This article was originally published on LinkedIn here.
If you are looking to start a business blog and platforms like WordPress.org look too complicated to start up, the built-in article tool for LinkedIn may be what you need. Not only is it easy to get started but you can reach your audience where they already are. Here is a quick guide to getting started with blogging on LinkedIn.
First things first
The first thing is you will need to create your LinkedIn profile, but since you are reading this, you are already on LinkedIn. However, if you really need to know how to get started, here’s a quick refresher.Go to LinkedIn.com and click sign up. Enter your email. You are ideally going to use a business email or personal email if you don’t have a company one. Fill out all the information about you. This will be professionally useful when you start writing and this will establish your credibility when you publish articles.
Once you have your profile completed, it’s time to create a space for you to publish your articles. This is most likely going to be your company business page, so you just need to be made an administrator for the account.
If you are starting up a page for your own business then you can easily create a page using the listed here.
Next up writing your first article...
How to get started
Now that we have all the logistical stuff set up its time to start writing. We will need to get to the article publishing tool, it’s conveniently located just below the posting box for your profile seen here.
You will be sent to the publishing tool that looks pretty empty now you can add your article. What to write about you ask? Well, anything really. You can write an article about your professional journey and offer advice to a younger person in a similar position. You can blog about using your product or give information to for a customer to consider before buying your services.
LinkedIn has few general topics for professionals in their article and some real examples of articles here.
Things to consider
When looking to get into writing articles on LinkedIn there are some things you should consider to get the best out of the platform.The biggest caveat to consider is that when creating the article you have to use your personal profile.
This because once you publish the article it gives you attribution and will follow you if you move on to other things and even change careers to becoming a full-time writer.
Video
If you haven’t noticed the video that is associated with this article, it was intended to be used as a script for our YouTube video that I have embedded above, to show you a real-world example of how to blog.You can post videos as a companion to your articles or have them as illustrations to your article just like did here.
Images
Now that we are talking about illustrations, you can post a cover image to the header of your article, as I did in the companion article or pepper images in your article to make it a little easier to read.Hashtags
If you did know already… hashtags are everywhere these days.
Hashtags are basically keywords to make topics or events easier to find on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and of course on LinkedIn.
The best practice is to add hashtags of your business name, a topic, an industry, a location or event associated with your article. Hashtags aren't visible in the article but put them below so you have an example of ones that used:
- #BloggingOnLinkedIn
- #LinkedInArticles
- #LaVerneSBDC
Calls To Action
Finally, having a good is blog fine and all, but if all your prospect did was read your stuff and never interacted with you seems like a waste, doesn't it?You should add a "Call to Action".
This could be anything from subscribing to your email newsletter, to follow your business and read more informative content or to sign up for a free consultation.
Check out my call to action below and happy blogging!
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