Gain Visibility with LinkedIn Today: What Your Company Needs to Know

While most social networks stick to connecting friends to friends and businesses to individuals,LinkedIn took it a step further in March, 2011. LinkedIn Today was launched just this past year and quickly grew in popularity. However, the buzz seemed to die as networks like Google+ and the “mobile takeover” grabbed the attention of bloggers. LinkedIn Today still has a large number of loyal followers, but those who missed the boat back in March are likely still lost at sea.

For those who are unfamiliar, LinkedIn Today is a service that brings together news that it thinks you will like based on your contacts, previous work experience, and industries that you may follow. The feature pulls different news stories from across the web from major publications like the Chicago Tribune to Internet moguls like Mashable to smaller blogs such as Skyje. Not only will it pull stories it thinks will be interesting for a specific user, but it will even pull articles that talk about a specific industry or topic.

Benefits of LinkedIn Today

This feature is perfect for someone looking to further their knowledge and their career. Consider some of the benefits of this new way to view the news:

• Users can stay up to date on the most recent news in their industry. Whether they’re looking for a job or trying to climb the corporate ladder, knowing the latest news stories will help put them ahead.
• Not only can users see what is going on in their industry, but they will be able to follow what other experts and other industries are saying about a particular topic or news story. LinkedIn pulls these counter-type articles to help give users a full understanding.
• LinkedIn Today allows users to avoid the constant searching for news. It can be a hassle searching for all of the different news sources each day and then having to search for articles that may actually interest you. LinkedIn today will do all the work for you with an easy to understand format.

LinkedIn is really the only social media network that would be able to pull something like this off because it is considered the professional network. With LinkedIn Today, the website has truly figured out a way to help users become a well-rounded employee and knowledgeable professional. This makes the service extremely appealing, and if you still haven’t given it a try, the New Year is the perfect time.

How LinkedIn Today Works

From an admin viewpoint, you will see that the most popular articles are put to the top. Your company gets its articles to the top of the LinkedIn Today list based on popularity that is measured through a voting algorithm. Every time someone on the web “shares” an article on their LinkedIn profile, that article gets one vote. There are two ways users can share an article:

1. LinkedIn Share Button: There is always a number next to the LinkedIn share button that a user sees on a website. The picture on the right shows an example of the button users can use to share an article on LinkedIn.
2. LinkedIn Update: When a user signs into LinkedIn there is a box that says “share an update.” All a user has to do is copy and paste the article where it says “attach a link,” click “attach” and then click “share.” This article will then show up at the bottom of the LinkedIn page for all the person’s connections to see. The box is shown below:

Many companies see these LinkedIn share buttons and think that it is great publicity because more people showed it to all of their connections. While this is of course true, many are unaware that this also means the article will be noticed by LinkedIn Today, which will ultimately lead to a huge amount of exposure.

How Your Company Can Take Advantage

Chances are your company is already doing everything it can to get a piece of content up to the top of a Google search engine results page. This is a matter of standard SEO and will certainly help an article gain popularity with Google and the rest of the world. However, there are certain things a company should be doing to specifically help get an article noticed by LinkedIn:

• Make sure you have a LinkedIn sharing button on your website. You can do this easily through WordPress. See the WordPress Directory for a step by step guide to getting started.
• Share an update on your LinkedIn profile. You do not have to necessary always share your own articles, but get comfortable with the process. This will hopefully get others to share your content in return.
• Link your Twitter to your LinkedIn account. This way any user who tweets your article will also count as a “share” on LinkedIn.

More and more people will soon begin to realize that LinkedIn Today is a great service. Whether you’re an individual looking for something new or a business hoping to gain exposure, LinkedIn Today is the answer in 2012.

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to small business loans. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including employee background checks to small businesses and entrepreneurs for the leading business directory, Business.com.