by Areti Vassou
Learn how you can use LinkedIn to promote your blog and your personal brand. See why it’s the ultimate social media content booster!
Every time I present this topic in a public speech, one question comes first: What can LinkedIn do for me?
LinkedIn is an American business and employment-oriented service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Founded on December 28, 2002, and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs.
It has more than 500 million+ members. Inside Linkedin, you can manage your professional identity. Build and engage with your professional network. Access knowledge, insights and opportunities.
As of 2015, most of the company’s revenue came from selling access to information about its members to recruiters and sales professionals. Since December 2016 it has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft. As of June 2019, LinkedIn had 630 million registered members in 200 countries.
What can LinkedIn do for you?
Usually, most people believe that just having a LinkedIn account is enough. As if a name or a photo can work magic for any user. LinkedIn is much more than just a social media channel.
It’s the most powerful tool for business growth and professional networking. Also, LinkedIn can boost our blog posts for free if you know how to use it. Let’s see the most important actions we can apply for our business development:
- SOCIAL SHARING
- PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING
- CAREER DEVELOPMENT
- DISPLAY RESUME
- SEARCH FOR JOBS
- PROFESSIONAL REPUTATION
- POST UPDATES
- INTERACT WITH PEOPLE
- GAIN AUTHORITY STATUS
- PUBLISH PROJECTS
- SHARE ACHIEVEMENTS
- CREATE COMPANY PAGE
- BOOST YOUR BLOG
- WRITE ARTICLES
- EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
With all the above users can drive traffic to their blog or website.
Build a Strong LinkedIn Account
Obviously a complete LinkedIn account is the number one step. Update all the information regarding your name, job title, experience, introduction in about section, add a clear profile picture and a cover photo, add your contact information, adjust the URL to your name, add all the relevant skills and use all the given elements through the add new section button.
To make a long story short, these are the most essential steps to make use of LinkedIn tools for personal & business branding.
- COMPLETE & UPDATE PERSONAL PROFILE
- CREATE YOUR COMPANY PAGE
- BUILD CONNECTIONS
- PUBLISH UPDATES 1-3 TIMES PER WEEK
- JOIN RELEVANT GROUPS
- CREATE YOUR GROUP
Social Sharing Power
When our LinkedIn account is well-formed and active it’s easier to share our latest posts and articles in front of the eyes of our network. It’s a very effective social media sharing tool. In most cases sharing 2-3 times per week can bring excellent traffic back to our website or blog.
Having said that, it is common sense that a LinkedIn sharing button into our website/blog it’s more than essential, in order to make it convenient for our visitors to share our content.
Prefer to share during working days and hours and avoid weekends. LinkedIn is a platform with a professional mindset and etiquette.
Professional Networking Magnet
Be extremely selective with the accounts that you are sending/accepting invitations to connect. For example, if you are a freelance copywriter it won’t bring you any new business contracts if your network has only fellow copywriters. You must seek to connect with Companies that it’s possible to have an opening for a new copywriter.
So keep your friends and family out of this formal social media channel and of course forget all the personal photos that could destroy your reputation among future or current employers. It may sound old fashioned tactic but career development can thrive within LinkedIn networking only under certain guidelines.
Every single post we share, every comment we make and every new article we publish can be a break you or make you step!
Having our CV history and files isn’t enough when our goal is to stand out in a crowd. For professional bloggers and content creators, sharing top-quality content is the strongest proof of our work ethics, skills & identity.
Remember that every time we add a new project, achievements, seminars, workshops, public speaking appearances, articles, experience or just a new post all our network is been notified for our latest activity. Using this immediate spread of word to our benefit, each piece of content can reach thousands of new readers and potential clients. Amazing, right?
Create your LinkedIn Company Page & Group
Dare to do the next step of authority establishment by creating your own LinkedIn Company Page and Group. You can invite your connections to follow your company page and join your branded group.
Why? Think of them as two extra doors to your website or blog. Sharing your posts there is the best way to create a wave of mature traffic into your digital assets. And more traffic equals more business leads. Don’t you agree?
And when you start writing articles into Pulse then your LinkedIn Page & Group are the perfect places to present your voice!
Pulse is LinkedIn’s publishing platform and the best place to establish your voice in your professional field. Get all the tips, tricks, and analytics you need to publish impactful content and reach a wider audience in this guide.
The stronger you get into this the better results you will see in your blog/website traffic. Why? Because every article can be the stepping stone to your blog’s posts though active links and integrations. Clever, right? And free!
Presentation at WordPress Athens Meetup
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to present this topic in a public speech at Athens WordPress Meetup. You can enjoy the presentation here:
