I'm a Senior MLOps Engineer with 5+ years of experience in building end-to-end Machine Learning products. From my industry experience, I write long-form articles on MLOps to help you build real-world AI systems.
Are you tired of spending hours crafting a compelling LinkedIn Article only to see it get lost in the abyss of the internet? Well, fear not. Despite the time and effort required, writing LinkedIn articles is worth it.
In this blog post, we will explore the best practices to optimize the reach of your articles and make the most of out of your time. By understanding how the LinkedIn algorithm works and take the proper actions, we’ll be able to increase engagement and reach a broader audience.
So, let’s dive in and discover the secrets of crafting a killer LinkedIn Article that will leave your readers wanting for some more.
The Mighty Linkedin Algorithm
Like any social media, Linkedin has its own factors to determine which content to display to a consumer. We can easily feel overwhelm. As if only the mighty algorithm can decide of our destiny. It’s not true ! Knowing the ins and outs of the algorithm will help you tremendously to reach a broader impact.
When you post some content, the algorithm analyzes the quality of the content and attributes a quality score to it. The content does matter, if you write poor quality content often to increase your network, it’s not going to work. Do you best to enjoy the process of writing, after all it is a fascinating journey !
The first hour after publishing a LinkedIn article is crucial. The platform’s algorithm considers the engagement during this period as a key factor in determining the quality score of the article. The more engagement an article receives within this time frame, the higher its quality score will be, making it more likely to be recommended to other users.
Build your Linkedin Strategy
Writing LinkedIn articles can be time-consuming, so having a strategy can help you optimize your time and resources. With a clear strategy, you can focus on creating content that resonates with your audience and supports your goals, rather than writing articles that don’t get much engagement.
A LinkedIn strategy will help you to optimize your reach and visibility on the platform. You will be able to increase your exposure, build your personal brand, and attract new followers and connections. But more importantly, one can create content without feeling it as a burden that overwhelm his schedule.
Reaching more people will make you more effective. Thus, with a frequency of one article per week you would be able to reach a larger audience with each article and you won’t need to post as frequently to maintain engagement and build network.
Ultimately, building your personal brand on LinkedIn is not a one-time event or a few month dedication. It’s a long-term journey that requires ongoing effort and commitment. This is because building a personal brand is all about establishing a reputation, building trust, and cultivating relationships over time.
As any long term goal, consistency is key. Having a feasible goal (of one article per week for example) is important to be able to maintain your activity on the long run.
8 Best Practices to Increase your Article Score
These tips will give the odds at your side when posting an article:
- Post at a time where poeple are likely to browse Linkedin (we will se the exact time later).
- Answer as soon as possible to any comments
- Ask question to your audience to have them interacting with you
- Post consistently to improve your activity score
- Post with images to make the reading of your article more appealing
- Schedule your post to the high traffic times
- Avoid outbound links, if doing a blog post try using Linkedin Articles
- There’s a limited number of connections we can make per week. Use them ! Add people to your network that are susceptible to engage with your content.
These guidelines are always good to follow to have success. Follow along as we will discuss more details in the following sections.
Blog Post vs Text Post
Regular posts on LinkedIn are short, frequent updates that appear in your network’s feed. They can be used to share news, insights, and updates about your work, as well as to engage with your connections by liking, commenting, and sharing their posts. Regular posting can help keep you top-of-mind with your network.
LinkedIn articles, on the other hand, are longer-form content that you can publish on the LinkedIn platform. They are a great way to share in-depth insights and expertise on a particular topic.
Most importantly, they will stay there 🪨
As regular post gets buried after a short time, articles will still be visible on your provide and increase your credibility toward your audience.
Personally I prefer to use regular post only when I’m feeling doing it. My focus is more on the articles as they greatly improve your credibility on the long run. In fact, for a head hunter, demonstrating publicly your skills is more valuable than your number of followers.
