4 Steps to Creating Success with Content Marketing on LinkedIn

Thank you so much. It is such a pleasure to be here and in a room with such a nice backdrop. Yesterday's wasn't quite as pretty. Who was here last year? That's awesome. And how many people were in my session last year, the day after? Right. Oh, my God. So I'm so much happier today. And also it's a topic I'm in love with, which is content marketing on LinkedIn. Now, most of what I'm going to talk about today is going to be publisher. However, after, of course, I created this presentation and sent it to inbound, LinkedIn came out with LinkedIn video. So, first of all, how many people know there is such a thing as LinkedIn video? Excellent. More than in my last class. So everyone pull out their phones and Open up your LinkedIn app and you'll know if you have video because you'll have the little video camera in the timeline in the update field. So open up your phone. If you don't, just go and update it. So what I'm going to do is a live demonstration of one of the ways that you can use LinkedIn video. I'm actually going to do. And this is a brand new phone, so let's hope this works. Yes. All right, so we're going to look at yourselves in the mirror reverse. So one of the ways that you can use video on LinkedIn is when you're at an event and you can go and meet some people at the event and you can come down, you know I'm going to pick on you, right? And you can say, hi, welcome to Inbound. Hi. And then I can say, what's your name? Sebastian. Sebastian. Excellent. You're from France. From Spain. From Spain. Espen Espanol. See, I got the guy with the good accent. And then you can just, you know, interview people and take questions and thank you very much. Appreciate that. And that's what I want you guys to do is later on, not this very minute, but later on, once this publishes today, because it's not live and cool like Facebook or Twitter. It is actually a recorded video that I'm going to upload. But once I do that, I want you to go to my LinkedIn profile, find this post and you can comment on this video. You can see if you can find yourself. See if you can find yourself in there. There you go. Wave. Wave to the audience. The lighting's awful. I know. And if I don't get to Q and A today, because I spent all this time doing this, you can ask any questions you have in that Comment and I'll answer those questions. I'm also going to put the resources that they wouldn't let me put on the screen. I'm also going to put the resources on that. So bye, everyone. I'm about to start my presentation. Okay, there we go. So it literally will probably take 45 minutes for that to upload. All right. I love LinkedIn, but they are like literally the grandfather of social media. But is LinkedIn not getting cooler again? Like, it was awesome and then it did suck a little and now it's awesome again. I love, love, love some of the new features like video and like publisher, which I'm going to talk about today. So. Oh, okay. A bunch of stuff about me. Probably the most important thing is that my Twitter handle is actually inktonexpert. I do have ivicavonrosen, but I never look at it. You're gonna think I'm ignoring you if you tweet me and then you're gonna think I'm a B otch. And I don't want you to think that about me. But so if you do want to tweet me today, just tweet LinkedInExpert. And I will be sure to see that. And then there's a bunch of other stuff too. Okay, so what we're going to cover today is really the different kinds of content that are out there on LinkedIn. So we've got published posts, which are also known as articles. We also have updates which are also known as posts. We also have Publisher, which is also known as pulse. And that's not at all confusing, is it? Right. So I want to talk about what the differences are and I will make the mistake. I need like a swear jar, but it would be like an article post jar. And every time I say post instead of article, I should put a dollar in there. So we're going to talk about the different types of content that there is on LinkedIn today. And then I'm going to give you some tips to make sure that your content gets seen more, that you get that visibility and that you get that engagement. Because that's kind of the whole point of content marketing is to get more engagement. We'll talk about other content that you can share to build that thought leadership on LinkedIn. And if we have time, Q and A. If not, just put your questions in that live stream that we've got. So different types of content on LinkedIn. You've got publisher, which is actually the feature where you create those long form posts. How many people knew you could write long form blog like posts on LinkedIn while you're in the room. I'm not gonna make those of you who didn't know that raise your hand. Now, those are generally called articles, except for when LinkedIn or myself decide to call them posts. There's also updates, and those are the short form tweet. Like posts. Updates is also where you're going to find your video feature. There is not a video feature. And I'm in my Q and A at the end of the last session, I realized I didn't make this clear yet. The video feature and the publisher feature right now are only available on your personal profiles. My hopes is that they come to company pages and of course you can share the link to your video on your company page and you can share the link to your published posts on your company page. But right now they're only for personal profiles. And, and let's face it, LinkedIn company pages are not like Facebook. You can't really engage. I mean, you can share some stuff, but you can't really engage. So you want to do that engagement on your personal profile. Anyway, Publisher, like I said, is the feature that you use to create these posts. And then Pulse is the news reader that everybody wants to get into, right? Oh my God. If I hear, can you tell me how I can get my published post featured on Pulse? If I hear that one more time, I'm going to scream. Ah. See, so the thing is though, I get featured on Pulse a lot. Not because I'm awesome, but because I actually do stuff for