As a trainer, speaker, coach or consultant, credibility is one of the most important things you seek. Establishing credibility opens other doors, including the direct effect it has on growing your business or practice. Publishing LinkedIn posts is an organic way to achieve this. Additionally, publishing LinkedIn posts:

• Establishes you as a thought leader. Your authoritative view on matters concerning a particular subject area makes you an automatic influencer
• Helps you engage with your connections. Some of them may be clients, others may be peers. Increased engagement naturally results in your great pieces being shared to others – which means you are building your personal brand and perhaps gaining new clients in the process
• Helps you brainstorm with peers. We don’t always have to agree with intellectual tradition, and when this happens, one can counter or critic. Publishing LinkedIn posts allow you to navigate areas of your profession without resulting to publishing entire papers. Your peers can then brainstorm with you and it encourages idea-sharing

This guide is a general overview: how to go about publishing your first LinkedIn post.

Remember, any professional can and should publish posts on LinkedIn. As long as one can think and has an opinion, it is possible. When it comes to Coaches and Consultants, however, it is paramount. Here’s how you can get started.

Publishing LinkedIn Posts as a Coach or Consultant

Step 1: What Is Your Goal?

What do you want to achieve with your LinkedIn posts? This is important because, without a clear answer to this question, you are bound to write and publish posts about anything and everything.

What is your vision for the posts? If as a Life Coach, your vision is to cover every area within Life Coaching, skip to Step 2. However, clarity in your vision and clarity in your direction can prove to bear more results.

To establish your SMART goal, there are a few questions you may want to ask yourself. Get a piece of paper and jot these down as you go along. Be as clear and as direct as possible.

Q. What niche areas of my business/practice do I want to focus on? ………………………….
Q. What topics do I want to cover? ………………………….
Q. What is my target audience? …………………………

Here is an example of an answer to the above questions, from a HR Consultant.

Q. What niche areas of my business/practice do I want to focus on?
A. I want to focus on Job Evaluation and Organizational Review.

Q. What topics do I want to cover?
A. I will cover topics such as job grading, job classification, and job simplification. I will also talk about achieving organizational objectives.

Q. What is my target audience?
A. My target audience is anyone in recruiting who wants to understand more about their role.

Setting up a clear outline allows you to write more authoritatively because you have a clear understanding of who you are writing for. Ideally, the niche you choose to focus on should be one you are passionate about – even if it outside of your career or profession.

With that mind, think about what you would like to be known for. When your peers mention you, you would want to be addressed as “Consultant Catherine, the Job Evaluation Guru”. That’s the dream. And it can be achieved through publishing LinkedIn posts.

Step 2: Write

Jump straight into it. You have your direction laid out, all you need to do is get started.

Here you ought to think of a few things.

How long do you want your posts to be? There is no set rule or word limit, but if you are going to write up only 100 words, you might as well post a LinkedIn update.

When it comes to publishing LinkedIn posts, make it sizeable. A post that has enough information to nourish your readers. Think about syntax, how your ideas flow, and how relevant the ideas are.

Do not compromise on quality. When you think about the quality of the post, the devil is in the details. Grammatical errors should be NON-EXISTENT in your posts. Remember, your LinkedIn posts contribute to your personal brand. They are one of the most direct reflections of you as a Coach or Consultant. If you want to be known as an expert, write up expert think pieces.

Again, clarity in your writing should be one of the strongest traits of your posts. It is better to be too simple than too complicated. It is better to cover one topic on eating healthy as clearly and articulately as possible than to jumble up a whole myriad of health, fitness and wellness topics that do not connect.

Now you can get to writing!

Book a time every day on your calendar to write. An hour is enough. As is with anything, practice makes perfect. Soon you’ll be typing out masterpieces that will help you achieve the vision for your LinkedIn posts. Read as much as you can on the topics you cover and provide your readers with links to great articles that complement your pieces.

Step 3: Make it compelling

Your subject matter should already be compelling. But to make a great post even better, lure your readers with how visually attractive it is.

Use hi-res images in your posts. Some recommended image repositories for hi-res photos that do not require attribution are:

• Pixabay
• Free range stock 
• StockSnap
• Life of Pix
• Pictography
• Pickup Image

Moreover, your headline has to be compelling enough to make it easy for readers to want to read your posts. This also helps in creating a loyal following.

For ways to make your post titles more compelling, read this article.

Another way you can make your posts more compelling is to add a subtle Call-To-Action. Be careful though! Do not use your LinkedIn posts to solely promote your business or practice. Look to add value first. If your readers value you, they will be compelled enough to find you. The subtle CTA should allude to your services but you should not touch too much upon them. Also recommend to them other people or companies who would be of benefit to them.

Step 4: Promote your post

Promoting your LinkedIn post is an integral part in getting yourself noticed. Once you hit ‘Publish’, you can now think of ways to get it across the widest possible audience. The great thing about LinkedIn is that a compelling post on its own can organically spread and go viral on the internet. It might even be featured on LinkedIn Pulse.

Ways you can promote your post on LinkedIn is to:

• Feature ads on the post
• Post the link to the relevant LinkedIn groups you are a member of
• Post the link on your update and ask your connections to read and share

Always ask your connections to like, share and comment. This is the best CTA in and of itself.

Outside of LinkedIn, you can:

• Post the link to your Facebook, Twitter, G+ etc. profiles
• Promote it on your newsletter and ask your subscribers to share and let you know what they think.

If you have a segmented subscriber list, even better. Targeting your posts specifically to the audience they are intended for has a higher open rate and click rate.

Would you like more information on publishing LinkedIn posts, blog posts etc.? We help Coaches and Consultants use methods like these to grow their businesses and practices. Talk to us today and we’ll show you what you can do for yours.