Instead of browsing a number of news sources for the business headlines, LinkedIn should be your first port of call for daily business news.
Gone are the days when LinkedIn was considered a glorified recruitment service, or an electronic contacts platform; LinkedIn is transforming itself into a premium content publisher and aggregator for professionals.
LinkedIn’s worldwide membership of more than 230 million users means it punches way above its weight in terms of readership; well exceeding the world’s top business publications, such as The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.
LinkedIn is carving out a niche in the marketplace for professionals searching for premium content. The main reason LinkedIn has chosen to compete in this space is to leverage the strong interest in content marketing and provide businesses with a dedicated platform to share their content.
So, how is LinkedIn driving the transition to a premium content publisher?
LinkedIn Influencers
The Influencers program includes more than 300 industry thought leaders who offer their insights and advice in articles written specifically for LinkedIn. This program includes Richard Branson, Deepak Chopra and Naomi Simson, as well as politicians, philanthropists and journalists from around the world. LinkedIn users can follow, learn from and engage directly with their favourite influencers by liking and commenting on their articles.
Interesting content from these thought leaders can then be shared via a user’s personal or company profile, or they can comment on it and quote the insights within the content they write themselves. An average Influencer post receives 24,955 views, 240 likes and 94 comments making LinkedIn a powerful publishing platform indeed. Bill Gates’ first post receiving more than one million page views in the first 48 hours after posting.
LinkedIn Today
LinkedIn Today allows users to select from ‘channels’, covering topics such as Marketing & Advertising, Social Impact, The Economy and even My Best Career Mistake.
Content on these channels comes from LinkedIn’s Influencers and aggregated new sources based on what is trending worldwide or what LinkedIn editors think users would like to read. Essentially, it is a personalised news feed.
Sponsored Posts
Going a step further, LinkedIn’s sponsored posts allow users with a company page to publish their own content directly from that page to drive leads and create deeper relationships with their connections.
Consider the value of publishing a white paper or insights into your industry directly to a select group of readers.
Specific audience segments, which may cover connections outside your company page, can be targeted using the sponsored posts. Users can also choose to promote their best performing content, creating an even greater level of engagement and return on investment.
These initiatives, combined with the volume of users on LinkedIn, makes it the largest business publishing platform – and one that is only going to get more powerful as users and their level of engagement increases.
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