6 Ways To Create A Killer LinkedIn Blog

Earlier this year (May), our founder Alex Pirouz wrote a blog discussing the power of LinkedIn’s newly introduced publishing arm and what business owners stood to gain from publishing content. The article was well received and since then we’ve had a lot of requests asking us to do a follow up to the article to share more insights on the topic. If you weren’t able to read the 1^st article, here’s a link: Click Here To Read The Article

Since 2012 LinkedIn has been providing a publishing platform for some of the best global Influencers and only recently they increased that number to 500.  These Influencers include the likes of Richard Branson, Anthony Robbins, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Naomi Simpson and many more….

Due to its early success in February this year, they decided to make the publishing feature available to all 500 million members. The company says the roll-out is staged, with initial access arriving for some 25,000 English language users of LinkedIn, with a worldwide reach planned for a couple of months from today, give or take.

To know whether or not you’ve been approved to start publishing content, simply go into your LinkedIn account. If you’ve been approved there will be a grey pencil icon on the status box at the top of your home page. If this pencil icon is not displayed, it means that they have not rolled out the publishing feature to your account yet.

Now becoming a publisher on LinkedIn can be a powerful way to reach your target market and generate new leads. The new platform promises to match the blog’s topic with users who share an interest in that particular vertical. It also gives you greater exposure to your current network given every blog you post is distributed to their news feed and displayed with their notifications.

This is a great way for you to showcase your thought leadership on your chosen topic and add value to those within your network. If your contacts like the article and decide to share that on LinkedIn or Twitter, this will not only create greater exposure but those who aren’t connected with you; may like your work that much that they end up “FOLLOWING” you to receive future posts helping you create a following a raving fans for years to come!!

Alex’s blog post results so far:

– Appeared on the homepage of LinkedIn 4 times now
– Over 128,000 blog views and 1000 comments
– Shared more than 18,193 times
– Generated us over 430 leads – and
– Increased his following by an extra 2,300

Here’s a screenshot of a few articles he has written:

Publishing your blog is really easy

Simply go to the home page of your account, hover over the pencil icon we showed you earlier. When you do this it will reveal the text “create a post”. Once you have clicked on the link, it will then direct you to a page where you will see a blank blog post ready for you to populate with your headline and main copy.

Start by thinking about your headline! Make sure it’s short, sharp and compelling. Once you have your headline figured out, go ahead and write your copy. We find generally anywhere between 500-700 words is a good length.

Given that any content you publish on LinkedIn is going to be associated with your profile (and be visible to your network), you will want to ensure that the content you publish on LinkedIn is of the highest quality. Your LinkedIn profile, after all, is your professional online identity. That means your reputation is at stake. Don’t publish anything that could jeopardize or harm your reputation. Plus the better the content and the more compelling your headline, LinkedIn may end up featuring your article on one of the categories within the “Pulse” network or better yet feature it on the home page giving you visibility to over 500 million members worldwide.

A few things to consider

Best Dates and Times: Generally, we have found Sunday, Monday and Tuesday morning between 8am-9am is the best times to post. We should note that these times are based on AEST, you may want to test out your own time zone to see what works well for you.

Importance of Quality Content: We touched on this briefly before but the better and more valuable your content the greater impact you will make on your existing and new followers.

Preview your content: Before publishing your post always make sure to preview your work. This will allow you to see whether or not your text is aligned with any pictures or videos you have inserted, if headings are properly spaced out, and if your article is properly laid out, etc.

Include Videos & Images: Break up your text with images and videos so that people don’t get information overwhelm when they first visit your blog. Always make it a habit of listing a few tips or provide a how to guide within a section of the blog. Most people will skim through your article, so this is a great way to provide quick rich content.

Ask questions: Doing this demonstrates your genuine interest in feedback. It also makes it an interactive opportunity that encourages participation. Simple questions like “do you agree?” or “how have you seen this done?” are a call to action that can start the ball rolling.

Check the Analytics: LinkedIn gives you great analytics to show you the success of your articles. This gives you a great opportunity to pay attention to which types of articles are getting the most views, comments, and social shares. Is it a particular topic or subject matter that people are reading, or is it the way you write (such as a “how to” style)?

Following the same suggestions above, here’s an article Alex posted last week. Within 1 hour, it was featured briefly on the home page and stayed as the top story within the “Entrepreneurship & Small Business” category of LinkedIn’s Pulse network for an entire day.

Now that you’ve read this post, maybe we’ve inspired you to get going. Your post may start that conversation with your next investor or business partner; it may get you noticed by others in your company or industry and help enhance your reputation as a thought leader. But most of all, it may simply help others.

Developing great content that gets engagement and turns followers into raving fans takes skills that are not created overnight. Our founder’s content gets hundreds of thousands of views, comments, and likes each and every month. This then results in hundreds of opportunities whether that’s leads, partnerships, and speaking engagements that come from that content.