Odd.
You know that Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn can be used to promote your blog. However, most of the articles you see rarely give information about how to use LinkedIn to drive new traffic to your blog.
This post will do just that.
1. Go to LinkedIn and make an account. Sign up for LinkedIn and create your profile. Make sure the web address for your About page is there. You want the person who views your profile on LinkedIn to land on this page.
For example, if someone landed on my site on Monday, they would find a Linky party going on. However, I don’t feel this is representative of my posts offering blogging tips. By giving the link to my About page, I ensure the reader will land on information I want them to see, and I can make the best possible impression.
2. Invite your Email contacts and your contacts on other social media to connect with you on LinkedIn. You want as many eyes on your content as possible.
3. Make sure you have a LinkedIn sharing button at the end of each post.
4. Publish an article on LinkedIn. It should be on a topic you normally write about on your blog. Include a graphic. The pixels will be 698 X 400. This will be wide enough to attract interest. Keep in mind that LinkedIn wants width, not height, in their image when you choose one.
Link back to your About page at the end of your article. Include a short description of what people can expect to see at your site.
5. Join a LinkedIn community.
- There is a way you find a group of LinkedIn members that share your interests.
- Click “Interests”. A dropdown menu comes up.
- Click “Groups”.
- Click “Find a group”.
- Enter the topic of a group you’d like to belong to in the search bar.
Engage in conversation in the forum. Make new contacts. Do not offer your link unless you are asked. You are there to network, not be a spammer.
A reader let me know about LinkedIn’s The Blog Zone. I’ve made connections there, and one member even asked me to make a YouTube series for bloggers which he planned to promote.
Someone in the community asked what our favorite post was to write. I shared but did not offer my link since no one asked me for it. The next thing I knew, this old post was getting many new page views.
I was confused since I had not offered my link, so I wrote one of the members and asked if they could see my site link. It was no coincidence. Of course they could!
Recently, I had an article published by Lifehack. I didn’t realize the editors expected my contacts to share my article on their social media. The number of people who have shared it sits in big, bold, black, letters on my post’s graphic. Pressure! I turned to my BlogZone contacts, as well as my other contacts, and asked them to share it out, which they did.
Ultimately, all that social sharing my buddies at LinkedIn did for me could lead to more traffic to my blog from the sites where they shared it.
6. Engage in your community often. This will enable you to get labelled as a top contributor. As a result, the link to your profile will be visible to anyone who goes to that group.
7. Send your blog post links to contacts you’ve made on LinkedIn you think would be interested. For example, I might send an article about YouTube or a blog post with a YouTube video of mine embedded in it to my contact that engaged me in dialogue about YouTube.
8. Follow the blogs of the contacts you’ve made on LinkedIn. You might discover a potential reblogging opportunity or learn more about your topic from reading their articles. Network with them on their blog. You could meet other readers who could become new blog followers for you if they find your comments engaging.
In conclusion, over 225 million people are on LinkedIn. Shouldn’t you be too? If you are, network with LinkedIn‘s members. They are a new community full of contacts and information. Eventually, if not sooner, they could be a new source of blog traffic for you.
Readers, if you think others could benefit from these tips about LinkedIn, please share.
Do you use LinkedIn? What have been your experiences? If not, which of these eight tips do you think you might try? I look forward to your views.