. Setup your Profile: A LinkedIn profile needs to be fully filled. The attention span of people of LinkedIn isn’t just short, it is also sharp. These aren’t your friends and family, these are professionals who are skimming through several profiles at the same time, trying to get something important. If you want their attention, at least fill up the complete profile with full and correct details.
2. Get a Picture: A professional picture is much different than a regular one. It has to be in your work dress, the face must take up most part of the image and it has to be a really close image. Even facial expression matters, it should be serious, yet happy and smiling. It is a lot to fit in a single image, but after all an image is worth a thousand words.
3. Display your Skills: You are on LinkedIn looking for a job or business on a relevant sector, your skills will surely matter. List down your skills in details so that your profile looks like a pro.
4. Follow and Connect: The entire success of a content marketing campaign depends on how much influential your profile is. If you have plenty of people who are following you then the content that you plan to share will go as far. Your connection matters and to grow this follower base, you simply need to follow and connect with more people.
5. Endorse others and receive the same: As a blogger and a content marketer, you must have discovered the power of reciprocity. This works in every single aspect of online business. Here, simply endorse others who are in your contact list and whom you know somewhat. Several of them will do the same for you and immediately you will have plenty of endorsements to show.
6. Write posts on LinkedIn Pulse: Recently, LinkedIn has rolled out the long-form content creation feature for everyone. Now, just like Medium or any other blogging platform, one can add articles on LinkedIn. However, other networks don’t have 900M users, so the potential of blogging on LinkedIn and building a huge audience is pretty strong.
7. Share trending content on LinkedIn: Now that you have started following people on LinkedIn and getting many followers in return, it is important to keep feeding this audience base with great content. Creating long form articles is one way, but one can’t create enough articles every day. This is the reason why sharing good content from other people is important.
Keep browsing through the LinkedIn feed and whenever you find something worth sharing, simply share it on your LinkedIn timeline.
8. Join Relevant Groups: Groups is a very strong and yet, totally under rated feature of LinkedIn. Those that have discovered this feature is making a good use of it. This is where one can join a relevant group, share own and other people’s content, connect and comments to get involved and ultimately bring some of that audience to your profile and turn them into loyal followers.
9. Post Comments: There are plenty of places on LinkedIn where one can post a comment. Every content that is shared in the feed has the option to make a comment. Just read the articles that are shared in the feed and post a relevant comment.
10. Get Recommended: This is a higher level of user feedback where people aren’t just endorsing but they are actively recommending you. This too will only work efficiently if you are recommending others.
11. Add LinkedIn buttons on your blog and website: Getting your content shared more and more on networks like LinkedIn requires some push from your side as well. If you have a blog then it is important to have a LinkedIn share button and a profile badge added to your blog so that your readers can connect with you on LinkedIn and share your content flawlessly.
12. Fix writing mistakes: We are talking about a professional network where you need to look good. It does not really require mentioning that a typo can really make you look bad on a serious network like this. There are many tools to fix this, but the best way to go about it is to hire a proof-reader who can not only fix your errors but also improve your over all content details.
13. This isn’t Facebook: Don’t post personal details and life updates. People are professional here, even if you have friends and family on LinkedIn, they too don’t want to see too much of your personal details here.
There can be exceptions here though, depending on what you want to achieve on this network. If connecting on a human and emotional level is required then one needs to plan their content well.
14. Update daily: Just like any other network, here too regular updates matters. The updates need to be regular, perhaps multiple times a day but spaced out well. Set a scheduler if you can’t post updates every single day. That way, you just need to spend a few hours in setting up some relevant updates which will be posted a few times a day, spaced out well and you don’t need to worry about it for weeks or even months if you have spaced it well.
LinkedIn is, at the end of the day, a social network, and a pretty huge one at that. Just like any other social network, the basic rules apply. You have to network, connect and follow. You have to reach out and make your ideas and thoughts heard. The difference is in the approach. LinkedIn is just that – professional.