How to create shareable LinkedIn Content

What do you understand as LinkedIn? It is a social media platform that allows members (both workers and employers) to create profiles and “connections” to each other in an online social network which may represent real-world professional relationships Members can invite anyone (whether an existing member or not) to become a connection.

Below are how to create shareable LinkedIn Content:

1. Know and understand your target audience
Before you start writing, take a moment to identify your target audience. It is difficult to get people to share your content if they don’t care about it, so it is important to figure out who you target audience is and cater your content to them. All you need to do is ask some basic questions.

Who: Are you targeting artisans, students, retired couples, teenage girls, marketing professionals, engineers, musicians, or scientists?
What: What does your target audience need? Create something that will help them.
When: When is your target audience online? Publish with those times in mind.
Where: Where do they live, work, and play? Someone who lives in Egypt doesn’t need a list of Spain’s best restaurants.
Why: Why is your audience online? Are they looking for specific information, socialization, entertainment, or validation?
How: How does your target audience experience the internet? Are they using a computer, or do they do most of their browsing on a smart phone? Make sure your content is compatible.

2. Use a headline that attracts attention:
First impressions are essential. It doesn’t matter how good your content is if no one bothers to read it because it is unattractive. There are many different ways to write an engaging headline, and the following are some useful tips.

• Include a promise in your title: Everything You Need to Know about Star Wars
• Numbers let your reader know what to expect: 7 Reasons 80’s Kids Love Star Wars
• Ask questions to stimulate curiosity: Which Star Wars Character is Your Soul Mate?
• The Ever Popular “How To” article: How to Become a Jedi

3. Include an image with a call to action
When sharing an article in a group or on your LinkedIn profile, LinkedIn will automatically pull in the featured image from the post. This shows up in the preview to the left of the text. This image is a great place to add a call to action telling the reader to click for more information. Here is an example of how we use this feature here on the GuavaBox blog.

4. Share your guest post, less spammy
On social media, particularly in LinkedIn groups, slimy marketers have ruined the fun for all of us. By “spamming” groups with links back to their website, they have made community moderators extra wary of any links shared back to a user’s website. It doesn’t matter if your article is extremely valuable, there is still a good chance the moderator will flag it as spam. One way to share your content and still make the moderator happy is to focus on sharing your guest posted content.

5. Make it useful
Content that recognizes and solves problems is also more likely to be shared. Although an article about fixing your bathroom sink may not seem very interesting, it is a common problem many people have to deal with. If someone finds your content helpful, they will share it with others who face the same problem. If you run a business that sells clothes, write a blog post with ideas about how to accessorize an outfit. If you sell compost, share an infographic with the best times of the year to plant a garden. If you sell craft supplies, share a video that demonstrates how to make your own wreath or decorative pillow case. Give your customers content that helps them use your product or service, and they might just share it with friends.

6. Make information accessible
There is a LOT of information online. When people are reading online, they skim the page to see if the content they need is there. If a reader doesn’t find what they are looking for at your site, they will move on quickly. Here are a few tips for making information accessible:

• Use headings and sub headings to clearly identify your topics.
• Use lists to make information easy to organize.
• Write short paragraphs. Shoot for 3-4 sentences.
• Use straightforward language. Your vast vocabulary may be impressive, but that doesn’t make it accessible to the average reader.
• Use images to illustrate your points.
• Create an infographic to explain complicated data and statistics. Infographics like the one in this post are easier to understand and more fun to read.
• Use white space. Giant blocks of text are intimidating, and it is difficult for readers to quickly identify the information they want in long passages.
• Creating content that people want to share is hard work, but it will pay off when the traffic to your website hits a new high. Use these tips to create high quality content that your users will be compelled to share.