The Best Apps for Creating Status Posts and Articles On LinkedIn

Please raise your hand if you want to create more content on LinkedIn? 

Keep your hand raised if WRITING all that content sounds massively appealing to you. 

If I were speaking at a conference right now, there’d be a mere 10% or less that have their hands still up in the air. That makes sense, very few of us would list “writing” as an enjoyable activity. WHY? Because the moment we open up that Word doc, the “create status” box, or the email template, our minds seem to go blank or have a stream of thoughts like this…

“What do I say? What’s the message here? Why do people care? Is it too formal? Not formal enough? Will people want to read it? Gosh this is taking time…maybe I should just check my inbox quickly, so I feel productive. Oh, a client issue that’s not super important but I’ll attend to anyway. Look at that….no time to create content.”

Sound familiar?

Here’s the reality, even as video and photos continue to gain traction on this platform, written content dominates.

Look at this:

At the time of writing this, the top status post containing text and video was liked 390 times with 84 comments and only received 22,158 views.

The bottom status post, a shared post containing text only, was liked 121 times with only 7 comments and received 110,672 views.

Here’s the other thing about that status post on the left with video. Had I not included text to give that video proper context, the engagement level would have been WAY lower.

So, we must write.

Luckily, there are a few apps that will help even the most challenged written content creators out there, and they have become non-negotiables in my content tool kit.

1. The Hemingway App

The average adult in the US reads at a 9th-grade level, but popular mass-market novels are written at a 7th-grade level because studies indicate most people prefer to read two grades below their ability. I know what you’re thinking, “But my audience is C-Suite and highly educated! If I write like this, they’ll think I’m unqualified or they’ll be offended.” I get it, you have a college degree and you’re proud of it. However, people are reading social content and emails on their phone. They want to be able to discern the information quickly, they’re not looking to read the next great Pulitzer novel here. So, take the pressure off yourself and use the Hemingway App to ensure the readability of your content.

Ernest, your legacy lives on…

2. Grammarly

How did I survive and thrive in an electronic written world without Grammarly? This Chrome extension is like your basic spell check on steroids. And now, thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign from the team at Grammarly, many of us are aware of their check-it-thrice, butt-saving technology.

3. Pocket 

Writing content is one thing, generating ideas to write about is quite another. Instead of coming up with original ideas, you can always provide insightful commentary on industry articles you find online. Once you save them to Pocket, you can tag them, read them offline, highlight key findings, and more. It really revolutionizes how I get industry news and always provides a spark of creativity when I’m feeling a bit content dry.

4. Evernote 

Evernote is my virtual notebook of choice. It categorizes your notes into sections, just like a real notebook would, and you can utilize the app across all your devices. I find this particularly helpful because I often get a burst of content inspiration while at conferences, on the road, or in the middle of client meetings so it’s as easy as whipping out my phone and recording a voice note, picture or thought.

Bonus: Evernote’s paid version will allow you to scan a picture of a business card, capture their information, and add the individual on LinkedIn.

5. Dragon Dictation

Do you know why I can bang out content like a beast? Because 90% of the time I’m just having my talks or live videos transcribed and broken out into long-form written content. I have an amazing team that helps me with this, but for those of you who don’t have ample video content or aren’t into that, just voice record yourself pontificating about a subject using the dragon diction app. Then you don’t have to write from scratch. You’re just editing. Easy peasy! This works because most of us are MUCH more comfortable speaking on a subject rather than writing on it. It will also keep the tone conversational.

?What apps do you find most helpful for creating content on LinkedIn? Share them below!