LinkedIn is now a content creation machine. (Pstt… that’s why we just launched LinkedIn scheduling in Plann — you can check it out here if you haven’t already!) Over the last year or so, the professional networking platform has been adding a bunch of cool features that help you create rich, brand-boosting content — from LinkedIn lives and polls top carousels and stories. But there’s actually another LinkedIn resource that many people don’t know about, that has the potential to make your posts go absolutely viral. But, rather than an in-built tech feature, we’re actually talking about a team of real people! We’re referring to LinkedIn News Editors — a team of content curators, and the people you definitely want to impress if you’re keen to get your content seen by hundreds of thousands (or potentially, millions!) of people.  

What do LinkedIn’s News Editors do?

The newsroom team are essentially the taste-makers and trend-setters of LinkedIn. Just like any journalistic news editor, they get to decide what’s newsworthy, what’s interesting and what’s trending. As LinkedIn themselves put it: “our editors create, curate and cultivate content on LinkedIn.”  Essentially, they cherry-pick the best thought leadership and news articles from their users, and broadcast it to a much larger audience. Various countries like Australia, the US and the UK have their own LinkedIn news team that curate global content. Apps like Instagram Reels and TikTok also work in a similar way — using a combination of human editors and computer algorithms to determine what’s trending. However, the difference with LinkedIn newsteam is that they are more journalistic, often adding their own storytelling to the content they share.

The different types of LinkedIn news content

You’ve probably come across an article from one of LinkedIn’s news editors before. It’s likely come up on your newsfeed as an article from someone you’re not connected with on LinkedIn, but a bunch of your friends have commented on. Or, you may have spied it on the right hand side of your newsfeed, in a tab that says ‘LinkedIn’ news. If you click on one of these, you’ll likely see that the News Editor has written a short synopsis on a topic, and compiled a range of relevant articles from its users.

The different places you can get your content featured by LinkedIn’s newsroom team include: • The Daily Rundown, Linkedin’s daily digest of business news available in 12 editions and 7 languages • Storylines, which highlight the best conversations happening around professional news • LinkedIn Lists, such as LinkedIn Top Companies or Top Startups, and other stories that use LinkedIn’s Economic Graph to illuminate • The LinkedIn news page, which has over 3 million followers These segments are similar to what was once included in LinkedIn Pulse — a separate publishing tool that featured insightful articles from influencers and thought leaders. However, when LinkedIn updated its interface in 2017, it stopped offering this as a separate feature and integrated it into the LinkedIn app. If you get your LinkedIn articles featured in one of these LinkedIn news segments, it can absolutely explode  the reach of your post1 That means more credibility, more visibility and hopefully, more people warmed up and ready to buy from you. Ready to go viral?  Read on for 6 tips that will help your articles get featured by News Editors and in front of millions of people.

While we’re all about originality, you don’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel with the topic of your LinkedIn articles! It can be just as powerful to find topics people are already talking about, and put your own unique spin on it.

There are three different ways you can do this:

• Check out the trending news: On the right hand side of your newsfeed, you’ll see a list of articles that LinkedIn’s News Editors have already curated. This can be an excellent starting point for your own content, but be sure to strike while the iron’s hot. You don’t want the topic to have already become passé by the time you publish your article!

• Find trending hashtags: Unfortunately, LinkedIn doesn’t make it super easy to discover new hashtags. However, similar to Instagram, you can type in a hashtag, and it will show you a list of suggested hashtags related to that search term. As you can see in the above example of ‘remote’, you can use this to give you inspiration for article topics related to that concept. However, if you’re really looking to find fresh topics that are on people’s mind right now, it’s a good idea to instead head to Twitter’s ‘explore’ feed to check out the trending hashtags. Many of the work and business-related topics here will also make great fodder for LinkedIn posts.

• Look for ‘fresh perspectives’: Another good way to uncover compelling topics is to check out what other thoughts leaders are doing. LinkedIn has a section dedicated to this, which you can access by heading to the sidebar on the left on your newsfeed homepage and clicking ‘discover more’ This will bring up a list of accounts in relevant industries. You can then follow them to see what types of topics they’re posting about.

