How to Use LinkedIn Articles to Build a Following
Have you published a TON of articles to your blog and wonder if you can republish all that content as articles on LinkedIn?
Are you wondering whether or not it's worth it to even publish articles to LinkedIn - or are short-form LinkedIn posts better?
What's the newsletter feature on LinkedIn? If you're a regular LinkedIn article publisher, you MAY have access!
In this live, we talked about all things LinkedIn articles on Mondays with Mindi!
How many of you are struggling to figure out how to use LinkedIn articles effectively to build your personal brand and drive leads for your business? Content is king when it comes to just about every online channel, but there are a number of nuances when it comes to LinkedIn and publishing articles.
I know, I know… many of you have either never heard of LinkedIn articles or think LinkedIn articles are completely dead. (I did, too!)
Do any of these sound familiar?
LinkedIn articles are dead, nobody is using them
You’re going to hurt your SEO by republishing content to LinkedIn
I don’t have any content to put up on LinkedIn
I’ll just do a LinkedIn post instead because it’s easier
...my favorite, I just don’t have the time
I put out a question to my newsletter list some time ago, and Tim Wright about what they wanted to learn about LinkedIn for Business.
Tim said, “I’d like to learn to use the LinkedIn blog more effectively and get people outside of my immediate realm to read what I have to say.”
It’s Story Time
One of my clients whom I’ve been working with for nearly 7 years wanted to get the “Publish Newsletter” feature on his profile. The only way to get this feature is to publish LinkedIn articles regularly PLUS to get solid engagement on your posts.
I’ve been a bit of a LinkedIn article critic for the past couple of years because LinkedIn apparently doesn’t invest significantly in their publishing platform, and I was hesitant to suggest that he start publishing LinkedIn articles because there’s no guarantee that he’d get that “Publish Newsletter” feature
But, I suggested we test him republishing one article per week from his blog to the LinkedIn article platform.
And, boom! After publishing six articles - he was averaging a 40.42% engagement rate on EVERY. SINGLE. ARTICLE.
That’s unheard of when it comes to typical LinkedIn posts. You’ll hope to get a 2-3% engagement rate which is REALLY high.
If engaging with your followers on LinkedIn is a high priority, don’t underestimate LinkedIn articles.
My article from 2017 called “Getting Started with Hashtags on LinkedIn” is still going strong and continues to drive prospects my way! I’ve started and continued conversations with those who’ve come across my article (and were outside my immediate LinkedIn network) because they found this article (that I honestly totally forget I wrote all that time ago!) years after it was published.
LinkedIn articles (when done well) have staying power.
And, they don’t take that long to publish! There really is no excuse NOT to use them if you already have a stash of long-form content that you could republish here on LinkedIn.
How to start publishing to LinkedIn Articles:
Look through all of the content you’ve already written. Do you have blogs, articles, guest posts, thoughtful emails, tutorials, or book excerpts you could use?
Build LinkedIn articles into your weekly content marketing process. If weekly is too ambitious, start with once per month.
Republish the article to LinkedIn on the same day each week (or month).
You’ll automatically be sharing a post to it on LinkedIn when you publish, but you can also drive targeted traffic to the post from your email newsletter, other social channels, or by DM’ing a few friendlies on LinkedIn to get the conversation started.
Start being consistent with your posting. That is KEY to continued success.
BONUS: Heard of the LinkedIn Newsletter feature? I don’t have this feature yet, though I do have LinkedIn Live! To get the Publish Newsletter feature, you’re going to need to publish LinkedIn articles consistently over time AND get decent engagement on your LinkedIn articles + your LinkedIn posts. It’s not a short-term strategy, but what the Publish Newsletter feature does give you is the ability to build a MASSIVE following on LinkedIn by having a public Newsletter that people can subscribe to. Sound amazing? Why, yes!!
;tldr
Stop prioritizing and going for that short-term buzz you get from a popular LinkedIn post that took you 2 minutes to write.
Start thinking about the long-term value of your brand and how your best content to continue to perform long after you’ve moved onto other topics.
Publish one LinkedIn article per week (or month) and test how they perform. You may be pleasantly surprised.
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Want to pick Mindi’s brain and get some feedback from others who are also learning how to use LinkedIn effectively to increase revenue and build thought leadership?
Join our [free] Facebook Group, which is a growing community filled with other B2B professionals who are all passionate about using LinkedIn in the right way.
Good People. Good Business.
