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How to Write Great LinkedIn Articles (With Examples)

How to Write Great LinkedIn Articles (With Examples)

On its surface, writing a LinkedIn article may seem unnecessary. It is an unpaid service that has no guarantee of helping advance your career prospects. 

However, the truth is that well-written LinkedIn Articles provide many benefits to their authors. The benefits of writing a LinkedIn Article more than make the endeavor worth the time investment.

Otherwise, why are others still doing it? Let’s dive in and see what LinkedIn articles can do. 

Table of content: 

What Is A LinkedIn Article?

Benefits of writing linkedin articles, how to write a great linkedin article, examples of great linkedin articles .

Articles are  different from updates . Basically they are longer, in-depth blog liked pieces where you can create and publish on LinkedIn for you to share content about: 

  • Thought leadership
  • Professional experiences and anecdotes
  • Industry insights and expertise
  • Advice for other professionals
  • Opinions on developments in your field
  • Content marketing messages in support of your brand

How to Write Great LinkedIn Articles (With Examples)

In our own opinion, we see there are three main benefits of writing LinkedIn articles.

Establishes You as a Thought Leader

Something critical in any industry is establishing yourself as a thought leader. Businesses are looking for candidates who are experts in their fields. An article outlining your expertise allows you to position yourself as precisely that.

Candidates could have similar levels of expertise on any given topic. However, from the employer’s perspective, the ones who have written a well-researched, competently written article have already proven their knowledge. This gives them a leg up on the other candidates.

Establishes You as a Thought Leader

Articles Help Grow Your Reach

At its core, the purpose of LinkedIn is to amass relevant connections that allow one to build a network within their field. An excellent article will resound among industry insiders, allowing you to make contact and  grow your own network .

Additionally, LinkedIn articles rank on Google. So, if yours does well enough, it will reach those who are searching for particular topics that you wrote about before. If an employer is looking for someone to handle a niche subject for their company, odds are they will reach out to any individual whose name comes up on the first page of the search results.

Articles Help Grow Your Reach

LinkedIn Provides Detailed Analytics on Articles

Finally, LinkedIn provides  detailed analytics  to all users who write on their publishing platform. You will know how many people clicked on your article, what areas it generated the most interest in, the careers of those who read it, and much more.

Not only will this help you understand the audience that is looking for information on the topics you are writing about, but it will help you shape your future articles. Detailed analytics let you know if you are heading in the right direction or if you need to change tack for the next one.

LinkedIn Provides Detailed Analytics on Articles

If you have decided on writing a LinkedIn article, it is important to make sure it is amazing. 

Unfortunately, we do not all write for a living. For those inexperienced in delivering professional quality articles, writing one for all your connections can be concerning. It might feel a bit like being asked to read your essay in front of your class.

But LinkedIn articles are not written exclusively by professional writers. While it may seem daunting, with enough effort you can write an article any professional would be proud of.

Choose Your Topic 

The most important aspect of writing a LinkedIn article is choosing what you want to write about. That is because you need to balance three critical factors at this part of the process: 

First, you want to make sure that you are writing about something you are knowledgeable about. This will make actually writing the article significantly easier because you will be more comfortable talking about it and need to do a lot less research ahead of time. 

You also want to make sure you are writing about something that people in your industry will read. Consider your audience: for instance, if you’re writing for software engineers, what topics would they want to hear about? What’s relevant to their field?

In a similar regard, you also want to find something unique to talk about. This means finding a new spin on a popular topic, discovering interesting new ideas to talk about, diving into niche subject matter, or anything else that is interesting and engaging.

These three aspects are often at odds with one another. There are many ways to go about balancing them, but the best thing you can do is research, research, research. Look at what people are talking about and find interesting topics not being discussed in your field.

Choose Your Topic 

Choose Your Headline

Headlines are critical in getting the reader’s attention. They need to be relevant to the topic at hand — no one is ever happy to read an article after a clickbait headline brought them there — while also garnering the reader’s attention.

In general, we encourage article headlines to be succinct and to the point. “Mitosis: Understanding Cell Division, the Contemporary Research Surrounding It, and the Future of the Industry” is a mouthful and insults the reader’s intelligence by over-explaining its purpose.

Instead, something like “Three Contemporary Mitosis Studies you Should Know” clearly states its purpose without over-explaining itself to the reader. Little changes like this can make a world of difference in the reader’s eyes.

That said, don’t go too far in the other direction. “Five Common Interview Mistakes and How to Avoid Them” is still a lot better than “Common Interview Mistakes” because it better prepares the audience for the structure and purpose of the piece.

Choose Your Headline

Format Your Article for Easy Reading

There are a few tricks professional writers use to increase engagement in their articles. While a whole article could be written about these tricks, here are three of the most common ones:

  • Keep your paragraphs and sentences relatively short and concise. When speaking to a business-oriented audience, you want to get to the point as quickly as possible. Dense, flowery text does not do that.
  • If possible, include images to break up the text. Particular attention should be paid to the banner image, as it (along with the headline) will be your article’s first impression. Spend
  • While LinkedIn Articles can be up to 125,000 characters, we recommend writing about 500-750 words an article. This retains reader engagement throughout the piece. Once your article reaches over 1,000 words, it might be time to consider cuts. When you are doing edits, always ask yourself: “Is this section really necessary?” Often, you’ll find that you’re unnecessarily discussing tangential topics that could instead be their own article.

Format Your Article for Easy Reading

For the last section of this article, we’ve found three excellent LinkedIn Articles and written a short explanation as to why they are effective. We hope that with these articles in mind you can get a sense of direction for your own articles.

How To Get Started With Your AI Journey  by Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr  is one of the premier article writers on LinkedIn, making him an ideal candidate to kick off our example section. In this article, Marr provides a thorough overview of AI, what it can do for one’s business, and how to practically begin implementing it.

This article is a great teaching tool because it demonstrates the tried and true tactic of delivering well-researched content that people want to read. AI is a topic few want to dive into because of its inherent complexity, which makes practical guides for beginners a relative gap in content surrounding it.

Marr pounces on that opening and delivers an article that provides an excellent introduction to AI implementation. At the moment of writing, this article has over 350 likes and 20 comments.

It’s Time for a New Definition of Success  by Jeff Haden

In this article,  Jeff Haden  discusses how one’s personal definition of success will often differ from what society’s overall definition is. Haden cites anecdotes and experiences from his own life en route to delivering an excellent thesis statement.

What we really like about this article is that it is interesting for just about anyone to read. In tackling a broad subject, Haden can reach a wide audience and receive additional engagement. At the moment of writing, this article has over 700 likes and 85 comments.

Five Business Lessons from Radio Disney  by Dave Kerpen

Finally, we have an article from  Dave Kerpen  written in the traditional “five tips” fashion. In it, Kerpen does exactly as the title says: extrapolate five lessons from his time working at Radio Disney.

We wanted to highlight this because of its accessibility. The listicle is used because consumers respond well to it, and having Disney in the title piques the average reader’s interest.

The article itself has relatively conventional advice — be persistent, prioritize connections, etc. — but it still received 150 likes because of its SEO-friendly formatting. This article provides a lesson in how far a little forethought in formatting and marketing can take your article.

Are You Ready to Write Your First Article? 

If you are planning to start your own blog, I suggest you try giving LinkedIn articles a shot first and see if there is any traction on your topics and content. 

You will eliminate the time needed to build your own site and get way fast response to see if your audience enjoys what you write before you invest more time and effort.

And if you are looking for more help to improve your LinkedIn game, we run  FREE LIVE Masterclasses  from time to time. 

Join me [in]side Content Conversion System and build out the foundation for your Content Pillars, Audience Personas, 90-Day Plug & Play LinkedIn Content Prompts. my signature Copywriting Techniques AND…

Your own [in]sider Hub – All the steps, tools, and templates I created for all my clients to PLAN and ORGANIZE their Content on LinkedIn all in ONE place!

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A complete A-Z guide on how to create a follow-worthy personal brand that attracts your ideal clients and transforms your LinkedIn profile into a highly converting sales page.

Join personal brand boss™, take a look around., get insiders scoop..

The Insiders Scoop is your weekly download of all things business and magnetic content marketing, from exclusive LinkedIn insider Tips by Salina to incredible guest contributors. JUICY DEETS EVERY WEDNESDAY MORNING!

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The Ultimate Guide to Writing LinkedIn Articles

This post may have affiliate links, which means I may receive commissions if you purchase through links I provide. Read the full disclosure .

With over 660 million users across 200 countries, LinkedIn is one of the most revolutionary social media platforms ever created for professionals. Unlike the truncated headlines of Twitter, LinkedIn offers a very different focus. It also provides a distinct approach that separates it from Facebook’s personalized statuses or Instagram’s photo experience.

LinkedIn is not just the platform where job-seekers and professionals can find jobs at their dream companies but it is also the go-to place to learn more about their niche from other experts. This is one reason why, as a LinkedIn user, you’ll need to be regularly writing LinkedIn articles to gain credibility within your industry.

What Makes LinkedIn Unique?

As a LinkedIn user, you have the opportunity to share your knowledge and expertise with your connections as well as followers. By writing LinkedIn articles and posts, you can grow your credibility and outreach. Not only that, but you can strategically post well-written and thought-provoking comments on the posts and articles of industry leaders to ensure your voice is being heard.

Renowned author and entrepreneur, Neil Patel, claims that content is excellent for boosting brand awareness or lead generation . This means that writing LinkedIn articles brings people closer to the types of solutions you’re offering.

It is important to understand that people base their opinion on what a person portrays. So, instead of spouting off facts, focus on what you’re bringing to the table. How are you providing your followers with solutions? Are your solutions based on dedicated research and experience? By connecting with your audience through thought-out and helpful content, you will be viewed as an expert in your niche .

As a LinkedIn user, you are aiming to become is a “thought leader” – a term which, according to Business News Daily, is only achieved with enough expertise, insight, and valuable perspective in a given area. These are three aspects that allow hard workers to build experience and cultivate credibility over the long term. By developing thought leadership, you’re aiming to become someone who others – even veterans – look up to for answers.

Someone holding up a sign with the text 'Do not wait for leaders, become them'

So, what is really behind the act of becoming an industry thought leader on LinkedIn? What method will get you from where you are now to having a few thousand connections and followers who care about what you say? What steps do you take?

If you want to make the most of your LinkedIn content and become an industry thought leader, you’re in the right place. This is precisely what you’re going to learn in this ultimate guide to writing LinkedIn articles.

To start off, we’re first going to clarify the difference between writing LinkedIn articles and posts. Next, we’ll dive into the details of a content strategy geared toward growing thought leadership. This strategy will include ways to connect with your audience, how to schedule content publishing, and how to structure your writing style.

Writing LinkedIn Articles vs. LinkedIn Posts

LinkedIn articles are different from the standard posts that appear in your feed. Writing LinkedIn articles was added as a way for users to create and promote their own blog-like content. This allows LinkedIn users more freedom to express their thoughts on a particular subject.

For example, articles can contain up to 125,000 characters in length, whereas posts are maxed out at 1,300 characters.

On your profile, articles get greater visibility from the “Articles and activity” box. They remain timeless. This is different from posts which are quickly replaced by your latest comments and status updates.

The layout of articles is also much more engaging for the reader compared to the simplified layout of posts. When you are writing LinkedIn articles, you can use multiple images, headlines, videos, and slides.

If you want to quickly share something short on a given subject, create a post. But if you want to provide detailed information on any given subject, publish articles.

Sound good? Let’s begin.

Building a Strategy for Your Content

When it comes to growing as a leader, you need to plan your strategy. But don’t expect to nail it from the beginning. Becoming a thought leader requires a lot of patience and even more trial and error.

What’s important is you follow a certain strategy to succeed. The goal of your content is not to appeal to a variety of people and preferences. Rather, your goal should be to grow an audience who have similar qualities and preferences. You don’t just want to reach people – you want to reach the right people in the right way.

Brafton does a great job of showing us six awesome LinkedIn content strategy examples , in which we learn how Hays, Adobe, MailChimp, and several other companies leveraged their profiles to generate leads and expand their brand awareness exponentially. All of the large companies profiled are writing LinkedIn articles to educate their audiences and provide value for them.

1. What’s Your Goal?

Clarity is essential. Make sure your goal is defined before you start. This is something you’ll evaluate monthly, quarterly or annually to assess their reach and level of engagement. Also, don’t just write because you need to. Patel advises: “To avoid having your content lost in that pack, create content that stands out, is unique, has a distinct voice, and, most important, offers genuine value to readers.” In other words, give value to your audience!

A typewriter with a piece of paper saying 'Goals', something that needs defining when writing LinkedIn articles

2. Watch Your Metrics

A content strategy must involve a level of market research that is based on your ground zero – the metrics of your own posts. These metrics will evolve as you publish more content. By analyzing your post metrics, you can stay in touch with how your audience interacts with your articles.

3. Share Your Links in the Comments to Boost the CTR

When sharing your LinkedIn article with your connections, the strategy that works for further reach and engagement is, “Link in the first comment.” Sharing your link in the comments has demonstrated equal success, sometimes even more, in terms of reach and click-through rates (CTR) compared to when shared in an article.

So, share all your links in the first comment after the article and make sure to tell your readers that they’re there. You can also use a catchy call-to-action at the end of the article as a reminder.

Connecting with Your Audience

Many businesses that are marketing online don’t connect with their audience . If it’s a small business, then it’s easy to get tied-up in your day-to-day business activities. This might be okay in the short-term, but in the long-term, you’ll need to be aware of your audience’s pain points.

Being aware of what your audience likes and doesn’t like is the first step to solving their problems and giving them the information they want. You don’t need to be your own marketer to handle this. You can easily begin to gauge an audience by measuring reactions to articles.

The following is a small list of ways to get reactions from your readers. By doing any of the following, you’ll be more in tune with how your audience is engaging emotionally with your content without directly asking them:

Add a Call-to-Action

Make the most of your copywriting talent and add a call-to-action (CTA) at the bottom of every article! It doesn’t matter if you have covered everything in the article and contributions are unnecessary. Always ask readers to follow, like, comment or share what you’ve created for them. Ask them a related question or to share their own insight. Ultimately, though, you want to lead them to your website. In a Forbes article, contributor Bruce Kasanoff talks about how engagement is what matters, not just views . Keep viewers more engaged with what they read by asking for interaction.

Talk to Them Personally

Replace impersonal words with personal ones. It’s much more reassuring when a reader feels like you’re talking with them rather than at them. Your audience will feel more relaxed when you provide clear examples and more personalized language. This can be especially potent since LinkedIn is very business-oriented. Practicing the Seven C’s is a first step to communicating effectively – be concrete, coherent, clear, committed, consistent, complete, and courteous.

Don’t Be Afraid to Interact with Commenters

Don’t share the article and be gone. Let them know that you’re there. Read their replies and respond. This is not only an effective CTA, but also a great way to enhance the quality of interactions and bond with your LinkedIn connections.

Pro Tip: Thanks to LinkedIn’s algorithm, an article becomes more popular as it receives more comments . So, don’t be a lone wolf on this highly-populated social media platform.

A green and yellow paper speech bubble to remind that commenting is part of writing LinkedIn articles

Get Comfortable Using Information from Other Articles

However, there should be a healthy balance between external information and original content. Remember that you want to project your own voice, and this can only be done by performing your own research, speaking of your experiences and outlining your personal results and accomplishments.

Don’t Go Overboard When Talking About Yourself

It can feel right to beat your own drum since it’s your profile. But when you talk about yourself too much, you can become an unlikable figure to a large proportion of your readers. In an insightful short article in The CEO Magazine, writer Genevieve Muwana explains that there are better ways to show confidence in a subject than by bragging – such as “…a conversational speaking style, a splash of unique personality and a touch of enthusiasm.”

There’s a Right Way to Post Your Content

If writing LinkedIn articles was just a matter of setting up the copy, clicking “publish” or “post” and waiting for the likes, comments, and messages to flood in, this guide (and every single one similar to it) would be unnecessary. But it’s not that simple, of course.

In the real world, every single parameter involved in the submission of a social media post can cause significant effects on its overall performance. Added to the fact that there are hidden algorithms in place to ensure that you get just enough reactions to not call it a failure, but not enough to name it a success either.

In truth, even the simple and straightforward act of putting content on your profile requires a level of expertise that you need to develop over time.

There are certain factors to consider when maximizing how you post your LinkedIn articles:

Set a Schedule for Your Articles

Every audience is different and has its own behavioral patterns. You should have an idea of when your readers are most likely to be online after posting a few articles and viewing the activity. Post your content when your readers are mostly online. Make sure to set reminders or find a post scheduling tool to help you do this.

A coffee cup standing on a monthly diary

Distribute Your Content Efficiently

Share your LinkedIn article on other social media platforms. Think of it as diversifying your portfolio. Post the article on your Twitter, Facebook, personal blog or Medium account if you have one. By doing this, you can expand your reach so those who don’t use LinkedIn can stay connected to you – or find you!

Use the Right Hashtags

This is important if you want your visibility to be at its highest when posting. While many people will come across you having searched for your title or name, others will find your content by following a hashtag. Hootsuite offers plenty of insight on how to correctly use hashtags on LinkedIn. For example, it explains that #you #don’t #need #to #hashtag #like #this. Make sure to use hashtags that are big in your niche and not just popular on the platform. Location hashtags can also be efficient if you’re aiming at a limited geographical area.

Take Advantage of an Expert with Many Followers

The experts in your niche are a channel for you to distribute your content and improve your reach, even though they might not know it. Pick an expert who has a lot of followers and comment on their posts often to push high-quality comments to as many people as possible. Don’t make any grammatical mistakes and try not to be controversial, but not boring or neutral either – just be authentic. You may even get a reply from the expert, which will pique the interest of other commenters.

Watch the Engagement on Each Article

Having the power to look back and see what errors were made in your initial stages will guarantee you a higher percentage of success later on in the game. Ryan Stott also talks about how his study that analyzed followers versus view rate demonstrated that, on average, 21 percent of a user’s followers will actually click through to an article posted on the user’s profile. He also goes on to reveal that his study helped him conclude that the engagement rate of an article (i.e. likes, comments, and shares) is also around 21-22 percent of the number of followers and that the lowest engagement rate is typically around 18 percent when users are active.

Reference Your Article

Finally, during social conversations related to your article, don’t miss the chance to reference it. Like a compass, guide your audience to read it. This way, you will get more views for your content and raise awareness about what you’re doing in your industry.

