Although LinkedIn has been great for job seekers during the most recent economic cycle, it is much much more than that. Individuals and companies are achieving more professional goals than imaginable on LinkedIn. For example, LinkedIn can help you:
Sell products
Find new clients or employees
Generate leads
Receive funding for your company
Obtain sponsorships
Sell hundreds of tickets to your professional event
Get national and local press coverage
And last but not least, drive massive traffic to your blog
Achieving these goals on LinkedIn don’t come naturally. You’ve gotta work the system on LinkedIn and experiment with different methods.
Here are my top 9 ways to drive traffic to your blog using LinkedIn:
1. Complete Your Profile:Your LinkedIn profile should be a place where you can lead with your strengths and present the most relevant information to help you reach your online goals first. If your goal for using LinkedIn is to increase traffic to your blog and establish yourself as an authoritative source for the type of information you publish on your blog, then make sure those are the kinds of credentials and experience that are presented first on your LinkedIn profile. If your profile is weak people will lose interest quickly and may never click on your blog links.If you want people to read your profile and click on your blog then make your profile concise, compelling and value driven throughout. Complete your profile 100%, add a great picture of yourself, and take the entire process very seriously. The more complete and compelling your profile is, the more people will read and visit links you have posted.This advice goes beyond driving traffic to your blog. If someone were to Google your name (which most people do when they are researching you) your LinkedIn profile is one of the first things that pop up.
2. Find People build Your Connections;Search for people you know and send them a connection request via LinkedIn. The more connections you have in your LinkedIn profile, the more people can see your LinkedIn status updates, make additional connection introductions for you, and so on. You can connect to people if you work (or have worked) at the same company, attended the same school, know their email addresses, know from LinkedIn group,who are introduced to you by your current contacts,have met offline at networking events,have connected with you on other social sites,are your customers,or are your business partners. Even if you don't know someone, you can connect with them through LinkedIn by requesting an introduction from one of your existing connections who is directly connected to that person. It can get a bit confusing, but the important thing is to simply continue working on making new, relevant connections.
3. Be Active;Once you create your LinkedIn profile, don't forget about it. In order for LinkedIn to be an effective tool to increase traffic to your blog, you need to actively participate by joining group discussions, answering questions, making recommendations, and so on. You also need to make sure your status is frequently updated.This ensures that your friendly face and/or company logo is seen often by your business network. The more you’re seen by your connections, the more trust you build, and the more likely they will click through to your blog. Additionally, this trust can develop into potential clients or partners.Don’t spam your network. Use your judgement (or analytic s) to determine how many times a week you should be posting.Post article links to your blog. Use LinkedIn to nurture relationships further, by inviting your contacts to connect with on your business blog too. Post links to other articles. If you don’t have two or three articles in a week to post, post links to other articles too.
Be sure to take the time to link your blog feed to your LinkedIn status, which is easy to do from your LinkedIn account.
4. Answer Questions:This is a great way to drive traffic to your blog. The more questions you answer, the better the chances are of that person asking the question to click on your blog to learn more about you. Not only will that one person be more interested in learning more about you, but also others answering that question. Additionally, when someone rates your answer as “The Best” of the mix, it will improve your thought leadership status. It moves you up the rankings as a “featured expert” in the category you answered in. When you are a featured expert people become more aware of your profile, and the chance they will click on your link to learn more about what you have to offer improves.
5. Create a Group:This may be one of the most powerful things you can do on LinkedIn. , I am assuring you that owning a group drives a lot of traffic to your site.If you go this route, you’ll have to spread the word about your group. To reduce spam on your group, and make it truly a place for networking and discussions, you’ll also want to have clear guidelines for members on what to post, and what you’ll remove. You’ll need to moderate the group, too. So, be prepared to make this time. Check out more tips on managing a LinkedIn Group.
When a new person joins the group, they see a brief description of the group, your name as the owner of the group, plus your blog url www.yourblogname.blogspot.com.
6. Join Targeted Groups;One of the key features on LinkedIn are groups. There are over 1.5 million groups on LinkedIn, and 81% of LinkedIn users belong to at least one of them.You’re sure to find your niche networks with whom you can share your blog articles.
To find groups on LinkedIn, click on your “Interests” tab, and then “Groups” in the drop down menu. Search for topics. LinkedIn will also offer you suggested groups based on your current activities, profiles and so on.When you find groups you’re interested in, check them out first. Assess whether they will be a good fit for your business. Check out the guidelines. Check out the number of members, and activity within the groups. If it is an open group, you can check out the types of posts and if it fits with your target market.Join groups that have genuine engagement.
7. Follow LinkedIn Influencers;LinkedIn Influencers was implemented recently. It gives you a chance to find, follow and learn from top influencers in your industry.
(You can apply to be one, but unless you already have a strong following elsewhere and directly on the site, you’re probably not even going to hear back from LinkedIn about it.)
So how can you use Influencers drive traffic to your blog?
Create a list of Influencers to follow. Share their articles with your connections. While this doesn’t give you direct hits to your blog, it does show you as an industry leader to your followers. This builds your reputation by association, and develops trust within your networks, which will then drive more traffic to your blog.
Comment on Influencers’ articles. Develop your network by commenting intelligently on Influencers’ articles. They are some of the most read articles on LinkedIn, so get more visibility for your blog by engaging on them.
Additionally, get ideas for future blog posts from the most popular Influencer posts. Link back to their original post, too. Give them a shout out, too. You really never know how far this could go in developing your networking.
8. Share Your LinkedIn Profile Link;Make sure you promote your LinkedIn profile in an effort to boost your connections. Include the link in your blog's sidebar, your email signature, and anywhere else you can
9. LinkedIn Share Button;Last, but far from least, make sure you have a LinkedIn share button on your blog posts.Share buttons makes is easy for your readers to share posts with their own network, too. People who are interested enough to share your articles likely have a LinkedIn network who will be interested in your articles too.Additionally, the LinkedIn share button makes it easy to share your article to groups, all in one go.
Important: If you use buttons as the way you post your own articles, make sure you’re checking in to LinkedIn throughout the day, to respond to comments and questions about your links.
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