About two years ago, LinkedIn opened its publishing platform to all members, allowing them to publish blogs directly and promote their content throughout the LinkedIn network and beyond. LinkedIn publishing is still relevant, but … I’ve been posting through LinkedIn Publisher since 2014 and still like its use in content marketing. My content marketing strategy is straightforward: Provide content that’s valuable to my core audience (executives and marketers) Post three to five times per week Mix my content shares between other sources and my original content Use hashtags (#LITips) to differentiate my content and help it become more discoverable Look at the analytics for one of my recent LinkedIn articles, a long-form post of approximately 350 words. (My status update content averages between 2,000 to 2,500 views.) Video is available and highly engaging LinkedIn now gives you the ability to post video status updates directly on the platform. Plus, you can add video to company page updates and your LinkedIn profile. Kristen posts a status update: Notice at the end she references her full LinkedIn article: 3. Share it through LinkedIn Publisher. Notice he also added a hot link to the Big Think Innovation blog: And here’s the blog on his website: You can use this tactic in multiple ways on the LinkedIn platform. LinkedIn can be a viable content marketing platform There are many ways to use LinkedIn for content marketing, but, as with any channel, the content needs to be relevant to your audience.
If you are a LinkedIn member – and there are more than 500 million – you can be a content marketer on the platform.
About two years ago, LinkedIn opened its publishing platform to all members, allowing them to publish blogs directly and promote their content throughout the LinkedIn network and beyond.
While LinkedIn is primarily a B2B social media platform, both B2B and B2C brands can benefit from publishing on it. Executives from Virgin (including Richard Branson), GE, and Microsoft all publish on LinkedIn. Publishing directly on LinkedIn increases their reach and allows them to connect directly with their customers.
There are two main ways to publish on LinkedIn. The first is LinkedIn Publisher, in which a LinkedIn member can write a long-form article – usually five to seven paragraphs – and share it with their LinkedIn network. The second is a LinkedIn status update – a Twitter-like feature that is perfect for short, concise updates and messages.
As LinkedIn’s publishing opportunities have evolved, there are three things you need to know.
1. LinkedIn publishing is still relevant, but …
I’ve been posting through LinkedIn Publisher since 2014 and still like its use in content marketing. But over the last year, engagement has decreased. As you’ll see below with specific examples from my LinkedIn published posts and status updates, the change is significant.
From personal experience, and observation of other metrics from clients and colleagues, it is clear that short-form status updates are proving to get more comments and shares than LinkedIn long-form articles.
My content marketing strategy is straightforward:
- Provide content that’s valuable to my core audience (executives and marketers)
- Post three to five times per week
- Mix my content shares between other sources and my original content
- Use hashtags (#LITips) to differentiate my content and help it become more discoverable
Look at the analytics for one of my recent LinkedIn articles, a long-form post of approximately 350 words. I used LinkedIn Publisher to create the post.
I received 170 views, four comments, and 21 “likes.” That’s average for number of views for my long-form posts on LinkedIn Publisher.
Now compare that to a recent LinkedIn status update, which was about 30 words. It had 3,515 views, three comments and 36 “likes” – more than 20 times the number…
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