A couple of people looking at a map with a compass

Writing LinkedIn Articles as a Leader

All the tips above are useful if you’ve already got content. But what if you aren’t necessarily ready to execute your marketing strategy and the writing isn’t ready?

No article produced by a thought leader in any industry can be good enough if it isn’t well-researched and written to a level that a professional expects to see on their LinkedIn feed. This is especially true if you’re in a more technical-leaning industry.

But fear not: you don’t have to possess the writing skills of Edgar Allen Poe or the technical vocabulary of Stephen Hawking to write well. Writing LinkedIn articles like a thought leader is about knowing the best ways to communicate your message. You’ll also want to provide your readers with a solution to their problems. After all, what you want to create is content that helps and enriches those who read it.

If you want the best results from your articles, it’s time to start considering these five points:

1. Capture Attention Quickly with a Great Headline

This is what every article on the internet counts on – turning the head of the reader towards its content. How do you accomplish this, though? Pretty simple. Have a clear, concise, and informative headline. No splashy headlines or clickbait.

Once the reader gets past the headline, make sure the article is actually informative and not a repetition of what they already know. Most importantly, link the article to your profile. This is especially important if it can answer the questions posed by future clients. It’s also a great way of leveraging your content for the best growth as a thought leader .

2. Balance Your Article with Images

There are few things more boring than reading a wall of text without any eye candy. If your article doesn’t have images, graphs, tables or infographics, then it might not be read. The average person just doesn’t want to read through blocks of text to understand what you’re talking about. It’s in your best interest to provide them with pictures that describe what is being said. You could also use a good header image to open up the article, and any graphs or tables necessary to demonstrate any results or data.

3. Split Your Article up by Using Subheadings

Don’t hesitate to give detailed information in your article. But avoid extremely long blocks of text. Apart from balancing articles with images, use subheadings to avoid inciting boredom in your readers. Split up your article into sections that highlight important terms and suggestions .

4. Bullet Points and List-Type Articles Are Lifesavers

It doesn’t matter how old and how cliché they may seem – articles based on “5 Things That…”, “3 Ideas for…”, “Top 10 Ways to…” and “9 Mistakes Made by…” are still the most effective way to get views and engagement. People like numbers: it’s just the way they find writing easier to digest. A list article, no matter the number of points it offers (or if they’re an even or odd number), is always a great source of traffic for your profile.

5. Long, but Simple to Read

It may seem counterintuitive but apparently, these are three excellent tips to ensure you receive more views: write long articles, fire up your connections and followers with your articles but avoid using complicated lingo.

Writer Paul Shapiro assessed 3,000 LinkedIn blog articles and found that articles around 1,500 to 2,000 words and beyond were those getting the best results in terms of LinkedIn views. He also discovered that the articles with a score on the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease Test of 80 to 89 (AKA, easy to read for an 11-year-old child) were the ones that got the most engagement. Plus, readers were happier when the writer kept it simple.

In conclusion, effective writing can be hard. Gather your resources. Do adequate research. Then, start by creating an attention-grabbing headline, have a well-written and informative article, balance with pictures, and keep your choice of words simple.

Getting Started on Writing LinkedIn Articles

If your intention is to become a thought leader, first work on having an all-star LinkedIn profile. Then, consider and plan your content strategy based on this ultimate guide. On what subject do you want to be seen as a thought leader? When will posting bring the most value to your audience’s feed?

It might seem daunting, but do not fear. The most important step isn’t any of the previous tips. Instead, it’s simply getting down to writing LinkedIn articles. It’ll seem difficult to start, but the most important thing is to just do it, get your first one published, and it gets easier from there.

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Your Guide to the Marketing Jungle

How to Create LinkedIn Articles That People Will Read and Share

write article linkedin

Do you create written content? Wondering how LinkedIn articles can improve your exposure?

In this article, you'll learn how to create LinkedIn articles that amplify your reach and engagement on LinkedIn.

How to Create LinkedIn Articles That People Will Read and Share by Louise Brogan on Social Media Examiner.

LinkedIn Articles vs. LinkedIn Posts: What Is the Difference?

While LinkedIn posts and status updates are limited to 1,300 characters, LinkedIn articles can be up to 125,000 characters in length, which gives you more opportunity to showcase your expertise and knowledge. Writing articles is also a great way to start conversations and raise your visibility on the platform.

When someone viewing your LinkedIn profile scrolls past the About section, they'll see an Articles & Activity box. In this box, the last article you wrote (whether recently or years ago) will take up half of the box. This prominent placement highlights content that's central to you and your brand.

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If you haven't published any LinkedIn articles, this box will simply show your last four activities, which may be sharing or liking other people's content. Your brand doesn't get the same exposure if you've only published posts and not articles. In fact, other people's brands may get the attention.

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When you open a LinkedIn article to read it on desktop, an Articles link appears to the person's byline. Clicking that link will display all of the LinkedIn articles they've written. If you're viewing an article on the mobile app, simply swipe left to read the next article by that person.

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By consistently writing articles using LinkedIn's Publishing platform, you'll build up your content library and give users the opportunity to learn more about your business and build loyalty.

How to Choose Topics for Your LinkedIn Article

When you write articles on LinkedIn, you want to demonstrate your thought leadership, expertise, and industry knowledge. News and updates from your industry make good topics to write about.

You could also answer a question your audience has. What are the frequently asked questions you get when you meet someone from your network? If you're a member of a Facebook group that contains your ideal clients, keep an eye out for questions that get asked over and over again. I keep a list on the notes app on my computer with ideas for blog posts and articles.

If one of your LinkedIn posts is getting a lot of engagement (comments and conversation) from your network, that might be a good topic for a long-form article.

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Once you know what you want to write about, here's how to create your article on LinkedIn.

#1: Write a New LinkedIn Article

Start by going to the LinkedIn Home tab and clicking the Write an Article link at the top of the page.

ALT

After you click this link, the LinkedIn Publishing tool opens. This is where you create your article.

Choose Your Headline

To add a headline to your article, click the Headline field and type in a headline.

Choose a headline that will grab users' attention in the feed and make them want to click through to read the article. Also think about what terms your ideal audience is searching for. “How to” and number headlines (“7 Reasons to Start Writing LinkedIn Articles Today”) typically perform well on the platform.

ALT

Format Your Article for Easy Reading

The next step is to format your article in a way that makes the information easy to consume.

Because we're bombarded with information and text online, it's best to use shorter text paragraphs interspersed with images. This approach makes your article easier to read, which is particularly important when people are consuming the content via the LinkedIn mobile app.

Adding subheadings, bullet points, and bold type also improves readability, as you can see in the example below.

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The formatting toolbar at the top of the page lets you select Normal, Heading 1, and Heading 2 styles; apply bold, italics, and underline to text; create bulleted and numbered lists; and use a quote style.

To link to an external source in the body of the article, first select the relevant text. Then click the Link icon (at the far right of the toolbar), enter the URL, and click Apply.

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Pro Tip : Always include a call to action in your article. To illustrate, ask people for their comments (a great way to spark conversation) or to get in touch with you. Links to your website, podcast, or social media will work here too. When someone leaves a comment, you can reply to them and increase engagement on your profile.

#2: Include Images, Video, or Rich Media in Your LinkedIn Article

At the top of the article, you can add a cover image. To do this, click in the area above the headline and upload an image from your computer. LinkedIn recommends using a 744 x 400 pixel image for best results.

After you add a cover image, two positioning options and a Delete button appear on the screen. Below these buttons is a field where you can add a caption and photo credit.

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If you don't have a relevant cover image on hand, check out sites like Unsplash or Pixabay for royalty-free stock photos you can use. Choose an image that will capture your readers' attention in the LinkedIn feed and make them want to click on the article to read it. Also make sure that you have permission to use that image .

In addition to the cover image, you'll also want to embed relevant images and video in the body of your article. To add an image or video, click the icon to the left of the article body.

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In the pop-up window, you'll see options for adding images, video, slides, links, or snippets of code.

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To embed an Instagram post, tweet, or another link in your article, click on the Links icon and paste your link into the pop-up box.

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#3: Publish and Share Your LinkedIn Article

Once you've written your article and added images and links, what's next? Note that as you create your article, LinkedIn automatically saves it as a draft. When you're ready to publish it, simply click Publish at the top right of the page.

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Pro Tip : To increase the visibility of your LinkedIn articles, go to your privacy settings and set your profile to public. To do this, click your profile photo, choose Settings & Privacy, and select the Edit Your Public Profile setting. On the right side of the next page, make sure Your Profile's Public Visibility is set to On. Then scroll down to Articles and Activity and make sure it's set to Show.

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Share Your Article

Once you've published your article, you'll want to share it. Click the Share button at the bottom of your article to see the sharing options. Be sure to share to these places on LinkedIn:

  • Your personal LinkedIn feed
  • A LinkedIn message (if relevant)

ALT

When sharing articles to your personal LinkedIn feed, adding hashtags can help you get more views on the link. LinkedIn encourages the use of hashtags when you create posts and will suggest hashtags to use. However, LinkedIn doesn't currently support hashtags inside articles.

When sharing your article to the feed, tell your network why you're sharing the article and add relevant hashtags to the post. Hashtags you use regularly show up first.

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When you start to type a new hashtag, LinkedIn will suggest the most relevant hashtags for you to use.

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You can also share your article to Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms, and in your email newsletter.

Why You Should Reshare Your LinkedIn Article

Articles have a much longer lifespan than posts on LinkedIn. And while you can view the analytics for your posts for only 60 days, analytics for articles are available for 2 years. (Note: Once a post or article has received more than 10 views, you can access data on it.)

You can give an article new life by resharing it via a LinkedIn post that directs users to that article. I have several LinkedIn articles that still get comments a year or 18 months after they were published. The how-to articles (“How to write a good headline profile for LinkedIn,” for instance) seem to perform best with my audience.

When you reshare an article to the news feed, focus on one main point or angle from the article. Then a few days later, share your article to the news feed again, but this time, focus on a different point.

To visualize this, if your article is about 10 reasons why someone should attend your live event, list one or two of those reasons the first time you reshare the article. When you reshare it a few days or even a week later, discuss some of the other reasons.

You'll see podcasters or bloggers using this tactic effectively on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Simply adopt this same method to get more views and reads of your LinkedIn articles.

#4: Analyze the Performance of Your LinkedIn Articles

Your LinkedIn article receives a view when someone clicks on the article to read it. (A view for a post, on the other hand, is counted if someone scrolls past the post in the news feed.)

To view the analytics for your articles, click your profile image and select View My Profile. Then scroll down to Articles and Activity.

Click on See All Articles and choose the article for which you want to view the analytics. (Note that you can also view the analytics for your posts here too; simply choose Posts at the top of the feed.)

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Click on the bottom-right option in gray—” x views of your article.”

The pop-up window that appears will show the analytics for your article. You can see the number of views, as well as whether anyone has reshared your article.

You'll also find information about the people who have viewed your article, including:

  • The company where they work
  • Their job title
  • Their location
  • How most people found your article (through LinkedIn or another website)

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How can you use this data? Here are a few examples:

  • If you've posted an article and several people from one company viewed it, reach out to someone at that company.
  • If you run events or speak publicly and your viewers are from one particular location, consider choosing that location for your next workshop.
  • If the job title doesn't resonate with the target audience you're trying to reach, you may need to change your messaging.

Keep in mind that you're the only person who has access to this data. Someone else reading your article won't be able to see this information.

LinkedIn is steadily increasing its reach. In the last few years, the landscape has been changing from a recruitment-focused platform to a content-rich platform. LinkedIn users are sharing content and updates and having conversations. Writing LinkedIn articles is a great way to stand out on the platform, demonstrate your expertise, and get visibility with your target audience.

What do you think? Will you try writing LinkedIn articles? What topics do you think will resonate with your audience on LinkedIn? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

More articles on LinkedIn marketing:

  • Find out how to use LinkedIn Website Demographics as a marketing tool .
  • Learn how to use four LinkedIn marketing features to nurture leads .
  • Discover how to create LinkedIn page content strategy .

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A Guide to Writing LinkedIn Articles

A Guide to Writing LinkedIn Articles

In today’s digital age, professionals and businesses alike are constantly seeking effective ways to enhance their online presence, establish thought leadership, and forge meaningful connections. Amidst this quest for visibility and professional growth, LinkedIn articles have emerged as a powerful tool that offers a number of benefits.

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking platform , has revolutionised how professionals connect, share knowledge, and showcase their expertise. While many users focus on optimising their profiles, expanding their network, and joining relevant groups – all of which bring considerable benefits – one often overlooked feature of LinkedIn is the ability to publish articles.

In this article, we will explore the untapped potential of LinkedIn articles and how they can be harnessed to elevate your professional branding and networking efforts. We will also share invaluable tips to help you maximise the potential of these articles and achieve outstanding results.

The advantages of LinkedIn Articles for individuals and businesses

First, let’s talk about the advantages of posting articles on LinkedIn, both for individuals and businesses.

LinkedIn articles offer individuals an excellent platform to enhance their personal brand, whether to further their career or establish themselves as experts.

By consistently publishing well-crafted articles, professionals can showcase their expertise, perspectives, and unique insights in their respective fields. This helps position them as thought leaders and influencers, earning respect and recognition from peers, colleagues, and potential partners.

LinkedIn articles provide businesses with an opportunity to showcase their organisational culture, values, and brand identity. By creating engaging and informative content, businesses can share their unique selling proposition and differentiate themselves from competitors. Sharing stories of success, community involvement, and industry insights helps build brand loyalty and attracts clients, customers, and partners who align with their vision and mission.

LinkedIn articles also allow businesses to demonstrate their expertise and establish themselves as industry leaders. By sharing industry trends, innovative approaches, and expert advice, businesses can position themselves as trusted authorities. This strengthens relationships with existing clients and attracts new prospects seeking guidance and expertise from industry leaders. Overall, LinkedIn articles serve as powerful marketing tools that drive business growth and expand the company’s reach within its target audience.

How to publish articles on LinkedIn?

Before we delve into the finer details of crafting compelling articles, it’s important to first understand the practical steps involved in publishing them. The good news is that anyone and everyone can easily publish articles on their personal LinkedIn profile.

However, if you wish to publish articles on your Company Page, you must be granted administrator access. This grants you the necessary permissions to represent your organisation and share valuable content with your company’s followers and network.

Now, let’s break down the actual steps involved in publishing articles on LinkedIn:

  • Log in to your LinkedIn account to get started.
  • Scroll up on the feed page until you reach the “Write an article” section, located as if you’re preparing to make a post, and click on it.Decide whether you want to publish the article on your personal profile or on your Company Page. This will depend on if you have admin access.
  • You will be directed to the article page, where you can begin working on your content.
  • Write an attention-grabbing headline that accurately represents the article’s content and captures readers’ attention.
  • Choose an engaging cover photo that will appear at the top of the article and catch people’s attention as they scroll through their feeds.
  • Write the body of your article, and remember to include a call-to-action (CTA) at the end.
  • Once you’ve finished writing, take some time to review and edit your article for any necessary improvements.
  • Click the “Publish” button located at the top of the page to make your article live.
  • Write a captivating caption to accompany the post, including relevant hashtags.
  • If you publish the article on your Company Page, notify your colleagues so they can share it, or reach out to close connections to like, comment, and share the post, thereby increasing its engagement.

By following these steps, you’ll be able to write, enhance, and publish your article effectively on LinkedIn.

How to write a successful LinkedIn Article?  

Now that we have covered the fundamental steps of publishing articles on LinkedIn, it’s time to dive into the nitty-gritty of crafting successful and impactful articles. Writing compelling articles that resonate with your audience requires careful consideration of various elements, including content, structure, and engagement strategies. Let’s explore these essential aspects in detail:

Focus on bringing value

If you are a business owner, the temptation to write promotional articles about your own services may arise. However, it is advisable to avoid excessive self-promotion. LinkedIn users typically visit the platform to learn and find solutions to their problems. Therefore, it is best to provide informative content that adds value to their lives and careers.

Focus on offering insights, practical advice, or industry knowledge that can benefit your readers rather than overtly selling your products or services. By providing valuable and non-promotional content, you can establish yourself as a trustworthy authority within your field and build genuine connections with your audience.

When selecting a topic for your articles, choosing a subject that aligns with your area of expertise is crucial. Writing about a topic you are knowledgeable about makes the process considerably easier as you will feel more comfortable discussing it and will require less preliminary research.

Equally important is considering your target audience and writing about subjects that resonate with professionals in your industry. Reflect on your audience’s preferences and interests. For instance, if your target readers are software engineers, focus on topics directly related to their field and address their specific needs.

Finding a unique angle to approach your chosen topic is equally significant. This involves adding a fresh perspective to a popular subject, exploring novel ideas, delving into niche areas of expertise, or presenting captivating and engaging content that sets your article apart from others.

To discover interesting topics, you can follow several helpful steps. Paying attention to the conversations happening within your network provides valuable insights into relevant subjects. Engaging with friends, family, and colleagues allows you to tap into their interests, concerns, and ongoing discussions, providing you with a wealth of potential topics.

Another option is to keep an eye on social media trends. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok often highlight trending discussions and hashtags, giving you a pulse on what people are currently talking about. By observing these trends, you can uncover subjects that resonate with a wider audience and potentially spark engaging conversations.

Setting up Google alerts for relevant keywords is another useful strategy. You can choose keywords that align with your areas of interest or expertise and receive notifications whenever new content related to those keywords is published online. This helps you stay informed about the latest developments, news, and discussions surrounding those topics.

These are just a few ways to generate interesting topic ideas that will likely capture your audience’s attention and provide valuable content on LinkedIn.

Conduct thorough research

When starting a writing project, whether it’s an informative blog post, an insightful opinion piece, or a research-based article, it is vital to gather information from reputable sources. These sources may include industry reports, academic studies, expert opinions, or well-established publications in the field. Relying on such reputable sources ensures that your present information is accurate, up-to-date, and supported by evidence.

One of the primary benefits of conducting thorough research is the credibility it brings to your writing. By utilising such sources, you are building a strong foundation of trust with your readers. When readers perceive your content as reliable, they are more likely to engage with it, share it with others, and consider you an authority on the subject matter. Credibility is especially important in fields where accuracy and expertise matter, such as science, finance, health, or technology.

It also adds depth and substance to your arguments. While personal anecdotes and opinions have their place, supporting your ideas with factual information strengthens your writing. Statistics, case studies, and research findings not only lend weight to your claims but also allow readers to evaluate and interpret the data themselves.

