One of LinkedIn’s coolest features is its built-in publishing platform, giving individuals the ability to post original, long-form content. Utilizing this tool is huge for building your personal brand, growing your network, and improving your profile’s aesthetics. Additionally, your posts will be searchable both on and off of LinkedIn!
Here are some other features of publishing a post on LinkedIn:
- Your connections receive a notification when you publish a new post, automatically driving traffic to it
- People out of your network will be able to follow you and get notifications each time you post
- LinkedIn has built-in analytics, allowing you to see how each post is performing (views, engagement, etc.)
- If your post is relevant enough to your audience and targets a specific channel, it will show up in Pulse, which is LinkedIn’s aggregation app for trending posts
Now that I’ve sold you on the benefits of publishing your own posts, let’s get down to logistics. Follow these steps to become a certified LinkedIn publisher.
Step 1: Come up with your topic & title
Write about something useful and informative, and make sure your post title is click-worthy. Everyone has their own skills and expertise that they can share with others. Start with your specialties and do some research to see what is hot in the streets topic-wise.
Pro tip: Craft your post in Microsoft Word, not in LinkedIn’s Publisher.
Step 2: Find a header image to draw people in – size it appropriately
Now that you’ve come up with a killer topic and written your masterpiece, it’s time to represent it visually. Make sure that the image you choose is visually appealing and ties into the subject of your post. Google images are fine, but you can also find free stock images on a number of professional sites.
Images for your post should be at least 700 x 400 pixels. Larger is fine as long it is the same aspect ratio and doesn’t exceed the file size limit. Not a designer? There are plenty of online tools to help you convert inches or centimeters to pixels in PowerPoint’s “Page Setup”.
Pro tip: Find and size your image before pulling your post into LinkedIn.
Step 3: Proofread for grammar and easiness to read
People generally come to LinkedIn for a specific purpose, and won’t want to spend 20 minutes reading an overly-wordy post that’s difficult to understand. Make sure that whatever you’re talking about can be understood by the masses, while still being useful and grammatically correct. Another set of eyes never hurts if you have a friend or colleague who is willing to give it the once-over.
Pro tip: The reason for this being Step 3 is that it’s easy for you to overlook mistakes or not be critical of your writing immediately after putting your post together. Set the post aside while you do Step 2.
Step 4: Time to post!
Click on the “Publish a Post” button from LinkedIn’s homepage to open up the publisher interface.
Here is where you will enter your post’s title, paste your post and upload your header image. If you want to add hyperlinks or format any text on the backend, this is where you would do that as well.
After you’re comfortable with the look of your post, be sure to add tags to make it easier for people to find. Up to 3 tags can be added per post and they should be relevant to your topic.
Pro tip: Always give your post one more read before hitting the “Publish” button.
Step 5: Check in to see how your post performs
After you’ve posted enough times you’ll be able to see which topics and styles perform better than others, and if you’re reaching the right people. Your network is yours, so everyone’s audience will be different. Use this info to fine tune your posts going forward!
Congratulations – you are now a LinkedIn publisher! If you have any questions regarding this post or Social Media in general, tweet me @BenKeylor.
