
Aside from checking out your wellness clinic website and blog, prospective clients will also likely look up you and your practitioners on LinkedIn.
Though they may be on LinkedIn for business and career purposes, people still bring their whole selves, including their health concerns and personal goals like choosing a wellness practitioner.
Whether you’re already publishing LinkedIn blog posts or just wondering how it all works, here are five costly mistakes you’ll want to avoid:
1. Mistaking posts for updates
Most LinkedIn users are familiar with posting updates, which are similar to tweets or Facebook posts.
Then there are LinkedIn blog posts, also known as long-form posts or LinkedIn Publisher.
Updates move lower on the page as newer messages appear. That means your connections may or may not see each update, unless they click on the “View recent activity” link available from the top of your profile.
A post, on the other hand, becomes a permanent entry in your LinkedIn blog, which has a prominent home at the top of your profile. Viewers see your three most recent posts, and a link to your full LinkedIn blog.
How this will cost you: Mistaking posts for updates can look unprofessional. It also wastes the opportunity to use your LinkedIn blog as a platform to spotlight your knowledge and show people why they can trust you and your services.
2. Stopping posting, once you start
As soon as you publish your first LinkedIn post, these will always remain at the top of your profile. While you can hide or remove dates from your own blog (though I don’t recommend it), you cannot do this with your LinkedIn blog.
How this will cost you: A long gap between blog posts can make people wonder if you ran out of things to say, or if you gave up on your blogging or even your business. When I stopped posting to LinkedIn for awhile last year, I cringed every time I reviewed my own profile!
3. Forgetting to proofread
The mind plays tricks on us when we’re reading our own work. We see what we meant to type, rather than what we actually typed.
We can also be far too focused on ourselves and how smart we sound, instead of on helping our readers understand the information.
Always assume a blog post will be a reader’s first impression of you. Read the post out loud and notice whether it sounds natural, like what you would say in a conversation. Listen for missing words, duplicates, or awkward sentences.
How this will cost you: No one is perfect and the occasional typo or spelling error happens, but sloppy writing looks unprofessional and will undermine your credibility and authority.
4. Writing about anything and everything
Your LinkedIn blogging plan should include a core set of topics you will write about. These topics should be aligned with both your ideal clients’ needs and questions, and your own areas of expertise.
How this will cost you: If your LinkedIn blog includes several unrelated topics, it works against the goal of establishing yourself as a go-to expert for a specific health issue.
5. Trying to crack the code
LinkedIn Pulse is the official network of channels where LinkedIn compiles its best content into topic areas like healthcare, human resources, careers, and social media. If your post is selected, it will be seen by a much wider audience than just your own network of connections.
For example, I was thrilled when my recent post “How to Write a Curated Post For Your Wellness Blog” was picked up by the Healthcare channel. So why wasn’t the one about blogging to keep readers healthy?
I’m not sure, but let’s not spend time worrying about that. Let’s focus on writing quality posts about topics our audience cares about.
How this will cost you: If you’re too concerned about getting your post featured on LinkedIn Pulse, you may paralyze your writing process by second-guessing yourself. And while other people’s successful posts can be inspiring, if you try to copy someone else you’ll fail to attract clients who resonate with your unique viewpoint and approach.
Does all this mean you have to write double the blog posts?
Absolutely not! Instead, let your blog posts do double duty by posting them on your clinic blog as well as your LinkedIn blog.
While experts have proven that there is absolutely no “duplicate content” penalty for reusing your blog posts on LinkedIn, Denise Wakeman recommends you do tweak them slightly. She suggests writing a new title, using a different photo, or targeting a slightly different audience.
Blogging on LinkedIn can help new people discover you, your services, and your wellness clinic. Avoid these costly mistakes and enjoy the rewards of sharing your knowledge online.
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