LinkedIn doesn’t get as much publicity as other social networks. But most other social networks are for personal life. LinkedIn is for professional life. With a little bit of personal baked in. Because those two worlds do often collide. LinkedIn has steadily been doing some really good things that make people want to use the platform.
And that’s great for marketers because they can benefit from all the people using LinkedIn. And if you go about it the right way you can create content that benefits you, others and LinkedIn. And if you do that you’re likely to see success over the long run.
Here are a few tips for creating your own LinkedIn content strategy.
1. Frequency
John Bonini is a great example of how to use LinkedIn with a content strategy. John does a lot of other things including write great blog posts. I usually follow what he’s writing and sharing on LinkedIn and one thing I notice is that he updates about 3-4 times per week. Sometimes it’s daily or daily during the workweek.
And that’s a good rule of thumb for a LinkedIn content strategy. If you’re going to do it, prepare to do it fairly often. One important thing to remember with this is that you might be able to do this spontaneously for awhile. But most people struggle to create content this way.
You will likely need to create some kind of calendar. It could be a spreadsheet. It could be on a calendar app. It could be in your notes app. It could be a written notebook that you keep on your desk.
Schedule time to brainstorm content ideas. Stories, tips, questions, answers, etc. Schedule time once a week for an hour or two. Research things you can write and share on LinkedIn. Come up with your five or so for the week.
Then schedule separate time for writing and creating that content. It could be daily. Each day you open your schedule, see the topic and then you take off and write it.
2. Stories
Kevin Bailey has a really great LinkedIn strategy. He shares all kinds of content, but one that he does fairly often is some type of story. He shared this one about his son, who seems like a budding businessman.
Humans are storytellers and story consumers. It seems that stories have long been part of human culture. I imagine that stories were told as both education and entertainment content. We learn from stories. We don’t even have to relate entirely to a story to be engaged by it.
LinkedIn is great for sharing short little stories. About life. About work. About clients. About employees. All kinds of things that others can relate to and engage with.
3. Lists
Lists work great on LinkedIn. And you can create them in different ways. Video is a great way. Here is an example of a short video list. You can create them with just the written word. You can create short lists with three quick things. You can create long lists that have 50 or even 100 things. There is a character limit on LinkedIn, but there is no reason you can’t create a long-ish list.
The thing with lists is that they often spark engagement. They can be helpful, but not everyone will agree with them. Especially if you’re ranking something. Make sure to have lists as part of your LinkedIn strategy.
4. Q&A
Questions are a great way to get engagement on LinkedIn. Here is an example of a poll. You can ask a question and have people respond in the comments. That can work well for open-ended questions. You can ask for questions and then provide the answers with future posts or you can comment right in the thread that you started when you asked the question.
I love question and answer format for just about any form of content marketing. The reason is that if one person is asking you a question you can bet that many, many more are asking the same question elsewhere. They’re googling it. They’re searching on LinkedIn. They’re thinking it and clicking when they see a headline somewhere. And this is true on LinkedIn where you often see the comments your connections are making on other posts.
5. Commenting
Commenting is something that can be overlooked when it comes to social media including LinkedIn. It’s great to consistently create your own content. But also seek out content that you find interesting and leave comments on them. Sometimes it could be short and sweet, but aim to make some of it more insightful and lengthy.
For example, if someone asks a question with a post and you feel you have a good thought, go ahead and leave a long-ish comment. They will appreciate it. Their connections may appreciate it. Commenting is about giving engagement to others, but often you’ll find that you receive lots of engagement in return. This is a good example of a thoughtful comment.
6. Snippets
I’ve been writing about snippets for nearly 10 years. You can do it in a number of ways. You can create a blog post. From that post you can create 3-5 snippets of content that you can share on LinkedIn. So instead of sharing just the link to the post, you’re engaging right on the platform. That’s what LinkedIn wants and it’s really what users on LinkedIn want to. They want to consume the content right on the platform.
Here is an example of a snippet from a blog post.
7. Words, Photos, Graphics, Audio & Video
Written word works well on LinkedIn. But obviously it’s important to explore the other types of content that LinkedIn allows. You can use photos, graphics, audio and video. Sometimes it’s best to focus on the one that you like creating the most. Start there and maybe expand to the others as you have more success and you can bring others on to your team to help you create the other types of content.
For example, perhaps you prefer writing. You can write posts for LinkedIn. After that does well you can have someone help to create graphics from that content where they take your insights and create a visual to give those that prefer visuals something on LinkedIn.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is a great marketing opportunity for professionals and marketers. There is an engaged audience that is looking for all kinds of content. If you feel it’s time to begin a LinkedIn content strategy, you’re right. Hopefully this little guide can get you started in the right direction.