How to Use LinkedIn Publishing to Strategically Expand Your Network
May 22, 2015
LinkedIn has made quite a few changes over the last year, making the platform easier to use and providing users with more useful tools to keep and stay up-to-date with those relevant to their business or industry. The one feature that can help business owners, marketers, hiring managers and job seekers alike is LinkedIn Publishing.
For those who have used this feature, many have realized the power of reaching a different audience through targeted tags. If your article is tagged properly, Pulse may allow you to reach a large audience you would not have otherwise reached. Not only that, those who read your article and like what they see have the ability to follow you directly from the article post page.
While this alone is truly powerful for increasing your network, the one feature that stands out to me the most is the “Who’s Viewed Your Posts” feature. This feature is so powerful and useful for connecting with the right audience. There are several reasons for this, which I will review one by one.
“Your Posts” Carousel
This feature allows users to easily scroll through their published posts to compare statistics. Users can easily see what worked and what did not by scrolling through their posts on the carousel. It is user-friendly and users can easily scroll back multiple posts to review statistics on an older post. On the downside, if the user has a lot of posts, scrolling could become cumbersome.
Users can select what time frame to review from 7 days up to one year to see how many views the post had. An older post that is still getting views may mean a follow-up post is in order.
Demographics of Your Readers
Top 4 Industries
Are you reaching the industries you want to reach? If not, then you may need to tweak either your titles or your tags. When you are writing, always keep in mind the audience you want to reach and write to them specifically. If your tags are not correct, find groups in that industry and see what names they use for the groups and terminology used within the group. Groups can be a great resource in finding the right tags to reach the audience you want to reach with your articles.
Top 4 Job Titles
Here, again, is an opportunity to tweak your posts going forward. For instance, if you are a business whose ideal client or strategic partner is a realtor, you would write to that job title to gain more readers from your target. This is a great way to meet more of the people you truly want to connect with for your business!
Top 4 Locations
This category can be a little more challenging since more than likely most of the views came from your immediate geographic area. If, however, you are trying to reach an audience in a different location, you could use the location in your title or tag the location (remember, you are limited to 3, though). If your company is expanding and you want to reach a different geographic market, it may be beneficial to do this to reach them, though.
Top 4 Traffic Sources
Since the article is published on LinkedIn, it is likely most of your traffic will be LinkedIn-based. You can share your article other places, though, so this is a good way to track where you are getting the most traffic from. It is also a good place to analyze your Linkeded.com vs. Pulse traffic. Is most of your traffic coming from those you are already connected to, or is mostly coming from those you don’t know on Pulse?
When you put all of these 4 categories together and analyze them, you will be able to better target through titles and tags to reach the audience you desire. After all, the whole point of LinkedIn is to connect with the right people. It is up to you to use the tools available to do that!
Who’s Responding to Your Post
This is by far my favorite tool in the “Who’s Viewed Your Posts” feature! This is one place you want to spend time reviewing regularly because this is where you will find the people you want to reach. You can review this section three ways: Likes, Comments, and Shares
Likes
Likes are important because they are providing you with positive feedback on what you have written. Only a portion of people who read an article will “like” the article. Someone who has already provided you positive feedback is more likely to connect with you and either collaborate or work with you. Review them regularly and reach out to those you feel would either be great to partner with or potential clients going forward. Do NOT try to sell them upon connecting. Please get to know them first.
Comments
These folks have taken time out of their days, read your article, and taken the time to comment, either positively or negatively. Sometimes they will offer another view on what you wrote about. All are great chances to connect. Be sure you are responding when people comment on your articles. Don’t ever be defensive and always be respectful. Not everyone will have your opinion, and that is okay. Negative comments or alternative views can be great ideas for future articles, so take this information for what it is – useful information you can build on. Since you will likely get far fewer comments than likes, you should really pay attention to folks that comment on your articles. This is your chance to make a great impression and connect with them through an online conversation. Be sure to reach out and make the connection with those who are good connections for you.
Shares
This section is my favorite! Any blogger knows that shares are one of the biggest compliments you can get! I am forever grateful to those who share anything I have written. These folks read your article and felt it was important enough for others to read, also, and they shared it with their networks. Take the time to review these folks and connect with those who are a good fit. You may also want to reach out and thank them for sharing your article as a way to start the conversation.
Likes, Comments, and Shares are super important. If you are writing articles on LinkedIn, you should also be using the tools LinkedIn provides to connect with the right people and increase your network!
There are so many possibilities with LinkedIn and LinkedIn Publishing. I would love to hear of any other ways you use LinkedIn publishing to expand our Network.
If you are interested in a Social Media Audit to see how you can improve your current strategy, please schedule a call with me HERE to see how we can work together!