Personal Blog vs Linkedin Articles
The LinkedIn Article feature is a tool that allows LinkedIn users to publish long-form, in-depth content directly on the LinkedIn platform. Articles can be up to 125,000 characters long, and can include images, videos, and other media.
As discussed before, Linkedin wants you to have your audience staying on their website. This is an issue for a writer because we want to be able to share the content of our blog. Luckily, Linkedin Articles in a on site feature we can use to showcase our work.
Nonetheless, having a personal blog is an asset that weight in the equation when a recruter considers reaching out to you. So why not having the best of both words ?
Best of Both Worlds
To make the most out of your effort to write an article, here is the strategy I came up with:
- Post an article on your own website
- Convert your article to Linkedin Articles
- Post your Linkedin article to have a broader reach and do not including external links
Posting an article on your own blog before publishing it on the LinkedIn article feature can offer several advantages:
- Ownership: you have complete ownership of the content and can control how it’s presented. This allows you to brand the content with your own unique style and voice.
- SEO: you can optimize the article for search engines and drive traffic to your website. This can help you build your personal brand and establish yourself as an authority in your field.
- Backlinks: when you post on your own blog, you can include backlinks to your LinkedIn profile and other relevant pages, which can improve your website’s search engine rankings and drive traffic to your LinkedIn profile.
- Flexibility: you can experiment with different formats and styles before publishing on LinkedIn. This allows you to refine your writing and presentation skills, and can help you create more engaging and effective content.
The only disadvantage of this strategy is that we have to put extra time to convert our original post to Linkedin articles.
The Wrong Timing
Writing a post takes time. It is then important to know when to post it to have a broader impact. Experiment with posting your articles during the lunch break between Tuesday and Thursday, as many LinkedIn users tend to check their feeds during those times.
Avoid posting your article during the weekend. LinkedIn is primarily considered a professional networking site, and people may associate it more with work-related activities. Hence, they may not want to browse LinkedIn during their time off.
The Right Timing
The first hour after you publish an article on LinkedIn is critical in determining how well your article will perform. The basic idea is that if your article receives a lot of engagement (likes, comments, shares) in the first hour after it’s published, LinkedIn’s algorithm will take notice and potentially show your article to a larger audience.
If your content is good, do not shy away to ask your friends to like, comment or repost your article. If they do, insist that they add a few sentences explaining why they reposted as this boost the scoring even further.
Having consistent reposts is paramount as it shows your article to their followers’ feeds, which can help to expose your content to a new audience.
If you were successful in generating engagement during the first hour of posting your article, it’s important to continue engaging with people who leave comments or reactions. This can help to maintain momentum and encourage others to engage with your content as well.
Last but not least, add your article in your profile to the “Featured” section. It will stay there for a while and you have additonal chances for poeple to see it.
Title Matters
Studies have been shown that the success of an article greatly depends on its title 🤔
Here are five strategies that have proven success:
- Using the “How to” phrase in your title can help signal to your audience that your article provides practical and actionable advice.
- Similarly, using numbered lists, such as “10 solutions for…” or “10 things to…”, can grab the reader’s attention and suggest that the article will provide clear and concise information.
- Keeping your title between 40 and 70 characters can ensure it is both easy to read and optimized for visibility in search results.
- Using tools like “coschedule.com/headline-analyzer” can help you optimize your title based on factors like length, word choice, and emotional impact.
- Finally, avoiding titles with questions is important as they can be less effective at generating clicks and engagement compared to declarative titles that offer a clear benefit or solution.
Wrap Up
Finally ! 👏
We understood the Linkedin algorithm, built a strong strategy and now have the right timing. But ultimately, let’s not forget that, as with any goal in life, what matters the most is to find purpose.
That’s right 😮 ! Building and planning has a lot to do in the equation. But take your time. Do not rush. At the end, the beauty of writing an article lies in the fulfilment we experience through creativity and the sense that we are sharing something that matters. Something that, we hope, will help people.