How to Publish Content on LinkedIn Using Article Marketing Strategies

Did you know that you can share your blog content or publish articles directly on the LinkedIn platform?  There is so much more to publishing an article on LinkedIn than writing and hitting Publish.  We will step through how to publish content on LinkedIn, and how to get maximum leverage.

The 7 Step LinkedIn Content Marketing Process

1. Plan the quarter or year. This removes the decision making which can slow you down.
2. Write with a framework. You may find while in the ‘zone’, you can write multiple articles in one session to maximise your creative energy.
3. Publish your content, which includes formatting, layout, creating graphics, embedding media and links.
4. Promote your content, through a content marketing plan.
5. Respond to any comments and shares – engage.
6. Measure what worked well? Who engaged, how they engaged, and what did they do next?
7. Repeat.

Let’s go through each step of the process in more detail to really understand how to publish content on LinkedIn…

 

Part 1 – Content Planning

To make your content creation and marketing easier, start with a plan.

1. First, be clear on your WHY… why you do what you do. All content should support your bigger why. (Refer to Simon Sinek’s Gold Circle model and Start With Why TED Talk).
2. Get clear on who your audience is, who your ideal clients are that you wish to connect with.
3. Think about the themes for your content. First brainstorm your themes (categories) on a whiteboard, large sheet of paper, or post-it notes. Think about problems you solve for your ideal clients. Are some related? Group them together and see how many overarching themes you have. Will you work with a monthly theme or quarterly theme?
4. Within each of those themes are topics. Brainstorm more problems you solve within each theme. Think about the questions you are often asked, or ask your network what they really want to learn more about. Think about the common mistakes you see and the trends in your industry that may impact your clients. Considering sharing strategies or definitions in your subject matter expertise. Also consider creating resources lists, from curated content, where you bring together the best to save your clients time, such as a top 10, top 40 list or 101 recommended things. Use social media tools to research the questions your audience have, and use tools such as Quora, or forums to see what questions are being asked.
5. Within your topics, create dot points for each article. One article could be “The 10 Biggest Mistakes Made By …”, for further articles about each point in more detail with a step by step plan to deal with the issue.  Think about the story you wish to tell in each article. Jot down the characters, the conflict, and the resolution. Some topics could be split into smaller articles or be part of a series (collectively they could be part of an ebook).
6. Also, consider the scalability of the content. It may start as a blog article, but may also become a SlideShare presentation, a white paper, part of an ebook or a webinar.

Ensure the topics and theme align with your values and vision, and stick to what you want to be known for. But most importantly, always start with your why.

Part 2 – Content Writing

Schedule time to create your articles as per your plan. Be sure to connect with your purpose before writing. For each piece of content, consider the story your content is telling and the relevance to your intended reader. Is it to educate, entertain, inform or inspire?

1. Who is the ideal reader? Write with them in mind.
2. Be clear on the characters in the story and how you will tell it. 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person or a combination of all three?
3. Introduce the article. What is the conflict? How will you express this?
4. What is the solution and call to action?
5. Does it connect with your vision, mission and values?

Here are our top content writing tips for your LinkedIn articles;

• Aim for 500 – 2000 words
• Break up the text with relevant images
• Use your keywords and phrases in sentences
• Write conversationally, and invite the reader to engage
• Link outwards to your other articles / webpages / social media profiles
• Back up statistics and claims with data and reference points
• Close with a summary, about the author, and call to action.
• Create a compelling, attention-grabbing headline after writing the article

Writing is easy and can be fun once you get into a flow.

 

Part 3 – LinkedIn Article Structure

Here is an example framework for your article;

1. Intro paragraph – tell them what you are going to tell them
2. Break your content into 3 main points
   1. Point 1
   2. Point 2
   3. Point 3
3. Summarise what you have told them
4. Ask a question to invite engagement.
5. Close the article with an Author Box written in 3rd person, about the author, including a CTA.

Structure Tips

1. Keep Your Titles Short but Engaging

Make your headline as concise as possible, while incorporating keywords, a hook and promise to capture attention. Think about the questions your reader type into Google search, such as “How to…”.  Or use numbers, such as “The 3 Step Guide to …” or “The Top 10 Mistakes Made…” or “ 5 Questions to ask before…”

LinkedIn may truncate your long title, so put the important attention-grabbing phrase first

2. Use an Eye-Catching Image

A high quality, vibrant image can persuade readers to click. Avoid, blurry, dark images, company logos and boring ‘done’ stock images (you know the ones!  Take your own photos, or credit graphics using stock images, preferably branded with your logo or using your brand colours.

