Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

LinkedIn is on a mission to change your mind.

"You may think of LinkedIn as primarily a site where people upload their digital résumé," the company notes in a new eBook. "But nine billion content impressions per week are delivered in the LinkedIn feed -- more than 15 times the job postings in the feed.

"These stats reveal that LinkedIn has become a destination where professionals consume high-quality content from professional publishers like The Wall Street Journal and The Economist, and even from peers who are sharing content in the feed."...

If you only view LinkedIn as the site where you keep your digital resume and virtual business card collection, you won’t see how it really can help grow your business, expand your content’s audience, and build valuable connections.

LinkedIn is the definitive professional publishing platform and one of the largest business publishers in the world, according to Todd Wheatland, Head of Content Strategy at King Content.

In his presentation at Content Marketing World 2014, Wheatland noted that LinkedIn is often cited as the No. 1 source for new business. He pointed to content marketing phenoms Jay Baer, Joe Pulizzi, and Lee Odden, all of whom have named LinkedIn as their top source for new business as they built their multi-million-dollar companies in the last five years. It’s not just for entrepreneurs either. Wheatland’s previous employer, Kelly Services Inc., also cites LinkedIn as the top generator for new business.

How many views, likes and shares did your last LinkedIn Publisher post get? Did it draw in your connections and inspire them to share or did it get lost in all of the noise, like many other posts on LinkedIn?

There are so many people publishing long form content on LinkedIn now that you have to catch your potential readers interest right away if you want them to click through to yours.

Once they are on your post, you need to ensure that you don’t lose their interest because its too time consuming to read. You must make it easy for them to scan and grab the bits that they are most interested in.

Finally, you need to inspire them to take action, whether its sharing your post, connecting with you or visiting your website.

If your LinkedIn Publisher post lacks the elements that will draw readers in, keep them on the page and inspire them take action when they are done, you are probably wasting your time.

Here are eight ways to get the maximum impact from each of your LinkedIn Publisher posts, by making them click worthy, easily read and action inspiring...