On February 19th LinkedIn, the Internet’s premier professional social network launched a new feature. It expanded the number of select users who could publish blog-style content on the LinkedIn platform. Up until that time LinkedIn’s publishing platform was only open to an exclusive network of around 500 “Influencers” worldwide. Authorities like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Jack Welch, Arianna Huffington, Gretchen Rubin, Deepak Chopra and even Barack Obama to name a few.
Eventually LinkedIn plans on making this feature available to all its members, but initially hand-selected only 30,000 of LinkedIn’s 277 million members to receive this privilege. Austin Texas based marketing expert and best-selling business author Clint Evans was one those select few.
Evans has posted some well-received articles on the platform including one titled, “Going Against the Grain – 3 Contrarian Ways to Magnify Your Business’ Sales”. That caught my attention so I arranged to get on the phone with him, talk about the platform and ask to share his opinions on why small business owners and other entrepreneurs should be paying attention.
“The reason this particular platform is so powerful is because it provides a channel for professionals to directly share information they have created in an environment where you have a huge audience that truly cares about what other professionals are saying,” says Evans.
He adds, “By providing quality content that educates and delivers true value in this type of forum you will begin to stand out as an ‘authority among authorities’. The reality is that it has never been more important to find a way to differentiate yourself from what I call the other ‘me too’ service and product providers.”
Evans is not alone in seeing the potential business power the new platform provides and one of the hot topics since the release of LinkedIn’s new program is, “How can I get invited to be a LinkedIn publisher?” I asked him what he thought were the key differentiators that resulted in getting his invite and if he had any suggestions to others to achieve LinkedIn Publisher status.
This is what he had to say: “First off, I know LinkedIn does have a page that very few people know about where users can apply to become a Publisher. It is http://specialedition.linkedin.com/publishing/. I also know that the approval process is 100% human review; so before applying I recommend that people make sure their LinkedIn profiles are complete, they have a professional profile image, and they have at least two solid examples of content they have published elsewhere on the Internet. I also suggest that they start posting updates on LinkedIn at least a couple times a week that provide value to the readership there. I believe those are the key things a person can do to increase chances of getting accepted.”
To find out more about Clint Evans and read his articles visit his profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/theclintevans or http://clintevans.com/.