Research shows that internet users are increasingly turning not only to Google and search engines, but also to social media sites for news and information. And you've heard us say before that it's beneficial to let go of your content by publishing it in multiple places. After all, the more places you share content, the more eyes will see it.
That's why we're excited about LinkedIn's new news-sharing features,
announced yesterday
. Here's a quick, 47-second overview of the enhanced features.
8 Enhancements to LinkedIn's Sharing Feature:
- The ability to specify who will see your updates (everyone vs. only your connections or just specific people, groups, etc.)
- A customizable, sexier preview of the content you're sharing (via images, article excerpts, etc.)
- The ability to preview, edit or delete content you're sharing
- A re-share feature that allows you to easily share content posted by someone else (think of it as a retweet on Twitter )
- Ease of off-site sharing for articles you find shared on LinkedIn
- Availability of shortened lnkd.in URLs for simple sharing
- Attribution to the original link-sharer for content you re-share to your network
- The ability to keep your LinkedIn profile fresh and updated by making the items you share public
Why Marketers Should Be Excited
It seems like LinkedIn modeled its new enhancements a little bit after Facebook and a little bit after Twitter, and we're definitely fans. We can speculate that allowing users to make the content they share on LinkedIn appear even sexier will increase the chances that people who come across that content will A) read and B) share the content themselves.
Although the chances that a person will spread your content largely depend on the quality of the content itself, it's also important that the content first catches their attention. Therefore, make sure it has a compelling and attention-grabbing title as well as an aesthetically pleasing image . And now that you have the ability to edit the excerpt that describes the content you're sharing, use the opportunity to write a description that people won't be able to pass up. These details will help draw your reader to the content in the first place.
What do you think of LinkedIn's new sharing enhancements? Will you use the channel to share content more now that LinkedIn has implemented increased functionality?
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Dale Berkebile 1:13 PM on April 22, 2010
I think this is great! I love the idea of making my LinkedIn account more active. This is one area that people miss when it comes to social media, they just don't interact, become social and actually network on these sites. Of course anyone reading this site probably is doing all this stuff, but the business community as a whole has not figured this stuff out yet.
I know before using hubspot I only set up a profile page and waited for all the calls to start coming in. In the 4 years I had the profile and made very few changes to it over that time I had near no interaction. Now after using Hubspot and being more aggressive with social media, I have a lot more activity and much more networking. I have several people wanting to be added to my contact list and this is all because of the activity and networking. I have set myself up as a leader in my industry and you can too. It is easy get active online and start using this new feature on LinkedIn!
Feel free to look me up on LinkedIn as well.
Good luck all!
Merryl Rosenthal 12:39 AM on April 23, 2010
This latest LinkedIn feature is great. Now all we need are a few more hours in the day to read all the content being shared...
Cheers. :)
Roger Silen 3:09 AM on April 23, 2010
Interesting... I have not been very active on LinkedIn at all since signing up for an account over a year ago.. this post gives me more incentive to get back in there and snoop around and maybe more actively use it for my social media activity. Thanks for the insight!