Content creation is important and a good business practice. You can share information about your business or area of expertise (via thought leadership pieces or op-eds) with the world. This helps to build name recognition and fosters business growth. There are a million ways to share content, including on social media and networking platforms.
Today, and (teaser!) in our next few posts, we are going to talk about one such avenue: LinkedIn. LinkedIn, a professional networking platform, has an impressive reach, with more than 800 million members across more than 200 countries. LinkedIn is a great place to comment on and engage in conversations about what’s happening in your industry, business line, or professional circles.
But how should you share content on LinkedIn? LinkedIn offers several ways to share content, including with posts, articles, and newsletters. Below is a brief snapshot of each.
Posts
Posts are for brief narratives, status updates, comments, and questions, with a limit of 1,300 characters. Posts appear on LinkedIn members’ newsfeeds, making it easy for people to view your posts. However, those posts are not lasting. Instead, they capture moments in time.
Articles
LinkedIn articles, on the other hand, are meant for in-depth pieces. They present an opportunity to share thought leadership, professional anecdotes, industry insights, long-form advice, and opinions on what is happening in your field. Articles are much longer than posts and can be up to 125,000 characters. Articles will appear on your LinkedIn profile, just after the “about” section. Therefore, unlike posts, they are longer lasting—every time someone visits your profile, they can view the articles you’ve published. Importantly, however, articles will not appear on the LinkedIn newsfeed unless you also publish the article to a new post.
LinkedIn articles can be shared on LinkedIn (in posts), Facebook, or Twitter. Articles are also searchable (if your LinkedIn settings are correct) both on and off LinkedIn.
Newsletters
“A newsletter is a set of regularly published articles on LinkedIn, typically about a specific topic.” People have the option of subscribing to newsletters. Moreover, while LinkedIn articles appear on your timeline, LinkedIn newsletter subscribers are notified each time a newsletter is published. Therefore, there is an increased chance your newsletter will be read (and by your target audience).
Regularly publishing newsletters can be a powerful tool. According to LinkedIn,
“Starting a newsletter on LinkedIn means you’ll engage your audience from the minute you publish. LinkedIn makes it easy to invite all your connections or followers to subscribe when you create a newsletter. Also, after publishing each newsletter article, push, in-app, and email notifications are sent to all your subscribers to help drive views. You’ll get real-time feedback and comments from your readers, and you can understand how your content is doing with analytics.”
And more…
You can also share videos and photos on LinkedIn. After all, there is need to limit yourself to writing if that’s not your jam! It is also nice to offer a mix of the different types of content on LinkedIn. And, by playing around with the different types of content you can create, you can see what attracts the most attention and engagement from your audience as well as what you enjoy creating the most.