As you gather information, take thorough notes, and document your sources. This will not only help you organise your thoughts but also make it easier to cite and reference your sources correctly. Including backlinks to the sources you used in your article not only enhances its credibility but also aids readers in exploring the topic further on their own.

Including backlinks in your articles not only enhances credibility but also has the added benefit of improving search engine ranking. Search engines like Google value high-quality, authoritative content that provides value to users. When your article includes relevant and reputable backlinks, it signals to search engines that your content is well-researched and connected to trusted sources.

Search engine algorithms consider backlinks as a form of endorsement or recommendation from one website to another. When reputable websites link to your article, it is seen as a vote of confidence in the quality and relevance of your content. This, in turn, can positively impact your search engine ranking.

While backlinks can be beneficial for search engine ranking, it’s important to focus on providing valuable content first and foremost. Creating high-quality, informative, and engaging articles that meet the needs of your target audience should be your primary goal. When your content is valuable, other websites and content creators are more likely to naturally link to it, further boosting its visibility and SEO benefits.

Format it correctly

Proper formatting plays a significant role in making your article visually appealing, reader-friendly, and, ultimately, worth reading.

One of the key aspects of formatting is keeping sentences and paragraphs short. Lengthy, convoluted sentences can overwhelm readers and make the content difficult to follow. By using concise and straightforward sentences, you make your article more accessible and engaging. Aim to convey your ideas clearly and succinctly, allowing readers to absorb information effortlessly.

Similarly, breaking up text into shorter paragraphs helps readers navigate through the article more easily. Large blocks of text can be visually daunting and discourage readers from diving into the content. By dividing your article into smaller paragraphs, you create a sense of flow and provide visual breaks for the readers’ eyes. This approach facilitates readability and encourages readers to stay engaged with your article.

Another effective formatting technique is the use of subheadings. Subheadings serve as signposts, guiding readers through the different sections of your article. They provide a clear structure and help readers quickly grasp the main points of each section. Additionally, subheadings make it easier for readers to locate specific information they might be interested in, especially if scanning the article for relevant details.

Bullet points are another valuable formatting tool. For a few reasons:

  • They allow you to present information in a concise and organised manner.
  • Bullet points help break down complex ideas into digestible chunks, making it easier for readers to understand and remember key points.
  • They also improve the visual appeal of your article, adding variety to the text and drawing attention to important details.

Incorporating photos and images within your article can significantly enhance its visual appeal and reader engagement. People are naturally drawn to visual content, and including relevant visuals can help convey your message more effectively. Images break up the text, provide visual context, and make the article more visually appealing. Ensure that the visuals you choose are relevant to the topic and of high quality to maintain professionalism and enhance the overall reading experience.

It is worth noting that people often scan articles before deciding to invest their time in reading them fully. This behaviour stems from the abundance of information available and the limited time people have. By formatting your article properly, you can capture the attention of scanners and entice them to read further. Concise sentences, subheadings, bullet points, and visuals make it easier for readers to quickly grasp the main points and decide that your article is worth their time.

When it comes to the length of your article, it is essential to strike a balance. While LinkedIn Articles allow for lengthy compositions, aiming for approximately 500-750 words per article is advisable. Remember, people are busy, and their attention spans are often limited. Providing valuable information within a reasonable word count increases the likelihood of readers engaging with your article from start to finish.

Promote your article  

When it comes to creating and sharing valuable content, employee engagement can be a powerful asset for any organisation. Encouraging your colleagues to actively support your articles by liking, commenting, and sharing them within their networks can significantly improve the visibility and engagement of your articles.

First and foremost, employee engagement is essential because your colleagues are an integral part of your organisation’s network. They possess their own circles of influence and connections, both personal and professional. By encouraging them to engage with your articles, you tap into their networks, reaching a wider audience that may not have been exposed to your content otherwise.

In addition to liking, commenting, and sharing the articles, encourage employees to add their personal insights and experiences through comments or by sharing their own perspectives. This adds depth and authenticity to the discussions around the articles, making them more engaging for readers. By fostering a collaborative environment where employees can openly express their opinions, you create a sense of community and encourage ongoing dialogue around the topics presented in the articles.

If posting an article from your personal profile, you could ask close connections and friends to share as well as post it in groups you belong to. This can help amplify the article’s visibility and overall engagement.

In addition to organic promotion, LinkedIn provides a paid feature that allows you to boost the visibility of your articles. By investing in promoting your LinkedIn articles, you can significantly increase their reach and engagement, reaching a larger audience that may have otherwise been difficult to access.

Avoid using generative AI

With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, generative AI platforms like ChatGPT have emerged as powerful tools for various applications, including article writing. These AI models can produce impressive content, but it is important to recognise their limitations. While they offer convenience and efficiency, they have the potential to generate biased, out-of-date, or inaccurate content, often resulting in bland or boring articles that lack authenticity.

While generative AI platforms can generate content quickly, it is important to recognise that readers, especially those who are writers themselves or experts in your field, can often discern that AI wrote it. This can, in turn, impact your credibility and make you appear untrustworthy. Therefore, it is best to either write the article yourself or, if writing is not your forte, consider hiring a professional writer to do it for you.

Conclusion  

There is, of course, much more to writing LinkedIn articles than this – this is just a basic guide to introduce you to the basics. Nevertheless, writing and publishing articles on LinkedIn brings many benefits and is well worth investing your time and energy in.

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How to write highly effective LinkedIn articles

by Chris Smith | May 24, 2017

How to write highly effective LinkedIn articles

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With over half a billion users across the world, we should take LinkedIn pretty seriously when the company says it’s aiming to be the biggest publisher of any type in the world (if it isn’t already).

But with more people than ever posting not just updates but full-blown articles and think pieces, how should you engage with the platform and join the publishing revolution yourself? We asked LinkedIn trainer and founder of the Value Exchange , Nigel Cliffe to share his top posting insights with us.

Why should anyone write ‘articles’ on LinkedIn?

Quite simply, writing articles on LinkedIn is a powerful way to help you differentiate your personal brand from other people – and to stand out from the crowd. Writing also helps you demonstrate your opinions and expertise so you become front-of-mind when your contacts might need your skills or services.

Also, if you want to get noticed and picked up by LinkedIn or Google algorithms, their search engines are far more attuned to picking up articles rather than facts and figures – so being able to tell a good story and engage people is an increasingly important skill to have.

I’ve just joined LinkedIn – what’s the first thing I should know?

A lot of people still think of LinkedIn being an online CV. And that’s fine if it works for them but in my experience, LinkedIn works the best when you enter into a conversation with your contacts – so, first thing to know is to see LinkedIn as an active community not just a noticeboard for your CV.

You can engage with people in a number of different ways. You can search for topics and articles that interest you and ‘like’ them – and if you think they’d be of interest to your community you can ‘share’ them with your network.

Once you feel confident enough in your own abilities – then you can start to write articles of your own. This is a really useful way to start defining your brand and your offer – and start to build people’s trust and confidence in what you do.

What’s the biggest mistake that people make when posting on LinkedIn?

Lewis Carol said ‘if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there’ and that’s true in life and especially true on LinkedIn. I’d say the number one mistake that people make is not having a strategy – and by that I mean not really knowing why they’re on the platform and why they’re engaging with people.

LinkedIn is all about building your profile and building other people’s trust and confidence in you and what you have to offer the world. But in order to do that you need to know why you’re posting and what you want to become known for – and if you don’t establish this you can start off in the wrong direction.

>> Read more: The complete guide to writing accountability – hold yourself to account and use others to help you achieve your writing goals

Having a strategy sounds pretty complicated – is it?

No, it really doesn’t need to be complicated at all. At it’s most basic level it just means knowing why you’re on the platform and what you want to get out of using it.

One tip is to choose two or three topics that you want to become known for and then use these themes to guide everything you post, share and like.

Picking a few ‘pillars’ to hang your content around gives your profile consistency and it sends a clear message to your readers and network about what you stand for and what you’re interested in.

So, what’s your LinkedIn strategy?

My ‘pillars’ – the themes I connect with my audience around – are LinkedIn, marketing, marketing technology and digital. Everything I write about, like and share are broadly based around these pillars. It means I get known for those themes and topics and my readers know what to expect.

My objective is to build up an interested network of contacts around those themes and to offer them interesting content – in the hope that one day we might be of mutual benefit.

What shouldn’t people do or publish on LinkedIn?

Direct selling is a big no, no on LinkedIn. You’d never start offering your two for one deal to someone you’d just met in real life so why do it in the virtual world?

LinkedIn isn’t for selling – unless you’ve specifically been asked to of course. It’s a place to build trust and credibility in you and what you offer – so that when a contact is ready to buy whatever you are selling they’ll visit your profile and hopefully, get in touch.

Also, never be disrespectful to anyone – even if they are to you. Always remember that any reply that you give will be public so you always need to be mindful of that.

Is there anything you shouldn’t write about?

What you publish really depends on you and whatever engagement strategy you have. However, I’d always be cautious of sharing highly sensitive topics and themes that might lead you into online arguments.

Just consider how you want to come across to your audience. The last thing you want to do is to get into a political slanging match with someone. That’s unhelpful for you and it’s a real switch off for your readers too.

How much should you publish?

There’s no set amount but I publish or share an article every day – based around my core interests. At the upper end I get a few thousand views on the content that I share and at the lower end, a few hundred.

The key is to be consistent about what you share and what you write about so people know what to expect. If I was all over the place and shared anything – then my readers wouldn’t stick around for long. Again – it comes back to having a strategy.

>> Read more: Trying hard to be a writer won’t make you one, being prolific will

What if you’ve just joined LinkedIn straight from college – what can I write about then?

Even if you don’t have a lot of work experience – everyone has a story. There are experiences you can share, incidents that have happened during the day that you can write stories about – if they’re relevant to your audience. But again, you have to first understand what you want to achieve by being on LinkedIn.

A good tip if you’re stuck for ideas on what to post about is to set up a Google alerts around your content pillars so you can share interesting articles with your network.

But remember, the real benefit comes when you put your personal spin on the article. Perhaps you agree with it – or disagree. Tell us why – have an opinion. It’s always good to put the cat amongst the pigeons sometimes!

Nigel Cliffe’s 7 top tips on how to write LinkedIn articles

  • Make sure your post isn’t too long and isn’t too short. Whilst longer articles can get read, I find it’s best to keep pieces between 300-500 words.
  • Don’t make you reader read giant slabs of text. Make it easy for them to read by breaking the text up, adding in some sub-headers and where appropriate, using italics.
  • Add visual interest. Make sure you have a strong image or graphic as your title picture. Also, don’t forget to dot images throughout the story to break the piece up a little and make it more readable.
  • Get yourself a catchy title. This is super-important as boring titles are real turn off. Try posting your proposed headline in an analyzer to give it a ‘sharability’ score.
  • Make sure there’s a good call to action. Don’t make it difficult for people to find you! Make sure your contact details or website URL is included at the end.
  • Make sure you know the order of events. If you have your own blog post it there first then wait around a week to post the same piece up on LinkedIn.
  • If you’re re-posting from your blog, change the content and the header a little to reflect (and respect) your LinkedIn audience.
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How to write a LinkedIn article and get it in front of your audience 

March 12, 2024

Header_ Writing for LinkedIn article

Would you believe LinkedIn first went live back in 2003? That makes it one of the oldest social media networks on the web today! But in just the last few years, the platform’s popularity has grown like a muscle on steroids – with around 200 million users in the US alone . 

Of course, this has opened up tonnes of possibilities for professionals all over the world, from making new connections to scoring that dream job. But as always, more people means more content. And more content means you’ve got to work extra hard to stand out from the digital crowd. 

One way to get noticed and pique people’s interest is to write great LinkedIn articles. And today, I’m going to help you do just that. This quick crash course will show you how to write a LinkedIn article that snatches clicks and captivates your audience. Plus, tips on how to review it with stakeholders using document approval software .

Here’s a snapshot of what’s to come: 

The key benefits of writing LinkedIn articles

How to write a linkedin article and get it published.

  • Top tips to make your article even stronger

Now, let’s dive in. 

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1. Boost your visibility 

When you publish an article on LinkedIn’s publishing platform, it doesn’t just stay in the platform for your existing connections to see. It pops up in people’s organic Google searches too, thanks to LinkedIn’s external algorithm. This means you could publish the same content as you would in a regular blog, but get way more traction just because it has the word “LinkedIn” associated with it. That’s two huge audiences reached with one LinkedIn article!  

2. Become a thought leader 

When writing LinkedIn articles, taking the time to craft high-quality long-form content is a fantastic way to position yourself or your business as a trailblazer in that particular topic. The generous character limit of 110,000 adds up to at least 14,000 words. This gives you much more space for detail, analysis and insight than a simple LinkedIn post. Which in turn opens up opportunities for different opinions and deeper, more meaningful conversations with and among your audience. 

3. Strengthen your personal brand 

Increasing your visibility and starting conversations via well-crafted LinkedIn articles can do wonders for your online presence and personal brand. Consistently creating content also allows you to shape and control your brand narrative by aligning your articles with your values and expertise.

Better yet, if you’re trying to generate leads or professional opportunities, writing a great LinkedIn article demonstrates your top notch communication skills and unique personality. That’s a great way to make yourself a more desirable person to work with. 

4. Have a long-term impact 

Unlike LinkedIn posts that have a shorter lifespan, writing LinkedIn articles ensures that people can access your content at any time. This means people will continue to find your articles way down the line when they search for content related to the topic you’ve written about – even if they’re not connected to you directly. 

As you continue to write and publish LinkedIn articles, you’re creating a hub of information and industry knowledge that people can learn from over time. So, if you want to leave a lasting impact on your field or industry, writing LinkedIn articles is a fulfilling way to make that happen. 

5. They’re easy to create 

Writing LinkedIn articles can be as easy (or as challenging) as you choose. Of course, if writing is a skill you’re yet to develop, or you need to do lots of research to write about a complex topic, the process can become more time-consuming. But once you get to grips with the steps involved and get into the habit of regularly creating LinkedIn articles, it can be an enjoyable experience. 

With that said, let’s now look at the practicalities of writing and publishing an article on LinkedIn. 

write article linkedin

1. Go to your homepage 

First things first. Before you start to write articles on LinkedIn, you’ll need your own LinkedIn account. After you’ve signed up and logged in, head over to your homepage. Note this is different from your personal profile page. 

Then simply click the “Write article” button and the LinkedIn publishing tool will open. 

2. Write a headline for your article 

Your headline is the first thing people will see when your article shows up on their personal LinkedIn feed. You want to give people a reason to click through to the full piece. And a catchy headline is your best bet. One that ideally hits the sweet spot of 40 to 49 characters. 

There are different ways to draw your audience in with a LinkedIn headline. Clearly outlining what they’ll get out of the article or how it will help them, for example “How to…” or “10 best ways to…”, is a good way to go. It creates incentive. Just make sure your article pulls through on your headline promise. 

You can also go in with the type of headline that grabs attention and leaves your audience wanting to know more. Something controversial, perhaps posed as a question, like “Is oxygen really necessary for human life?”. Good luck delivering on that one though! 

3. Write your article 

Now comes the fun stuff. It’s time to write your article!

You can write and edit to your heart’s content on LinkedIn’s publishing tool before publishing your LinkedIn article. I personally like to do my planning, writing, and whatnot in a separate document such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs. It just gives me a greater sense of freedom to play around with the style and structure of my LinkedIn articles. I then copy and paste into LinkedIn’s Publishing Tool. But find what process works for you and roll with it. 

It’s worth noting that articles tend to perform better in terms of views and shares when they fall somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 words. Just make sure you’re not fluffing up your content solely to reach that number. It’s better to have well-written LinkedIn articles that are less than 1,500 words, rather than waffling on unnecessarily. 

4. Include visuals to support your article 

You don’t need to embed relevant images into your LinkedIn articles, but it is highly recommended for a couple reasons. 

Firstly, peppering some images throughout your LinkedIn articles will automatically make it look more polished and professional. 

Secondly, and more importantly, supporting images will help boost engagement. Research has shown that people are four times more likely to understand and remember information that’s accompanied by imagery. 

To add an image to a LinkedIn article, simply click the icon on the left of the text box. 

5. Finish with a strong call-to-action (CTA) 

Ultimately, when writing LinkedIn articles, you want them to gather engagement and start conversations. That’s why a strong CTA is important. This could take the form of a question that your readers can answer in the comments. Or you can ask them to share their thoughts and opinions on the topic you’ve written about. No matter the type of CTA, just be sure to follow up with everyone who takes the time to leave a comment or ask a question. 

6. Review your article 

Whether you’re writing LinkedIn articles for yourself or on behalf of a brand or business, taking the time to catch any spelling or grammar mistakes is a must. You can do this step yourself, or share with your colleagues for review to make sure you can publish it with confidence! 

As well as getting rid of any pesky typos, you should also use this time to optimize your article. Make sure your headline is catchy. Check that the LinkedIn article has a clear structure (a lot of people will be reading your LinkedIn article on their LinkedIn mobile app, so make your content scannable). Streamline your LinkedIn article so that it’s in your desired tone and that it’s easy to digest for the reader. All this shows that you value and respect their precious time and attention. 

One last thing. Once you have several LinkedIn articles live, add internal links between them to keep readers reading!

7. Publish your article 

Whoop whoop! Now that you’ve finished writing your LinkedIn article, it’s time to put your masterpiece out into the world. Simply click “Publish” at the bottom of the page and give yourself a well deserved pat on the back for creating your very first LinkedIn article. 

8. Don’t forget to share it 

Once you’ve published your new LinkedIn article, you’re going to want to share the news on your feed for all your followers to see. A little window should pop up and nudge you to share the fresh piece of content there and then. 

But you can also share it at any time, or re-share it with a new post by clicking the “Share” button at the bottom of your publication. 

For more practical tips and examples on how write a strong LinkedIn post, check out the 10 LinkedIn post ideas to help you create a buzz around your business in 2023.

Top tips to make your LinkedIn articles even stronger  

Now you’ve nailed the basics, here are some tips and tricks you can use to make sure every article you post on LinkedIn helps you hit your targets for audience engagement.

1. Think about your topic 

Of course, you’re going to want to write about things that matter to you or your brand. That’s how you gain the right kind of traction. But when it comes to choosing the specific topic for each article, there are some things to consider that will really help your articles hit home. 

For example, think about your target audience’s interests, passions and pain points. Tailoring your content to the needs of your LinkedIn community is a surefire way to make sure people want to read what you’re writing. 

