To really succeed on LinkedIn, you need to write great content!
I know it sounds simple but it’s actually quite easy to overlook quality for the sake of quantity.
People often ask me ‘How often should I post on LinkedIn?’. I always reply – ‘As often as you can create great content on LinkedIn’!
So, on LinkedIn, what is ‘great content’? Great content has the following features:
- It is relevant to your audience
- It adds value
- It evokes emotion
- It resonates with the reader
- It talks about only one thing
1) Great content is relevant to your audience
I’m a LinkedIn trainer. People read my content on LinkedIn because they want to learn about LinkedIn. If I started posting content about ‘How to upload photos to YouTube’ or ‘How Pinterest is the next big thing’, it’s likely I would lose you. You want to learn about LinkedIn and that’s why you read my content, (thankyou by the way!).
2) Content should add value to your reader
Whether you are teaching your audience something, making them laugh or encouraging them think in a different way, you’re adding value to their lives. Whenever you create a piece of content, ask yourself what value this adds your audience’s lives. Even if it’s something small, try to make a tiny change in people’s lives with every post you write.
3) If your content evokes an emotion in your reader – it’s great content!
Making your audience FEEL something is vital to producing great content. Paraphrasing Maya Angelou: People won’t remember what you said or did – they will remember how you made them feel.
It doesn’t matter WHAT you made them feel, just as long as they feel something! So you don’t need to start writing jokes about seo, or telling sad, emotive stories in your posts about financial advice, it could be ‘Aha, I didn’t know that!’ or ‘that’s interesting’ Stir something in your audience and they will remember.
4) Great content resonates with your audience
How often have you seen or read something and you get that feeling of ‘familiarity’? You really understand what the article is ‘talking about’. That, my friend is because what you have just read truly resonates with you. If you can produce content which resonates with your reader you are on the way to creating yourself a real fan, someone who will want to read all your posts!
5) Talk about ONE thing!
Don’t confuse your audience by trying to pack too much into one post. LinkedIn is moving fast, the people that are ‘on’ LinkedIn are moving fast. They don’t have time to consume huge tomes of long articles about different subjects. Focusing each post about ONE thing will increase the readability of your content.
If you start producing content which consistently does these 5 things, you are well on your way to increasing your LinkedIn audience. A bigger audience can only lead to one thing – more sales! I’m not saying it’s the only thing but it’s certainly a key factor in successfully leveraging LinkedIn to grow your business!
So there you go my lovely LinkedIn learner – 5 top tips for creating great content! So what are you waiting for? Open that word doc and get creating!
