One of the first tasks for authors, especially self-published ones wanting to promote their brand online, is to establish one’s legitimacy and reputation. ReadersMagnet takes a look at how a LinkedIn account can serve as a valuable tool, not only for building your brand but also for increasing online presence and web traffic.
LinkedIn and How It Works
LinkedIn is a social media platform that is designed for professionals. Its main focus is allowing its users to build their professional portfolio. Most of its users are also young professionals hoping to seek jobs or build their professional careers. Users also include corporations and agents looking for skilled candidates who might be interested in working for them. Aside from this feature, LinkedIn works pretty much the same as other social media sites. You can share content, create networks, and of course interact with other members of the LinkedIn community. And the most important thing an author should remember- you can advertise on LinkedIn as well.
Building Your LinkedIn Profile
Because LinkedIn is designed for professionals and corporate individuals, it makes perfect sense to have a sharp, smart profile. You must decide early on who your target audiences are and set the goals for your LinkedIn account. This way you can design your profile and ensure its details before launching.
Fresh Content. This is something that every author on LinkedIn should invest in. Providing relevant articles to your audience helps build your credibility and reputation as a serious writer. It can be an article about our published works, a review, or an opinion or commentary about an issue that is somehow related to your own body of works.
Links and Info. Whether it’s content for your website or articles for your blog and social media, external and internal links should be present. For LinkedIn content, it is important that the articles you share will link to your website and other relevant pages. Creating backlinks is one way to increase web traffic to your website as well as promote your other platforms and pages. Overall, they complement in helping your site rank higher in search engine rankings.
Keywords. They are the key elements not only in your articles but in your account as a whole. Keywords play a significant role of driving visitors to your website and to your social media platforms. In some ways, they also represent you and your brand. Keywords can be short-tailed or long phrases that are relevant to your book and your brand.
LinkedIn and Author Benefits
Just like other social media platforms, LinkedIn is a multiplier. It increases your online visibility as well as boosts your reputation. Let us examine in detail how LinkedIn profiles benefit authors and the author’s overall book marketing campaign.
LinkedIn and SEO. What makes LinkedIn unique from other social media accounts is that LinkedIn gives you “Google points” for the sites (preferably your own author website and other platforms) you link to from LinkedIn. LinkedIn is also well positioned on Google itself. In fact, LinkedIn profiles usually rank number 3 on Google results. This is also true for links to your LinkedIn page. Having said that, a LinkedIn profile is essential especially if you share names with other individuals or brands. Being on LinkedIn truly helps in boosting your search engine ranking.
LinkedIn and ORM. Recently, companies are investing a lot in online reputation management (ORM). It should be the same for authors. Good thing, you can build your reputation if you maximize your website and other digital platforms. LinkedIn is a great opportunity to establish your credibility. Because LinkedIn is a pretty established institution, anything you do related to your LinkedIn profile, such as answering questions, backlinking, and promoting your LinkedIn profile in your site and social media, cements your online reputation. To put it simply, LinkedIn can help increase web traffic for authors.
LinkedIn Network. Just like any of your social media platforms, LinkedIn can serve as a vast network for you to maximize. With LinkedIn, you can connect with professionals and individuals who can contribute to your book promotion. There are also groups and communities that share the same interests as yours. Many of the established names- agents, book retailers, and editors are on LinkedIn and they are just a few clicks away. The possibilities are almost endless when you are in LinkedIn, if you can maximize these opportunities.
LinkedIn is just one among many social media platforms that every author should maximize if he hopes to achieve significant gains as far as book marketing and increasing web traffic are concerned.
ReadersMagnet firmly believes in the power of LinkedIn and social media in helping authors succeed. That is ReadersMagnet offers social media advertisement and web traffic optimization as part of its publishing and marketing services.