Blogging is not just for digital experts; with LinkedIn, anyone can create a compelling (and insightful) blog in moments.
This simple guide will help you publish a professional, shareable, and long-lasting blog that can help build connections and attract customers.
This is not an article about the why of blogging, but the how. I’ll give you a quick and dirty rundown of the few technicalities you need to master in order to blog via the desktop site (this blog does not apply to mobile users).
1- You have a profile, Right?
You don’t want your readers to be led to a profile that is out of date, incomplete, or lacking in useful information. Perfecting a profile could be the subject of another post, but before you blog, check the basics:
- Good quality profile photo – check it out!
- Current position correct – check!
- Strong description and summary – check!
So let’s say you’ve cleaned up your profile and started…
2 – Getting Started
It’s easy to create a draft article.
On the main page, where you would normally post an update, just click the ‘Write an article’.
This will open a draft blog (don’t be put off by a big empty screen).
I find it easier to have I predesigned my blog in Word or similar. I can then copy/paste it into the LinkedIn template. This might seem a bit old-fashioned, but it gives me peace of mind.
If you want to save your draft to work on later, just close the screen. Your blog will be saved automatically.
3 – A word about headlines
You can get stuck trying to come up with a clever headline. Don’t.
Keep it simple, descriptive and direct.
Yes, you can be creative with alliteration or puns, but not at the expense to tell your reader what your blog is about and why they should read it.
A few quick tips:
- Keep headlines under ten words
- List-style articles with associated headings work fine
- Leave your title for last; It’s often easier to reverse engineer your headline after you’ve written your blog
Also consider using subheadings to break your text into easily digestible chunks. Learn more about subheading below.
And remember to add an eye-catching header image to the front of your blog. Just drag and drop into the template over your headline, which brings me to…
4 – Get Creative With Companion Content
I hope you don’t need convincing that a bunch of plain text is unattractive and difficult to read.
Use creative means to break up text and add personality to your blog.
Unsplash
To add media click the rectangular + icon to the left of the template and choose what type of media you would like to add. Slides allow you to display a presentation from an appropriate platform (Slideshare works best). Links allows you to hyperlink to other pages. Or use the hyperlink icon on the right in the top menu to link to another page.
Snippets are another way to display text and media that I’ll ignore for now. The best way to get acquainted with adding content is by playing a game. For now, keep it simple.
Links pasted from YouTube will look like this:
5 – Final touches that make all the difference
Once you’re done your text – and revised – can add the finishing touches that will make your blog easier to read and more engaging.
You can also format your subheadings using the formatting tool:
This is heading 1
This is heading 2
Use this tool instead of just bold o underline – this helps with search engine optimization.
Ready to publish? Just hit ‘Publish’!
Having added the final touches, you’re ready to publish. Simply press the big blue ‘Publish’ button at the top right of your screen.
And voila… almost.
¡ Just one last thing!
Okay, this brings me to step six… but remember: you need people to find your blog. So, once you’ve posted, be sure to:
- Accompany your post with an update to your feed; pressing publish will prompt you to do so, so don’t ignore this step
- Share on your other social networks like Twitter or Facebook
- Email the link to clients, contacts or colleagues who may be interested
- Respond to others’ posts on similar topics and include a link to your blog
- Remind people you’ve blogged: You can post a status update more than once in relation to a blog.Just make sure you don’t veer into spam!
I hope you found this useful, and let me know if you have any tips of your own. I shared what I learned just by doing. I’m sure there’s more to learn!
Amy
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