Blogging On LinkedIn - Getting Started Guide

blog 2014

8 Dec

If you are blogging to establish yourself as a leader in your industry and haven't yet used LinkedIn to blog you are missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your reach and personal brand. If it's good enough for Sir Richard Branson it's good enough for me!

Blogging on LinkedIn can reach new followers, give you instant leads and direct people to your website. Of course you would rather people find their way to your native hosted blog, but until you are a superstar you need to fish where the fishes are - and the big fishes are on LinkedIn! Here are my top 5 tips to start blogging on LinkedIn.

Andy's top 5 tips for blogging on LinkedIn

1) GET ON LINKEDIN

This might sound strange, but there are still a lot of people who are blogging but have no profile or really poor quality profiles on LinkedIn. Before you even consider putting your awesome content on this site, you need to have a well constructed profile. Otherwise you will struggle to attract followers, leads will not message you and they will not click through to your website. For tips on how to improve your LinkedIn profile review my previous blogs on this topic here. Of course we can assist you with a beautiful profile if you want some help :) Just click here...

2) SET UP YOUR BLOG

LinkedIn launched their blog platform on February 19th 2014, appropriately in one of their blog posts, which you can read here. Their publishing platform isn't open to everyone, you need to be invited to join. They started with 25,000 members and you could apply, but now it's strictly invite only. That said, because we have worked with dozens of clients to build their profiles and get them blogging on LinkedIn we have discovered a few loopholes. Some secret ways to get you blogging there if you haven't been invited yet. Contact us for the tips...

3) BLOG FORMAT

The format of your blogs on LinkedIn can vary, but my suggestion is to make them 300 - 500 words only, include a meaningful photo and make it personal. The word length might be different from your current blog, but the trend in blogging currently is less is more. Don't stifle your message, just make it more succinct. The photo should be organic to you or a stock shot that really captures the readers attention. Most of the time the reader will only see the photo and headline so these are critical to the success. Finally, the more personal you make the content and less generic, the better. My most successful blog was about why I quite my job for my kids as professionals on LinkedIn could relate to it.

There are so many other tips I could include on blogging in general that I have learnt from the masters, but I am keeping this short as per my tip 3! For more blogging tips register for my future blogs on this topic.

4) THE FIRST BLOG

Once you are set up to blog you need to consider what will be your first post. Some people suggest an introduction to what yourself, why you blog, how often and what you will be talking about. I like this as a first post as your audience may not have the benefit of reading your introduction page from your blog website. They are unsure if they want to follow you and what you are about.

With that said, the introduction should be short. For the rest of the blog add some rich content which would be typical of your regular posts. That will give them a taste of what's to come.

5) CORRECT CONTENT

The most often question I get asked by the clients who complete my Leaders Branding Package,

which sets them up for success online, is how to get more content out in the least amount of time. This is a whole blog post in itself! However the simple explanation is as follows. First you need to understand your voice. What is the main purpose of your blog? It could be broad such as mine, 'helping business people love their work', which enables me to blog about business, how to be a great dad and work hard, fitness and even philosophy. Or it can be quite specific such as Social Star's 'Personal Branding for business people'.

Your voice will then dictate a few core topics you want to talk about. These are the one to five areas you will explore in depth with each post. When you have clarity on the core topics you can review these on blog day and think about what is inspiring you within one of those areas.

There you have it, my 5 tips for blogging on LinkedIn. Connect with me on LinkedIn or visit my

personal website to access all my blogs.

If you liked this blog don't miss out on the next one! Subscribe now to get them in your mailbox each week. What's the worst that can happen, you can always cancel and you just might learn something valuable :)

As an added bonus all my visitors can download a complimentary copy of my book 'Creating a Powerful Brand' by clicking on the book menu button or here. Tell your friends we have load of eBooks! It will change your life or you money back. Enjoy!

(the link is http://www.andrewford.com.au/book/)

Andrew Forde-ttraction

Andrew Ford

Marketing expert Andrew Ford, the founder of Social Star, has discovered the secret of ‘Powerful Branding’. With a fire for unleashing people’s inner brand and developing business models to generate profit from an individual’s passions, Andrew leverages ground-breaking digital and social media marketing techniques to create digital strategies for clients to attract maximum opportunities. Having established a strong name for himself in the field, Andrew blends traditional business techniques with now-necessary tools for entrepreneurs to achieve scale, quality, and influence in their niche. Andrew’s comprehensive business background and qualifications consist of a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) (RMIT 2003), a Graduate Certificate in Management (MBA Executive Program, University of Sydney 2005), and a Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Swinburne University 2011). Continually on the cutting edge of his own education, Andrew has tested his marketing theories in forums such as the BCG Business Strategy Competition, which he won in 2005 against all Victorian MBA schools, and the Venture Cup Business Plan Competition (Swinburne University 2003), which he won in the Masters category. With experience working at Hewlett-Packard, Sensis (Telstra) and IBM, Andrew also has mentored dozens of junior staffs to help them achieve their professional goals. Meeting and influencing high-profile public figures helped Andrew to realise just how many professionals require more understanding and control of their public brands or appearance, and need help with the skills to use the many amazing free tools at their disposal to generate success. At Social Star, Andrew consults with clients to uncover their personal brand – both where it is today and where it can be tomorrow – and refine and define how that should be displayed in social media in order to attract their perfect target audience. Andrew mentors his clients to rapidly grow their business’ audiences, resulting in larger potential client bases and higher revenue. Applying formulas that integrate over twenty years of Andrew’s business experience and fifteen years of formal business education, Social Star specialises in building clarity and velocity for clients’ brands using the ‘Understand, Build and Leverage’ methodology. ‘Having a Personal Business enables people to have an authentic, congruent connection with their valued clients and partners, using their brand as the bridge,’ says Andrew. ‘I’m highly driven to work with the new breed of entrepreneurs and small business owners – people who have a passion for making the world a better place. Traditional business models are stepping aside as people follow their innermost dreams and my role is to see them operate within their values while creating wealth. Some people think you have to sacrifice what you love to be successful in your business, yet it is actually the opposite. Follow your passion and success will come.’ Lecturing at Swinburne University from 2009 to 2011 on brand dynamics and digital marketing, presenting at numerous conferences, and consulting to hundreds of clients, Andrew has seen his philosophy work that if you follow your unique path, based on your skills, experience, values and goals, you will automatically attract the opportunities you desire and achieve the success you deserve. Living his mantra, Andrew has created a successful business and attracts high-profile clients including musicians, athletes, authors, models, entrepreneurs, professionals and small business owners, helping them find their ‘why’ in their business and fulfilment in their lives. Business for Andrew is more than work, it’s personal. Running a personal business means that he is able to fulfil all of his values rather than separating his life from work. It supports his two boys while providing social opportunities, educational development, fitness opportunities, spiritual fulfilment and many valuable friendships. Social Star has now become the vehicle for Andrew to crystallise his mission in the world, to help people love what they do, supporting his ‘why’, that if more people loved what they did, the world would be a better place.

http://www.andrewford.com.au/