Blogging is often overlooked as a means to marketing and business success, but under closer evaluation it’s turned out in recent years that blogging is a star on the rise. Just like any other platform of promotion, whether for business or personal, blogging has been one of the vital tools in popularizing businesses or the blogger personally by creating a relatable human presence behind brands. Blogging for personal promotion especially, which is also known as personal branding, is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. This concept suggests that self-packaging is the new mode of highlighting oneself as a standout candidate whether it be for consideration for a job or simply as a business entity worthy of new clients.
However, as much as we want to promote ourselves as much as possible online, there are limitations to what we can accomplish on sites like LinkedIn. Until recently the only people who were able to post their blog content on the professional social site were people that were deemed “influencers.” Over time we have seen those restrictions peeled back to the point where anyone, even a novice college student trying to wedge their way into the job market, can post their own blog content, and so we’ve seen LinkedIn evolve to the point where people are now able to:
- Increase visibility
- Expand his network
- Demonstrate Leadership
And since we are now able to leverage LinkedIn as a personal branding tool it’s time to take advantage of it. It’s time to learn the 5 Steps for maximizing the LinkedIn blogging feature for personal branding according Forbes.
Step 1. Have your strategy be developed
Any successful plan is born from and carefully executed according to strategic planning. Consider, the following:
1.Topic: Know what you want to talk about and maintain your focus on that. You don’t have to be good at just anything; you have to be good at something specific. Remember that the whole is the sum of its parts so be sure that all the parts are relevant.
2. Format: Select from images, text and videos according to your discernment.
3. Frequency: It doesn’t matter if you don’t post content every day, as long as you are still visible to your target audience’s eyes. What is more important is the consistency of your content.
4. Style: Is your content formal or friendly? Be consistent in your tone because people usually anticipate a certain style as they become familiar with the content you’ve been posting.
5. Limit: LinkedIn suggests content that consists of around three paragraphs.
Step 2. Create compelling content
Creating quality content means more than just having killer filler material. You just have to generate striking titles that will catch the attention of the readers. Also, including interesting photos adds glitz, as does the inclusion of source material from other bloggers and authors.
Step 3. Make it Visible
By scheduling yours posts on specific dates, you get to assure that your content becomes visible to your target audience.
Step 4. Have it Promoted
Disseminate your content not just on LinkedIn, but also on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms that you might think will increase your visibility.
Step 5. Measure It
As per Forbes’ advice, study and write about topics that get the highest amounts of likes, tweets and shares. From there you can refine your strategy and create the most brand value with the least effort.