I have to tell you, I love…just love…long-form Posts on LinkedIn!

A long-form posts essentially is a blog. It’s a great way to keep your LinkedIn connections learning more about you and your business without leaving LinkedIn.

Long-form posts should be business related. Maybe you want to post about something that is happening in your business or in your industry. You could post an award you are receiving or maybe you would like to post your blog from your website.

You can include images and hyperlinks. A hyperlink is a link you can click on it and it will take you to another link that is relevant to the information you are reading. Another feature I love ─ long-form posts are searchable both on and off LinkedIn. Also each long-form post has its own unique URL. This means you can drive traffic back to your long-form posts. Even traffic outside of LinkedIn.

When you publish a long-form post on LinkedIn:

• Your original content becomes part of your professional profile.
• It is displayed on the Posts section of your LinkedIn profile.
• It is shared with your connections and followers.
• Members not in your network can now follow you from your long-form post to receive updates when you publish next.

Everyone in your network will be able to see your posts. LinkedIn also algorithmically recommends it to other LinkedIn users beyond your LinkedIn connections.

LinkedIn tips to help increase distribution:

• Write long-form posts that resonate with your connections, followers, and target audience.
• Long-form posts that are overly promotional may not experience broader distribution by the community.
• Follow channels and write content that’s relevant to a channel of your expertise, such as healthcare, green business, or law.
• You can share your long-form post cross your other social networks, such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter.
• Via email – copy and paste your long-form post’s URL.
• By checking the box next to the Twitter icon at the bottom of the publishing tool, to share directly to your Twitter account.

When you publish a long-form post, your post becomes part of your LinkedIn profile. It is shared with your connections, and members who you are not connected to you can now follow your long-form posts. They will receive notifications each time you publish.

Your long-form posts can be found on your LinkedIn profile under the post section. It shows the number of followers you have and your last three posts. If you click on “see more”, it opens to a new page with all your posts listed with analytics – how many people have looked at your posts, how many people “liked” it and how many comments you have.

To create a long-form post, click the pencil icon on your LinkedIn homepage. It will be located beside the paper clip to add an image where you create an update/post to LinkedIn.

If you don’t have a blog yet, this may be a great way to get used to the idea of creating content. I love blogging and I’m excited about the introduction of long-form posts! Does it work? Of course it does!

Have you tried creating a long-form post yet? I would love to hear your thoughts on what you could write about that will grab your connections, followers, and target audience attention?