Do you publish long-form content on LinkedIn? Are you looking for ways to get more views and engagement with your posts?
LinkedIn recently released its list of “top voices” from 2016, and in the process, they also shared what made those bloggers so successful on the platform.
As per LinkedIn:
“When we compare these authors to all members writing in 2016, the Top Voices have received, on average, 64x more comments, 52x more likes, and 24x more shares on their articles. That viral activity on their writing led to an average of 73x more views from LinkedIn members than typical pieces, and a huge growth in followers.”
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – in today’s marketplace, your content is your currency. Creating great content and then sharing it online is how you “purchase” the time, attention and interest of potential customers. It’s also how you build the critical “Know, Like and Trust” elements that are key to every successful sale and business relationship.
Remember, anyone can claim authority – creating great content that demonstrates your expertise, and helps others solve a pressing problem or reach a specific goal, is the real key to success in online sales and marketing.
Here are three specific tips that LinkedIn says can help set apart your content from the rest on the network.
1. Global Reach, Specific Topics
The beauty of publishing on LinkedIn is that it’s the place where your ideal customers and clients in the global marketplace are already hanging out, looking for news, online training, resources, vendors, employees and more.
But among that global group, there are some specific, regional trends of note, in terms of audience interests.
As explained by LinkedIn:
“In the USA, writers tend to focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. In France, the economy and macroeconomics drive readership. India cares about branding and advertising; Brazil favors anything that’s current.”
Such trends can help you better target your content to maximize performance within your target market.
But aside from those more specific, regional trends, LinkedIn did note one consistent theme:
“…across the world, the same formula worked to develop an audience: Consistency, depth and an authentic desire to create conversations (not just content).”
2. Facilitate Engagement
If you’ve nailed your topic with a well written post targeted at your ideal audience, the true secret to generating big reach on the platform lies in everything else you do to set up your posts, including timing, engagement and follow through.
“The Top Voices made 10x more replies to comments on their articles than did the average LinkedIn writer”
Along with responding as quickly as possible to the likes, shares and comments your articles receive, you can also use other social media channels and your email list to drive traffic to your posts.
One of my favorite tactics is to also use LinkedIn itself – I leverage third party automation tools like LinMailPro to send a personalized, 1-on-1 note to targeted LinkedIn connections with a link to the post.
As long as your message is sincere, and your content useful to the connections you’re sending it to, you’ll get almost zero complaints from your connections when promoting your content via 1-on-1 LinkedIn messages.
3. Let LinkedIn Know
Another tip, which comes direct from LinkedIn, is to promote your LinkedIn post on Twitter and tag LinkedIn’s editorial team.
This can be a simple, “one liner” about your post, highlighting it to the @LinkedInEditors team to make them aware of your content.
A lot of people tag LinkedIn’s editors, so it’s not a guaranteed path to increased exposure, but it can help alert the relevant people, which, in turn, could see your post featured on LinkedIn’s Pulse platform.
Speed + Engagement = Going Viral on LinkedIn
When you do this – send traffic to your own LinkedIn posts, be it via LinkedIn messages, your email list or other social media channels – LinkedIn takes notice.
The faster your post picks up views and the more engagement that happens in a short time frame, the more likely it is LinkedIn will be alerted to that activity and decide to promote your post in more places on the platform.
Once that happens, watch out – your views and reach can increase massively through that additional exposure.
[Source:- Socialmediatoday]
