Pros & Cons of LinkedIn Collaborative Articles

If you are an active member of LinkedIn, chances are, you have started receiving notifications like this:
Maybe you have even already added your expert opinion on a topic. It is not like LinkedIn blogging is something new, what is new is that now the platform is aiming to encourage industry professionals to share their expertise.

Having dozens of experts contribute to create an article is surely a great idea, right? But it’s not all roses. In this article, we will be taking a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding collaborative articles on LinkedIn.

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What Are LinkedIn Collaborative Articles?

As LinkedIn officially describes them, “Collaborative articles are a new way to tap into the collective knowledge of the LinkedIn community so you can learn from experts across professional topics.”

“Collaborative articles are knowledge topics published by LinkedIn, with insights and perspectives added by the LinkedIn community. These articles begin as AI-powered conversation starters, developed with our editorial team, but they aren’t complete without insights from our members. A select group of experts have been invited to contribute their own ideas, examples, and experiences within the articles.”

Essentially, the main benefit for collaborators is the Top Voice badge, which they can earn after they’ve contributed 3 or more articles. The badge lasts for 60 days after receiving it.

Let’s say you want to boost your Search Engine Optimization skills’ or any other skill you might have. Visit the SEO skills page on LinkedIn. There, you can see all the current collaborative articles and add your perspective.

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What Is the Format of a LinkedIn Collaboration post?

Once you open one of the LinkedIn articles, you will be able to add your opinion under any of the main subheadings.

Once you have decided where you want to contribute, you will see the following field, which will give you a few suggestions on how to start.

Keep in mind that there is a character limit of 750, so don’t get too carried away. Instead, try to order your thoughts.

Also, note that LinkedIn will only directly display a couple of responses, so you need to hit the “Load more contributions” button to see the rest.

Additionally, the contributions that have received the most reactions will be pushed to the top of the article, right under the “Top experts in this article”.

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Pros & Cons of LinkedIn Collaborative Articles

Naturally, collaborative articles on LinkedIn have their benefits and drawbacks. Let us review some of the main ones, starting off with the positives.

Pros

• Boost visibility and reputation. LinkedIn collaborative articles can greatly increase the visibility of your profile, and elevate your reputation. Additionally, if you have contributed a Collaborative Article, this increases the chances that your answer is featured in the search results on LinkedIn.
• Networking opportunities. Even people who are not in your network will be able to see your contributions, and follow you directly from your contributions. Thus providing you with more opportunities to connect with people, and possibly collaborate with them.
• Different perspectives. Since everyone is free to add their opinion, collaborative posts will host a plethora of different views and perspectives. On paper, this sounds like a great opportunity to gather tons of information, and opinions on articles.

Cons

• Misinformation. Anyone is free to write their own opinions, so what is stopping people from lying and/or giving out false information? Nothing really. This is why you should never take anything at face value, or confuse opinions with facts.
• Possibility for low quality content. Due to the open nature of LinkedIn collaboration posts, there is a good chance you will come across content of questionable quality, and insights with little to no value. On top of that, even if your contributions are of high-quality, they might be overshadowed by others.
• Spam and false experts. Always take things with a grain of salt. Some users will contribute to every single article they possibly can, leading to posting just for the sake of earning a badge. The same people might then ask their friends to like their contributions, so that they can appear as top experts.

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How to Make the Best Out of LinkedIn Collaborative Articles: 5 Pro Tips

1. Break Down Your Content into Bullets Points
2. Offer Valuable and Unique Insights
3. Get Straight to the Point
4. Use a Friendly and Professional Tone
5. Actively Engage With Others

1. Break Down Your Content into Bullets Points

The way you format your content matters. If you are looking to make it easy to read and understand, it is best to break down your text into bullet points, and use short paragraphs.

This will help your content be more visually appealing, engaging, and stand out from the rest.

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2. Offer Valuable and Unique Insights

Giving generic, copy-paste advice with little-to-no value will not do you any favors. Readers will not be interested in what you have written, and your chances of keeping them engaged will be very slim.

What you should do, instead, is try to provide some value. Share something unique. Pull from your own experiences. Be original and helpful to others.

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3. Get Straight to the Point

You, like many others, might be tempted to share everything you know on a particular topic within a single post. It is no coincidence then that LinkedIn has set a 750-character limit to submissions.

Always try to stick to the specifics, and resist the urge to go off-topic, even if it seems like it is appropriate.

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4. Use a Friendly and Professional Tone

You want to position yourself as an expert with the subject you are writing about. To achieve that, the best approach is to use a friendly and professional tone of voice.

Avoid being mean and insulting people. Such actions will only hurt your reputation, and push people away from your posts. This is not to say you should not be critical when you feel you need to be. Just do it in a professional manner.

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5. Actively Engage With Others

If you really want to develop meaningful relationships, and enhance the value of your own collaborations, you need to engage with others, as well.

Take the time to read through some of the other posts, react to them, and leave a comment. This way, other users might feel encouraged to read your posts, take a look at your profile, or even connect or drop you a message.

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What Is Next?

LinkedIn promises to improve the quality and depth of collaborative articles, and provide better algorithmic recommendations, based on your comments, posts, and articles. Thus, we can definitely expect LinkedIn collaboration posts to grow and expand in the future.

Having said that, you can definitely use LinkedIn collaborative articles to increase the visibility of your profile, boost your industry reputation, and expand your professional network.