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Publishing on LinkedIn: What Your Tech Readers Want

In the digital world, content underpins most — if not all — of your efforts as a tech marketer. And because today's empowered tech buying process has changed, it’s imperative that your business craft meaningful, relevant messages for a diverse audience.  

But content marketing isn’t just about creating pieces that hit home and appeal to prospective tech buyers. It’s also about publishing content, in a variety of forms, on the channels your audience engages with and invests time — like LinkedIn, where hundreds of millions of professionals go to seek expert information, share insights and recommendations, learn, and advance their careers.  

So let’s get started. Publishing on LinkedIn is an excellent, effective opportunity for your content to attract, engage and convert more prospective buyers on the path to purchase. In fact, according to the Content Marketing Institute’s newest research, technology marketers have rated LinkedIn as the most effective social media platform out there.

But how exactly can you get the most out of publishing on LinkedIn, and what do modern tech buyers truly want when it comes to insights and information? Luckily, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions’ “The Sophisticated Marketer's Guide to Content Marketing,” offers a tactical course to content success. And we’ve overplayed some of the best tactics of LinkedIn with our unique research and knowledge of the technology audience to get your content read — and to get the reaction you want from your audience.

The Power of Publishing

It’s one thing to develop content — but getting your key audience to both see and engage with it can be a challenge. The professional publishing platform on LinkedIn offers a premium ability to both granularly target and showcase your company’s powerful expertise. Leveraging the platform, tech marketers can directly engage professional members with relevant content and experiences. Think of it as “publishing with a purpose.”

By using LinkedIn to build relationships with peers, customers and prospects, you can also reach your goals at every step of the ever-more-complicated tech buying cycle:

  • Generating awareness
  • Establishing thought leadership
  • Driving targeted website traffic
  • Generating leads and pipeline
  • Creating advocacy

The impact of your content gets a huge boost when you publish it in a professional context, helping you to meet the above goals and establish yourself as a go-to resource. You’ll also amplify that impact through the social sharing that happens naturally through your peer-to-peer network on LinkedIn. As an added bonus, encouraging your employees to share your content can significantly increase its reach. And if your sales reps are connected to the right IT decision makers, you’ll get your content into more of the right hands.

Here’s How it Works

1. You start by writing, either in short form or long form.

  • Short Form: Share links, articles, images, quotes and other content that is relevant to your followers.
  • Long Form: Create deep dives into topics that matter to you. Watch engagement build in the comments!

2. Your content then goes out to your connections and followers through publishing on LinkedIn.

  • These are the people who are going to be at the front lines of content engagement.

3. Your content then goes out to your wider global professional network, which allows you to:

  • Get your message out there
  • Grow your ideas
  • Gain followers

4. By continually utilizing publishing on LinkedIn, you can grow your professional brand, drive leads and ultimately snag sales!

As an added bonus, articles posted on LinkedIn are also searchable by keyword in the post search box, and posts that are viewed enough times can get picked up by Pulse, the news app for LinkedIn. When that happens, you can quickly grow views, comments and shares.

Creating Content that Resonates

Want more tips on how to see success on LinkedIn as a writer in the tech space? Here are some proven practices to ensure you thrive:

Write often and publish when it’s timely. Use a current event or news in your area of subject matter expertise as an opportunity to share your insights and perspectives. Whether it’s a recent piece of legislation or the newest technology research, tap into the current conversation and add something meaningful to it!

Write what you know. You’ve heard this before — writing something that you’re passionate about is a sure way to create engaging content. Think about some questions that you can answer from your personal experience. What tricks or tech do you employ every day to make your work life easier? What failures have helped turn you into a success? What inspired you to do what you do? Use the details from your life to help others be better in theirs.

Use links to drive site traffic. Link images and keywords back to your company blog or main pieces of key marketing content for increased traffic and referral traffic back to your site.

Beware of listicles. While fine for raw clicks, they don’t necessary encourage engagement or fuel energetic discussion. You want to publish content that starts a conversation that your audience wants to further engage with.

Clear beats clever in a headline. Use puns, sarcasm and jokes sparingly, since a misinterpretation or misunderstanding could keep someone from reading your post at all. If you want to do a trial run, send multiple options to friends and colleagues and ask them, “Which headline would you click on first, assuming you didn’t know the author of the post?”

Share, and encourage others to help! After publishing a post, share it on other social channels and let your friends, colleagues, and employees know so they can amplify the reach. A team effort goes a long way to get the conversation started!

Utilize LinkedIn Pulse. You can also tweet your post via LinkedIn Pulse. If you want to know more, you can also join the Writing on LinkedIn Group and tap into the reimagined LinkedIn Pulse app.

For more insight on how to produce great content consistently, download The Sophisticated Marketer's Guide to Content Marketing.