Why Publishing on Your own Career Blog is Better than Linkedin

Linkedin's blog just published the article below and infographic touting why you should publish on Linkedin. Here is why you should not limit your content sharing to Linkedin and why having your own blog/website is an idea whose time is way overdue.  In fact, Linkedin is not the "best" place to publish, it is one of many good choices and some are better. Here's why:

1. Data is misleading because a person's Linkedin posts are announced to their direct connections when posted. Connected to 234 people?  They are the ones alerted to your posting despite the impressive percentages in the Linkedin's infographic below. 
2. A career blog under your first and last name URL (like mine, see above) will rise to the top of  a name search on Google thanks to its algorithm setup. 
3. Anybody can see your blog with no restrictions to access by degrees of separation or login.
4. Having your own blog enables topic and content control. Blog tags and categories curate your content to make it accessible by search and coherent by topic.  
5. Linkedin posts are listed in order by date generating randomly accessed unorganized topics with no search capability.
6. Over the years curated content in your career blog becomes an essential compendium of your thought leadership and business philosophy.
7. You own the content on your own blog (by the way, it is a good idea to download all your connections and content from Linkedin quarterly).
8. It is far easier to email someone a link to your career blog than your Linkedin post because nobody has to log into your site. 

Bottom line, this is not an either or proposition but a prioritization. Your career blog presents you to the world with searchable topics, and a customized the look to fit your brand. You can always put a link on your blog to Linkedin.  

Why Linkedin is the Best Place to Publish

You have s,omething to say, but finding the right platform for your content is as important as what you have to say. If you’re a professional with a valuable perspective to share, you have to find the audience it will resonate with – the audience you can invite along for the ride. It’s that perspective that makes you unique – and that ability to spark conversation among your peers that can take you far. Just as you bring it to the table each day to work for your company, your platform can and should be working for you.

We know there are plenty of places to share your thoughts on everything from top food destinations around the world to top tips for getting the best manicure– but for content for that is relevant to professionals, LinkedIn is the only platform where the audience you want to reach is waiting for you, and wants professional content. Other sites have content in search of an audience but LinkedIn has an audience in search of content (in fact, more than 360 million professionals worldwide), and with it, you have the ability to speak directly to the people you want to reach.

What does that mean for you? It means that publishing on LinkedIn can have a direct impact on you as a professional, like those experienced by Janet Matta, who landed her dream job in a new country thanks to a series of events that started with a post on salary negotiation , or Robbie Abed, who met his professional idol and mentor following a wildly crazy post he did on LinkedIn about how he took 250 coffee meetings in 400 days.

You have the opportunity to reach other professionals from around the world – senior leaders, potential clients, employers, partners, mentors and more – the people that can impact your bottom line or have an impact on your career. The audience is here, and they are looking for the content, the thought leaders, the tips to help them grow in their careers — you as the writer, can be that expert. In fact, on average, posts on LinkedIn see 6x the views from people outside of your immediate network. That can translate to huge opportunity. Here’s how:

But it doesn’t stop there–you can also see what impact you’re having. Once you’ve published on LinkedIn, check out your post analytics to see who read, shared, or commented on your post, plus important insights on the industries and regions your readers come from, their level of seniority, and how they found you. Leverage those insights to help tailor your message, share it with your network, and let the power of LinkedIn and your network get your content in front of the people that actually matter to you most.

Share your perspective, build your professional brand, and let your voice be heard – most importantly, make sure it’s being heard by the professionals that matter to you.
 
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