LinkedIn gives you the ability to share content in many different ways: mainly, with articles or standard posts. Each has its own unique benefits for building credibility with your audience.
Articles may allow you to share a ton of value, but they may get fewer views compared to posts. Posts may get a lot more visibility, but then you are limited by how much value you can add to your content.
So you might wonder: what’s the point in spending a lot of time creating an article when fewer people will interact with it compared to a simple post?
This is the wrong way to think about it!
The point of posting an article is not to get exposure on LinkedIn, but to rank on Google! Take a look at what your LinkedIn articles look like to Google:
Amazing, right?
Here are the three main benefits of posting a LinkedIn article over a LinkedIn post:
- Rank on Google for the content in the article
- Go deep with connections who invest 5-10 minutes reading longer-form content
- Prepare a content pillar for posts and show authority on a topic
Let’s dive deeper into why articles have a ton of value even if they’re getting fewer views.
What’s Better? Article Views Or Post Views?
Article views are more valuable than post views because when someone spends 5 to 10 minutes reading an article, they are going deeper with you and your content. This builds more awareness for your brand, creates more credibility, and positions you as an authority in your industry, which are three important pillars for building meaningful relationships that lead to business.
LinkedIn will naturally promote other forms of content more. LinkedIn’s feed will show you your connection’s posts, advertisements, and content from pages you follow. Sometimes you will also notice posts from second-degree connections, content that is being shared, and content from hashtags that you follow.
We rarely notice articles loading in the feed because articles take people away from the feed where the sponsored content is. LinkedIn wants people to focus on the ads since that’s where they make the most money! The more posts people see, the more ads they will see! That’s why posts are so popular. This is not a reason to avoid writing articles on LinkedIn. True, fewer people will read your LinkedIn articles, but those articles will do the following:
- Build more awareness for your brand
- Generate more credibility
- Position you as an authority in your industry
Articles do this more than LinkedIn posts will! These three benefits are three important pillars for building meaningful relationships that lead to business. 1,000 people might spend a few seconds scanning a post, but 100 people will take the time to read an in-depth article. The latter are higher-quality leads.
How often should I be posting LinkedIn Articles?
At Evyrgreen, we recommend you create ONE article per month, and that article can inform many posts. In the comments of each post, you can also promote the article so people go back and read the full article.
Here is an article Joe Apfelbaum created about 4 books that have impacted his life. Each one of those books can be a separate post, and each one of them can promote the article too!
That is what we mean about the article being a content pillar. You create one in-depth article and you use the content of that article as a separate post.
When you’re writing articles, you want to create the article in chunks, so you can later share sections of the article as a post on LinkedIn.
Remember: LinkedIn posts do not rank in Google but LinkedIn articles do!
LinkedIn gets picked up fast by Google because it is a high-authority website and has great SEO.
Google loves informative, value-packed content and if you make an article with high-quality content, it will rank well on Google.
LinkedIn articles are usually unique, but posts can be duplicate content. You want to make sure that your articles are high quality and when you get traffic to your article from Google, you get people to look at your profile and learn more about you.
Can I Track the Success Of My LinkedIn Article?
Our pro tip: Did you know that you can see who looked at your profile on LinkedIn? After posting a new article on LinkedIn, you can track who visits your profile and gauge how much exposure your profile is getting from that article! This is a great tactic for identifying your leads and who you should reach out to!
Let’s say your ideal client is a registered dietitian who wants to go full-time to private practice. They might search “How to start a dietitian private practice.” If you are a business coach for dietitians, you can look at which dietitians looked at your profile on LinkedIn, then connect with them, nurture them, and possibly serve them! The possibilities are very big when it comes to using LinkedIn strategically.
How do I go deep with a LinkedIn connection that reads my LinkedIn article?
Being that LinkedIn articles are different from LinkedIn posts because people invest 5 to 10 minutes reading the article, you are actually building a relationship with the LinkedIn connection that takes the time to read the article.
This relationship is powerful because you are going deeper and making a bigger impact.
Now that you know how LinkedIn articles are different from LinkedIn Posts, and how you can leverage LinkedIn articles, you might wonder how to get more exposure to LinkedIn articles.
We thought you’d never ask!
Here are 5 ways to get more exposure and views to your LinkedIn articles:
1. Make LinkedIn Articles SEO Friendly
When creating SEO content for your website, blog, or Linkedin article, you want to consider keywords or key phrases that people might search on Google.
How often do you use your ideal keywords in your LinkedIn article? Are you bolding words, using H1 tags, etc? You might not use these SEO strategies, and this will ultimately result in your LinkedIn article getting fewer views.
2. Send Your LinkedIn Article Via Email
If your article is value-packed, why not share it with your clients and partners via email or via LinkedIn direct messages?
People love to read content. So when you create a valuable LinkedIn article and you wonder, “How do I get more views to my LinkedIn article?” Realize that no one will find your article if you just let it sit hidden in your profile.
You have to promote your LinkedIn article with your network.
Our pro tip: If you have an email list, send out the first part of your article to your list, and then tell them to read the rest of your LinkedIn article, click on the link, and view it LIVE On LinkedIn. Then ask them to please like and comment on the article so that more people see it. Engagement does help with exposure. You can even ask them to mention a few people in the comments of the LinkedIn article. That will help drive more traffic to the article.
3. Mention People In The Comments of Your LinkedIn Article
If you know people who are relevant to a LinkedIn article that you worked hard on, make sure to mention them in the comments with the @ symbol and type their name. This will make your article pop into their notifications section and they may even get an email about it. They will read the LinkedIn article because you mentioned them in the comments.
Make sure that you are not spamming people by mentioning random people who do not care about your content or your LinkedIn article. That will ruin your reputation on LinkedIn.
4. Put Links In The Comment Section
Here is a strategy that can help you get more views on your LinkedIn articles:
Write a post that is relevant to your LinkedIn article of the month, then link back to the full article in the comments of the post—not in the original post itself. Many people love reading comments on LinkedIn, and if you link to your great LinkedIn article in the comment section, people will see the link and visit your article.
LinkedIn also frowns upon external links in LinkedIn posts. Why? Because linking to external websites takes users away from LinkedIn. The exact opposite of what the platform wants! Therefore, LinkedIn will automatically rank posts with external links lower.
5. Encourage People In Your Network To Like, Comment, And Share Your LinkedIn Article
Additionally, you can leave comments on other people’s posts with the link to your LinkedIn article and people will notice it. Go on Gary Vaynerchuck’s posts and leave a valuable comment that is relevant to his post and includes a link to your article.
People will not only like the comment, but they will often visit your LinkedIn article, too.
All in all, posting regularly on LinkedIn is one of the most powerful ways you can build awareness for you or your business and begin generating leads! When you join the Evyrgreen Networking System, we encourage you to think strategically about your process and how you leverage LinkedIn, which is why we wanted to highlight the key differences between LinkedIn posts and LinkedIn articles—two important, but very different ways to engage with your audience and grow your business.
If you want more tips on how to leverage LinkedIn for your business, check out our 30 Linkedin tips booklet! For more helpful articles, check out the rest of our blog.