In the past 10 years, LinkedIn has become a majorly influential professional platform. Both companies and individuals use it to network, attract clients and promote content. But it’s not always clear how to make the best of LinkedIn’s many assets. The different features can be confusing and it’s hard to know which to use when. So let’s take a look at the best ways to promote posts on LinkedIn.
Have an attractive profile
The easiest thing you can do to make sure your posts reach their target audience is to keep an attractive profile. You should post daily status updates, preferably in the morning (you will get more attention) and include images (they generate 98% more interactions than regular posts).
Add links to articles you’ve written on your profile page and be careful to connect with people from your industry who will be interested in the content you post. To attract more viewers, build real relationships with your connections. Contribute to discussions, answer questions and help solve problems. Your posts will be more likely to be shared or recommended by fellow industry members.
Post on Pulse
Be careful not to mistake ‘articles’ for ‘status updates’. LinkedIn allows you to publish both from your profile. A status update should be quite short, focus on news or guidelines and include links and images. An article will be posted directly onto Pulse, LinkedIn’s publishing platform. It should be at least 400 words long and bring real professional insight, answer a specific problematic or contribute to research.
Using Pulse is a great way to promote your content. It can be used both to create original articles for LinkedIn, which will give you more visibility, and to repost your own articles (blog posts, freelancers etc).
Here are a couple of useful guidelines that you should respect when posting on Pulse to attract most viewers:
- Take time perfecting your headline
According to a recent study by Paul Shapiro, Pulse headlines should not be longer than 49 characters. Readers respond better to direct headlines which use tips or lists modes so try to avoid questions and to include key words.
- Find the right topic
Make sure the topic you’re writing about will be interesting for your connections. Ask yourself what kind of article you would want to read: your connections come from the same industry so chances are you will have similar interests.
- Add images
Paul Shapiro’s study found that readers are a lot more likely to engage with articles which use at least 8 pictures, so don’t refrain from using illustrations.
- Write headings
A structured articles gets a lot more hits and is more enjoyable.
- Write long articles
LinkedIn users seem to gravitate towards long and researched pieces so don’t be afraid of posting articles around 1,500-2,000 words long.
Share your posts on Social Media
A great way to promote your posts, both status updates and articles, is simply to share them on social media. LinkedIn enables you to quickly share to Facebook or Twitter . Your posts will get more readers and benefit from the domino effect: once they have become popular, more people will have access to them and will want to read them.
Join a LinkedIn Group
You can also make use of LinkedIn’s groups. They work pretty much like Facebook groups do, without the constant spamming. Find a group related to your industry and engage in the conversation. After a while, you can start promoting your posts. Self-promotion is still not fully accepted, so make sure not to do it more than once a week. Twice a month would probably be the best ratio. Try not to directly advertise your personal content. It’s better if you can reference it in a discussion related to the topic.
Don’t use the group exclusively for promoting your posts. Make sure you take part to the discussions and also promote other people’s work.
You should also stay away from words such as ‘I’, ‘my’, or ‘me’ or LinkedIn may redirect your posts to their ‘promotion’ category, which you will want to avoid. Use the group as you would a forum, and link to your posts to promote them.
Buy Sponsored Updates
If you want to reach an even larger audience, you can buy sponsored updates. Posts about company news, research developments or your blog articles can all be sponsored. To maximise your chances, include eye-catching visuals and write straightforward, short captions. Expect to pay around $3 per click.
These are the best ways to promote your posts on LinkedIn, so go ahead and use them to expand your audience !