The differences between LinkedIn Posts and Articles confuses many people and LinkedIn has not helped matters much. Over the years, LinkedIn has used terms such as “publish a post,” “Pulse,” “start a post,” or “publish an article” when trying to add content to your LinkedIn site. Sometimes they are referring to the same thing; other times, they mean two entirely different things.
So, let’s try and clear things up.
What are LinkedIn Posts?
View Posts as the default way to enter comments, small articles, videos, or infographics on LinkedIn. To access this section of the site, you should see words and terms such as “share a post, start a post, photo, video, or idea,” as soon as you go to your page on LinkedIn. It will be located in the center of the site at the top. However, as to the terms used, keep in mind what we just mentioned. LinkedIn has a knack of changing terms and wording unexpectedly, but it should have one of these terms listed.
Once the commentary has been added to the site, you will have privacy settings. This will include options to make the post Public, Public + Twitter, or only for your connections on LinkedIn. Whatever your selection, as soon as you click “Post,” the commentary will be seen immediately on your feed.
It seems like this would be a powerful way to get your message out to millions of people and do so instantly.
Unfortunately, it’s not. A very limited number of people are likely to see it. The numbers are based on how many connections and followers you have, whether they share the content or the hashtags associated with the commentary, or visit your LinkedIn page looking for more information about you and your company.
What are LinkedIn Articles?
To write an Article on LinkedIn, you must click on the “Write an article” icon. But wait? Can’t find this icon? It’s not always there.
If you do not see it, click on the menu option, “Home.” Now, in the center of the site and at the top, you should see two options:
- Start a post (or something similar)
- Write an Article.
LinkedIn should refer to writing an Article as “publishing an Article” because it does offer several publishing techniques. For instance, you can add a large image at the top of your Article. With Posts, the images are typically smaller. You can also add a large headline, quotes to highlight sentences or paragraphs within the Article, insert media, add slides, links, and snippets. These options are not available with Posts or, if they are, they do not provide the functionality and impact possible in an Article.
But here is the key differentiator. Posts are added to LinkedIn very quickly but get buried under the deluge of new posts within minutes. Depending on how much time and effort you have placed into hashtags, keywords, or ALT text, they can be lost forever except on the Activity section on your LinkedIn page. However, at this time, they can be delivered directly to connections.
Articles, on the other hand, tend to hang around a bit longer. They are shared with your connections and followers and posted in their news feeds. They can be added to Twitter. In additions, Articles are searchable, on and off LinkedIn, making them very powerful. Further, they are visible as part of your public profile, which, once again, gives them power. They can also be posted to your groups. Note that you’ll need to exercise a bit of patience to attain this extended reach, as Articles may not show up as quickly as Posts in your Activities list.
As effective as they can be, there is one caveat we should be aware of. Only add one article per week. Because your network may be notified every time an article is published, too many Articles published in too short a time can bother some connections, which we certainly do not want to do.
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