You can also look at current affairs and trending news. Sharing your thoughts and opinions on relevant hot topics will make your LinkedIn article all the more appealing for your audience. Keeping current also makes for more shareable content.

2. First impressions matter 

This applies to your headline as well as the opening lines of your LinkedIn article. Hooking people’s interest is no easy feat. A cleverly crafted headline will do a lot of the heavy lifting here. But the opening sentence also needs to spark curiosity and keep your audience reading. Pose a question. Start with a surprising fact. Or outline a relatable problem that you’re going to help them solve. 

However you choose to do it, kick your article off with a bang that’ll keep readers wanting more. 

3. Time your posts 

Once you get into the swing of regularly posting LinkedIn articles, posting consistently at regular times will help keep your audience engaged. And if you really want to perfect your timing, there are lots of studies out there that can give you an idea of the best times to post on LinkedIn for optimal engagement on people’s LinkedIn feed. 

4. Use relevant keywords 

Populating your writing with related keywords will help boost its SEO performance so that your LinkedIn articles rank well. This means they will be more visible both on LinkedIn as well as in other search engines like Google. 

Optimizing your LinkedIn articles for SEO will involve choosing one main keyword which will feature in your title. And a variety of secondary keywords related to the topic. You want both your primary and secondary keywords to be incorporated throughout the entire article. There are lots of free tools online that can help you out with SEO optimization.

Final thoughts 

To sum up, LinkedIn articles are a great way to grow your network and strengthen your brand. But in order to be successful, you need to create high quality content for your audience. Hopefully this article has helped you learn how to write and publish top performing articles on LinkedIn. And if you’re looking for an efficient, collaborative way to review them, start your free trial with Filestage today!

Valerie O'Connor

Valerie O'Connor

Social media marketing

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Best Practices & Examples for Writing Top LinkedIn Articles

May 29, 2023

Best Practices and Examples For Writing The Best LinkedIn Articles

LinkedIn is a powerful tool for professionals to connect, share ideas, and establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry. One way to do this is by writing LinkedIn articles. In this blog post, we will explore the best practices for writing LinkedIn articles, provide examples of successful articles, discuss how to promote your blogs , and offer advanced strategies to help you build your brand as a thought leader.

Why Write LinkedIn Articles?

Writing LinkedIn articles is a powerful way to establish yourself as a thought leader and share your expertise with others. By publishing high-quality articles on LinkedIn, you can:

  • Showcase your knowledge and skills
  • Build your personal brand
  • Increase your visibility and reach
  • Engage with your network and beyond
  • Establish credibility and trust

Best Practices for Writing LinkedIn Articles

Now that we understand the benefits of writing LinkedIn articles, let's explore some best practices to help you create engaging and effective content.

Choosing a Topic

The first step in writing a successful LinkedIn article is choosing the right topic. Your topic should be relevant to your industry, timely, and interesting to your target audience. Consider what challenges or opportunities your audience is facing and how you can provide value through your content.

Crafting a Compelling Headline

Your headline is the first thing people will see when they come across your article, so it's important to make it attention-grabbing and compelling. Use action-oriented language, numbers, and specific details to make your headline catchy .

Writing for Your Audience

When writing your LinkedIn article, keep your target audience in mind. Write in a conversational tone and use simple, easy-to-understand language. Use anecdotes, examples, and stories to illustrate your points and make your content more engaging .

Formatting Your Article

Formatting your article can help make it more readable and engaging. Use subheadings, bullet points, and short paragraphs to break up your content. Use bold and italicized text to highlight important points.

Adding Visuals

Visuals can help break up your content and make it more engaging. Consider adding images, videos, infographics, or other visuals to your article to illustrate your points and make your content more visually appealing.

Using Keywords and Hashtags

Using keywords and hashtags can help make your article more discoverable on LinkedIn. Do some research to identify relevant keywords and hashtags for your industry and incorporate them into your article.

Including Calls to Action

Include a call to action at the end of your article to encourage your readers to take action. This could be asking them to share your article, leave a comment, or connect with you on LinkedIn.

Examples of Successful LinkedIn Articles

Now that we have covered some best practices for writing LinkedIn articles, let's look at some examples of successful articles and what we can learn from them.

Analyzing Top-Performing Articles

One way to identify successful LinkedIn articles is to analyze top-performing articles in your industry. Look for articles that have a high number of views, likes, comments, and shares. Pay attention to the topics, headlines, formatting, and visuals used in these articles.

Identifying Key Elements of Success

Based on your analysis, identify the key elements of success for LinkedIn articles in your industry. This could include using attention-grrabbing headlines, writing in a conversational tone, or incorporating visuals. Use these insights to inform your own article-writing process.

Learning from Thought Leaders in Your Industry

Follow thought leaders in your industry on LinkedIn and read their articles to gain insights into what works well for them. Take note of their writing style, the topics they cover, and how they engage with their audience. You can use these insights to help inform your own article-writing process and build your brand as a thought leader.

Promoting Your LinkedIn Articles

Once you've written an engaging and high-quality LinkedIn article, it's important to promote it to increase its visibility and reach. Here are some strategies to consider:

Sharing on Your Personal Profile

Share your LinkedIn article on your personal profile to increase its visibility among your connections. Encourage your connections to like, comment, and share your article to further increase its reach.

Utilizing LinkedIn Groups

Share your article in relevant LinkedIn Groups to reach a wider audience outside of your immediate network. Be sure to follow each group's guidelines for posting and engage with other members' content as well.

Leveraging Other Social Media Platforms

Share your LinkedIn article on other social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, to increase its reach and visibility. Be sure to use relevant hashtags and tailor your post for each platform to maximize engagement.

Collaborating with Other Thought Leaders

Collaborate with other thought leaders in your industry to co-author articles or share each other's content. This can help expand your reach and credibility as a thought leader.

Measuring Success

To improve your LinkedIn article-writing process and better understand what resonates with your audience, it's important to measure the success of your articles. Here are some metrics to track:

Tracking Views and Engagement

Monitor the number of views, likes, comments, and shares your articles receive. This can give you insight into the topics and content that resonate most with your audience.

Analyzing Metrics for Improvement

Use the engagement metrics from your LinkedIn articles to identify areas for improvement. For example, if you notice that articles with visuals receive more engagement, consider incorporating more visuals in your future articles. If your articles with shorter paragraphs perform better, experiment with breaking up your content into smaller sections.

Setting Goals for Your LinkedIn Articles

Set goals for your LinkedIn articles to help you stay focused and measure your success. These goals could include increasing your number of views or engagement, attracting new connections, or expanding your reach within your industry. Regularly review your progress and adjust your strategy as needed.

Advanced Strategies for LinkedIn Articles

As you become more comfortable with writing LinkedIn articles and start to see success, consider experimenting with advanced strategies to further enhance your content and build your brand as a thought leader.

Incorporating Video Content

Video content is highly engaging and can help you stand out on LinkedIn. Consider incorporating video clips, interviews, or live streams into your articles to provide a multimedia experience for your audience.

Experimenting with Different Formats

Don't be afraid to experiment with different formats for your LinkedIn articles. This could include creating listicles , how-to guides, case studies, or opinion pieces. Try different formats and see what resonates most with your audience.

Building Your Brand as a Thought Leader

As you continue to write high-quality LinkedIn articles and engage with your audience, focus on building your personal brand as a thought leader. This includes consistently sharing unique content , engaging with others in your industry, and staying up-to-date on industry trends and news.

Writing LinkedIn articles is an effective way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, increase your visibility, and attract new business opportunities. By following best practices, analyzing successful examples, promoting your content, and experimenting with advanced strategies, you can create engaging and impactful articles that resonate with your target audience. Remember to track your progress and adjust your strategy as needed to continue building your brand as a thought leader on LinkedIn.

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8 Steps for Writing a Smart LinkedIn Article

Take advantage of this platform to show off what you know..

Typing on laptop closeup, chatting in Facebook

In business and in life, you are what you portray to people. Professionally, this means if you are an expert doctor/lawyer/banker/marketer/entrepreneur/fill-in-the-blank, you need to show people what makes you an expert doctor/lawyer/banker/marketer/entrepreneur/fill-in-the-blank.

You don't wait for people to ask. You take the lead. It's called thought leadership for a reason. One way to be a thought leader is to write about what you know in articles that you publish to  LinkedIn .

If you don't have a blog, you might consider your professional profile your platform for sharing your thoughts and expertise. For example, in my public relations and communications business, LinkedIn makeovers and storytelling are something I do well. So I've written about both, not just here but on LinkedIn, too. People ask me how to write articles on LinkedIn, so here's what you need to know.

1. Start on your home page.

Where do you write the article? Go to your home page, not your profile. At the very top, you will see where you can share an update or "Write an article;" click on that.

2. Give your article a headline.

Before you write the article, think about the headline. You want a complete yet succinct thought, not a label. A label would be "teachers and class pets." A headline would be "How teachers use class pets to promote STEM learning."

You also want to tell the reader what they can expect to gain. Say you are a career coach and you want to write about the top mistakes people make in job interviews. A great headline might be: "The top 5 job interview mistakes -- and how to avoid them."

3. Find art for your article.

Next, I like to plug in art for my articles. Some people might prefer to write their story first, but I find having art in place gets me in a good writing groove. You might have the perfect photo, but if you don't, don't worry. To find royalty-free photos on a variety of subjects, go to Unsplash.com or Pixabay.com.

4. Write your article.

Write your article, making sure you deliver on what your headline promises. Note: Your headline might change during the writing process, and that's OK and even a good thing.

Aim for no longer than 1,000 words. As far as length, keeping to 500-700 is generally best. If you find your article is much longer, think about how you can break it up into different thoughts -- and get more articles as a result. Hyperlinks to other articles can also help you keep your word count in check. You don't have to describe a scientific or market study or New York Times story in full. Rather, you can link to outside reading for those who want to dive deeper into your subject matter.

5. Drop in subheads.

You want people to read your article, so make sure doesn't look long and overwhelming. Drop in subheads to break up long stretches of gray text. Imagine how this column would look if the different tips ran together versus being set off by bolded and numbered subheads. 

6. Edit your article.

Now it's time to edit your article. I recommend stepping away from it for a day or at least a few hours after writing. Note that you can save your article in drafts, and it won't appear to your network until you hit "publish." When you sit down with fresh eyes to edit, I encourage you to read your article out loud; that's always how I find mistakes like dropped words and grammar goofs. 

7. Publish and socialize your article.

You are ready to publish your article. Hit publish. Congratulations. But you're not finished yet. LinkedIn will prompt you to share what you wrote with your connections. Just write a post like you would when you share other articles on LinkedIn and Facebook. Use hashtags to capture the attention of those who follow certain terms like "career development" or "resumes."

8. Link your article to your profile.

You want to sure connections can always find your article, so copy and paste the link to your profile. Think of it like how you can pin a tweet to the top of your Twitter account. On LinkedIn, there are two place where you can "pin" articles -- at the bottom of your summary story and to individual jobs. Just click to edit those areas and you will see a "Media" section and hyperlink to link your article. You will see a thumbnail of the art you chose for your story. When people click on this image, they will be taken to your story. Nice, right?

Bonus tip: When clients and prospects ask you questions that are answered by your articles, send a short response and invite them to read more, linking to your past articles. And then enjoy some found time and (hopefully) new business.  

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Publishing Articles on LinkedIn: Your Complete Guide Watch Overview

Publishing Articles on LinkedIn: Your Complete Guide

Keen to improve your organic content marketing and reach more of your market?

Publishing articles on LinkedIn could be the answer.

In fact, as you’ll discover, doing so gives business owners so many advantages, it should be an integral part of your content marketing strategy.

This post shows you exactly how to go about publishing articles on LinkedIn—and how to extract maximum benefits for your business when you do so.

Get the cheatsheet you need to publish articles on LinkedIn effectively :

Download FREE Now

First, a Bit of History…

LinkedIn is the social network for professionals, and is largely focused on work, business and careers.

Older than Facebook, it was launched in 2003. It was profitable within 3 years, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as a public company in 2011. It is currently owned by Microsoft who acquired the company in 2016.

It has 722 million members , with around half of them considered monthly active users. Of those, 40% use it daily.

LinkedIn user stats

Users of LinkedIn tend to be:

  • Well educated— 51% of users are educated to college level or higher.
  • Affluent— most of the users earn $50,000 upwards, with 45% earning over $75,000.

The majority ( nearly 60% ) are between the ages of 25 and 34 years old, though that’s not to say other age ranges can’t be reached.

In general, it appeals to professionals keen to advance, and make connections for, their careers and businesses.

So now you know who uses it, the big question is...

Should You Use LinkedIn Articles for Your Business?

If your business is B2B, almost definitely.

After all, 97% of B2B marketers use the platform for content marketing , and LinkedIn articles are a key part of that. But they're less relevant for B2C businesses.

The following graph ( source ) shows just how important LinkedIn is for lead generation , second only to Facebook for B2B leads:

LinkedIn lead generation

(In case of interest, here's how to create a Facebook lead generation campaign).

Later on I’ll show you how to use LinkedIn articles to do exactly that— generate leads .

For content marketing purposes, now an essential for most businesses, the platform is gaining in popularity, particularly for B2B. According to LinkedIn, content creation on the platform increased 60% in 2020.

How to Publish Articles on LinkedIn

Start writing an article on LinkedIn by clicking the Write article button at the top of your feed .

Write an article on LinkedIn

You’ll find the interface easy to get to grips with, and if you’ve used Medium for blogging you’ll notice some similarities.

linkedin publish article

At the top, add a cover image to the article by clicking on the image placeholder. LinkedIn recommend a size of 744 x 400 pixels for best results.

A cover image showing someone’s face has been found to attract the most engagement.

Once uploaded, you can add a credit and/or caption. A credit might be required for example when using a free stock photo for your article (use paid stock photos as an alternative).

Add a credit and caption to the cover image

Similar to Medium 's editor, there's an icon in the left margin you can click to add other types of content to your article, including embedded content from other sites:

  • Videos— YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
  • Slides— SlideShare, Prezi, etc.
  • Links— Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Add other media to your LinkedIn article

For a list of all the different types of content you can embed, check out LinkedIn’s own published list of providers.

Use the Publishing menu to access your drafts and previously-published articles.

Access your drafts from the menu

When you’re ready to publish, hit the Publish button, top right of the publishing screen.

You’ll then see a share box appear inviting you to share the article with your network.

Share the article on LinkedIn

To improve your article’s distribution and visibility, remember to add some hashtags at the bottom. See this post for info on how hashtags work on LinkedIn.

Add hashtags to the article

Once done, click Publish .

Viewing Your Stats

Once published, keep an eye on the article's stats to gauge its performance.

You can see the stats by:

linkedin view article stats

You’ll see basic numbers for reactions, comments, article views and reshares, along with a breakdown of some of the numbers.

linkedin article stats

The reshares tab shows you exactly who has reshared your article.

You’ll also see some more advanced stats, though note these are only available for two years after the article’s publication.

Let’s now look at some other ways your LinkedIn Articles can achieve maximum visibility...

How to Increase Engagement With Your LinkedIn Articles

Ensure articles are visible outside linkedin.

When publishing articles on LinkedIn, make sure they can be seen outside of LinkedIn too in order to give it maximum visibility, such as:

  • In Google’s search results, and on other search engines.
  • On your public profile:

LinkedIn articles can appear on your public profile

To check the visibility settings for your articles:

  • Go to your public profile settings page.
  • In the right-hand column, check the Your profile’s public visibility switch is On.

Edit the visibility of your LinkedIn profile

  • Scroll down, and make sure the Public radio button is selected, and that Articles & Activity is turned on.

Edit the visibility of your LinkedIn profile

Feature Articles on Your Profile

Make articles visible to logged in LinkedIn users by adding them to the Featured section of your profile.

To do so, click the ‘+’ icon on the top right of the Featured section, and click Articles .

Feature articles on your profile linkedin-featured-articles.jpg

Then select the articles you want to feature by clicking the Feature button provided.

Click the Feature button

Share Your Articles on Social

In addition to sharing your article on LinkedIn when you publish (detailed above), don’t forget to share it across the other social platforms too.

You’re invited to do just that as soon as you publish:

Share on other networks after publishing

There are also opportunities to further promote it within LinkedIn.

As well as sharing to your feed, try:

  • Sharing it within LinkedIn Groups you belong to.
  • Messaging your network, sending it directly to connections for their interest.

Also, don’t just share the article to your LinkedIn feed once and then forget about it. Schedule multiple shares of the content over time to multiply its visibility, often many times over.

"By repeating a LinkedIn post 5 times, I was able to get 24 times more views in total than the very first post had. That first post got 109 views while the next 4 got a total of 2,547 views. You read that correctly. By republishing my link post on LinkedIn just 4 times, I was able to go from a disappointing 109 views to an incredible 2,656 views in total." —Emeric Ernoult, Agorapulse.com

For example, re-share the post on LinkedIn after 1-4 weeks, and do the same again a number of times.

Repeatedly share the content on other social networks too, particularly Twitter.

Grow Your LinkedIn Network

The more people you have in your network likely to be interested in your articles , the more visibility and engagement you’ll achieve.

Spend a few minutes a day adding relevant people to your network who may have an interest in the content you publish. Similarly, accept relevant invitations from others.

accept linkedin invite

Acknowledge and Thank Reshares

Through your article’s stats (see above) you can see exactly who has shared it on LinkedIn.

Take the opportunity to reach out to them and thank them. Just click through to their profile and you can message them directly.

Doing so helps further grow your network.

Avoid Being Promotional

Articles on LinkedIn, just as with blog posts back on your website, shouldn’t read like promotional pieces. Otherwise you’ll find engagement sinks, and you’ll lose most of the benefits you would otherwise receive.

Instead, aim to inform and inspire.

That doesn’t mean articles can’t benefit you. Quite the opposite (and I’ll cover how below).

There are still powerful strategies you can use to convert your readers into leads (and even customers). I’ll cover these below.

But first...

What Articles Should You Publish on LinkedIn?

Unsure about what to publish?

Actually it’s easy.

Presuming you’re already publishing regular blog content back on your website, the best approach for LinkedIn articles is the same as for publishing long-form content on other platforms such as Medium .

( Related : One of the main obstacles businesses face with creating regular blog content is knowing what to create that content about—to help you out, see this post for over a hundred different business blog post ideas.)

That means repurposing your content as a LinkedIn article too, adding the action to your post-publication pipeline .

