8 Ways To Have More Success With LinkedIn Publisher
How many views, likes and shares did your last LinkedIn Publisher post get?
Did it draw in your connections and inspire them to share or did it get lost in all of the noise, like many other posts on LinkedIn?
There are so many people publishing long form content on LinkedIn now that you have to catch your potential readers interest right away if you want them to click through to yours.
Once they are on your post, you need to ensure that you don’t lose their interest because its too time consuming to read. You must make it easy for them to scan and grab the bits that they are most interested in.
Finally, you need to inspire them to take action, whether its sharing your post, connecting with you or visiting your website.
If your LinkedIn Publisher post lacks the elements that will draw readers in, keep them on the page and inspire them take action when they are done, you are probably wasting your time.
Here are eight ways to get the maximum impact from each of your LinkedIn Publisher posts, by making them click worthy, easily read and action inspiring.
8 Steps to a Successful LinkedIn Publisher Post
1. Determine Your LinkedIn Publisher Post Type
The first thing you need to do each time you create a LinkedIn Publisher post is to determine what type of post you are going to write. Will it be an interview, what post, why post, listicle, how-to or other style?
(Source Epictions Transmedia, Inc.)
Listicles are usually popular. Because of this, they can also be over done. So try not to use this style too frequently. When you are creating lists, try to focus on lists of 5 or 10 as they get the highest number of shares.
Interviews and how-to articles are also an excellent choice.
To get even greater views and shares of your interview articles, try interviewing experts both directly within your industry as well as those which might offer complimentary services. Be sure to let them know when it is published so they can share it with their network as well.
When creating a how-to article, consider the knowledge level of your ideal clients. Are they highly educated on the topic or is their knowledge fairly basic? This will help you to determine how in-depth to make your posts and how much detail needs to be included in each step.
2. Choose The Right Title For Your Post
With countless other new posts in their notification area and newsfeed, you MUST appeal to the curiosity and desires of your connections in the title of your LinkedIn Publisher posts. Your title has to be enticing enough for people to want to click through and check out your post.
One of the most important ways to do this is to be very specific in your title. Tell them exactly what they will find.
It is often better to be precise then clever when creating your title. Even if your clever title gets people to click through to your post, if they are disappointed by what they find, they will leave just as quickly.
Being succinct with your title is just as important as being specific. Ideally your title should be between five and nine words long, as this gets more shares and allows the whole title to be visible in the different places it can be found.
(Source Epictions Transmedia, Inc.)
3. Feature A Cover Image In Your LinkedIn Publisher Posts
People are far more likely to click on your post if you have a cover image.
This likelihood is increased if the image either catches their attention or engages with them emotionally, making them want to learn more. The cover image also adds a visual element to your personal profile, as the last three posts you have published are shown on your profile below your headline and profile image.
For best results, use custom, branded images that you can either create yourself using tools such as Adobe Spark or Canva or hire a professional graphic designer. When creating your own images, they should be 700 x 400 pixels in size.
4. Pay Attention To Your Post Length
LinkedIn Publisher posts between 2000 and 2500 words are the most shared on LinkedIn and posts between 1500 and 2000 words have the highest shares on Twitter, while posts below a 1000 words are shared more on Facebook.
(Source Epictions Transmedia, Inc.)
The additional benefit to creating longer posts (besides more shares) is that they really let you dive deep into a topic, providing more value to your readers and positioning yourself as an authority on your topic.
Now while this is generally true, it may not be true for everyone. In some cases, smaller, bite-sized pieces of content maybe easier for your readers to consume. The length will also depend on the post type and topic as well. Don’t be afraid to continually test different post lengths.
If you are just starting out on LinkedIn Publisher, a great place to start is by looking at the length of your competitor’s most successful posts.
5. Add Visual Elements To Your Articles
Images and other visual elements help you share additional information that adds to the value of your posts as well as helping to break up your articles and make them easier to read.
The different types of visual elements you can include are:
Images – whether they are quote images, stats, screen shots or just relevant to the topic, images help to keep the interest of your readers. When adding images, your file needs to be a JPG, GIF, or PNG and must be no larger than 10MB.
Videos – adding videos to your posts allow you to share a large amount of additional information that the audience can choose to consume or not, depending on their interest. They are also a great way to emotionally engage or entertain your readers. You can add video from video hosting providers such as YouTube, Vimeo, Vine, etc.
Rich Media – you are able to add many other forms of rich media to your article to support the information you are sharing or make your post more engaging, such as tweets, presentations, podcasts, charts and polls.
Links – as well as helping to break up text, adding links to your post is a great way to send readers to more information, particularly if you are sending them articles on your own website.
6. Include A Call To Action (CTA) In Each LinkedIn Publisher Post
While you you don’t want to bombard your readers with your marketing messages, if they were interested enough to make it to the end of your post – don’t waste the opportunity, tell them what you want them to do next.
Make it easy for your readers to take action. In other words, it should be very simple for them to carry out as soon as they read your CTA. If your CTA requires that they do something that has too many steps, most people will not follow through and you will lose your chance.
Different types of CTAs include asking them to comment, connect with you, share the post or download a freebie such as a checklist, report or other content (in exchange for being added to your newsletter list).
7. Select The Appropriate 3 Tags For Your Posts
LinkedIn allows you to add three tags at the bottom of your post, to help them determine the correct topic channel to add it to and who would find the most value from it.
It is important that you choose three tags that best describe the specific content of the post rather than what topics you think are the most popular. Keep in mind that LinkedIn uses an intelligent and evolving tagging algorithm to determine which channels a post belongs in, regardless of how you tag it.
8. Share Your LinkedIn Publisher Posts
In many cases, the success of your LinkedIn Publisher posts will be determined by how well you share it on your social media channels.
While LinkedIn will notify your connections and followers every time you publish a post, because so many people are doing this now, there is a good chance that your post will be lost among this noise. Sharing it across your social media channels will help to drive traffic to it, increasing the chance for it to be shared and seen by more people.
LinkedIn may also include your post in their weekly email to your connections, if they think those connections would find the value from the post. You also have the additional possibility of being featured in LinkedIn Pulse, which could expose your posts to thousands of new readers.
There is no guaranteed way to be included in Pulse but you can increase your chances if you are able to get a lot of views and engagement early on. This is one of the reasons it is so important to share your post right away on your social media platforms. You can also tweet the post with the @LinkedInPulse handle, in hopes of catching LinkedIn’s attention.
Wrapping Up
Posting long-form content on LinkedIn Publisher helps your connections to know, like and trust you. It is a great way to establish your authority on your topic as well as add visual interest to your personal profile. If you publish truly great content, it can also vastly expand the amount of people who see and interact with your posts.
But these benefits can only happen if people are interested enough to click through to read your post in the first place. Once you have them reading, you have to make sure you keep their attention and then provide them with an easy to complete Call to Action.
How successful have your LinkedIn Publisher posts been? Do you get lots of views or engagement? I would love to hear your experience with LinkedIn Publisher below.
