The professional-social network of LinkedIn can be a fickle beast for businesses, because despite the platform’s functionality being similar to that of Facebook’s, getting one of your carefully penned blog posts to take off can be a lot harder.
However, in a piece for Inc, Joseph Steinberg, chief executive of social media alert and monitoring tool SecureMySocial, has shared eight ways business owners and entrepreneurs can get the most out of posts they share on LinkedIn.
Steinberg drew upon his own experience and a conversation with Gabriel Shaoolian, founder of digital media firm Blue Mountain Media, to outline how businesses can get people reading their pieces on LinkedIn.
Read more:The most “powerful” Australian chief executives and founders on LinkedIn revealed
1. Keep titles short and sweet
According to Steinberg and Shaoolian, entrepreneurs have to know how to effectively craft 50 characters into a strong title for a LinkedIn article, as “the shorter you keep the title, the quicker a reader can get the gist of your post and decide whether or not to open and read it”.
2. Make the article physically easy to read
“Shaoolian recommends using line-and-a-half spacing and a font size of 12 or 14 for the body,” Steinberg says.
3. Use images, but not video
While LinkedIn is rolling out its own video function, Steinberg and Shaoolian believeLinkedIn articles themselves are not the place. They say authors simply need only a couple of engaging images.
“A picture needs to be compelling enough that it will catch LinkedIn browsers’ attention,” they say.
Having trouble finding that compelling image? Check out these 21 different free stock image websites.
4. Keep it as simple as possible
“Even if you are writing about some technical issue, you still want to garner the attention of a broad audience,” Steinberg writes.
“Avoid jargon —or explain what terms mean the first time that you use them —and assume that you are writing for someone with no prior expertise in the topic that you discuss.”
5. Make your pieces advice based and practical
“Always include ‘how tos’or provide service information that readers can use and apply to their own business situations,” Steinberg writes.
“Make it crystal clear why the information that you are providing is useful to readers.”
6. Write a lot around one topic
Keeping your focus on an area you’re experienced in when writing articles can work wonders for your exposure says Steinberg, recommending business owners try to position themselves as ‘thought leaders’ on a topic.
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7. Cross promote
Have a Twitter account? Share it. A Facebook account? Share it. Reddit? Instagram? Myspace? You betcha, get sharing.
8. Tell your friends
“Share the LinkedIn link to your article, and email people whom you believe will enjoy the piece with a message that you think they would be interested in your latest article,” Steinberg says.
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This story originally appeared on SmartCompany.