There are two main approaches for repurposing it:

  • Republish the content as-is onto LinkedIn, linking back to your post to indicate to Google that your own blog contains the original content. If taking this approach, wait until the original has been indexed by Google.
  • Rewrite it for LinkedIn (the same rewritten article can then potentially be published on Medium for example, or vice versa).

The latter is a stronger long-term strategy, as it gives you more search engine exposure and this builds up significantly over time.

In fact, if you have the resources available, put the strategy on steroids and rewrite for each new platform you publish to.

Yes, it’s more work, but each rewritten article gives you additional search engine visibility across similar keywords.

Plus, rewriting content can be easily outsourced as you already have the original for someone to work from.

What Are the Benefits from Publishing LinkedIn Articles?

“Being a content producer is the highest level of influence that you can have within LinkedIn.” —Neil Patel

Generate Leads

With the right strategy, you can convert readers of your LinkedIn articles into opt-in subscribers for your email list.

This is one of the best ways to extract long-term value from publishing articles on the platform.

Indeed, leads from LinkedIn are often some of the highest quality leads you can get.

However, don’t approach it in an overly-promotional way, or it can work against you.

There are a couple of main approaches to take, ideally used together:

  • Link back to optin-optimized content on your blog . Just as you would link between posts on your blog, you should also link (via relevant keywords) from your LinkedIn articles back to those blog posts. In turn, your blog posts should be optimized to convert the maximum number of visitors into leads.
  • Add a high-relevance opt-in offer to the article . In other words, offer an additional, highly-relevant resource to readers that would be of interest and value to them, and that they would need to opt-in to obtain, linking to a relevant squeeze page.

If you don’t have a suitable high-relevance opt-in offer and/or don’t want to create one, make a more generalized opt-in offer instead.

As it's less relevant, it's unlikely to convert to the same level—but you will still nonetheless convert readers into leads.

Grow Search Engine Visibility

The articles you publish on LinkedIn show up on search (provided you make them public—see above), increasing your search engine visibility as already mentioned.

Thanks to the authority of the LinkedIn platform and the quality of the articles that users generally publish, content gets ranked relatively quickly.

Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile

When you publish a new article on LinkedIn, it’s added to your profile.

This gives a lift to your profile’s visual appeal and authority, helping to attract more connections and followers—thus providing increasing visibility for your articles.

In fact, that’s not the only way to…

Attract More Followers

When you publish an article on LinkedIn, people are also invited to follow you, right at the top of the article!

linkedin articles follow

This is then repeated at the end of the article too.

Keep Front-of-Mind for Your Followers

Articles of course give you more content to share on your feed, providing followers with a greater sense of connection and relationship with you.

“...you gain meaningful, consistent engagement and foster familiarity by posting via your LinkedIn Page at least once per day.” — Steve Kearns , Marketing Storyteller

By publishing content regularly:

  • You increase credibility and authority.
  • You stay front-of-mind.
  • You increase the visibility of your content.

Enjoy Occasional ‘Viral’ Hits

Take LinkedIn user and entrepreneur, Tom Popomaronis , for example.

A few years back, he published his first article on the platform, one he admits was highly promotional , yet one he expected at the time to go viral and bring him immediate success.

Instead, the 5 likes (one his own) and less than 250 views were sobering.

Fortunately though, he persevered.

After a few more years, he’d published over 50 articles on LinkedIn. In fact, his 50th article has so far attracted hundreds of reactions (LinkedIn’s term for Likes, Loves, Claps etc.) and scores of comments.

linkedin article reactions

So does that mean it’s a smooth upward trajectory in terms of the engagement levels each article attracts? If only it were that simple.

This particular article went more viral, but others published around the same time received more modest levels of engagement, attracting a few dozen reactions and a handful of comments.

As with any content published on social media platforms (and indeed, elsewhere), a small proportion of content— usually 5% to 20% —far outperforms the rest.

A large number of factors are at play, including:

  • The header image used.
  • The level at which the title resonates with the audience.
  • The hashtags used.
  • How it’s promoted, including on other networks.
  • Whether someone with a large network shares it.
  • The time and day of publication.

So whereas a few comments and reactions are more typical, by publishing regularly, you’ll find that every so often you’ll publish an article that multiplies your usual result, possibly many times over.

One of Tom’s for example from a few years ago, achieved nearly 2,000 reactions, and attracted hundreds of comments.

linkedin article viral tom

I’ve seen this myself too, though not quite to the same scale. One of my articles on LinkedIn has attracted thousands of views, hundreds of reactions, and dozens of comments—more than all the others combined.

To Conclude

Publishing articles on LinkedIn is a key component of an effective B2B organic content marketing strategy.

Add the platform to your post-publication pipeline for your primary content channel (such as your blog), and thereby grow your influence, generate quality leads for your business, and build search engine visibility.

Finally, take two secs to grab the free cheatsheet on publishing articles on LinkedIn for effective marketing so you have it to refer back to:

write article linkedin

@bySteveShaw

Steve Shaw is the founder of EverywhereMarketer , and has ran online businesses for over 20 years, serving over 13,000 customers in 137 countries. EverywhereMarketer helps you grow online visibility, attract more customers and grow your business across multiple channels.

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Publishing Articles on LinkedIn: Your Complete Guide

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The Ultimate Guide to Writing LinkedIn Articles That Go Viral

Influencers on LinkedIn Pulse like my man Richard Branson , have over 13 million followers .

But you’re not Richard so how do you make your content go further and get people reading?

According to LinkedIn’s latest available figures,  more than a million people  have published posts on LinkedIn ‘s platform.

More than 130,000 posts are published every week; and the average post reaches LinkedIn members in 21 industries and nine countries.

After all, there are now over 710M members on LinkedIn .

So how do you stack the deck in your favour when it comes to publishing LinkedIn articles.

Here are 4 ways to hack the algorithm when writing LinkedIn articles.

1. Optimise your Profile

Whether you’re just getting started on LinkedIn or have already used it as a marketer or salesperson for a while, optimizing your profile is essential to your success.

With a complete profile, valuable and varied content, and a broad network, you’ll stand out from the crowd, attract more attention, and ultimately get better results in business.

Watch the short video below for some of the most important areas of your profile to get right.

To dive into Profile Optimisation in more detail check out How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for Maximum Visibility on the Social Media Examiner blog.

It’s one of the best articles out there.

2. Grow Your LinkedIn Connections

Every time you publish a post on LinkedIn, your connections will see an alert in their notifications.

But to really make ripples, you need a large audience of first-level connections.

For any of the stuff we’re talking about throughout this post to really work, you’ll need to make as many connections as you possibly can that may be interested in your content.

To help get your connections ramped up, you may want to download the LinkedIn Messaging Templates 2021 which give you scripts you can use to invite people to join your network.

3. Get Featured on Channels

LinkedIn Pulse has more than 100 individual channels .

Some of the most popular channels are for Leadership & Management, Big Ideas & Innovation, Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Social Media.

Check out trending topics and share your insights backed up with research and anecdotes to be featured in these channels.

Want to get a story featured on LinkedIn Pulse?

Then you’ll have to tweet LinkedIn editos and ask them to check out your work.

Ask a Pulse editor to share your story on the channel on Twitter with “Tip @LinkedInEditors #LinkedInPulse ” at the end of your tweet.

Yes, seriously, use Twitter to get featured on Linked. 

That’s how it’s done for now!

4. Good ol’ SEO

To categorise your content, LinkedIn Pulse does an analysis of the text of your article.

This is like SEO tactics of the dark ages, when all you had to do was include your keyword in the title and use the right words a few times throughout the post.

LinkedIn is still a relatively easy search engine to manipulate.

But a word of caution.

This will evolve just like Google did, so my advice is always act with integrity online.

Let me be clear, keyword stuffing is a bad idea (even though right now, it will probably get you a lot of exposure).

Always align your objectives with the platform and you can’t go wrong.

Bonus Tip – Don’t use boring images!

Definitely  avoid using boring images in your content , such as:

  • Generic headshots.
  • Company logos.
  • Blurry photos, small pics, anything that will make you squint

How you chose images will come down to your brand.

But get creative and save the images using keywords – that will help with your SEO.

Here is a great example of an article with non-boring images – Why You Surround Yourself With is Who You Become

Now that we’ve covered some LinkedIn article hacks, you’re ready to write your masterpiece.

In this next section I’ll walk you through step-by-step preparing and posting your LinkedIn article.

Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a LinkedIn Article

If you are going to write something, you want your content to be discovered and read by as many people as possible. Right?

There are many benefits to publishing Linkedin articles and not limiting yourself to just publishing short posts.

The main benefit of writing articles on Linkedin is that it establishes you as a thought leader.

By publishing articles on Linkedin with your own content, relevant to your business and industry, you automatically position yourself as an expert.

How to Choose a Topic for Your Article

When you write articles on LinkedIn, you want to demonstrate your thought leadership, expertise, and industry knowledge.

Here are some ideas on how you can choose your topic:

  • News and updates from your industry
  • You could also answer a question your audience has.
  • What are the frequently asked questions you get when you meet someone from your network?
  • If you’re a member of a Facebook group that contains your ideal clients, keep an eye out for questions that get asked over and over again.
  • I keep a list on the notes app on my computer with ideas for blog posts and articles.
  • If one of your LinkedIn posts is getting a lot of engagement from your network, that might be a good topic for a long-form article.

Once you know what you want to write about, you are ready to get started….

Write a New LinkedIn Article

Start by going to the LinkedIn Home tab and clicking the Write an Article link at the top of the page.

After you click this link, the LinkedIn Publishing tool opens.

This is where you create your article.

Choose Your Headline

To add a headline to your article, click the Headline field and type in a headline.

Choose a headline that will grab users’ attention in the feed and make them want to click through to read the article.

List-based articles work well, as do mistake-based titles.

Check out these examples:

  • 7 Steps for Busy Professionals to Create Better Content in Less Time
  • 5 Messages You Should Never Send on LinkedIn

Format Your Article for Mobile

The next step is to format your article in a way that makes the information easy to consume.

Because we’re bombarded with information and text online, it’s best to use shorter text paragraphs interspersed with images.

This approach makes your article easier to read, which is particularly important when people are consuming the content via the LinkedIn mobile app.

Adding subheadings, bullet points, and bold type also improves readability, as you can see in the example below.

Always include a call to action in your article.

To illustrate, ask people for their comments (a great way to spark conversation) or to get in touch with you. Links to your website, podcast, or social media will work here too.

When someone leaves a comment, you can reply to them and keep increasing engagement.

Examples of questions you can ask at the end of your article:

  • What Do you Think?
  • How Do you Feel?
  • What Will You Do?
  • What is Your Opinion?
  • What is Your Story?
  • What is Your Experience or Example?
  • What Have you Been Working On?

Include Images, Video, or Rich Media in Your LinkedIn Article

At the top of the article, you can add a cover image. To do this, click in the area above the headline and upload an image from your computer.

LinkedIn recommends using a 744 x 400 pixel image for best results.

After you add a cover image, two positioning options and a Delete button appear on the screen.

Cover Image

Choose an image that will capture your readers’ attention in the LinkedIn feed and make them want to click on the article to read it.

In addition to the cover image, you’ll also want to embed relevant images and video in the body of your article. To add an image or video, click the icon to the left of the article body.

Publish and Share Your LinkedIn Article

Once you’ve written your article and added images and links, what’s next? Note that as you create your article, LinkedIn automatically saves it as a draft.

When you’re ready to publish it, simply click Publish at the top right of the page.

Share Your Article

Once you’ve published your article, you’ll want to share it. Click the Share button at the bottom of your article to see the sharing options.

Be sure to share to these places on LinkedIn:

• Your personal LinkedIn feed • A LinkedIn message (if relevant) • LinkedIn groups • Email list

When sharing articles to your personal LinkedIn feed use hashtags to get more views on the link.

LinkedIn encourages the use of hashtags when you create posts and will suggest hashtags to use.

Why You Should Reshare Your LinkedIn Article

Articles have a much longer lifespan than posts on LinkedIn.

And while you can view the analytics for your posts for only 60 days, analytics for articles are available for 2 years. You can give an article new life by resharing it via a LinkedIn post that directs users to that article.

I have several LinkedIn articles that still get comments a year or 18 months after they were published.

To visualize this, if your article is about 10 reasons why someone should attend your live event, list one or two of those reasons the first time you reshare the article.

When you reshare it a few days or even a week later, discuss some of the other reasons.

Before publishing make sure you go through the follow check-list:

  •  All names of people and companies link to their profiles
  •  Article should contain 5-10 graphics (images/charts/quotes)
  •  Attention grabbing article headline and banner (www.canva.com)
  •  Write a short 2-3 sentence caption to drive click-throughs
  •  H1 tag for title, H2 for headings, H3 for sub-headings
  •  1-3 sentences per paragraph, short sentences mobile friendly
  •  Add alt-tags to images explaining what they are
  •  10-20 people to send the article to immediately after posting
  •  Ask people involved in the article to share the content
  •  Set aside time throughout the day to respond to comments,
  •  Highlight article in Featured section of your LinkedIn profile
  •  Share in relevant groups, send to email list

Article Structure

Here’s a suggested structure for Pillar Content in the form of a LinkedIn article.

  • Introduce topic (X) in first person
  • Explain what to expect in article
  • The outcome from reading
  • Why does my company need X?
  • Why is X important to your business?
  • How X drives business results
  • Different types of X
  • How can your company leverage X?
  • 5-8 Insights or mistakes to avoid
  • How do you know if it’s working?
  • How to set goals, measure success, benchmarking
  • Sum up key message
  • What to do next action steps
  • Call-to-comment (examples above)

About Author

  • 2-3 sentences

Media and links to include where appropriate…

  • Cover banner
  • Expert Quote
  • Case Study / Statistic
  • Example / chart
  • Link to another article
  • Link to resource on website
  • Name & pic link to profile
  • Website link

That’s it!

The key to getting ahead, is getting started.

Go get ’em!

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Write and post articles on LinkedIn: All-in-One guide (2024)

LinkedIn is the go-to platform for business professionals looking to enhance their reach. With over 810 million members , this social network is a goldmine for maximizing your exposure.

LinkedIn statistics

You’re not sure how? Simple! Just write and post LinkedIn articles. You’ll get to show off your writing skills, establish yourself as a thought leader and reap the benefits of using LinkedIn to its full potential.

Still not sold yet? Okay, here me out on this: 45% percent of LinkedIn article readers are in high-level positions . Impressive, right? Writing a LinkedIn article is definitely something you should consider.

You may be worried that your LinkedIn articles will get lost in the feed. But you don’t need to worry about that at all! Only 1 million users published an article on LinkedIn. Your articles won’t be clogged up by other articles and you’ll benefit greatly from the first-mover advantage.

Publishing a LinkedIn article is very simple and free. That is not to say that you could do without a little help from excellent social media management tools like Circleboom Publish.

Circleboom Publish lets you schedule your LinkedIn posts to bring attention to your articles at the best time. It even finds the most relevant articles based on your interests when you just can’t find the right words to say what you have to say (Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us).

write article linkedin

So what are you waiting for? Get writing ASAP!

What exactly is a LinkedIn article? How is it different from a LinkedIn post?

A LinkedIn article is very much like a blog article. While a LinkedIn post can only go up to 700 words for company profiles and 1,200 words for individual accounts, a LinkedIn article can go up to 120,000 words. With a LinkedIn article, you’ll have more than enough room to showcase your thought leadership skills. You can also add images, rich media, and hyperlinks to your article.

Another great advantage of a LinkedIn article is that it’s searchable on Google, while a LinkedIn post isn’t.

LinkedIn articles appear in the Activity section of your profile. If you’ve not published any articles, this section will only show your recent activity.

LinkedIn articles

Your connections and followers will see your articles on their feed and sometimes receive notifications when you publish an article. If you make your article public, its reach will go beyond your connections and followers. LinkedIn will make sure that your article will show up on other users with similar interests. You can also share your articles on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.

You can learn more about LinkedIn articles here.  Also, you can check our detailed guide on how to find unique articles to share on LinkedIn here:

write article linkedin

Topic ideas for a LinkedIn article

Coming up with the best topic ideas for a LinkedIn article can be tricky. Here are some suggestions that might help you with choosing a topic:

  • Latest developments in your industry and your opinions
  • Your anecdotes about your professional experience
  • An answer to a question you often get from your clients
  • Case studies
  • Engagement-inviting articles

The last suggestion applies to all topic ideas. You should make sure to ask questions to your audience and invite them to share their thoughts about your article. You can enable or disable comments on your LinkedIn articles whenever you want.

Need more inspiration?

If you need more inspiration for writing a LinkedIn article, you can check out LinkedIn’s predictions about 29 Big Ideas that will change our world in 2022 . These big ideas will be relevant for this year and beyond. Coming up with an article topic inspired by these big ideas is likely to attract the attention of a large audience.

Do you need to see some examples first? That’s perfectly fine. Here you can find a list of the most shared articles on LinkedIn in 2021. You can check these articles out to get inspired for a topic or gain insight into structuring your article.

Not in the mood for writing? There’s nothing wrong with that! You can always get a little outside help when it comes to diversifying your LinkedIn content.

write article linkedin

How to write a good LinkedIn article

Writing a LinkedIn article is your chance to shine with your thought leadership and writing skills. A good LinkedIn article will show your audience that you have in-depth knowledge about your topic and that you have what it takes to share your knowledge in a coherent way. Let’s look at some tips and suggestions that will help you find your voice.

#1: Do research. Find out what others have been writing about your topic. Focus on the aspects that set your ideas apart from the others. Emphasize the uniqueness of your ideas. You can bring a new perspective to a previously talked about topic.

#2: Add personal elements. If you have personal experience with your topic or interesting anecdotes, you should definitely include them in your LinkedIn article. Adding a personal touch to your writing will make your audience relate to you more easily.

#3: Choose a headline. First impressions matter. Your headline will be the first impression that your audience will get of your LinkedIn article. You should make it as interesting as possible. Headlines like “How to Write a Good LinkedIn Article” or “7 Ways to Write a LinkedIn Article” work best.

Writing LinkedIn articles

#4: Make your article reader-friendly. No one’s going to read a big ol’ chunk of text that’s not separated into paragraphs. Format your article to make it readable. Subheadings, links, or bullet points are always a good idea.

LinkedIn article guideline

#5: Add visuals. Choose images that suit your topic the best. Images are great for readers to visualize your article. And written content with images has 650% more engagement rates!

write article linkedin

How long should LinkedIn articles be?

LinkedIn allows its users to write up to a whopping 120,000 words for an article. To put it in perspective, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring has 187,790 words . So it’s a good idea not to aim for the maximum word limit on a LinkedIn article.

