<span style="font: 13.0px Arial;">Leaders should write, not for the sake of writing — but to influence, inform, inspire, and engage a wider audience. Writing often also forces you to maintain clarity in your thinking, and sustain your perspective. </span>

<span style="font: 13.0px Arial;">I’ve been writing on LinkedIn for a few months, with some specific goals:
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<ul>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>Create a wider audience for my thought leadership</b>. The result: After my first popular post, the number of individuals following went from 30 to over 1,000. That is a far greater reach than I get from my agency outreach.</span></li>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>Increase traffic to my web site</b>. The result is approximately a 2% increase in traffic; fourth after Facebook, <a href="http://twitter.com/briansooy" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and Pinterest (really?). There is no correlation from LinkedIn to the </span><span style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #042eee;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">top-visited content article</span></span><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"> on my web site. </span></li>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>Establish credibility. </b>The result: Many new and meaningful connections with professionals within the sectors my design and marketing agency serves; and acceptance by the leadership community, for which I am grateful!</span></li>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>Experiment</b>. From content, to images, to timing—I experiment, document, and learn. The result: the insights I have gained have created conversations, and the opportunity to advise leaders from other organizations, such as </span><span style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #042eee;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">EntreLeadership.com</span></span><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;">.</span></li>
</ul>
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">The top ten things I learned from writing on LinkedIn:</span></strong>
<ol>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>The headline makes a huge difference.</b> Take a look at what other topics are popular, and read <a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/perfect-blog-post-research-data" target="_blank">bufferapp.com’s research-based articles</a> on headlines and content.</span></li>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>Everybody is looking for the secret that will propel them onto the Pulse channel</b>. See point number one, but remember: <em>there is no secret</em>. Just write great content. One article will not make you famous or propel you permanently into the top readership. Strive for a consistent and thoughtful body of work. </span></li>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>Images increase engagement.</b> Stock images make meaningful content less credible. However, in my opinion, stock images all look the same. I only include <a href="http://www.aespire.com/books/raise-your-voice/sharing-resources#inspiring-leadership" target="_blank">design assets that I or my staff create</a>, that support the theme of the article (and that may increase the likelihood of sharing), or images from my <a href="http://instagram.com/briansooy#" target="_blank">Instagram body of work</a>.</span></li>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>There's a difference between writing as content marketing, and writing as thought leadership</b>. The first involves quantity; thought leadership requires insight, originality, and that you take a courageous position. Humor helps too.
</span></li>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>Your best writing will flow from your unique perspective and be written for a specific audience</b>. The best writing will require that the reader agree or disagree with your perspective and insights.</span></li>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>Writing is a dialog. </b>There is a very engaged and articulate community of writers on LinkedIn who are all trying to get the attention of LinkedIn readers. There is also an engaged and thoughtful community of readers on LinkedIn, who are not afraid to tell you exactly what they think, and who are overwhelmingly encouraging. Your experience may vary. (my favorite comment to date is "This is another article in the thrall of the cult of leadership correctness." The article was about communications.)</span></li>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>There does not seem to be a best time to publish</b>, but do remember that the LinkedIn audience is global. Right now it’s tomorrow in another part of the world, and those readers are looking at LinkedIn. </span></li>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>Seek to inform and inspire.</b> The success of an article seems to based on the topic, the content, and the quality of the writing. From my experience, communications topics are of more interest than culture topics.</span></li>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>Make sure your article is ready to publish before you publish it</b>, especially the headline. Share the most meaningful articles into groups to which you belong, and avoid self-promotion.</span></li>
	<li><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;"><b>Readers love lists</b>. </span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font: 13.0px Arial;">To apply for the writing program on LinkedIn, visit </span><span style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #042eee;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">http://specialedition.linkedin.com/publishing/</span></span><span style="font: 13.0px Arial;">.</span>