LinkedIn is officially rolling out stories in the US, and now with the + button on the top of your profile and may be wondering what the possibilities are to boost your thought leadership? Publishing the right content in your stories as well as in your groups can attract potential leads and increase your credibility and expertise if you create a strategy. LinkedIn Stories is a quick and relatively easy way to increase your visibility, share your opinion on breaking news, workday experiences, and teaching and sharing new insights to a sea of 260 million monthly active users. 

Let’s explore some simple ways….

1. Know your audience and your industry. Stories will be a powerful tool for humanizing the words that are on your profile, so share information they can use. Are there big changes coming to your industry or new laws affecting your industry? Explain those changes in lay terms in a short 20 second story or a series of stories. Do you know what problems plague them? Offer daily action steps to help solve those problems.

2. Give people a behind-the-scenes look into your business and what it’s like to work with you. This topic lends itself to a fun video series where you can address exactly what you do and who your ideal clients are. Don’t be afraid to clearly identify your ideal clients and let them qualify themselves to work with you. The worst thing is to sign on with someone who can’t afford your prices or who won’t do the work necessary.

3. Ask questions and provide insight. Are there misconceptions about your industry or what you do? Clear these up in a simple Q&A or AMA (ask me anything) stories. Create a whole Q&A series with the questions you receive online as well as via your personal page on LinkedIn or your help desk.Whenyou ask questions you may also discover a new pain point which you can then discuss or create a new product to address it.

4. Include photos for more engagement and interest. You can post video or stories, mix it up, have some fun and use them both. Use your own personal phots, Purchase photos legally from stock photos houses or use Unsplash.comfor completely free photos. Never copy/paste from Google Images; that’s copyright infringement. Use multimedia to promote your product, showcase behind the scenes of that you are working on, get creative and add value. 

5. Include a call to action on all your stories. What should your viewers do next: Is there an action you want them to take to kickstart their morning, or join your email list? Call you for a consult? Meet you at a local or virtual networking zoom session? Gently guide your stories viewers to the next step in your sales funnel. Relate the Call to Action to the topic of the post.

6. Use keyword phrases wisely on your profile. Start by thinking about how your target audience would search for you. What are they looking for exactly? How do you want to be known? Use those keyword phrases throughout your profile and in your stories content where the LinkedIn search bots look, such as the Headline and Summary of your profile and stories as well as the Experience and Skills sections. 

While I’m sure as stories continues to role out, it will be used in a number of ways, strive to make this new tool on LinkedIn, a unique to LinkedIn experience. Don’t just republish your IG, FB or Tiktok’s to LinkedIn. The community, audience and overall experience for stories will be different. When in doubt about what to publish, consider outsourcing the content strategy to an experienced freelancer. They can help brainstorm ideas and help fill in your editorial calendar rather quickly as well as prepare your content so all you need to do is approve it and publish. Extend your knowledge and expertise to your audience with your stories content. 

How do you think you will be able to use LinkedIn Stories to share content and foster stronger relationships?