Tom Popomaronis has found that articles of 1500-2000 words perform the best. That length should give you ample room to make all the points you want to make. Make sure to include relevant keywords in there!

How to use a LinkedIn article for your business

In other words, what are the benefits of a LinkedIn article? Why should you invest time and energy in writing a LinkedIn article? There are multiple advantages of LinkedIn articles that will help your business. Let's take a look at them.

#1: Build connections. LinkedIn is the biggest online professional network. Publishing a good article on LinkedIn will earn you engagement and interaction which can turn into valuable connections.

#2: Tell your story. A LinkedIn article is an excellent way of sharing your ideas and telling your story. You can expand your LinkedIn presence beyond your profile and your resumé.

LinkedIn article example

#3: Get noticed. Engagement means visibility. With a LinkedIn article, you can enhance your exposure.

How to publish articles on LinkedIn

Publishing your article on LinkedIn is super easy in just a few steps. The only caveat is that you can’t do this on mobile, so make sure you’re on the desktop before you begin.

Step #1: Near the top of your home page, you’ll find the Write article option. Click on it to get publishing.

Write article on LinkedIn

Step #2: Choose an attention-grabbing headline . Don’t go overboard and make sure to be to-the-point. Save your words for the article itself. Headlines like “7 Ways to…” or “How to…” are generally preferred and well-liked. In fact, these kinds of articles are twice as likely to get views.

Put your headlines wisely on your LinkedIn articles

Step #3: The next step is formatting. This step is crucial for making sure that your article is readable. You can include subheadings, bullet points, and numbered lists. You can also make your text bold, italicized, or underlined. If you want to add a hyperlink, just click on the Link icon on the toolbar.

Use links on LinkedIn articles

Content that is divided into 5, 7 or 9 subsections performs the best. Keep that in mind while formatting your article.  

LinkedIn articles

Step #4: Visual content is the icing on the cake. Adding images, videos, or rich media to your article is essential.

First, you’ll need a cover image. Your cover image will appear along with your article headline, so make sure to choose an interesting one. The best cover image size for a LinkedIn article is 744 x 400.

Headlines are important for LinkedIn articles

Next, you can embed visual content into your article. Just click on the icon on the left of the article section.

You can embed other content into LinkedIn articles

A new video will pop up. You can select what form of visual content you’d like to add to your article. You can use Unsplash , Giphy , or Canva to find and create the best visuals for your article.

LinkedIn favors articles with exactly 8 images. No one knows why for sure, but it’s a great tip nonetheless. The optimum image size for your article is 1200 x 644.  

Step #5: When you’re all set, all you have to do is publish your article!

You can save LinkedIn articles as drafts.

If you don’t publish it, LinkedIn will automatically save it as a draft. You can always come back to your article to edit it after you publish it, or delete it altogether.

write article linkedin

Can you publish a LinkedIn article on a LinkedIn company page?

The answer is yes, you definitely can! The process is identical to publishing a LinkedIn article to your personal LinkedIn account. The only thing you need is to have admin privileges on the LinkedIn company page.

You’ll need to click Write article and follow the same steps to publish articles to a personal account.

Write articles on LinkedIn Company pages

If you want to learn more about publishing LinkedIn articles on a LinkedIn company page, you should check out our guide here .

write article linkedin

So what’s the next step after you publish your article? Now it’s time to share it with the rest of the world!

Let's cut it short to present to you the easiest way. If you’re feeling stuck or don’t feel like writing an article, you can always use the Article Curation feature by Circleboom Publish .

write article linkedin

How to share a LinkedIn article

Don’t just rely on the LinkedIn algorithm to do its magic for you, share your article with the rest of the world to see! Just click on the Share option at the bottom of your article.

You can share your article on LinkedIn in a post or in a message. You can also share it directly on Facebook and Twitter, or copy and paste the link to your article wherever you wish.

Share articles on LinkedIn.

One great tip while sharing your article in a LinkedIn post is to use hashtags. Hashtags will enhance the visibility of your article.

You can use hashtags on LinkedIn articles.

LinkedIn will come up with hashtag suggestions while you’re typing your hashtags in your post to share your article.

Now that you’ve shared your article once, why stop there? Why not share it again later? LinkedIn articles have a greater lifespan than LinkedIn posts, so it’s best to use this to your advantage. You can share your old articles again in LinkedIn posts to get them back in circulation and get even more views. The sky's the limit!

While you’re resharing, make sure to underline a different feature of the article each time. This way, you can make the old look new.

Is it okay to repost on LinkedIn?

This is a little bit tricky. There are some do's and don'ts to reposting on LinkedIn.

Firstly, you should make sure that the article you want to repost has a topic within the interest areas of your audience.

If you've found an article written by someone else that you're sure your audience will appreciate, then go ahead and share it on LinkedIn. Make sure to include your thoughts on the article while you're sharing it. Check out this article here to learn more about "repost etiquette".

While it might be tempting to repost every article on your blog, try to be a little pickier. Consider the success potential of each article on LinkedIn. Let's say you're thinking about reposting an article on your blog, ask yourself the following questions:

Would this article do well on LinkedIn?

Would my audience on LinkedIn find this article interesting?

Does this article fit the criteria of a good LinkedIn article?

How to find quality articles for LinkedIn

Circleboom Publish offers the best tools for LinkedIn on a single dashboard. Here’s how to use the Article Curation feature when you’re having writer’s block.

Step #1:   Log in to Circleboom Publish . If you don't have an account, you can easily create one here.

Write and post articles on LinkedIn with Circleboom Publish

Step #2: Click on the LinkedIn option on the Circleboom Publish dashboard. You can manage all of your social media accounts on this single dashboard.

Manage multiple LinkedIn Profiles and LinkedIn Business Pages with Circleboom.

Step #3: On the left-hand menu, you’ll see the Discover Articles option.

Curate great articles for social media on Circleboom Publish

Step #4: You can select your interests to find the best articles you need. Once you’ve selected your interests, relevant articles will appear on the page.

You can find many articles on many different languages.

Next, all you need to do is pick the articles that you’d like to post to your LinkedIn account.

You can publish, schedule, or add to queue your selected articles for your multiple LinkedIn accounts.

How to share RSS feeds on LinkedIn

If you're looking for a way to diversify your LinkedIn content, you should consider integrating your RSS feeds with LinkedIn. This way, you'll get to establish yourself as a reliable source of information and your articles will get more views and engagement.

Circleboom Publish has the RSS to LinkedIn feature which will make it super easy for you to connect your RSS feeds on its intuitive dashboard.

You can auto-post your RSS feed on LinkedIn with Circleboom Publish

Check out our guide RSS to LinkedIn: Connect any RSS Feed to LinkedIn in seconds! to learn more about this useful feature.

write article linkedin

What's the best time to publish LinkedIn articles?

If you’re wondering about what the best time is for publishing or sharing your article in a LinkedIn post, we got the answer for you.

The best days to post content on LinkedIn are:

  • Between Tuesday and Thursday
  • Early in the morning, lunchtime or early evening work best for posting during this time period
  • You can also post between 10 am and 11 am on Tuesdays

The worst time to post? Sleeping hours (10 pm - 6 am), and immediately before Monday and after Friday night is a big no-no.

write article linkedin

Can you schedule articles on LinkedIn?

The bad news is that you can’t schedule your LinkedIn articles to be published at the optimal time as of now. Third-party tools can’t help you with that either.

But if you’re looking for a way to schedule your LinkedIn posts, you can find everything you need in the Linkedin Post Scheduler tool of Circleboom Publish.

Circleboom's Linkedin Post Scheduler lets you schedule your posts in advance so you can update your audience about your latest articles!

Circleboom Publish offers a user-friendly LinkedIn post scheduling service that’s guaranteed to help you navigate LinkedIn much more comfortably. You can schedule posts to be published right before you publish your LinkedIn article to announce and draw attention to it. Likewise, you can also schedule your posts to be published after your LinkedIn article sees the light of day to call attention to it.

Review your LinkedIn Analytics

It’s always a great idea to analyze your performance on LinkedIn. This way, you can see if you’re meeting your goals based on the metrics that LinkedIn’s native Page Analytics offers for free. You’ll need to be a page admin to access this feature.

LinkedIn Page Analytics includes:

#1: Update (for desktop) or Content (for mobile) Analytics

Update Analytics helps you keep track of the effectiveness of your LinkedIn updates, including posted videos.

#2: Follower Analytics

Follower Analytics is the place for learning all about your audience. These metrics show the demographics of who is interacting with your content.

#3: Visitor Analytics

Visitor Analytics shows you the demographics of visitors to your profile who haven’t followed you on LinkedIn. Analyzing these metrics can offer you invaluable insight into encouraging these visitors to become followers.

#4: Employee Advocacy Analytics

These metrics let you evaluate the quality of and engagement with employee recommended content.

#5: Talent Brand Analytics

Talent Brand Analytics shows you the engagement with your Career Pages so that you can pump new blood into your brand.

LinkedIn allows you to view the analytics of individual posts and articles too.

View your Post Analytics

You can track the performance of your LinkedIn articles with LinkedIn’s Post Analytics . You can see the following metrics about your LinkedIn articles:

  • Engagements
  • Impression demographics
  • Article performance
  • Article viewer demographics

These metrics are crucial for analyzing the performance of your LinkedIn articles. For example, if your engagement rates are low, you can always diversify your content to attract more attention or include engagement-inviting questions in your articles.

Wrapping up

It's all about networking on LinkedIn. Finding quality articles to publish on LinkedIn and becoming a thought leader is a proven approach to extending your professional circle.

You should definitely consider publishing articles on LinkedIn if you’re looking for more exposure in the online world of business. LinkedIn articles are great for boosting your visibility and improving your thought leadership skills.

In only a few clicks, Circleboom Publish will help you uncover trending articles in your field. You don't have to spend hours searching the internet for great content when you use Circleboom Publish.

write article linkedin

Content creator interested in social media with a penchant for writing.

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How to Write a LinkedIn Article if You’re Not a Writer (and Still Sound Credible)

yping

Want to write for the same publication as Richard Branson, Jack Welch, and Arianna Huffington? Good news, you can.

LinkedIn launched its publishing platform in 2012 by inviting 150 of the most influential thought leaders to write original content. Today, all members can use LinkedIn Pulse to share their unique knowledge and professional insights with the 500+ million members who interact there.

At the same time that it’s exciting, it’s also a bit intimidating—especially for non-writers. While you might see the potential to strengthen your brand and build out your profile, you also want to go about it the right way. The last thing you want is for people to roll their eyes when they see the subject you chose or approach you took.

Well, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to write an effective article, even if writing’s not “your thing.”

Step 1: Consider Your Overall Message

The first thing you should do is consider the big picture (i.e., why you want to start publishing articles). Do you want to share your professional expertise, expand your network, strengthen your company’s talent brand, interest recruiters who view your profile, or establish yourself as a thought leader?

Once you’ve nailed down the why, you can focus on the who. Does your potential audience consist of colleagues or prospective clients? Or are you trying to engage professionals in a specific niche or industry?

To attract followers and be memorable, you’ll want to have a clear message. Pick a coherent thread that runs through the majority of your posts so you’ll become “known” for something (like struggles for new engineers, or tips for freelancing, or best practices for hiring).

Step 2: Just Start Writing

In my experience, writing a first draft is by far the hardest part of the process. I have three words of advice: Just start writing. I wish there were a silver bullet. (There isn’t.) Set aside a specific time period—maybe an hour—when you can write without interruption. Schedule it on your calendar and don’t let anything else get in the way.

Have a case of writer’s block? Here are several questions to help you start brainstorming:

  • What’s the best career lesson you’ve learned?
  • What advice would you give to someone hoping to enter your field?
  • What are the current trends in your industry?
  • What will your industry look like in the future?
  • What’s going on in the news? Is there a story or event where you can provide insight?
  • What experience has most impacted your career?

When you first get started, don’t worry about whether the sentences flow or whether the pieces all fit. No one will ever read your first draft. (It’s OK if it totally sucks—that’s the reason it’s called a rough draft.) What you’re trying to say will get clearer as you go back through a second (and third) time to revise.

Once you think it’s solid, identify someone who’ll give you an honest and constructive evaluation. Ask her what resonated, what didn’t, and what suggestions she’s willing to offer.

Writers are often given cliché advice to write about what they know. While I agree that sharing personal experiences can strengthen a post, I think better advice is to write something that helps people in some way. It doesn’t matter if you’re helping someone become a better marketer, or learn about a new app, or feel less alone because you shared a common experience—the key is asking yourself if this article will make someone else’s day better in any way.

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Step 3: Choose Your Headline and Image Wisely

Last year I spoke with a LinkedIn Influencer and asked how she reaches such a large audience with her posts. I learned that she spends more time perfecting an article’s headline and image than she spends actually writing the article. That’s because it’s the photo and headline that’ll entice someone to click and read the post—if you choose something generic and bland, he or she may never get to all of your great insights.

Your headline should be concise, clear, and give people a reason to click. Readers have a short attention span. (Would you be more likely to check out “5 Things I Learned from Applying to 30 Jobs in 30 Days” or “Job Application Lessons?”)

After you’ve got the headline down, consider the image that’ll show at the top next to it. While you can include media and photos throughout your post, LinkedIn allows you to select one featured image. Search sites like Unsplash and StockSnap.io for free, high-resolution photos (just be sure to source them correctly).

Step 4: Finalize Your Post

With your headline, image, and content complete, you’re ready to finalize your article. Open the LinkedIn homepage and select “Publish a post.” This takes you to the publishing platform where you can paste in your content.

write article linkedin

Double check to make sure the formatting looks right. You can include block quotes, headers, bullet points, videos, and additional images to enhance your article.

If you include links, make sure they direct readers to the appropriate sites. At the bottom of your post, you can include up to three tags to help others find your content. These tags will influence the specific Pulse channels your article will be considered for.

And always do a final check on spelling and grammar. Nothing will sink your otherwise perfect article faster than typos.

Step 5: Hit “Publish”

Once you hit publish on your article, here’s what you can expect:

  • Your original content becomes part of your profile. It is displayed on the Posts section of your profile.
  • It's shared with your connections and followers. Your article will be shown in their feed, as a notification, or via email if they subscribe to daily Pulse emails.
  • Members not in your network can now follow you from your long-form post to receive updates when you publish next.
  • Your long-form post is searchable both on and off of LinkedIn.

A small percentage of articles will get featured in Pulse channels. There are dozens of channels based on geography and industry, and a combination of algorithms and editors determine which articles get featured. To reach a larger audience, share your article on other sites and send it directly to colleagues. You spent significant time and effort writing your article, show it off!

Writing quality content on LinkedIn Pulse will both strengthen your brand and add more dimension to your profile. It’s a great place to connect your thoughts with your resume—particularly if you don’t have a website or regular platform to do this. So use the platform to display what you know and grow your network.

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Writing on LinkedIn: The How, The What, And The Why

Home » Writing on LinkedIn: The How, The What, And The Why

Picture of Emily Johnsen

Emily Johnsen

  • Updated on October 4, 2023

Table of Contents

At first glance, writing LinkedIn articles might seem like a fool’s errand. After all, you’re not getting paid for it, and it has almost zero effect on your employment prospects.

But you couldn’t be more wrong, my hypothetical friend. With an audience of more than 450 million members , your scribbles are able to reach the largest group of professionals in the world.

By writing on LinkedIn, you can engage your current connections, attract new ones, and grow your career.

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about writing on LinkedIn .

Why Writing on LinkedIn Matters in 2023?

travel blogger sitting at swiming pool writing LinkedIn Article articles on white laptop.

As we’ve mentioned in the intro, writing articles on LinkedIn allows you to post your content directly to your target audience. Your connections won’t have to go to the blog website to see what you have to say.

Posting articles on LinkedIn articles does wonders for your SEO.

How so? Well, did you know you can add an SEO title and meta description to your LinkedIn article? This will help search engine crawlers pick it up and rank it.

LinkedIn articles are a great way to increase your website’s visibility. This will not only drive your connections to your site but also slightly increase your website’s visibility since more people are visiting it.

Oh, and let’s not forget about those juicy backlinks. You see, whenever someone shares your article, that’ll generate high-quality backing. The more backlinks you have, the higher your domain authority.

And if you don’t have a website ( those things can cost a lot of money ), writing articles on this social media platform is a godsend. You don’t have to pay for a domain name, hosting, web design, and more. You already have all the infrastructure you need – just start writing.

With all that said, writing LinkedIn articles has a pretty slight effect on your global SEO.

Statistically-Validated Insights on Writing Articles

Ever wondered what makes one article, so to say, perform better than the rest? The secret is in the format, so let’s break it down.

Currently, the types of content that capture the audiences’ attention the most are ranked like this:

The most successful ones range between 500 and 750 words. Within this limit, they cover everything – from leadership professional experiences to examples of how to run a business and track analytics.

There’s no denying it – surveys have always been popular with the online audience. They’re basically the ground for conducting research in a time-efficient way. Besides gaining the audiences’ interest, they also boost engagement since they’re being shared to add other professionals’ opinions.

Definitely a breakthrough in the online world. They’re the highlight of social media, and they’re suitable for every industry. What’s more, you can make them more valuable by adding relevant text, background, and colors.

Video content attributes to 1/3 of all online activity, and LinkedIn articles that feature videos are more likely to boost engagement and capture the readers attention.

Case Studies

Especially in the LinkedIn world, case studies play a pivotal role when it comes to industry insights, expertise advice, and, overall, creating engaging LinkedIn posts. They’re the sole indicators of how a company has benefited from a service or product, and professionals on LinkedIn are eager to find out more about these stats.

Different Ways to Write on LinkedIn

A desk where someoen in writing their own articles.

Now that we’ve scratched the surface with types of content, let’s explore the main reason you clicked, and that is how to compose well written LinkedIn articles.

Articles vs. Posts: What’s the Difference?

LinkedIn offers two distinct ways to communicate your ideas: articles and posts . But what sets them apart?

When you’re scrolling through your LinkedIn mobile app, you’ll often come across posts – bite-sized nuggets of wisdom, insights, and updates from your connections. They’re like the appetizers at a networking event.

On the flip side, we have articles. These are where you serve up your most thought-provoking, comprehensive ideas. Articles provide you with the real estate to dive deep into your topics. They’re like the in-depth discussions you’d have with peers at a conference, allowing you to establish yourself as a thought leader.

