If you are a thought leader and want to expose your online brand and thought leadership on LinkedIn, you need to start publishing content on the LinkedIn publishing platform. The LinkedIn publishing platform is an ideal platform to publish blog posts which your connections can easily view, like, share and provide comments. In order to maximise the exposure of your published content, I have provided five suggestions below.
1. Reach out to your network
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Once you have published your post, LinkedIn will immediately send a notification to your connections, however not all connections will see the notification or may not respond to it. I recommend you also identify 10 – 20 influential people with whom you are connected and send them a direct message using the LinkedIn message function. Let them know that you have published a new post on LinkedIn and that you will value their comments at the end of the post. Ask them if they will share with their network if they believe the post will add value. You can go a step further and identify other influential people with whom you are not connected. Send them a request using the LinkedIn Inmail feature. Use this feature sparingly as you have a limit of Inmails you may use. If you are using Twitter, share your post on Twitter and send direct messages to influential people on Twitter. If you are not able to send them a direct message, you can @mention them in a tweet. Lastly, reach out to your email connections and send individual requests including a link to your post.
2. Share on all relevant platforms
Your LinkedIn post will appear in your connections LinkedIn feed, however if they miss it, it is gone. If you publish a good post, you should share it repeatedly with your connections. Just remember not to overdo it. Sharing daily for one week should not upset any of your connections. Remember that you can mention connections when you post your updates. You will also want to share your post on Twitter, Instagram (especially if you have an infographic), Google+ and Facebook (if appropriate to your Facebook friends). Do not be shy to add a “Please share” with your updates. People do not always remember to share so it is good to send them a gentle reminder.
3. Follow up with people who have reacted
If you click on “View Stats” which you will find just above the subject line of your post, you will be presented with analytics related to your post. LinkedIn will display how many people have viewed, liked, commented on and shared your post. LinkedIn does not show who viewed your post (which would be very helpful) however Linkedin does list all the people who liked, viewed and commented on the post. The great thing is that LinkedIn will also show you people with whom you are not connected.
Likes
For those who have liked your post, you can send a message, thanking them. This is a great opportunity to send them more information or ask them to do something. For people with whom you are not connected, you can send a connection request thanking them for liking your post and inviting them to connect to stay in touch.
Comments
Any comments made will appear at the end of your post. This is a great opportunity to reply to the comment, thanking them for commenting, and again, sending them more information or asking them to do something.
Shares
For those who have shared your post, LinkedIn will list all the individuals. At the bottom left of each individual there are three horizontal dots. If you click on this, you will be presented with a Like button and a comments button. Click on the Like button which will notify the person in question that their share was liked. By clicking on the comment button you will be taken to the update. You can then provide a comment under the update. Add a comment, thanking them for sharing your post and be sure to mention their name in the comment. Again, they will be notified that you commented. If you are not connected with the person, you can send a connection request, thanking them for sharing your article, inviting them to connect and stay in touch.
Do not forget to view likes, shares and retweets on Twitter. You will be able to follow up with your Twitter followers through mentions or direct messages, thanking them for liking and/or sharing your tweet.
I hope this is helpful. Is there anything you would like to add? I welcome your comments at the end of this post.