3. Embed Engaging Media

Use video, images, or sound bites to enhance your message.

4. Embrace White Space

Make your article scannable. Use headings and white space to break up the text into readable chunks.

5. Embed links to other content

Use your article to drive traffic to other LinkedIn articles and / or your website. You could use custom links using tools such as Bit.ly which creates short custom links and provides metrics.

6. Use Click to Tweet, to create tweetable quotes within your article.

7. Include a call to action to encourage the reader to take action.

 

Part 4 – LinkedIn Engagement

1. Build Your LinkedIn Network

Connect to people you meet, people you haven’t seen in a while or people you want to get to know. Do it in a personable way by introducing yourself, in a friendly and non-salesy manner. Why are connections important in publishing? When you publish a post on LinkedIn, your connections may see an alert in their notifications or may see your update in their home feed. If they engage with your post, they are exposing your article to their network, so the more people you are connected to who may be interested in your content, the more exposure and engagement you could have.

CLICK TO TWEET

2. Publish Often

Share valuable articles on a regular basis for visibility and engagement. Commit to a realistic and sustainable publishing schedule, working to the resources, time and budget available. It doesn’t have to be brand new content, but can be repurposed content, with links to your original work. Or you may do list posts, linking to articles.

3. Review Article Engagement

Respond to comments and thank those who share your articles. This may encourage more engagement, connection and referrals.

 

Part 5 – LinkedIn Promotion

Once you have created and shared an article on LinkedIn. Create an article marketing plan to share with your network various times, via LinkedIn and other mediums.

1. Create a Promotion Plan and Share via Social Media

• Routinely share to LinkedIn with a ‘thought and question’
• Share the link and image to your LinkedIn Company Page
• Create and schedule a batch of tweets
• Share a graphic on Instagram with a link
• Share the link via your Facebook Page
• Pin your images to boards on Pinterest
• Turn your article into slides and share with a link via SlideShare (Bonus embed in the article).

2. Ask to be Featured

Send a friendly tweet with your post link to @LinkedInEditors

3. Repurpose for Other Platforms

Create different versions for BeBee, Facebook Notes, Medium, Tumblr, published at different times, linking to each other.

4. Advertise Your Post

Share your article to your Company Page, then set up a Sponsored Post. Share via Facebook or Twitter and run promoted posts to drive traffic to LinkedIn if you have the budget for this.

5. Share via other marketing channels

• Include 1-3 articles, previews with links in your regular enewsletter
• Link to your latest post or article library in your email signature
• Create a video to go with the content. This could be slides with voice over, you talking to camera, an interview on the topic. Be creative. Share to YouTube with a link to the article. Bonus – embed the video in the article.
• Broadcast via Facebook Live with a live Q&A linking to the article.
• Schedule a Tweet Chat on the aticle topic via Twitter.
• Create an audio version of the article, then embed in the article with a tool such as Soundcloud.
• Run a webinar based on the content.

 

Part 6 – LinkedIn Metrics

Look at each article every month or other period and capture the metrics to see what worked best.   Look at Views, Likes, Comments and Shares.

Measure traffic from links in the article.

• Which could use more promoting?
• Which were well received?
• Which received the most engagement?
• What else could you create to complement your success content?

“If you want to use your content as currency to buy the time and attention of potential customers on LinkedIn, you must publish status updates and posts in the newsfeed that offer value and are highly relevant to your target audience.” – John Nemo

Now, do you understand how to publish content on LinkedIn?

Publishing articles on LinkedIn, isn’t just a case of pulling together the content. It is important to understand the foundations of how to publish content on LinkedIn. But it is equally important to understand how to leverage the content for maximum impact.

I recommend starting with your plan for the coming quarter.   If you need a template to help you plan your content access our resources available to members of our community.

 

Need help? 

If you need help pulling your plan together, get in touch. Book a LinkedIn mentoring session.

For LinkedIn Training and LinkedIn Workshops contact Jo Saunders of Wildfire Social Marketing, on 0422 431 039 to review and map out your LinkedIn strategy, navigate the network and train your team.