I’m so happy I made this commitment to 6 months of taking action on positive, skill-sharpening, mindset shifting content.

If I hadn’t, I would have listened to this great podcast on using LinkedIn’s new Publishing Platform, taken some notes, but not taken action.

As I type this, my first LinkedIn Publishing Platform post went live. And it was super easy.

Today’s Content and Action Item

Content Consumed: LinkedIn Publishing Platform: What Marketers Need to Know, Social Media Marketing Podcast with Michael Stelzner

Action Item: Select one post from my blog and publish it on LinkedIn Publishing Platform

How the Action Helps: Hopefully, it will contribute to greater thought leadership and grab some feedback to help me better understand how to serve my clients and prospective clients.

Here is how I plan on acting on what I learned today (including publishing the post I just published.

Why the LinkedIn Publishing Platform is a Godsend for Current Business Bloggers

If you’ve been creating content for a while already, you have a backlog of content at your fingertips. As far as I can tell, you don’t have to publish brand new original content. You can simply repurpose. It’s an easy ramp-up.  If you have 30-40 posts already, you could easily fill a year if you publish every other week or even every week.

How I Approached the Platform.

Step 1: Decide which of my current posts to publish

I went to the blog that is tied to my day job and reviewed the most popular posts. The post rankings shake out as follows:

I chose the top post: Workers Compensation Insurance for Nonprofits. Everyday, my blog gets a few visits to that post.  Apparently, workers compensation is a conundrum and a thorn in the side of nonprofits (especially small ones).

Step 2: Figure out how to access the LinkedIn Publishing Platform

I looked all over LinkedIn, trying to find where to use the ‘Publishing Platform’. In the end, it’s so easy that it’s easy to miss.

Go to the top of the main LinkedIn newsfeed when you login to LinkedIn.

Find where you post an update. Instead of typing an update, you simply hit the little ‘pencil’ icon in the right side of the update field. Click it and a whole new world of LinkedIn scribing opens up to you.

 

Step 3: Cut and paste the post I selected

I simply cut and paste my whole article into the Publishing Platform editor. It was simple. The editor is a bit easier than WordPress, but most everything pulled over. I didn’t have to reformat any of the text and all of the links transferred unscathed.

The only thing I had to do was to replace the image. The image didn’t pull, so I popped into Dropbox and pulled the same image and inserted it in the appropriate place.

Step 4: Edit, edit, edit for the LinkedIn audience

I reviewed the post and found a few word choice and other issues. It’s important to note that LinkedIn is focused on professionals, so I tried to make sure I dotted i’s and crossed t’s.

Step 5: Sharpen the headline.

Headlines are so important on all the platforms. Honestly, I don’t often assume folks will need my headlines to sing because people who find me are searching specifically for my content. They’re desperate for info and as long as I deliver, I’m golden.

But to stand out in LinkedIn, I sense I need to work on my headlines. I made a very simple change. Who knows if it’ll be more effective: From “Workers Compensation Insurance for Nonprofits” to “Why Workers Compensation is Essential for Nonprofits.”

Step 6: Post and share

The next obvious step is to publish. LinkedIn will give you a ‘are you sure?’, but then you’re good to go. The post can go live.

Apparently, the posts don’t automatically show up in your newsfeed. I scheduled the post to be shared across all social platforms, including LinkedIn, via Buffer.

A great thing about the LinkedIn Publishing Platform is that it includes all the social share options. And you also get real-time analytics. You can go to the post and find out how many people have seen and shared it.

Step 7: Create an editorial calendar

Since it’s pretty easy to pop a post up, I’ve decided to dole out my posts once a week on Mondays. I’ll just go through the posts in order of popularity.

Another thing that might be fun is to test long-form content in LinkedIn before publishing on my blog. If a 300-400 word post connects with a LinkedIn audience, maybe I should flesh it out on my blog.

We’ll See How It Works

I have no clue if this will be a helpful discipline, but what I’m happy about is that it’s an action I took when before, my notes from the podcast might have languished. Thank you Mr. Miller!

Another bit of content I listened to

Word Up  – How our words are powerful – College Wesleyan Church, sermon by Lenny Luchetti

The application from this sermon (a powerful message for believers or those are who are not quite sure):  Learn to speak words of life and encouragement to those we know and love and come across in daily life. If an idea to speak something that is encouraging pops into our brains, it’s probably a good idea to follow through. Who doesn’t need a word or three of encouragement? We all have our issues.

I’ll be on the lookout to call out the good I see. But this will just be a happy bonus. 🙂

Some Other Notes Regarding the Dan Miller Challenge…

I don’t plan on going so in-depth every day. I got carried away. My main purpose is not to build another blog, but to create revenue (and grow as a person in other ways as not all the content I consume will focus on sales, marketing, and other aspects of building a business) by applying insights and action items.

Until tomorrow….