LinkedIn and so they sometimes feature my articles. But honestly, those articles that are featured in Pulse don't really get much more visibility than my regular articles because of the tips I'm going to show you today. So just know that, yes, it's nice to get in Pulse and maybe you'll get a little bit more visibility. But A, it comes down to having just really good content that people want to share. I'm going to give you some hints around that. And B, it's about just making sure that people can see that content so that they have more opportunity to share it. When LinkedIn switched its user interface between November and February of this year, one of the things they took away was the notifications for publisher. And that's why those of you who used to regularly get like 50, 100 to 500 views of their posts. And do you still get that? No, of course not, because LinkedIn took away the notifications. So you write this awesome post, you share it once you Wait for the engagement and nothing happens because no one saw it. So there's some really easy fixes for that which I'm going to share with you. Why do you want to write long form posts instead of just sharing updates? Why do you want to write publisher articles instead of just updates? They're stickier. They're searchable in LinkedIn search engine. Oh, by the way, hashtags are a thing again. They were. They weren't. They were. They weren't. They are. So you want to use hashtags in your updates and in your long form posts on LinkedIn now. But yes. So they're stickier, they add visual impact to your profile and they make your profile more interesting. They're SEO searchable on LinkedIn search, not so much on Google, but once in a while they really help with thought leader positioning big time. Now, how many people are writing or publishing articles on their own profiles for themselves? Awesome. How many of you are writing content for clients or leaders in your own company? Yeah, exactly. Most of you. So again, what I'm going to show you today will help you whether you're doing it for yourself or doing it for someone else. Help to position them more as experts in their field, in your field, so that you get the interviews and the podcasts and the speaking gigs and the mentions on HuffPost or whatever. They also help to drive traffic because you can put lead magnets in there and hyperlink back to wherever you want. Unlike a blog post where you're already going to most likely have your lead magnet or your link or your ebook or your whatever somewhere in line on your actual website within a published article, you can smack them right down in the middle of the article. Which you know if you have a 500 word article is going to be pretty skeezy. But if you've got like a 10,000 word ebook, it can be extremely effective. So you can drive traffic with that long form content a little bit more so than you can do with the updates, which helps to generate leads. Now, how many people duplicate their content on their blog post in Publisher? This isn't a trick question. I do it. It's perfectly okay to do that. If you're uncomfortable with this, I will give you some ways that you can customize your LinkedIn content a little bit more. But you absolutely should be putting that content in both places. And when you think about it, it's like, where do I put it first? Well, wherever you most want that content or whatever you most content to do for you. So if you want engagement, if you want people literally commenting, sharing and engaging with you. LinkedIn is actually better. You might not get as many views, but you will get significantly, in most cases, significantly more engagement on a LinkedIn post by like 10x in some cases than you will on a blog post. But if you're trying to drive people to your blog post so that they can go to your website so that you can capture their pixel or whatever, then put it on your blog post as well. But all I'm saying is it's perfectly okay to repurpose content. So for those of you who've never any, it's okay to raise your hand. Anyone never use Publisher before. Okay, good. So I can go to the next screen. If you've never used Publisher before, it's hard to find. You probably didn't use it because you didn't know where it was. Because it doesn't say publisher. It says write an article on your homepage where you'd normally write an update. Underneath that kind of grayed out a little bit. It says write an article that takes you to the publisher platform. Which, by the way, is like WordPress 1.0. It's a little bit basic compared to what we have these days as far as publishing tools, but it's on LinkedIn and it's where your audience is and it's where the engagement can happen. The other thing that you can do is go to LinkedIn.com post new. Now, how many people found with the new user interface that you can't find anything anymore? Like, it's always right. So here's my ninja trick. No matter what kind of browser you're using, you can create a Favorites folder. So just create a LinkedIn Favorites folder and pull your favorite links into it. That's what I do. Because like finding my company page anymore, finding, well, who uses groups anymore. But finding LinkedIn articles, finding Pulse is almost impossible. But if you've got that link saved somewhere, it's easy to go find. So that's just a little ninja trick to find those links that you want to use more of. Now, I mentioned that LinkedIn publisher was a little bit like WordPress 1.0. You've got H1, H2 and normal text. You've got italics and bold, which, hey, is more than you can do in your profile. Right? You've got bullets and numbers. You've got hyperlinks. Yes. And you can add visuals. Another ninja trick for you. I should have just called this, like the numerous Ninja tricks around LinkedIn publisher. The other ninja trick is because the photo Editor is essentially non existent. You can skew left, right, center, big or small, but that's essentially it. If you play around in like Photoshop or Canva or really any kind of photo editor first and then carry your image over, you can help to make the sizing a little bit more aesthetically pleasing. I'm graphically impaired, so