There are several heavy tomes devoted to the art of mastering LinkedIn, but the platform’s latest facelift could make it easier to show off your expertise to others.
LinkedIn is both a networking site and a skills and advice sharing platform, and entrepreneurs and business owners have spent a significant amount of time trying to crack the code for great professional posts that others will actually read there.
A new desktop version of the platform, released globally over the coming weeks, aims to streamline the offer and make it easier for audiences to stumble across this kind of content.
In a cheerful video promoting the changes, users get a look at a cleaner design that draws attention towards blog content, while also allowing them to message their contacts easily.
The message functionality looks similar to Facebook Messenger, allowing real time chat between colleagues and professional acquaintances.
“With a combination of algorithms and human editors working together, we’ve fine tuned your Feed to surface the most relevant content from people and publishers you care most about,” the company explains in a statement on the changes.
Read more: How to grab people’s attention on LinkedIn with one sentence
On his website LinkedInRiches, business coach John Nemo explains that the redesign presents a massive opportunity to build a back-and-forth relationship with clients.
“There is no better way to get ‘front of mind’ with those prospects than by demonstrating your unique ability to solve their problems,” says Nemo.
To take advantage of the new desktop features, businesses should get specific when defining their target audience, then create content for that audience to promote on the platform. Two things are key in this process, he says: keywords and ideas.
When it comes to ideas, make sure the work you promote on LinkedIn draws on your expertise in a way that can deliver value to potential connections or customers.
“It cannot simply be a sales pitch. The key is to demonstrate your authority and expertise, versus just claiming it,” says Nemo.
Creating LinkedIn posts that others genuinely benefit from can help build the trust of your brand if eyeballs are landing on your posts.
The new design is intended to increase the overall time spent on a LinkedIn post, according to LinkedInRiches, so paying close attention to keywords and hashtags in your subject lines and descriptions will help the platform prioritise your work.
“You want to make sure LinkedIn will index, save and sort your content correctly, so that when someone uses LinkedIn’s gigantic, internal search engine to look for something like ‘SEO tips’, ‘Choosing a Business Coach’ or ‘Minneapolis architect’, your content (be it your profile page, your posts, your status updates, etc.) will show up prominently as a result,” Nemo says.
This article was originally published on SmartCompany.
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