There are many ways to share information on LinkedIn, but is there a method of sharing content on LinkedIn that has been proven as the most effective? And what if paid advertising is not an option right now? Are there any viable organic options to choose from?
The answer is yes, there are in fact a few organic options that can be used to get the job done quite effectively without having to pay for it. Below are some tips that you can use as a LinkedIn content guide.
Leveraging LinkedIn groups
Unlike Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn professionals join the social platform to grow their professional network, learn about industry trends and build their brand. This makes creating LinkedIn groups ideal for attracting clients and customers who care about your industry’s topics and your business’ product or service.
The audience you attract to your LinkedIn group may be drawn to discussions around a variety of topics surrounding your product or service purely for educational purposes or may be interested in your product or service itself.
It’s important to have topics that your clients and customers care about because your content will not only attract them to your group, but also keep the discussions going among members.
Tips for sharing updates on LinkedIn
While short and punchy updates are a great way to attract your audience’s attention, linking a blog post or an interesting website will allow your audience to engage in an even richer source of insight, packed with information.
You can also try,
- sharing updates like links to interesting articles, websites or videos coupled with words designed to grab readers’ attention and encourage them to click the link.
- attaching a document to your status update that may be helpful to readers who appreciate checklists, white papers or in-depth case studies.
- mentioning a person or a business that features in your post that may be helpful to your connections. Adding the “@” symbol before the business or person’s name will enable the reader to click on the profile mentioned and learn more about them.
- mentioning events that you have attended to encourage conversation and questions about your involvement.
Things to avoid when sharing updates on LinkedIn
There are few subjects that you should stay away from on this social networking platform since LinkedIn is a professional network that’s made up of mostly working professionals. These kinds of subjects tend to stick out like a sore thumb and really have no place in this environment.
For example subjects like,
- Discussing what you had for breakfast and how your cat woke you up this morning. It’s always best to check that what you are sharing is relevant and adds value to your audience before you share it. Chances are that people who scroll through the LinkedIn homepage aren’t looking for insights into how delicious your waffles were this morning.
- Spamming. LinkedIn is not like Twitter, where it is socially acceptable to post on average 20 times a day. You don’t want to come off as annoying or desperate, so limit your daily updates to no more than a handful.
- Mentioning sensitive topics. Don’t discuss your personal life in detail on a professional social network, some topics are better left private.
- Continuous promotion of products or services. It’s okay to mention your services every now and then, just to tell people what your business is about, but don’t do this often as audiences tend to get annoyed and ignore blatant advertising.
- Don’t post an update outside of business hours. Most LinkedIn audiences are online during the day on weekdays, so it doesn’t make sense to post when no one is looking, for example, close to midnight on a Friday evening.
Publish Long-Form Posts
Assuming the majority of your connections are like-minded professionals, it should be fairly easy to target your audience right away with topics that will resonate with them. Shared interest with connections will allow for opportunities for people to comment and share their expertise on the chosen topic.
The more long-form posts you publish, the more chance of exposure you will have with your connections. Posting frequently is a great way to showcase your thought leadership on certain topics and add value within your network and if your connections happen to resonate with your content enough, they may even follow you and share it with others opening up a brand new audience.
