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These days we can get our daily news through a multitude of resources from across the web.
But LinkedIn Today is the new player in town for the professional community. Plus, it's a great resource for putting your daily news in the context of your professional social network.
As LinkedIn describes it, LinkedIn Today allows you to discover what the world's professionals are reading, sharing AND tweeting. Bottom line, it's a professional social news source that you can utilize to grow your social influence.
The Top News From Your Industry Curated by the People
The power of LinkedIn Today is that the top articles are showcased based on how often they've been shared by the professionals within a variety of industries. There's no editor. These articles are curated by LinkedIn members!
Not only will LinkedIn Today show you the top headlines that LinkedIn members are interested in by industry or news source, you can also see what some of those members have to say about the articles when they include comments. (I would highly recommend including your own comments on EVERYTHING you share.)
For each headline that appears, you can see how many times the article has been shared, and you can even filter the most recent shares by company, industry or location. It's important to note that currently LinkedIn will only show you the most recent shares and this is updated frequently.
How does LinkedIn determine which articles get visibility on LinkedIn Today?
What makes LinkedIn Today so powerful is that the news articles displayed are those that have been shared, liked or commented on the most by LinkedIn members. Articles are sorted by industry and news source, based on the industry assigned to profiles of those who have shared them.
Most importantly, LinkedIn will give a higher preference to more recent articles if they're being shared quickly by a broad base of members. LinkedIn Today will also show you top industry articles from StumbleUpon and even articles that your direct LinkedIn connections have shared.
3 Steps for Using LinkedIn Today to Build Influence
There are many ways to build social relationships with your LinkedIn connections. One of the best ways to grow your social influence is to consistently curate and share timely, relevant content with your connections so you stay visible and valuable.
Remember, with all of the content now available online, people are overloaded with information but they're thirsting for knowledge. Position yourself as someone who is “in the know” within the context of your industry to become an influencer.
#1: Customize LinkedIn Today
The first action to take with LinkedIn Today is to customize and organize your news page to show you the most relevant articles based on your industry, interests and sources. LinkedIn Today allows you to follow categories of news that you and your connections care about most.
I recommend you follow your industry, related industries and any and all sources that can help you grow your reputation as an influencer. For example, my industry is financial services and this is my target market. However, the content I specialize in is marketing and social media. It makes sense for me to follow industries and sources related to both so that I can provide a blend of relevant content to my audience.
Furthermore, I love a good story from NPR and I also believe that the Harvard Business Review provides some excellent leadership content, so I follow these sources as well and share appropriate content with my network. The point is to mix it up and create a blend of valuable sources that can help you stay visible and valuable in your niche markets.
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FIND YOUR NEXT FAVORITE TOOL#2: Scan your LinkedIn Today headlines daily
I love the fact that LinkedIn provides you with the option to receive daily email updates from LinkedIn Today. Let's face it, with a weekly news digest you can certainly keep tabs on what's happened in your industry, but that news will get old fast. If you want to be an influencer, you'll need to get daily updates so you can quickly scan and identify the most interesting and relevant news and content to share with your connections in a timely fashion.
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Update your email setting to receive daily email updates from LinkedIn Today. In addition, I would recommend visiting LinkedIn Today a few times daily for news and updates that you may have missed. It's really a one-stop shop for news that matters to your professional social network!
#3: Share relevant articles from LinkedIn Today
It's one thing to share a link to content with your social connections, but sharing alone will not help you grow your influence. You must consistently share AND comment in order to expand your visibility and engage your connections.
For each article that appears on LinkedIn Today, you'll see a small people icon with a number next to it (see below). This indicates how many people have shared that particular article on LinkedIn and Twitter. If you click on the icon, a window will appear showing the profile pictures of who most recently shared the article from LinkedIn or Twitter and what their comments were, if any.
Whether an article has been shared by many or few, if it can be valuable and relevant to your network, go ahead and share it and always remember to include your own comments. Anything that you share will show up in your social streams, and also any of the LinkedIn Groups you decide to share the article with. Sharing high-quality content and commentary with your LinkedIn Groups is a great way to start a new discussion and add value!
Currently there's no way to reply to comments or retweet links directly from the most recent shares. This would be a nice feature that could increase engagement, in particular with those people who may be in your industry but not connected to you.
If you're connected to a member, you'll be able to click through to his or her profile and reply or comment directly on what was shared. You can also view the profiles of people who have recently shared an article in your industry and determine if you have any common connections!
If you share AND comment on articles from LinkedIn Today with your LinkedIn connections, Groups and Twitter network, you have a tremendous opportunity to be consistently visible and valuable to your network. Yes, LinkedIn has done a lot of the heavy lifting by curating headlines for you, but you can take this to the next level by curating further for your own network! Add your layer of professionalism and insight in order to grow your social influence.
Because LinkedIn Today is updated very frequently, it's a curation tool that also provides you with a high-quality resource to leverage for consistent visibility. If you want to stay relevant to your target markets, you must be consistently visible! If you're frequently sharing interesting articles and news from your industry, you'll build influence. In addition, you might also gain further exposure by showing up on the actual LinkedIn Today page!
LinkedIn Today will continue to expand as more industries are added, and as more professionals begin to utilize the site as a social news resource. This is one of the many LinkedIn tools that have been developed to help you become more connected with the other professionals in your industry and beyond.
You can use LinkedIn Today to help you grow your visibility with a conscious daily effort. To learn more about LinkedIn Today, I would recommend going through the overview provided by the LinkedIn Today team.
Personally I've made LinkedIn Today one of my first stops in the morning to see what news has surfaced in the industries and from the sources that I care about, and that my followers care about.
What do you think about LinkedIn Today? What tips can you share? Leave your comments in the box below.
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