You may have heard about or seen the recent LinkedIn Publisher changes.
Don't panic.
While the look is different and there are some changes to the usability, with the aid of this guide, you needn't worry about the changes hindering your ability to post your next article.
New LinkedIn Publisher Changes: A Step-By-Step Guide
When you start a new LinkedIn Publisher post, it will look something like this.
As you can see, LinkedIn's aiming to clean up the interface and streamline the look with the rest of the site.
The best place to begin is by adding your cover image. To get the best results, ensure your cover image is 744 x 400 pixels.
To add your image, click the icon at the top of the page with the "+" sign and photos.
You may notice that your image takes up the whole top portion of the screen
When you publish your article, it will look similar to this.
If you have a striking image or have created an image specifically for your post, you'll want to keep it at this size.
If the image is not one you want to highlight, you can click the button at the bottom of the image to make it smaller.
Note that you can remove the image altogether by clicking the trash can symbol.
You can also add an image credit or caption by clicking the Add credit and caption link, located just below the image.
Now you're ready to add your headline. To do this, click Headline and the field will open and you can copy and paste or type it in.
After you add your title, click where it says Write here. Add images or a video for visual impact.
Again, you can write your post or paste the copy from a word document into the space provided.
NOTE: If you're copying and pasting your post into LinkedIn Publisher from Word or Google Docs, you'll want to copy and paste it into a text editor first to remove the formatting. The reason for this is that the formatting can get skewed once you paste it into LinkedIn Publisher.
Once this is done, you'll need to add any multimedia such as images, videos, slides or embeddable items.
To do this, go to where you want to add the multimedia to your post. Click the square with the "+" sign located on the left side of the screen.
This will open a bar across the screen. Click on the appropriate type of multimedia to add it to your post:
- Image
- Video
- Slides
- Embeds
Images
After you have clicked Image, it'll look similar to this.
You can drop your image directly into the box from your computer or click the Upload from computer link to upload the image from a folder on your computer.
The images must be smaller than 10 MB in size and in a JPG, static GIF (nothing animated) or PNG format.
After you load your image, you will NOT be able to adjust the image size (which you used to be able to do).
If your image is larger than 700 pixels wide, it will be resized to fit the 700-pixel width. If you want your image to be smaller than this, you'll have to do this outside of LinkedIn Publisher.
Videos
To add a video to your post, click the add multimedia icon and then Video. This will open up the area to add your video link.
You can add video links to from YouTube, Vine, Vimeo, TED, Getty, aLifestream and other platforms.
Slides
LinkedIn Publisher also allows you to add slide presentations to your posts. Click the add multimedia icon and then Slides.
Add the link to slide platforms such as SlideShare, Prezi, inVision and more to give your posts added value.
Embeddable Rich Content
LinkedIn also allows you to embed a number of other types rich content such as tweets and Instagram images. They don't currently support Facebook posts.
Again, click the multimedia icon and then select Embeds.
NOTE: Make sure you add the link for the content and NOT the embed code. By this I mean you need to get the link for the individual tweet or Instagram image.
To do this on Twitter, click the More icon (the three dots on the right side of the post) and then select Copy link to Tweet.
On Instagram, simply open the individual image you want to use and copy the link from the navigation bar.
Once you have the link, paste it into the available field.
Formatting Your LinkedIn Publisher Post
Format your post using LinkedIn's formatting tools, which are similar to the previous version.
The formatting tools will always remain at the top of the screen, even as you scroll.
These tools include:
- Headings
- Bold
- Italics
- Underline
- Number lists
- Bulleted lists
- Quotes
- Links
To help make your post more easily read, you can add H1 and H2 formatting.
You can also make quotes or other important information standout with the quote tool (").
Add hyperlinks within your post by selecting the text you want to link and clicking the link icon. To edit the link, click the text again and a little box will pop up. Click Edit, to edit the link or the trash icon to delete the link.
In the top right corner of the screen you will see the Save, More and Publish buttons.
Your post will auto save as you work. You will see Saved after it has completed saving your latest changes.
Under More you will find these options:
- Start a new post
- Drafts
- Posts
- Help center
Publishing, Tagging & Promoting Your Post
Once your post is complete, hit the Publish button to publish your post.
This will open a pop up that will allow you to write a status update to promote your post to your network. It also encourages you to create hashtags to help other find it as they have removed the previous tagging system.
Chose two or three relevant hashtags that will help others to find your post when they are searching. Make sure that your tags are relevant to the topic and try not to include too many tags as this can be a turn people off.
This isn't Instagram. Remember, LinkedIn is a professional network.
Once you've finished, hit the Publish button.
LinkedIn will now congratulate you on Publishing your post and encourage you to share it on Facebook and Twitter.
This is important to do as the more views and engagement you get early on, the more relevance and importance LinkedIn will give your post (helping it to be seen by an even wider audience).
When tweeting your post, don't forget to tag @LinkedInPulse.
Wrapping Up
While it may take a couple of times for you to get really comfortable with the new LinkedIn Publisher changes, with the help of this guide, you'll be publishing professional looking posts in no time.
The post Complete Guide to Navigate LinkedIn Publisher Changes appeared first on Top Dog Social Media.