LinkedIn’s publishing platform empowers you to craft excellent articles, complete with links and images. And remember, the first page of LinkedIn is a golden ticket to your content. An article that garners attention here can catapult you into the spotlight. It’s your chance to showcase your expertise from an employer’s perspective, demonstrating your value in a way that’s easy for LinkedIn members to digest.

In essence, posts are your daily bread, keeping your LinkedIn network updated and engaged. Articles, on the other hand, are the main meals where you serve up your best ideas. Both are relevant, both are essential, and both can make you a LinkedIn legend.

Crafting Captivating Status Updates

Status updates are your icebreakers. They’re your chance to grab attention, spark discussions, and establish your online presence.

Imagine your status update as an invitation to a Facebook group discussion—except this one’s for professionals on LinkedIn . You’ve got to pique interest in a few lines. Pose questions, share snippets of wisdom, and make it clear that engaging with your post will be worth their time.

The LinkedIn mobile app is where most users will encounter your updates, so brevity and impact are key. Keep it concise while packing a punch. Use images, videos, and relevant links to support your ideas.

Remember, LinkedIn members are looking for information that’s easy to digest amid their busy schedules. Your status updates should be the “ aha ” moments they seek, delivered in a way that’s both insightful and efficient.

And here’s the secret sauce: consistency . Regular updates keep your network engaged and ensure you stay on their radar. So, mix your professional prowess with a dash of creativity, and you’ll have the recipe for LinkedIn status updates that leave a lasting impression.

The Power of Long-form Articles

The power of a well-crafted long-form article on LinkedIn cannot be underestimated. It’s your chance to dive deep, to explore ideas thoroughly, and to establish yourself as a true thought leader.

But what makes long-form articles so potent?

First, they offer the space for in-depth exploration. You can weave a narrative, provide comprehensive data, and guide your readers through a journey of discovery. This is where your expertise shines, giving you the opportunity to present your thoughts from an employer’s perspective.

The first page of LinkedIn is prime real estate for content, and an excellent article can land you there. It’s your chance to be in the spotlight, to be seen by LinkedIn members seeking valuable insights. Your words become a beacon of knowledge, attracting those hungry for the information you offer.

So, don’t underestimate the power of the long-form article. Dive deep, craft your ideas into compelling narratives, and you’ll not only inform but also inspire your LinkedIn audience.

Comments: A Missed Opportunity

Comments on LinkedIn often find themselves overlooked by the allure of creating one’s content. But let’s unravel a secret: comments are not just an interaction; they are a missed opportunity waiting to be seized.

Yes, that’s right. LinkedIn encourages its users to write great LinkedIn articles, and many do.

Scrolling through your personal LinkedIn feed, you’re likely to encounter several LinkedIn articles crafted by your connections. These articles are a platform for professionals to express their thoughts, share insights, and establish their expertise. Yet, one aspect often remains unnoticed: the comment section.

When you stumble upon a compelling LinkedIn post or article, it’s your moment to engage. Don’t just skim through and move on; pause, reflect, and share your own opinion. This is where the magic happens. By actively participating in the conversation, you not only engage with the author but also with others who resonate with the content. It’s a gateway to forming relevant connections within your industry.

So, the next time you’re scrolling through your LinkedIn feed and encounter an intriguing post or article, resist the urge to simply scroll past. Pause, engage, and seize the opportunity that comments offer.

3 Best Practices for Writing on LinkedIn

Two people going over a competently written article on LinkedIn.

We’re not here to keep secrets. In fact, without further ado, let’s go over the three best practices for writing a great LinkedIn article in 2023.

Know Your Audience

It’s essential to know your audience. Unlike an in-depth blog post, LinkedIn articles are tailored to a specific professional community. Utilize the insights LinkedIn provides to understand who’s engaging with your content the most and when. This knowledge allows you to address their needs and preferences directly.

The Importance of Authenticity

We can say with 100% certainty that authenticity is your secret weapon on LinkedIn. Be yourself, share your experiences, and speak your truth. Authenticity builds trust, whether it’s online or face-to-face, and trust is paramount in professional networking.

Structuring Your Content for Readability

As with any other type of content, structure matters greatly. LinkedIn’s audience often seeks quick takeaways. Use bullet points, subheadings, and concise paragraphs to make your content easy to digest. Also, make sure to incorporate rich media like relevant images to enhance understanding.

A well-structured article on a good topic ensures your audience stays engaged and leaves with more detail on the subject at hand.

Incorporating Storytelling

Unlike a standard LinkedIn message, where brevity rules, articles allow you to craft narratives that grab users’ attention. Begin with a compelling personal or professional anecdote related to your chosen topic.

Use vivid language and embed relevant images to enhance the storytelling experience. As you write articles that resonate, you not only position yourself as a thought leader but also connect with your audience on a deeper level.

Remember, the power of storytelling on LinkedIn lies in its ability to captivate while delivering valuable insights on particular topics.

The Benefits of Writing Articles on LinkedIn

A woman writing a new LinkedIn article for her LinkedIn profile.

We’ve already hinted at them in the previous section, but there’s no harm in highlighting the three main benefits of crafting the perfect LinkedIn article in 2023.

Building Thought Leadership

To create a lasting impact on LinkedIn, aim to build thought leadership by publishing articles. These articles are a platform for you to share your expertise and insights with a broader audience. When you publish an article on LinkedIn, it not only reaches your immediate network but can garner more views through sharing options.

Consider adding LinkedIn recommendations within your articles to highlight your skills and expertise. The body of your LinkedIn article should be well-structured, providing valuable information to your readers. By consistently creating and sharing thought-provoking content, you strengthen your personal brand and position yourself as an industry leader, sparking conversations among LinkedIn members.

Engaging Your Network

Engagement is key to making the most of your LinkedIn presence. Beyond articles, create posts that share bite-sized insights, updates, or questions related to your field. LinkedIn’s notes app is a handy tool for jotting down thoughts that can later be expanded into full articles.

When you engage with your network regularly, your brand benefits from increased visibility and a stronger presence on the platform. Your posts and articles can spark conversation among LinkedIn members, creating valuable connections and opportunities for collaboration. So, don’t underestimate the power of engaging your network – it’s a crucial aspect of success on LinkedIn.

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Driving Business Outcomes

LinkedIn articles have the potential to drive significant business outcomes. When you publish a LinkedIn article, it becomes a part of your professional profile, contributing to your overall thought leadership professional experiences in your field. These articles often rank well in search engine results, making your insights more discoverable.

By using the LinkedIn publishing tool, you can easily share your knowledge and experiences. Each article you create adds depth to your professional profile and provides an opportunity to showcase your expertise. Share your articles through your network and beyond by providing a direct article link.

Your thought leadership, backed by your professional experiences, can be a powerful driver of business outcomes on LinkedIn, helping you connect with potential clients, partners, and opportunities.

Overcoming Common Writing Challenges on LinkedIn

A man seeing how his LinkedIn articles rank.

Behold – the common obstacles writers face on LinkedIn and solutions to navigate them.

Beating Writer’s Block

Writer’s block is a common challenge among writers, but it can be conquered. To overcome it, start by breaking your work into smaller, manageable tasks. Create an inspiring writing environment, set realistic goals, and take regular breaks. Don’t forget to read and gather ideas to keep your creativity flowing.

Handling Negative Feedback

Handling negative feedback gracefully is crucial for personal and professional growth. Begin by listening actively and staying calm. Seek constructive criticism and avoid taking it personally. Use criticism as an opportunity to improve and learn from your mistakes. Respond professionally, show empathy, and work towards resolving issues positively.

Staying Updated with Platform Changes

Staying updated with platform changes is essential to remain relevant in the digital landscape. Regularly check for updates, follow official sources, and join relevant communities. Adapt your strategies accordingly and experiment with new features. Keep learning, attend webinars, and read industry news to ensure your online presence stays effective and up-to-date.

The Final Verdict On Writing LinkedIn Articles That Spark Change

The power of writing articles cannot be underestimated. From boosting your visibility and SEO to establishing yourself as a thought leader, LinkedIn articles offer a multitude of benefits.

Embrace authenticity, engage your network, and drive meaningful business outcomes through well-crafted content. While overcoming common challenges like writer’s block and negative feedback, staying updated with platform changes is key.

So, seize the opportunity, write compelling articles, and make your mark on LinkedIn in 2023. Your journey to professional success starts with the words you share.

Oh, and sign up for our tool . Unlock a world of efficient lead generation and growth opportunities. Let’s elevate your business together.

  • Category: Content Creation

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Copyblogger

How To Write a LinkedIn Post That Sparks Engagement

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What’s the difference between an average LinkedIn post and a top-performing LinkedIn post that earns hundreds of likes and comments?

If you analyze the most successful creators on LinkedIn, you’ll notice that most of their posts share similar characteristics that the average LinkedIn post lacks. 

This article outlines how anyone can write an outstanding LinkedIn post that generates high engagement and helps you earn more followers. 

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1. Understand How Your Audience Experiences A Pain Point

Most LinkedIn creators know the general pain points their target audience faces.

While the average LinkedIn post provides generic advice on general pain points, an excellent LinkedIn post is more specific.

For example, earning backlinks is a general problem in SEO. 

A basic LinkedIn post might provide best practice advice like this:

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There’s nothing wrong with these tips. Each is a commonly accepted link building tactic. 

Yet most people who try these link building tactics fail to earn backlinks.

To provide helpful content, you must understand how most people try to execute these tips and why they fail.

Here’s an example of a much more compelling LinkedIn post.

It addresses what happens when people try these tactics (e.g., they try guest posting and get a low response rate), why their current strategy is failing, and then provides an alternative, more effective solution.

write article linkedin

To understand your audience’s deeper pain points, ask:

  • What is the problem they’re currently facing?
  • How are they trying to solve the problem, and why isn’t their current strategy working?

Once you know the answer to those two questions, you’ll find that:

  • You never have to think of content ideas again, because the audience’s pain points are the best content ideas.
  • Your LinkedIn posts will be more compelling if you can articulate what people are doing that isn’t working.

So how do you learn about these deeper pain points?

Talk to your audience. 

Here are three strategies to talk to your target audience:

  • Participate in Slack groups and forums and take note of common pain points mentioned. You can even ask the group about their biggest challenges. Or, read through threads like the one below to learn how people are currently trying to solve their problems. You can join in the conversation and ask about other things they’ve tried that failed:

write article linkedin

  • Attend conferences and ask people about what they’re struggling with. If you can’t afford to attend conferences, apply to participate as a volunteer.
  • Set up automated DMs to message anyone who comments on your post. Ask them what they’re struggling with. If they reply, don’t send an automated response. Respond with a real message from you personally and ask how they’ve been trying to solve that problem and why it isn’t working. 

write article linkedin

Create a document and track the pain points your audience mentions and how they’re currently trying to solve those problems. 

Action Items

  • Talk to your audience to learn about their pain points by participating in forums/Slack groups, attending conferences, and setting up automated DMs. Specifically, learn about their current strategy and why it’s failing .
  • Create a document with their responses and use it as your content idea bank.

2. Packaging The Right Content Idea

In the previous step, you identified your target audience’s pain points, so you now have a list of excellent topics.

However, there’s probably already plenty of advice on each of those topics. So how do you make your content unique?  

Here are five frameworks you can use to ensure your content provides a unique perspective on any topic.

  • Case Study : Explain the problem, how you solved it, and lessons learned. The best part is that it doesn’t have to be your own case study. The post below is a great example of how you can interview someone else and use their case study to build your audience. The creator in this example is a B2B SaaS marketing consultant, so he wrote a case study of how another B2B SaaS company went public with a lean marketing team:

  • Research : Look at the common problems people face within your niche and create research on the best solution to that problem. For example, the ideal target audience for this SEO consultant is a marketer investing in SEO, and a pain point his ideal customer might feel is confusion around Google’s recent updates. So instead of just providing generic advice on how to optimize your website given Google’s recent updates, they did a research study and provided data on what’s working:

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  • Failures : Reflect on your own personal failures. For example, this person’s ideal target audience struggles with generating leads, so he wrote a post about everything he did wrong when trying to generate leads.

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  • Personal experiences : Write about a time when you struggled with the exact pain point your audience is currently facing. 

  • Contrarian opinion : Is there an industry-accepted best practice that you disagree with? Below is an excellent example. One of the common marketing best practices is to test everything. This marketer created a contrarian opinion post disagreeing with this best practice:

While these are a handful of frameworks you can use to create compelling LinkedIn posts, they aren’t the only effective frameworks.

If you have an original idea you want to share, post it! For example, this post generated over 230 comments and is an interesting idea even though it doesn’t fall into the categories above.

write article linkedin

These frameworks are just guidelines you can use if you’re struggling to think of original content ideas.

Instead of writing generic advice to solve a problem, use one of these five frameworks to package it into something more interesting. 

  • Personal experiences
  • Contrarian opinion

3. Use An Attention Grabbing Hook And Visual

There are two ways you can get people to stop scrolling on LinkedIn:

  • The copywriting of your first line
  • Your visual (graphic, image, video)

First, let’s talk about copywriting .

The LinkedIn algorithm tracks the number of people who click “See More” and considers this a positive signal that your content is helpful.

Therefore, the trick to getting people to click that “See More” button is to create a curiosity gap.

A curiosity gap is an incomplete thought that raises a question in the audience’s mind. 

This post creates a curiosity gap, as it causes you to ask the question, “What’s the ugly truth?”

She also uses arrow signs to encourage people to click “See More.”

write article linkedin

Codie Sanchez is a master at creating hooks that create a curiosity gap, and here are a few of her best examples:

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Question it Raises : Who will I never be as good as?

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Question it Raises : How did this $40 million business have a startup cost of just $120k?

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Question it Raises : This question is vague. What does Codie mean by saying that I’m hard to kill?

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Question it Raises : How do you unlock free money?

When writing the text itself, limit the paragraphs/sentences to three lines. If it’s any longer, people will become overwhelmed and keep scrolling. This post is a great example of how to space out your written text: 

write article linkedin

Including an image or video in your post will also help the post grab a scroller’s attention. 

Here are a few different styles of images you can use to capture attention:

  • Twitter screenshots
  • Personality images (of yourself)
  • Videos (bonus if you add captions)

Here’s a great example of how you can use graphics to catch someone’s attention:

Alex Hormozi is well known for creating shorts with large, legible captions:

  • Use a captivating hook and incorporate arrow emojis to encourage people to click “see more.” 
  • Add a visual, like a graphic, video, screenshot, or image.

4. Incorporate Hashtags

One of the biggest challenges with social media platforms, including LinkedIn, is that it’s difficult for new people to discover your content.

However, if people follow a specific hashtag, posts that include that hashtag can show up in their feed. 

To find popular hashtags to add to your post, you can start by typing a hashtag in the search bar:

write article linkedin

However, there are two challenges with this method:

  • It often only shows a handful of hashtags.
  • You have to start typing a word, so unless you already have a general idea of the beginning of the hashtag, it can be difficult to discover new hashtags.

Another way to find hashtags is to look at other influencers in your niche and track their most commonly used hashtags. This hashtag discovery method requires a lot of time scrolling through their content, but it can unearth some great hashtags.

There are also free tools that generate hashtag ideas, like this one from Mention .

You can type in the topic, and it will give you hashtag suggestions:

write article linkedin

Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide any analytics, so pair it with a Chrome extension, like this free one from Hashtag Analytics .

write article linkedin

You can use the extension to see any hashtag’s total followers. 

Unlike Instagram, LinkedIn recommends users include just 2-5 hashtags per post and use a mix of general and more specific hashtags.  

Here’s a great example of a post that effectively uses a mix of general and more niche hashtags:

write article linkedin

  • Find popular hashtags with a free hashtag tool or manually search for hashtags on LinkedIn. Then use this hashtag analytics Chrome extension to see which ones are most popular.
  • Use 2-5 hashtags per post and mix general and niche hashtags.

5. Encourage Comments 

Comments are a very positive signal to the LinkedIn algorithm and can help your post attain more organic reach, so include a CTA that encourages people to leave a comment.

Most people include CTAs at the bottom of their posts. Here are some examples of CTAs that invite comments:

  • Do you have an opinion on (topic mentioned in the post)? I’d love to hear it in the comments.
  • Have you ever experienced (topic)? Tell me about it in the comments.
  • What has been your experience with (topic)? Tell me in the comments.
  • Do you have any other tips to add? Leave them in the comments .

You can also experiment with including the CTA at the beginning of the post.

Most LinkedIn users preach advice or share their success, so it’s rare (and refreshing) to see people actively ask others about their experiences and start a genuine conversation. After all, LinkedIn is still a social media platform, and a social interaction is a two-way conversation.

So consider trying some posts that begin with a sentence like this:

  • Have you ever struggled with this before, and how did you overcome it? This is what happened to me/us.
  • Do you have a strong opinion on (topic)? Here’s the story:
  • What’s your best strategy for (topic)? We’ve experimented with several different solutions for (topic), and here’s what happened:
  • How do you deal with (topic)? I’m experimenting with a few different strategies and here’s what’s worked so far.

People love to share their experiences and opinions.

So opening your post with a question can increase the percentage of people that click “See More” to read your full post, and the percentage of people who comment. 

However, three things have a major impact on the percentage of people who will comment on your post:

  • Content Quality : The quality of the idea/helpfulness of the content has a major impact on how many people will comment on it. Even a major influencer will likely comment on a post published by someone with zero followers if the content is truly exceptional.
  • Responding to Comments : People who know you’ll engage with them are more likely to comment on future posts.
  • Building Genuine Relationships : Your friends will organically support your content, especially if it’s exceptional quality. You can build genuine relationships by attending conferences, hosting meetups, commenting on other people’s posts, and even speaking at online or live events. 
  • Encourage comments by adding a CTA at the beginning or end of your post that asks the audience for their opinion or experiences.
  • Respond to all comments and build genuine relationships with people.

6. Tag And Collaborate With Influencers

Even if you write a perfectly optimized LinkedIn post with amazing copywriting, your follower count will limit its organic reach. 

However, if an influencer shares your post, your content immediately reaches a new audience, which can help you earn more followers (if the content is insightful and helpful).

There are two main ways you can get influencers to share your content:

  • Tagging them : Tagging influencers is easy, but doesn’t always work. The best way to encourage a LinkedIn influencer to reshare a post you tag them in is by making the post about their work or ideas. Here’s a great example of how someone repurposed content from an SEO influencer and tagged them for more exposure:

  • Collaboration with them : You’re much more likely to get an influencer to reshare your post if you collaborate by interviewing them personally, or receiving a quote from them. This strategy works because they’ve invested effort into your content and will want it to perform well. Here’s a great example where a content marketer sent a DM to an influencer, she posted a screenshot of influencer’s response, and then the influencer reposted her post:

write article linkedin

To increase the likelihood of an influencer sharing your content, only reach out to or tag influencers who historically share other people’s content.