it doesn't matter to me, but some of you actually are good at graphics, so that's important. All right, so when it comes to creating content to share, BuzzSumoZsumo did an article or did some search with, I think this one was with LinkedIn itself. Yes, with LinkedIn on 40,000 posts to see which posts did the best. And there's another search later that I'll talk about too. But the posts that did the best were how to posts, how to do this, how to do that, how to use LinkedIn publisher posts with tips in the titles, five tips for using LinkedIn publisher better guides, top 10 lists, research focused Posts and Infographics. Now, my theory is that LinkedIn users are smarter than everybody else. No, don't think so. Wow. Like that one just crickets. That one died on the vine. Okay, fine. My theory is that when you're on LinkedIn, you're on LinkedIn to work and so you're a little bit more focused. I mean, the problem with Instagram and Snapchat and Facebook is that they're fun and enjoyable and that can be a real detriment when you're working. Right. There's too many rabbit holes that you can just go down on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter. But on LinkedIn you're there to work and so you're used to spending focused time on LinkedIn. So I think when it comes to articles, things like guides and ebooks and research focused posts do better because people are there to work and they're willing to put in the time and they're willing to read and look at that content. So that's my theory on why these types of posts tend to do better. Now here's another somewhat shocking fact. The posts that got the most shares. Now this was an article with anders pink and buzzsumo. The posts that got the most shares were between 3 and 5,000 words. Not characters, words. 10,000. When's the last time you wrote a 10,000 word blog post? But when's the last time you wrote an ebook? No one. Yes, there we go. We got a couple ebook writers. So. So you can actually take an ebook and repurpose it for LinkedIn because people will read the most shared posts between 3,000 and 10,000 words. Now the reason I started with 500 is you are not going to get into Pulse if your article is less than 500 words. So just know that. But the most shared articles were bigger, were weightier, so that's kind of good news. Now another thing that the articles that got the most shares had calls to action. Like if you like this post, please share it with your friends. Right? I'm giving you a ninja trick in about two minutes that will also help to about double your visibility. But quite literally put calls to action to share the post, to call you, to contact you, to reach out to you, to click here to download this. Use those calls to action. You can do them a little bit more than you would in a normal blog post, by the way. The other thing that you're going to want to do is add contact info. And I'm actually going to recommend that at the bottom of your post you actually put a full bio, one to 200 word bio. Because yes, people can see your name and your picture and part of your professional headline on your post. But if that post got shared by one of your friends to their network, they might not know who you are. So tell them. And it's a good opportunity to add a little bit more flavor about who you are. Right? Instead of this image that you might have on LinkedIn, you know, you could have something more fun. You biking, you hiking, you doing whatever you do for fun. And yes, it's a business site so you don't want to over show anything, but you do want people to know that you're human, that you have other interests. So you can write that bio and, and let people know a little bit more about you. And by the way, you know, if you want to hyperlink back to your website, you can absolutely do that. The other piece of contact information that I would ask for you to consider putting in your profiles is a scheduling tool of some sort. So how many people use like calendly or time trade or appointly schedule once? Right. How many of you who didn't raise your hand love the emails back and forth. Can you meet Friday? No. How about Tuesday at 4? Nope. How about April 18th at 4pm? You know, like that back and forth drives you nuts and it really inhibits your ability to engage with people. And yes, you can put your email address and phone number know it's public, but you can put your email address and phone number in your contact information section. But if you put a calendar link in there, you're Going to drive leads. I mean, if you've got. Think about it. You've got a 3,000 to 5,000 word article that someone actually read. They have invested a significant amount of time in you already. 15 minutes, half an hour, an hour, two hours. They have invested time with you. They are interested in what you're sharing and now they get to talk to you or someone in your company about what it is that you wrote about. That's huge. So if you put a calendar link, whatever tool you use, I like Calendly. C-A L E N D L Y.com Calendly.com first calendar is free. But Calendly or any of them out there, you just schedule a time that works with your. Because it syncs with your calendars, works with your calendar, works with their calendar and people will start booking appointments with you or someone in your company. It generates a hashtag shitton of leads. I need Subi's. Yeah, I need. I forgot to bring her sign with me today, so I had to turn this off. Like, if this is really a do as I say, not as I do. I literally had to go through all my past posts and take my calendar link out because I was getting too many leads. Like that doesn't really. Well, it sucks if you don't have the time because you're traveling a lot. But too many leads. Anyone in here like that issue? Too many leads? Yes. Like. Yeah, right. That would not suck. So put that calendar, put that calendar link in there. Another do as I say, not as I do because I am graphically impaired. Like even Canva and Relay, that can't help me. I'm just so bad. Well, relay that can. But anyway, I'm graphically impaired. So having really powerful visuals can help brand you. Duh. I think you all