Tap into your expertise

Once you’ve found your trending topic to piggyback off (yee-haw!) it’s time to think about what perspective you can bring to the table . After all, you don’t want to just be adding to the noise, because that’s no way to get noticed. Consider what area of expertise or unique experience you can bring to the table. For example, say the topic of online job interviews is trending, and you’re a professional stylist. Perhaps you could write an article on the best ways to dress for confidence for a Zoom job interview! One important note: try not to make your article topics too overly specific. While tapping into a targeted niche can work really well on Instagram, Pinterest or even LinkedIn if you’re trying to target a specific group, remember that our goal here is to get your content to go viral. So, you’ll want to make sure your content is somewhat universal, and relevant to a significant chunk of the workforce!

Nail the headline

As with any type of article, having an attention-grabbing headline is crucial. The key here is to pique the reader’s interest and make them want to keep reading. After all, the more eyeballs you get on your content (even if it’s just from people who already follow you), the more likely your article is to get discovered  by a News Editor. That said, this is definitely not the place for spammy or clickbaity style content. No ‘You Won’t BELIEVE What This Boss Said To His Employee’ At the end of the day, LinkedIn is still a professional networking platform and we want to keep things classy!  While listicle content (for example: 5 Mistakes You Didn’t Know You Were Making In Your Meetings’ can perform really well on a traditional blog, this is another style of content you see less of on LinkedIn — perhaps because it’s a little lighter and fluffier. Here’s a few types of headings that work really well on LinkedIn • The news hook: The shift the travel industry didn’t see coming • The question: Where will the workforce be in 2030? • The question and statement: Socially clumsy? Blame the pandemic • The stat: Why 74% of people will only return to a website that is mobile-friendly

Flesh it out

There’s a few different ways you can post articles on LinkedIn.
You can repurpose your existing blog posts into LinkedIn articles, but, make sure you at least include the first few paragraphs organically with a link to read the rest of the article, otherwise a News Editor is unlikely to read it. Want more tips on repurposing your blog posts on LinkedIn? Check out this guide You can also write an article from your company page (with a maximum of 700 words) or from your personal page (unlimited words), or simply post a shorter status update.  All of these methods are perfectly fine for posting your content. However, in order to maximize your potential to get it picked up by the news team, you’ll want to make sure the content is as rich as possible.  This means fleshing out your articles with other multimedia content types, such as polls, photos, videos and even carousels! By supplementing your articles with these features, it makes them far more visually engaging. That means more people are likely to share it, and it’s more likely to end up in the lap of a News Editor.

You can use Plann to create this rich, share-worthy content, including design your new LinkedIn strategy, create social graphics, draft captions and auto-schedule posts straight to your LinkedIn pages

Make use of hashtags

If you want to become LinkedIn famous, using hashtags in your articles is a must. Because, even if users aren’t searching for hashtags as much as they would on, say, Instagram, News Editors certainly will be!  This would be one of the easiest ways for them to find high-quality articles on certain topics they’ve identified as trends. So, use it to your advantage.

When you’re creating a post, you can also access the drop-down menu to show related hashtags. You can use this to find relevant hashtags to accompany your article. While there’s no limit to the amount of hashtags you can use on LinkedIn, it’s best to keep it to around 5-7, to ensure your article still looks polished and professional.

Tag them!

This may sound rather brazen, but one way to get a News Editor’s eyes on your LinkedIn article is by tagging them! It’s easy enough to find out who is in your local news team by searching for it on LinkedIn. Then, once you know who the Editors are, you can simply @ them in your post! You could also do the same on Twitter by re-sharing your post and tagging them on there. Remember, fortune (and LinkedIn) favors the bold! That said, you certainly wouldn’t want to make a habit of doing this every week, as it may annoy the editor. So, be sure to only do this with your absolute best articles. So, now you know how to maximise the visibility and reach of your LinkedIn posts. By using these tips, you’ll enhance your chances of catching the eye of a LinkedIn news editor and having your content go gangbusters. Now, you’re ready to start creating and scheduling your viral-worthy LinkedIn content! Out-of-the-box strategies guide 9 growth strategies to skyrocket your Instagram
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