  • Browse influencers in your network that often reshare posts.
  • Then, ask them to collaborate with you (if they frequently do content collaborations) or write a post about what you’ve learned from them.

7. Use Qualitative and Quantitative Analytics For Future Post Ideas

Most people track the posts that earn the most likes and engagement, but how should you use that data to improve future posts? 

When you have a post that received high engagement, track:

  • The topic 
  • The structure (list, story, graphic, etc.)
  • The style (tone of voice)

Then, reapply those elements to future posts. For example, try the same topic, a similar style of hook, or a similar structure.

In addition to tracking quantitative analytics, such as likes and comments, track qualitative data as well. 

Is it your ideal customer commenting on the posts? 

What’s the reaction in the comments (inspired, outraged, etc.)? 

Not all engagement is equally valuable so give more credit to posts that solicit positive reactions from your ideal customers.

Action Items 

  • Identify your top performing posts and take note of the topic, hook, structure, and style of those posts.
  • Use that data to create future posts.

Examples of Great LinkedIn Posts

Here are some excellent examples of LinkedIn posts that you can use as inspiration in your own content strategy.

Example #1: Adam Robinson

Adam Robinson has grown an impressive personal brand on LinkedIn, and here are a few things this post did particularly well:

  • Hook : Opening with a failure with significant numbers. 
  • Storytelling : The dialogue makes the post feel more like a story.
  • The Content Idea : Using a story from his ideal target audience is a great way to ensure the pain point is relevant to your audience.

You’ll also notice that he engages with the audience in the comments.

Speak with your audience about their failures/pain points, and then use a specific conversation (anonymized) to create a LinkedIn post.  

Example #2: Nicolas Cole

Nicolas Cole has a ghostwriting academy, and his LinkedIn posts are designed to attract freelance writers.

This post does a few things very well:

  • The Hook: He effectively pulls in the ideal target audience (people struggling to succeed as writers).
  • The Visual : He uses a video with large, bright captions to capture the scroller’s attention.
  • The Idea : He used a failure from his own personal experience as a writer.

Takeaway 

Look at your own personal failures to use as inspiration for your LinkedIn posts. Then, craft it into a lesson and package it in a short video with captions.

Example #3: Oren Greenberg

Oren Greenberg is a B2B SaaS marketer, and this post performed particularly well for a few reasons:

  • The Hook/Content Idea : Most B2B SaaS marketers rely heavily on attribution, so opening with a bold contrarian statement immediately captures his ideal audience’s attention.
  • The Visual : The Twitter graphic helps capture a scroller’s attention.
  • Responding To Comments : He responds to every comment with a thoughtful reply.

Think about the best practices in your industry that don’t actually work very well. Then, highlight the problems with them and why they’re problematic.

Example #4: Justin Rowe

Justin Rowe is a LinkedIn consultant with plenty of examples of well written LinkedIn posts, including this one .

Here are a few reasons why this is a well-written LinkedIn post:

  • The Hook : He uses his own personal learning experience. If this thing surprised him – a LinkedIn ads expert – it will probably be interesting to the scroller as well.
  • Storytelling : He uses his personal story to make the content more interesting.
  • Use of Hashtags: He includes a variety of relevant hashtags at the bottom of the post.
  • The Visual : He includes a video explaining what he stated in the written text. The video is also captioned and branded to capture their attention.
  • Comments : He responds to every person in the comments with something insightful.

Write about something you learned recently that surprised you and then package the experience and lesson into a story. Create a branded video with captions to make it even more attention grabbing.

Example #5: Leila Hormozi

Leila Hormozi has grown an impressive following on LinkedIn over the past year. While part of it is due to her impressive experience, she has also mastered the art of writing a great LinkedIn post.

Here’s some analysis of one of her outstanding LinkedIn posts:

  • The Hook : The first two lines immediately capture your attention by playing into drama. What happens after losing $20,000? The hook is also very short, so it’s easy to catch when you’re scrolling on mobile or desktop.
  • The Image : She posted a high quality image of herself, which captures your attention by taking up more real estate in your feed.
  • Storytelling : Instead of telling advice, she uses quotes to make it into a story and play into the drama. She only reveals the lesson at the very end of the post.
  • The CTA : She encourages comments in the CTA by asking others how they would have handled the situation.

Think of an experience you’ve had a contrarian reaction to and what you learned from it. Also, consider using real quotes from people in your copywriting to make it more entertaining and feel like a story. 

Get More Help Writing LinkedIn Posts  

The best way to improve your skills as a LinkedIn writer is by practicing. So start posting content today.

Once you start publishing content on LinkedIn, ask your friends for feedback to improve your writing.

If you’re struggling to find people in your network to give you writing feedback, consider joining the Copyblogger Academy .

It’s a community of creators building their personal brands on social media and is led by seven figure entrepreneurs and personal branding experts Charles Miller and Tim Stoddart. You can ask questions in the community and you’ll also have access to nine courses on various marketing topics from copywriting and email marketing to SEO and content marketing. 

You can sign up for the Copyblogger Academy today, and if you aren’t 100% satisfied, we’ll give you a full refund in the first 30 days.

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Megan Mahoney

Megan is the head of SEO for Copyblogger. In addition, she runs the content agency Ignite My Site . You can follow here on LinkedIn.

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DeepMind researchers realize AI is really, really unfunny. That's a problem.

  • A study by Google's DeepMind had 20 comedians test OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.
  • They found the AI chatbots lacking in humor, producing bland, deliberately inoffensive jokes.
  • Most companies want to create conversational — but not controversial — chatbots.

Insider Today

It turns out that AI chatbots not only have a tendency to be inaccurate , but they also lack a sense of humor.

In a study published earlier this month, Google DeepMind researchers concluded that artificial-intelligence chatbots are simply not funny.

Last year, four researchers from the UK and Canada asked 20 professional comedians who used AI for their work to experiment with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini . The comedians, who were anonymized in the study, played around with the large language models to write jokes. They reported a slew of limitations. The chatbots produced "bland" and "generic" jokes even after prompting. Responses stayed away from any "sexually suggestive material, dark humor, and offensive jokes."

The participants also found that the chatbots' overall creative abilities were limited and that the humans had to do most of the work.

"Usually, it can serve in a setup capacity. I more often than not provide the punchline," one comedian reported.

The participants also said LLMs self-censored. While the comedians said they understood the need to self-moderate, some said they wished the chatbot wouldn't do it for them.

Related stories

"It wouldn't write me any dark stuff because it sort of thought I was going to commit suicide," one participant who worked with dark humor told the researchers. "So it just stopped giving me anything."

Self-censorship also popped up in other areas. Participants reported that it was difficult to get the LLMs to write material about anyone other than straight white men.

"I wrote a comedic monologue about Asian women, and it says, 'As an AI language model, I am committed to fostering a respectful and inclusive environment,'" another participant said. But when asked to write a monologue about a white man, it did.

Tech companies are keeping a close eye on how chatbots talk about sensitive subjects. Earlier this year, Google AI's image-generating feature came under fire for refusing to produce pictures of white people . It was also criticized for seeming to err toward portraying historical figures such as Nazis and founding fathers as people of color. In a blog post a few weeks later, Google leadership apologized and paused the feature.

The inability of two of the most popular chatbots to crack a joke is a big problem for Big Tech. Besides answering queries, companies want chatbots to be engaging enough that users will spend time with them and eventually fork out $20 for their premium versions .

Humor is proving to be another component of the AI arms race as more companies join the already overcrowded generative-AI market .

Late last year, Elon Musk said his one goal for his AI chatbot, Grok, was for it to be the "funniest" AI after criticizing other chatbots for being too woke .

The Amazon-backed startup Anthropic has also been trying to make its chatbot, Claude, more conversational and have a better understanding of humor .

OpenAI may be trying to improve its funny bone, too. In a demo video the company released last month, a user tells GPT-4o a dad joke . The model laughs.

Watch: What is ChatGPT, and should we be afraid of AI chatbots?

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  • Main content

Nigel Farage’s claim that NATO provoked Russia is naive and dangerous

It is also a wilful misreading of history.

Nigel Farage

O n June 21st Nigel Farage acknowledged that the war in Ukraine was the fault of Vladimir Putin, but told the BBC that Russia’s president had been “provoked” by NATO and the European Union. The leader of Reform UK , the populist party snapping at the heels of the governing Conservatives in pre-election polling and threatening to push them into third place, was echoing Mr Putin’s own arguments. The Russian leader is focused mostly on NATO , which provides the hard security that makes the EU safe. He complains that the alliance’s expansion into central and eastern Europe after the cold war made Russia’s position intolerable. Some Western scholars concur .

Mr Farage and Mr Putin have the argument upside down. Countries join NATO not to antagonise Russia, but because they are threatened by it . To understand how the arguments have shifted, you need to look back to the unstable politics of Europe in the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Back then Boris Yeltsin, Mr Putin’s predecessor, complained when members of the old Warsaw Pact applied to join. Over the years this hardened into the line of reasoning cited by Mr Putin as justification for massing troops on Ukraine’s border. It is an argument that has gained currency in much of the world. It is flimsy at best.

Critics of NATO enlargement say that it breaks an undertaking that James Baker, then America’s secretary of state, gave to Russia in February 1990 that NATO would not expand eastward. They add that it was also unwise. As NATO grew, Russia felt increasingly threatened, and was bound to protect itself by resisting. That is also the nub of Mr Farage’s argument. Some go on to point out that the West had other ways than NATO to enhance its security, such as the Partnership for Peace, which sets out to strengthen security relations between the alliance and non-members.

Mr Baker’s supposed undertaking is a red herring. He was speaking about NATO in eastern Germany and his words were overtaken by the collapse of the Warsaw Pact nearly 18 months later. NATO and Russia signed a co-operation agreement in 1997, which did not contain any restriction on new members even though enlargement had been discussed. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined almost two years later.

The undertaking that matters is the one that Russia gave in 1994, when Ukraine surrendered the nuclear weapons based on its territory. Among other things, Russia pledged not to use economic or military coercion against its neighbour. Its violations of this promise in 2014, when it seized Crimea and part of the Donbas region, and again on February 24th 2022 have been flagrant. Russia now claims, disingenuously, that the agreement from 1994 only covered nuclear war.

In fact NATO has every right to expand, if that is what applicants desire. Under the Helsinki Final Act, signed in 1975, including by the Soviet Union, countries are free to choose their own alliances. Is it any surprise that former members of the Warsaw Pact, which had suffered so grievously under Soviet rule, should have sought a haven?

The decision of Finland and Sweden to apply for membership of NATO in May 2022 illustrates why they might. For many years public opinion in Finland and Sweden had been against joining NATO . It shifted as a direct result of the invasion of Ukraine, which Mr Putin ordered ostensibly to forestall NATO ’s expansion. Two countries proud of their long history of military non-alignment came to judge that the risk of antagonising their neighbour was outweighed by the extra security they would gain from joining an alliance dedicated to resisting Russian aggression. The right for sovereign countries to determine their own destinies is one of the many things at stake in the war.

Critics of enlargement retort that NATO should have said no to central and eastern Europe all the same. Expansion was bound to make Russia paranoid and insecure. Even though NATO is a defensive alliance, the government in Moscow perceives it as a threat. When Mr Putin attempts to restore his security, say by modernising his armed forces, NATO , in turn, perceives heightened Russian aggression. Especially provocative was NATO ’s Bucharest summit in 2008, which promised membership to Ukraine and Georgia, countries that Russia considers essential for its security.

Such security dilemmas are common in the study of international relations, and one clearly exists between Russia and the West. But to blame the West for triggering it is scarcely credible. One reason is domestic. Mr Putin has increasingly used nationalism, Orthodox religion and violence to shore up his rule. He needs enemies abroad to persuade his people that they and their civilisation are under threat. Seizing territory in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine in 2014 and today has been part of that strategy.

The other reason is international. Russia has a long history as an imperial power and, like most declining empires, it finds the prospect of becoming just another country hard to swallow. Instead, Russia wants to undermine alliances like NATO that keep the West secure. Regardless of NATO expansion, Russia was likely to resist forcibly as its periphery drifted off. Backing off today by abandoning Ukraine, or attempting to impose a peace on it, would only invite the next aggression from Mr Putin.

Were there alternatives to NATO membership? Here, the choice of Finland and Sweden speaks loudly. Both are long-term members of the Partnership for Peace. Clearly, neither felt that this offered them sufficient protection. If one of them were attacked, NATO would have no commitment to intervene. Nor would America and British nuclear weapons have covered the two countries, as they do the rest of the alliance.

By contrast, NATO proper is based on the principle that an attack on one member may be deemed an attack on them all. Its protection is as unambiguous as can be. Far from creating a benign environment, denying central and eastern Europe membership of NATO would have created a security vacuum that Russia may very well have been tempted to fill. If so, today’s war may not have been taking place in Ukraine, but in Latvia or Poland. Mr Farage’s assertion that NATO provoked Mr Putin is naive, foolish and historically inaccurate. It is also dangerous. ■

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared in 2022 after Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO .

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IMAGES

  1. How to Write Great LinkedIn Articles (With Examples)

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  2. How to Write Great LinkedIn Articles (With Examples)

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  3. Complete Guide About LinkedIn Articles

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COMMENTS

  1. How to Write and Post Your Own Articles on LinkedIn

    1. Go to linkedin.com and log into your account, if necessary. 2. Click "Write an article" located in the post creation box in the middle of your homepage. You'll see the option to write an ...

  2. The Complete Guide to Publishing Articles on LinkedIn

    How to Publish Articles on LinkedIn. It's easy to get started. Just click the Write article button at the top of your feed. The intuitive interface is similar to Medium's, and pleasant to use ...

  3. How to Write Great LinkedIn Articles (With Examples)

    If possible, include images to break up the text. Particular attention should be paid to the banner image, as it (along with the headline) will be your article's first impression. Spend. While LinkedIn Articles can be up to 125,000 characters, we recommend writing about 500-750 words an article.

  4. The Ultimate Guide to Writing LinkedIn Articles

    Writing LinkedIn articles was added as a way for users to create and promote their own blog-like content. This allows LinkedIn users more freedom to express their thoughts on a particular subject. For example, articles can contain up to 125,000 characters in length, whereas posts are maxed out at 1,300 characters.

  5. 11 Best Practices on How to Publish an Article on LinkedIn and Best

    All of these options help drive traffic to your article. 9. Consider sharing the article with individual people on LinkedIn. If you think that someone might be interested in your article, feel free to share it with them. In this case, send them a message with a link to the article and encourage them to read it.

  6. How to Create LinkedIn Articles That People Will Read and Share

    Once you know what you want to write about, here's how to create your article on LinkedIn. #1: Write a New LinkedIn Article. Start by going to the LinkedIn Home tab and clicking the Write an Article link at the top of the page. After you click this link, the LinkedIn Publishing tool opens. This is where you create your article. Choose Your Headline

  7. A Guide to Writing LinkedIn Articles

    Write the body of your article, and remember to include a call-to-action (CTA) at the end. Once you've finished writing, take some time to review and edit your article for any necessary improvements. Click the "Publish" button located at the top of the page to make your article live.

  8. How to write highly effective LinkedIn articles

    Make sure your post isn't too long and isn't too short. Whilst longer articles can get read, I find it's best to keep pieces between 300-500 words. Don't make you reader read giant slabs of text. Make it easy for them to read by breaking the text up, adding in some sub-headers and where appropriate, using italics.

  9. How to write an article on LinkedIn

    You can post an article on LinkedIn with the platform's article publishing tool, where you're able to write and publish your own article to share in-depth ex...

  10. How To Write A LinkedIn Article

    Then simply click the "Write article" button and the LinkedIn publishing tool will open. 2. Write a headline for your article. Your headline is the first thing people will see when your article shows up on their personal LinkedIn feed. You want to give people a reason to click through to the full piece.

  11. Best Practices & Examples for Writing Top LinkedIn Articles

    Writing LinkedIn articles is a powerful way to establish yourself as a thought leader and share your expertise with others. By publishing high-quality articles on LinkedIn, you can: Showcase your knowledge and skills. Build your personal brand. Increase your visibility and reach. Engage with your network and beyond.

  12. 8 Steps for Writing a Smart LinkedIn Article

    At the very top, you will see where you can share an update or "Write an article;" click on that. 2. Give your article a headline. Before you write the article, think about the headline. You want ...

  13. Publishing Articles on LinkedIn: Your Complete Guide

    How to Publish Articles on LinkedIn. Start writing an article on LinkedIn by clicking the Write article button at the top of your feed. You'll find the interface easy to get to grips with, and if you've used Medium for blogging you'll notice some similarities. At the top, add a cover image to the article by clicking on the image placeholder.

  14. The Ultimate Guide to Writing LinkedIn Articles That Go Viral

    Write a New LinkedIn Article. Start by going to the LinkedIn Home tab and clicking the Write an Article link at the. top of the page. After you click this link, the LinkedIn Publishing tool opens. This is where you create your article.

  15. Write and post articles on LinkedIn: All-in-One guide (2024)

    Step #2: Click on the LinkedIn option on the Circleboom Publish dashboard. You can manage all of your social media accounts on this single dashboard. Circleboom supports LinkedIn Profiles and LinkedIn Business Pages. Step #3: On the left-hand menu, you'll see the Discover Articles option.

  16. 5 Steps to Publishing a Post on LinkedIn Pulse

    Step 4: Finalize Your Post. With your headline, image, and content complete, you're ready to finalize your article. Open the LinkedIn homepage and select "Publish a post.". This takes you to the publishing platform where you can paste in your content. Double check to make sure the formatting looks right.

  17. Writing on LinkedIn: The How, The What, And The Why

    The power of writing articles cannot be underestimated. From boosting your visibility and SEO to establishing yourself as a thought leader, LinkedIn articles offer a multitude of benefits. Embrace authenticity, engage your network, and drive meaningful business outcomes through well-crafted content.

  18. How To Write a LinkedIn Post That Sparks Engagement

    1. Understand How Your Audience Experiences A Pain Point. Most LinkedIn creators know the general pain points their target audience faces. While the average LinkedIn post provides generic advice on general pain points, an excellent LinkedIn post is more specific.

  19. DeepMind Researchers Found That AI Chatbots Have a Poor Sense of Humor

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