With more than 875 million members and about 134.5 million daily users, LinkedIn is a go-to platform for networking, job hunting, and sharing industry insights.
But did you know that in addition to posts, LinkedIn allows for publishing articles just as you would in a business blog? This type of content can not only help you establish yourself as a thought leader but also effectively promote your brand.
However, LinkedIn articles are different from your regular blog posts and require a different approach. In this guide, we’re exploring the main reasons why you should post on LinkedIn, giving actionable tips on how to write good articles on LinkedIn, and providing some LinkedIn article examples to help you get started.
A LinkedIn article is a long-form piece of writing, similar to a blog post that you create and publish on LinkedIn with the help of the network’s publishing tools. The character limit is simply enormous — your article can contain as many as 125,000 characters, which is around 20,000 words. Some of the most common LinkedIn article examples include industry insights, professional advice, and how-to guides.
While LinkedIn posts also allow you to share your news and professional expertise with your connections and the larger community, they’re limited to just 1,300 characters.
That’s why, if you want to write an in-depth, detailed piece, an article is a better choice.
In addition, LinkedIn Publisher posts are indexed by Google, meaning if you publish an article publicly, users can find it on Google.
As a massive networking platform, LinkedIn has a lot to offer for your brand growth. Let’s take a more detailed look at why it’s worth pursuing this strategy.
Well-written LinkedIn articles are an excellent way to demonstrate your knowledge in the domain. Sharing meaningful quality content can go a long way toward attracting your target audience and building trust.
LinkedIn articles are shareable, meaning that if you craft engaging, in-depth content, you’ll likely get numerous shares. This works well for expanding your audience. While posting content on your website may bring a few thousand visitors per month, by publishing articles on LinkedIn, you can potentially reach millions — in addition to sharing them via a LinkedIn message or post, users can share LinkedIn articles directly to Twitter and Facebook.
As an extensive business-focused network, LinkedIn offers the most direct way to connect with decision-makers, including senior-level executives. By publishing material that these leaders may find valuable, you’ll multiply your chances of establishing new partnerships.
While running LinkedIn ads and sponsored content always means extra costs, posting articles on LinkedIn is absolutely free. By devising a solid LinkedIn content strategy, you’ll get an effective and budget-friendly marketing channel.
Crafting a strong LinkedIn content strategy not only provides you with an effective and budget-friendly marketing channel but also opens the opportunity to expand your reach by adding a User to LinkedIn Campaign without extra costs.
One of the best things about sharing articles on LinkedIn is that they show up in searches, and due to LinkedIn’s high authority, publicly posted quality articles get ranked very quickly. As a result, your search engine visibility grows, engaging more users, even those without LinkedIn accounts.
LinkedIn is a business network, which is important to consider when planning to post an article on the platform. LinkedIn content writing is different from publishing a typical blog post, so to leverage the power of LinkedIn articles and drive value to your brand, you need to approach it in a slightly different way. So, let’s discover how to write a LinkedIn article that can help your brand grow.
Because LinkedIn is a platform for business professionals, this calls for an appropriate writing style. While being too formal isn’t the best choice, you shouldn’t sound overly sensationalist, either. A good LinkedIn article is clear, engaging, and professional.
While LinkedIn Publisher lets you publish long articles, an 800–2,000-word piece will work best. This length typically suffices to cover any topic and is just right to make sure your audience will read it to the end.
Start with a short but strong introduction, and make sure it’s concise and to the point. To ensure your article is structured and thus easier to read, incorporate subheadings to highlight the main points of the text, as in this example. Also, consider adding relevant quality images — they will make your article more visually engaging.
Similar to any other social platform, LinkedIn employs sophisticated algorithms to determine how to distribute new content. Still, what this boils down to is showing your content to people discussing topics you care about.
In other words, LinkedIn is more likely to promote content that is relevant to your network and their interests. Moreover, the algorithm will favor content that encourages conversations and drives engagement. A quick tip: you can spark discussions in the comment section below your article by asking questions or welcoming readers to share their experiences.
Of course, your writing shouldn’t contain any errors — this could destroy your reputation instead of delivering value. Also, double-check your text to ensure it’s logically sequenced and has a reader-friendly structure. Make sure that all your subheadings are written according to the same principle:
Although the LinkedIn editor allows you to save drafts, it doesn’t have a built-in spell checker. That’s why it’s a better idea to create and polish your drafts in a text processor that will check your spelling and grammar, then copy and paste it into LinkedIn Publisher.
One common practice of LinkedIn content writing is repurposing existing articles from your business blog. While it’s an excellent way to reinforce your overall content strategy, you should keep a couple of things in mind when syndicating an article from your blog on LinkedIn.
For starters, you need to change the title, introduction, and feature image, targeting the piece to your LinkedIn audience. Also, always include a link back to the original article. This provides transparency and gives readers a clue about where they can find similar content.
Once you’ve published your article, share it — the window with sharing options will open after it’s posted. You can share it on your personal LinkedIn feed as well as on Twitter and Facebook.
To reach a broader audience, add hashtags to your social media posts, keeping them few but relevant.
Just in case you’re a LinkedIn newbie, here are the steps to post an article on LinkedIn:
1. Sign in to your LinkedIn account.
2. Click Write article on the home page.
3. Paste your headline and text in the appropriate fields and add a cover image.
4. Click Publish.
LinkedIn is a powerful platform that allows niche experts to showcase their expertise and expand their audience. By publishing articles on LinkedIn, you can position yourself as a thought leader in your industry and grow your brand.
Still, to deliver value through your articles, it’s vital to ensure that your pieces are well-written and relevant to your audience.
If you consider LinkedIn an effective platform for your brand promotion but aren’t confident in your writing skills, we’re here to help. The professional content writers at ReVerb can help you create engaging and highly converting LinkedIn articles to raise brand awareness and attract new audiences.