Extend your LinkedIn article’s reach – what to write in your SHORT POST

Getting content engagement and personal brand visibility among the right people: Share your articles with well-thought-out short intro posts

I recently shared a process and some sample topics to help write high quality and differentiated LinkedIn articles, either for yourself or others, when you have limited time. This was particularly relevant to advisors and directors of professional service businesses, and the people who support them.

Of course, you don’t want to work hard on that quality article only to find that very few people will even see it. It’s important to work on gaining maximum visibility among your target audience, too.

Here are some important steps for the SHORT POST you write to accompany the article when you are sharing it with your audience on LinkedIn.

(If you don’t know what I’m talking about feel free to drop me a line, or take a look at my short posts on my LinkedIn profile as examples.)

This will help to increase your article’s achievement in terms of eyeballs and brain engagement… among the right people!

• Give your audience a reason to read. Introductory sentences could be made up of one of:
  • An eye-catching statement straight from the article
  • A summary of what the article is about
  • A statement of who would benefit from reading and what they’ll get from it
  • Include key words such as industry types who you are targeting in the article, or topic words that people might search for
  • Persuasive/emotive (but not promotional) language that entices people to read e.g. ‘A must-read if you are struggling with…’
  • A question that makes the audience identify with the content e.g. ‘Is this you?’ or ‘Have you experienced this…?’ or ‘Do you have problems with…?’
• Make your article work harder. LinkedIn will share your article when you hit publish. Schedule a second share that month, and future share/s in upcoming months. Each time you share, you should write a different introductory sentence in your post, to entice people to read in various ways. I’ve often got more engagement on second and third shares!
• Include a few hashtags of relevant keywords that people might use if searching for this type of content (or words they might be engaging with) e.g. #TaxUpdate #BusinessPlanning #RoyalCommission (!)
• Be mindful of the time of day you are posting – as most people access LinkedIn on their phones, try for before/after work hours, or if that’s impossible, during typical lunch/coffee break times. You could use a scheduling program to schedule future shares of an article, once it is published – in this way you can control the timing without physically posting at that time.
• Where possible, tag in highly relevant people (but check confidentiality before publishing – e.g. case studies) e.g. event organisers or people whose work you’ve referenced or who worked with you on the project/IP behind the article. This will extend the reach of your article significantly. DON’T just tag a bunch of people because they represent your target market (more on representing your personal brand through stylish posting in a future article!).

As always, keep in mind that people are busy and don’t care about your content nearly as much as you do. It’s all about WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? Make sure this is clear not just in the article, but also in your introductory short post.

“The number of hits means nothing unless the people seeing your content are the RIGHT people for your purpose.”

And remember that the number of hits on your article means nothing unless the people seeing your content are the RIGHT people for your purpose – whether that’s gaining new clients, influencing people or simply giving people something to think about.