The power of LinkedIn for generating B2B leads is unquestionable.
HubSpot found that LinkedIn is 277% more effective at generating leads than Facebook and Twitter. That number increases for B2B marketers, who report that 80% of their social media leads come from LinkedIn.
While LinkedIn sessions continue to enjoy staggering increases year-on-year, only three million users (out of the over 740 million) actually create and share original content on a weekly basis, a statistic that LinkedIn hasn’t failed to notice.
For B2B marketers, this reluctance of the majority to use the most widely used social platform for business users to share original content should be leveraged to their advantage.
While it may be quick and easy to create short posts to attract attention and drive traffic to your blogs, e-books and other content, many marketers are not yet taking advantage of one of LinkedIn’s most powerful features, LinkedIn articles.
Since September 2021, the ability to publish long-form articles (up to 100,000 characters as opposed to 700 on a post) on LinkedIn has been rolled out to all company pages, but many people are still not aware of the feature or its benefits.
Why publish an article?
Increase your visibility:
LinkedIn articles appear in searches within LinkedIn but more importantly, they also show up on Google organic searches. You may choose to publish identical content on LinkedIn as you do in your blog but, chances are, having the word LinkedIn appear in the URL will see the LinkedIn article ranking higher on Google.
Increase dwell time
The LinkedIn algorithm considers dwell time as one of its top indicators of engagement. Longer content takes longer to read, therefore the dwell time followers spend on your company page will increase.
Become a thought leader
Seven hundred characters in a regular post doesn’t allow much room to publish in-depth and thoughtful content. Articles are an opportunity to do just that. The longer content allows you to showcase your expertise and authority on a particular subject to your regular followers and those who may be scoping you out.
The more quality in-depth content you post using the articles format the more your network will begin to see you as a go-to place for authoritative opinion.
Repurpose content and give it a new lease of life
Post old blog content that is still relevant or evergreen in the LinkedIn publishing platform. The fact it should show up on Google searches may result in more exposure, and potentially some new leads, from a piece of work that was near its sell by date!
Reach a new audience
The name of the game when it comes to winning on any social media platform is to create quality content than your intended audience engages with. The LinkedIn Publisher platform lets you create longer form, in-depth content right there on the site. It’s easy to share from there, so it’s reasonable to assume that if people like it, they may well share it.
Posting the same content on your website may reach a few thousand visitors per month but by publishing on LinkedIn articles you could potentially reach millions.
Are there any cons to LinkedIn publisher?
It’s still in its infancy, so not all LinkedIn followers are aware of it and are looking for articles. As a result, you’ll still need to create a post to alert people that you have written one. Think of it as a trailer to the main event.
How to publish an article
- Visit your company page as an admin
- Click the ‘Write Article’ button underneath ‘Start Post’
- Add a headline
- Add a cover image
- Start writing
- Drop in images or visuals to add interest
- Press Publish
- Click the share button to share with your network or copy and share the URL
Learn more here