know that already. But having really powerful visuals that are branded on your website and on your blog and on LinkedIn and on your company page and on your background header image on LinkedIn and on your image, your header images on your publisher posts, that will help to build that awareness as well. And that will actually get you more visibility and more shares if you've got that strong visual branding. Because we know that people associate and emotionally are connected to visuals. Duh. Right. The other thing that you can do, who in this room, There were a couple brave souls in the last room who raised their hand. Who in this room doesn't create content? No one. Yes. Two honest people in the corner. Thank you very much. Right. Some of us just aren't writers. It's like you don't get up in the morning and go, I'm going to write a book today, or I'm going to write a blog post today, or I'm going to write a tweet today. You're just not naturally content writers. And that's okay. I'm going to give you guys, the two of you, another ninja trick. The rest of you can use it if you want. I'd ask you picture in your mind someone that if you could connect with them, like get on a zoom with them or get on the phone with them or meet them at an event like this, it would like fricking change your business. Like, close your eyes and just picture that person. Now, chances are that person is actually on LinkedIn. Close your eyes and picture another person that you'd like to connect with. Chances are that person, as long as they're alive, it's on LinkedIn. Yeah, I forgot that. That's a kind of important definer. They need to actually be alive still. Now, through LinkedIn you have something like a 78% chance of being. Not that they're necessarily going to respond, but you have like a 78% chance of somebody actually seeing your invitation to connect or an InMail. So in your invitation to connect, because you can now put hyperlinks in those or in an InMail or in a message, if you're already connected, you could say something like, hey, I'm writing an article on Katie. I'm going to pick on you because I know you. So what's the title of individuals that you would want to engage with? Marketing directors. Perfect. And what industry? I know it, but I'm going to have her say it. Manufacturing. Excellent. So marketing directors in the manufacturing field. Small, medium, Large size companies. Medium. So about how many people? 500. Okay, so using Sales Navigator, but also in some times with free LinkedIn, you can kind of figure this out. I can go in and I can find all the sales directors and manufacturing companies of about 500 people. Way easier to do on sales nav, by the way. And I can reach out to them with a message, with an invitation, or if I want to pay for it in, in mail and say, hey, I'm writing an article on CMO or directors of marketing. Your favorite leadership tips. You know, could I call you or if I just send you an email, would you be willing to write that answer in an email? There's about five of you, right? Fear of missing out. There's about five of you that I want to feature and I'm hoping you can answer this question. Here's my calendar. If you've got time to book time with me. If not, here's the question, can you answer it and reply to me? A lot of them will actually get on the phone with you. So you do a little interview. You do keep it to five to 15 minutes. Like don't take up their time. You transcribe that content, you compile that content. You've now had the opportunity to talk to five of your most valuable leads. Create content, put it on LinkedIn publisher. You can pull their images from LinkedIn. You can send them the draft and say hey, can you take a look at this and let me know what you think about it. And then when you're ready, you publish it and you tag them obviously or ention them and then you let them know again because chances are they will share it with their audience because they just got featured in an article with maybe four of their competitors. They're not going to let those guys get all the visibility. And now your name is associated with that individual. Your name just went out to their network and oh yeah, by the way, you got content. And it doesn't matter if you don't create content because you can just like transcribe the article on Rev.com and have someone clean it up for you. Right? Or they can write the user generated content. They can write the content and you can compile it. So. So this is a really good powerful tool that you can use or strategy that you can use using LinkedIn Publisher to create content, to get more visibility, to align yourself with other experts in the industry to generate more leads. You probably will have people saying can I be in your next article? Did that with Tyler. Can I be in your next event? Right. So people want to align themselves with other successful people and that's all you're doing in this case with LinkedIn Publisher. When it comes to titles again, Anders Pink and I think this one was 100,000 published posts. We need to. Was the most shared title. We need to. It might have been around the elections last year but anyway we need to followed but not closely by the role of and then how to avoid so if you've got existing content like I said, please feel free to repurpose it. But maybe you change the title right? Instead of 10 instead of why you. No, that's. I'm so tuned into why. Okay, give me a UCG title. Tyler, I'm picking on you right now. Yeah, like what's okay, how to power your marketing through ucg. That's the existing one. Why? Or the role of UCG in marketing and why we need to use it more and how to avoid. Or no, let's leave out the how to avoid. But if you use the we need to or the role of it's likely to get more shares, right? At least the ones that they are the most shared titles. All right, so when it comes to creating content or repurposing content on LinkedIn, honestly think a little bit outside the box. So this article was written by my friend John White, who when I met him worked for Skybeam, which is an Internet company. He was a sales guy. He hated it. His job. Sorry. And he was getting his mba.