How to Publish an Article on LinkedIn

The easiest way to publish an article (or long-form post) follows:

1. Go to your LinkedIn home page and click the Write an Article button.The button is below the Share an article, photo, video, or idea prompt near the top of the screen.
   Create tags for your post to identify relevant topics.

   The screen shown below appears, with the word Headline.

2. (Optional but highly recommended) Add an image to be associated with your article by clicking the image icons with the + sign.LinkedIn recommends using a 700-by-400-pixel image for optimal viewing. When you click the image icons, LinkedIn opens a window so you can find and upload the image file on your computer. If you change your mind, click the X in the top-right corner.
3. Click Headline and type your post’s headline.Think of a headline that will capture the essence of your post and encourage your target audience to read it.

   Use some appropriate keywords that will be picked up by search engines and the human eye. But save some of your keywords for the body of your post, which you write next.

4. Write your post in the space provided.Click the Write here prompt, and start writing or copy and paste your text. Above the text area, note the series of icons. You can use the formatting buttons (B, I, and U) to format the text.
   Write your post in the space provided.

   You can also add images, videos, presentations, tweets, podcasts, and other kinds of rich media to your post by clicking the Add Multimedia icon.

   Posts can be any length, but if you want your post to be read, don’t make it too long. LinkedIn Editor-in-Chief Daniel Roth wrote a great article for LinkedIn containing seven tips for writing a killer post. Regarding length, he stated that “800–2,000 words was the sweet spot,” but he also added that the demands of your content should dictate the length of your post, not what statistical data shows.

   At the bottom of your post, be sure to write a one- or two-sentence biography, describing who you are, what you are doing, and how you can help other people. The biography can include links to your website, your blog, or even a call-to-action to gather leads.

   Check out LinkedIn's informative slide presentation of tips on publishing a post for more information.

5. When you have finished the article, click the blue Publish button.This window appears. The final step is creating hashtags to assign topics to your post so others can be easily find your post and so that LinkedIn knows where to display it.
   Create tags for your post to identify relevant topics.
6. Click in the text area and write an introduction to the article, as well as the hashtags you want to assign to your article.You can assign more hashtags, but don’t assign so many that they lose any sense of being a valuable identifier for your post.
7. Review your article.In the bottom part of the window, you’ll see a preview of how your article appears to other LinkedIn users. Make sure everything reads exactly as you want. If you want to make changes, click the X in the top right to return to the article screen, where you can continue to edit the article.
8. When you’re ready to publish your post, click the blue Publish button in the window.

If you can’t complete your post in one sitting, don’t worry. LinkedIn saves your work as you type so you can come back to it at a later time. (You’ll occasionally see a Saved message in the top-right corner of the screen.) Simply click the More button, next to Publish, to view options to open saved articles and drafts.