BY RICHARD STONE

LinkedIn has recently rolled out the ability for users to publish content in the form of newsletters, which other people can subscribe to. At the moment, this is only available on personal profiles, and not company pages, but I’d expect this to change soon. LinkedIn’s ad revenue is driven by corporate profiles, not individual users, so its functionality will, understandably, follow the money.

At first glance, a LinkedIn newsletter doesn’t look that much different to the list of articles you are used to seeing on someone’s page when you visit. Furthermore, anything you post in your newsletter will also show up on your profile in the normal way. So, what’s the big deal? Is this just another social media marketing fad?

Well, other LinkedIn users can subscribe to your newsletter, which means they will be notified when you publish something new. They will receive notifications on LinkedIn as well as emails telling them you’ve released a new piece of content.

Furthermore, when you first publish your newsletter, LinkedIn will automatically notify your connections and followers, inviting them to subscribe.

There were probably people asking what the big deal was when Carolus published the first edition of The Relation of Strasbourg back in the early 1600s. While LinkedIn’s newsletter function won’t be as significant as the world’s first newspaper, it will mean more interaction, more likes, more shares and, ultimately, more business. In fact, it could be the killer app for scaling thought leadership on LinkedIn.

WHAT DOES A LINKEDIN NEWSLETTER LOOK LIKE?

When you do start publishing newsletter content, it will look a little bit like this example; which is called Elevate and published by US marketing consultant Robert Glazer.

The email version of the newsletter looks a little bit like something you would receive via RSS from a blog.

Publishing the newsletter is as easy as pie, providing you have the essential writing and design skills you would need for an email equivalent. If you are already using Stone Junction for social media marketing or PR, it would be an easy bolt on to a campaign.

HOW TO GET ACCESS TO LINKEDIN NEWSLETTERS

To publish a newsletter, you need to meet some, pretty basic criteria. You must have more than 150 followers or connections, you must have recently published some original content and you must have a history of abiding by LinkedIn’s community policies.

So far, so easy. You will also need to have creator mode turned on, which is also straightforward. To do this, just visit your profile, by clicking the ‘me’ icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage, scroll down the page and toggle the Creator Mode button to ‘on’.

So, where does this leave us when deciding whether to post content on a company page or an individual page? I’ve recently blogged about where you should put your content and the thoughts I shared in that post still apply.

I think we will see a version of creator mode developed for businesses quickly, allowing them access to the same benefits individuals get from the newsletter function. And I still think that, providing you are promoting a business not an individual, the company page delivers the most value.

Just like Carolus and his ‘newspaper’, I think LinkedIn newsletters are going to catch on.