Straight Outta’ Content: How to Find Interesting Topics for your LinkedIn Posts

Posted by LinkedSelling in Uncategorized

LinkedIn Publishing and LinkedIn Pulse are LinkedIn’s main pushes right now. The more time users spend on their site, the more valuable it is to advertisers (makes sense right?). I believe that published posts have only began to scratch the surface of what they will become. As the viewership grows, so will its value.

You need to get good at this NOW, before someone else beats you to it.

Writer's Block Sucks.

Not only because it’s frustrating, but also because the longer you take to write your blog, article, LinkedIn post, email copy, etc., the lower your ROI will be.

Think about it. The more time spent writing a blog, the more it costs you to make. It could eventually get to a point where your ROI is nonexistent.

This happened to me recently when I was coming up with a topic for a LinkedIn Published Post (you know, the big blog looking posts that make up LinkedIn Pulse). I realized that this is one part of the content writing process that could be improved on. I decided to write a post that could help others escape from the same content purgatory.

Note: Before moving on, I want to mention that the Linked University team is currently working on a strategy that can lead to 10's of thousands of views, likes, and comments on your LinkedIn published posts.

Now back to the point, how to find out what to publish on LinkedIn.

When I am in need of inspiration, my favorite place to look is on LinkedIn itself, at the posts that were already having success.

There are a few ways to do this.

1. Get Ideas for Your LinkedIn Post Topic from LinkedIn’s Editorial Calendar

LinkedIn has a monthly theme that they promote in the form of a hashtag. Essentially they want you to participate in a site-wide publishing movement by publishing content on a specific topic.

The theme for September 2015 is #HowIHire and next month's is #Productivity.

Here’s the calendar for the rest of 2015.

Use this as inspiration. The themes are vague enough that any business in any industry could write content that is slanted towards the current theme.

Click here to check out Josh’s #HowILead post from July that got over 11,000 views.

And if that is not enough, take the #BeCreative (or whatever the current month’s # is) and plug it in to the search bar at the top of LinkedIn. Then be sure to click “Posts” on the left hand side of the search results.

Just like this.

Search through the posts on this topic and see if your brain starts-a-churnin’ (read with southern accent). In all reality, your blog will be more likely to be featured on a LinkedIn Pulse Channel if you use this topic and hashtag combo.

Don't worry if you look on the 1st day of the month and don't see many posts with the hashtag. Sometimes it takes a few weeks until the influencers start posting about it, and then the theme really takes off.

2. Try Researching a Topic You’re Interested in, Before Writing Your LinkedIn Post

This is a very similar approach to the search technique I just walked through above, just without using LinkedIn’s theme.

For example, if you wanted to write a post on something that has to do Leadership, you’ll want to search for all the posts that have to do with Leadership.

From there just peruse around looking for posts that have done well, then create a similar piece of content with your own spin on it. DO NOT rip someone’s content off, we are not writing an 8^th grade paper here and this is not Wikipedia.

Check this out.

Some of the posts that show up under this category have 30-40 thousand views, and not all of the authors are famous. That is not a prerequisite for doing well with LinkedIn publishing.

This becomes an even better tactic when you share out the published posts you find in your research to your other social media sites. If you spend a few days priming your followers, they could be more receptive to your own published post or article.

3. Use LinkedIn Pulse Channels to Get Inspiration for Your LinkedIn Post

LinkedIn categorizes their top content into different channels that house posts about certain topics.

This is where you want your LinkedIn posts to be. Just posting on LinkedIn won’t move the needle, but getting your post featured on one of these channels can move thousands of eyes to your content (and your profile).

While there are some ways to structure and promote your post to stack the deck in your favor, you must start with good content.

To find this content you want to first go to LinkedIn.com/Today/Posts.

This will take you to a grid looking page that showcases all of the top posts currently featured in LinkedIn pulse.

Now this won’t be filtered by any specific topic, but there is a way to do that.

From the LinkedIn Pulse Top Posts page, click the tab titled “Discover”. From here you can scroll down through “Recommended” content, Influencer content, and LinkedIn pulse channels.

I suggest skipping past all the nonsense and going straight to the “Channels” section. Find the channels that make sense to you and check out the content inside.

So that’s four ways to find content inspiration on LinkedIn.

But before you jump right into your research, let me give you a few things to think about.

Before Starting Research for Your LinkedIn Post Topic…

Do not automatically think that everyone cares about your business or the niche industry you serve. Getting published on LinkedIn Pulse is not the same as running ads directly to your target audience.

If you are a commercial construction contractor and you publish a post on new trends in retail roofing, don’t expect 20,000 views. It’s not going to happen.

This is a branding play, your best bet is to write about more vague topics such as management, leadership, accountability, entrepreneurship, etc. from the perspective of someone in your industry.

And of course you want to mention what you do, but you must write in a way that people who are not well versed in your industry will still be interested.

New business does not always come directly from your target market, if you build up your LinkedIn following, position yourself as a thought leader, and paint your brand in an intelligent and thoughtful way, you’ll be amazed at how much easier selling is.

I just wanted to bring that up so you don’t post something uber specific and get disappointed in the results. If you want to bring up a specific topic it must be housed in a post that is relatable by everyone

Now it's your turn. Don't wait around for LinkedIn Posts to be the norm. Use this strategy to stand out and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

Have you had any success with LinkedIn publishing? Ever been featured on Pulse? Let us know in the comments.