1. 10 | SPEAKER | October 2015
MARKETING FOR RESULTS
Social media and content marketing tips
LinkedIn: A Main-Stage Opportunity
L
inkedIn set the bar for its
media platform when it of-
fered notable industry
leaders and personalities
such as Marshall Gold-
smith, Deepak Chopra,
MD, and Sir Richard Branson the op-
portunity to share their thoughts and
ideas as LinkedIn Influencers.
When it later rolled out the
LinkedIn Publisher platform for the
rest of us, the idea was to help every-
one discover new influencers who
could add value to their network.
This remains the opportunity today,
but many fail to understand its signifi-
cance, and more important, how to
strategically leverage it. LinkedIn Pub-
lisher is not just another blogging plat-
form, but a respected, main-stage
opportunity for communicating your
expertise to an audience of millions.
Here are some best practices for
making the most of it.
Choose your subscriptions.
Subscribe to appropriate
LinkedIn Pulse channels, and
study the leading influencers to under-
stand the type of content that is most
desired by your audience. Also take note
of keywords for optimizing that content.
Go long—or short. LinkedIn
recommends long-form articles
that are 900 to 1,500 words;
although, others suggest 300 to 600
words for faster reading. You’ll need to
decide for yourself, as it depends upon
the nature of your content and its tar-
get audience.
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Write smart headlines. Create
compelling headlines that sug-
gest important insights. To be
considered an influencer whose ideas
are worth sharing, your headline has to
instantly communicate that you’re of-
fering more than “me too” content.
Maximize multimedia. Use
Publisher’s multimedia capabil-
ities by choosing an attractive
header image for your article (698 x
400 pixels is optimal), embedding
YouTube videos or SlideShare presenta-
tions, or including hyperlinks to them
and other media that adds value.
Tag away. Choose from up
to three of the available tags
to optimize your content for
search, and to ensure it lands in the
appropriate LinkedIn Pulse channel.
Important tip: Updating the tags of
previously published articles will
place them back into the stream.
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Analyze the data. If you have
a premium account, study your
analytics to learn more about
the demographics of those consuming
your content, and to be certain you are
attracting the right audience.
Engage. Reach out and engage
further with those liking, com-
menting and sharing your con-
tent, and always include a descriptive
signature and a call-to-action with your
content to encourage engagement and
build your network.
LinkedIn Publisher is an amazing op-
portunity for connecting with speaking
opportunities around the globe, and it’s
completely free. When you consider that
LinkedIn Publisher articles become a
permanent part of your personal profile,
and appear above the fold, why would
anyone not give it their very best?
Some experts suggest the day will
come when there will be a price for using
LinkedIn Publisher—with a primary rea-
son being to uphold the quality standards
of LinkedIn that are being challenged by
self-promotion and second-rate content.
Until it arrives, take advantage of
this as you would any other main-stage
opportunity.
Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the
author of Built-In Social and
host of This Old New Busi-
ness podcast. He helps
organizations adapt tradi-
tional business growth practices to a digital,
social and global world. Connect with him
on Twitter @jeffkorhan and learn more at
JeffKorhan.com.
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