Did you know there are more than 1 million members publishing on LinkedIn.  That's impressive!  LinkedIn has several tools to help business owners, employees, and job seekers make themselves look their best online. One option available is to write a post on LinkedIn from your personal account.  This is a great way to solely use LinkedIn as your blogging platform of choice, or a content strategy for scheduling content outside of your regular business blog for more depth, eventually, linking back to your off-LinkedIn blog.  Why would you do that?  It's always been my personal practice that everything starts with a blog.  But, it also depends on what you are trying to accomplish online.  In my personal situation, I want people to following me so that can inform them with tips, strategies, and advice on building internet presence with blogging and social media.  I offer consulting and coaching for a fee.  On the other hand, some people just want to build a professional network.  They don't have a product or a service; they just want to speak their mind.  That's perfect for LinkedIn, and is a good reason to write a post without the fear of visitors hitting your site and leaving immediately without you capturing the name and email.

Benefits of Publishing Content To LinkedIn

There are many reasons to write a post on LinkedIn, let's take a look at just a few:

• Other people not in your connections/network can follow you
• It becomes part of your professional identity associated with your account
• You can reach more groups of people.  Not everyone in your LinkedIn connections follow you on your personal/business blog
• Post can link back to your site from a major traffic source.  LinkedIn is a major site with over 350M users and over 187M unique monthly views.  If you got tons of traffic on a new blog, the search engines might think you are doing something SPAMMY.  But, tons of traffic from LinkedIn is more natural because there are millions of users clicking everyday.
• Demonstrate your expertise to readers building your authority
• Easy to use blogging platform if you don't already have one

When you write a post on LinkedIn, users have the option of using multiple tools (i.e. WordPress, Twitter, SlideShare, etc.) for publishing.  One option is the LinkedIn publishing tool. The tool works a lot like a blog, where you write content on LinkedIn directly.  It makes the process easy and ensures that the content will show up properly on the site.  Different types of content creation may show up differently on LinkedIn. The site also has experience with professional looking content and may have its own way of making your content look as professional as possible including social media marketing, all while being built around your professional identity.

The publishing tool on LinkedIn shows the business world, and your professional network, your best side and markets your content effectively for all to see.

Steps To Publish On LinkedIn

There are several steps to publishing content to LinkedIn:

1. Login to LinkedIn
2. Publish a post
3. Add an image
4. Write a headline
5. Start writing
6. Add Tags
7. Save, Publish, Delete

That's it.  There's only 7 steps to publishing content on LinkedIn.  I've broken these down a little further below.  Some of which is very obvious, and there might be some things that you did not know.  Most importantly, the steps are more visual than anything.  I hope this helps you publish content on LinkedIn more effectively.

Login to LinkedIn

Go to http://www.linkedin.com and login to your account.

If you don't have an account, then register for one by clicking “join now.”  Just give a few details about yourself (i.e. First name, Last name, Email, and Password.).  You will be on your way to making connections soon.

After logging in or creating an account, the next step is to look for the publishing tool.

Publish A Post

Locate the box that says, “Publish a post” and click on it. In the example below, “Publish a post” is at the bottom right.  You will be taken to the post page where you can add content.  Look at the bottom right in the example below.

Add An Image

According to Jeff Bullas, blogger, author, strategist and speaker, “articles with images get 94% more total views.”  Images tell stories and it is a great way to send a message to readers before they read the content.  It will add a visual affect and keep your readers engaged longer.  LinkedIn recommends 698 x 400 pixels.  Adding image is just above your picture profile.

Write A Headline

Writing a headline is fairly simple.  It should cover what is going to be in the content.  I don't recommend any kind of trickery or bait and switch type strategies.  In other words, don't write a headline to capture people's attention, then have the content be something completely different.  Readers will just shut you off, and maybe unlink you as a connection.

Do this by clicking on the section that says, “Write Your Headline.”

Start Writing

Just below the headline is the section to start writing content.  Just click on the “Start writing” and the cursor will be ready to type.

Add Tags

Before publishing, you should add tags to your posts.  These are similar to keywords and phrases that makes it easier for others to find your posts.  It is located at the very bottoms of the page.  Just click on the phrase, “Add tags so it's easier for people to find your post” and your cursor will be set to type.

As you type, suggestions will appear.  You make your selection from those, then linked will do the rest.  Below is an example where I typed the word, “marketing.”  You see the pop-up box has several suggestions.  I selected just the one word, “marketing.”

After you make your selection, LinkedIn will properly set this box wrapping it in its beautiful like tag box.  You can add more if needed.

Save, Publish, or Delete

The final step after you've complete everything (i.e. image, headline, content, tags, etc.), you can now delete, save, or publish.  I' don't know why you would delete something after you've gone through all the hard work of writing a great a post, but the option is there in case you need to.

That's it!  Now, you can sit back and enjoy the benefit of building your professional network alongside millions of other users.  You can build your network, share ideas, talk about projects your working on, or just discuss industry-related news.

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• Linkedinfluence
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