Creating The LinkedIn Content That Will Draw Readers

If you are looking to attract more connections on LinkedIn, simply having a perfect profile won’t be enough. To really draw the interest of new connections, you will need to share engaging content. Read on to find out how you can develop LinkedIn content that serves this purpose.

Why you need to publish great content on LinkedIn

Here are a few reasons why creating great content on LinkedIn can help you professionally:

• Publishing on LinkedIn adds value: Your connections want to get more value out of their interaction with you. By creating useful content, you give them value.
• Creating content helps build authority: Publishing content is a good way to demonstrate your expertise and earn trust. This strengthens professional ties.
• Good content extends your reach: Every good piece of content is an opportunity to be shared by your connections. Your connections can grow exponentially this way.
• You can take advantage of LinkedIn Pulse: Pulse is LinkedIn’s daily news feed which features content from various users. Being on this feed can blow up your account.

There are many reasons to start writing your own LinkedIn content. The four above are the most compelling.

Developing your LinkedIn content strategy

Effective writing must be part of a planned content strategy. Knowing the topics that you want to tackle, before you even start writing, helps you organize and plan it all out. Your topics should be in line with your goals on the site. Do you want to connect with other professionals, or attract recruiters? Select topics that will attract your intended audience.

LinkedIn provides two useful tools for discovering topics to tackle in your content: the Editorial Calendar and the new Content Insights Quarterly Report. The Editorial Calendar is an annual publication released by the site outlining the monthly themes it promotes. On the other hand, the Content Insights Report is a new quarterly report released by LinkedIn detailing the most popular topics that have been published. When you use both tools for inspiration, make sure the topics you finally choose relate to your target audience’s interests.

Deciding on the length of your article

Length is another factor to consider when planning your content. Bear in mind that most of your readers are professionals who might be too busy to take in lengthy content. But then again, your content should be long enough to effectively convey the full information on the topic you are trying to address.

Epictions notes that the ideal length for a long-form article on LinkedIn is around 2000-2500 words. This gives you enough space to tackle the details of your topic while still being concise enough to be easily browsed through. What’s more, articles of this length are more likely to be to be shared by your readers.

Coming up with a compelling title

Having an intriguing and compelling title is vital to attracting the interest of readers. Here are some quick tips to come up with a title that will entice them to click on it:

• Use “Why” and “How”: These two words tell readers that you have some useful information for them in your article.
• Include enticing adjectives: Words like “essential,” “incredible,” “effortless,” and “free” also work well in piquing the interests of your audience.
• Make use of numbers: Numerical figures are some the biggest indicators to your readers that you are about to present useful data in front of them.
• Promise something valuable: By clearly stating the value of the article to your audience, you give them the impetus to click through and read on.

Keep in mind that the title that you provide should perfectly relate to the nature and content of the whole article. Avoid vague titles that do not give readers a clear picture of what the article contains.

Creating an identity for your content

Coming up with original content is essential if you want your LinkedIn articles to stand out. Go beyond the usual kinds of articles you post and tackle topics that have not yet been touched upon by others. You can also go back to previous topics you have written about and rewrite them from an entirely different angle.

Originality and authenticity are key to making your content stand out from other articles on the same topic. Having an authentic voice to write your articles in makes them more credible and earns you the trust of old and new connections alike. Finding this voice requires some practice, but you can do it. A good way to tackle it is by keeping in mind that all your readers are actual people. Think about how you would converse with them in person, and write your articles in the same manner.

Planning when and where to post your LinkedIn content

For your LinkedIn content to do its work, your audience needs to read it at the perfect moment. This is where creating a content calendar comes in handy. With it, you can plan out what type of content to put out at the time that will maximize your readers’ interests. You can also lay out follow-up posts in the calendar to better coordinate the continuous flow of information.

Where you would want to post individual content is also something you will need to consider. For the most part, this would be the Publishing Platform, because of the wider reach and more targeted viewership. Don’t forget about your profile’s status update. The status update is great for posting shorter content you want to get out immediately to your network. This includes news and updates, as well as smaller pieces of information.

You can attach documents to your status updates to provide your audience with more details they can read at their own leisure. Linking to your published articles will help readers discover more of your content and better appreciate the information you have to offer.

Increasing your readership: Directly address your readers

Your audience is more likely to engage with your content if they are the ones being addressed in the articles. You can do this by writing in the second person. Using industry-specific language also helps draw the attention of your professional audience.

Another technique to attract more readers is to ask questions. You can post them in the title or throughout the content itself. Encourage your readers to answer your questions in the comments section to create further engagement.

Use multimedia content

Going through lengthy text can sometimes be boring. Avoid this by presenting some of your content in multimedia format. As these sorts of content are also shareable, they will further increase your reach. Infographics are particularly popular on the platform as they allow you to present information in an easily consumable format.

Videos will always remain popular media formats – use them often. Another format you can experiment with are presentation slides which are great for tackling topics in a quick and concise manner.

Leverage influencers and experts

During the early stages of building your LinkedIn presence, you will have likely connected with a number of influencers and experts in hopes of boosting your prominence. Now is the time for you to make use of those connections by getting them to share your content. Tag or mention them in your posts to get their attention. You can also go a step further and ask them to write a guest post, or two, for you.

To further increase the effectiveness of this approach, use tools like SocialRez’s LinkedIn Connections service. The idea here is to increase the social proof of your profile by increasing the number of connections you have you increase the credibility of your profile, as well as the content you share.

Repurpose content

Coming up with different content for each new post can be exhausting. In this case, you can put something out by repurposing the content that you have already published. The idea here is to improve upon the initial presentation of your content. For instance, you can turn a long blog post into a series of videos that explains the topic better. This simple infographic, provided by LinkedIn Senior Product Consultant Kristin Kunasingam, teaches how you can easily do content repurposing:

It’s not just your own content that you can repurpose. You can use content from other creators and present it differently. This provides your readers with more useful information, including that which comes from the outside source. Don’t forget to give credit and a link to the original content. The content’s original creators will appreciate it and return the favor. This will increase your own content’s reach.

Publish LinkedIn content to get more connections

Putting out LinkedIn content is a great way to increase your prominence on the site and attract more connections. Here’s what you must do to make it work:

• Plan your content well: Your audience is looking for useful content that they can apply in their professional lives. Come up with content that answers this need.
• Engage your readers: You can capture your reader’s interest by directly addressing them in your content. Adding multimedia content also helps present information better.
• Use your network to spread the word: By effectively engaging your connections with your content, you increase the likelihood of them sharing it. This will bring in more potential connections.

Follow these steps and you will soon be attracting more people to your own network, all of whom can help you professionally.