Posts and blogs. What's the difference?

I've been asked a few times recently by clients and those within my network what's the difference between a LinkedIn post and an article (or a blog) - so I'm hoping that following may help when you next want to publish content.

There are a lot of variables to your success with both a post and a blog. I've seen heaps of jargon about it all but I prefer to write in a way that is hopefully easy to understand! So here goes …

I like to think of a post as a firework I suppose.

Subject to your content - and this is a really big factor (forget corporate marketing blurb and content that sells) - along with the size of your network (another key element) , you should be able to engage your audience, with views, likes and the holy grail that are comments (real engagement for me as you can start a dialogue with your connections).

This can happen quickly, just like a firework display ...

But posts, like fireworks, disappear quickly. Once the initial big bang oh-la- la-look-at-me-posting-engaging-content has passed, you're kinda back to square one.

Your fireworks have fizzled out.

And that's why posts on any social media platform require consistency - a constant firework display that engages your audience and keeps you visible.

Blogs have much more longevity and value but the perception is that they take longer to write, they deliver less views and less engagement compared to posts - so people tend to swerve a blog and just post.

LinkedIn gives you around 1,300 characters for a post, which sounds a lot but they include punctuation. You can easily find yourself exceeding the character limit and not having the space to write everything you want.

Blogs are much more generous - up to 40,000 characters before you'll be cut off.

I'm not Barbara Cartland so I don't need to worry about being cut off but it's worth bearing in mind that people are time poor - you'll get better engagement with 2 - 6 mins reading time on your blog rather than writing a monster blog that takes ages to read.

Posts get views but views are only the number of times your post has been in your network's news feed. It doesn't always mean someone has read it. And with over 700 million people on LinkedIn and millions of pieces of content being published daily, your post will quickly vanish out of your network's news feed.

And here's why blogs are valuable. Blogs stay on your profile.

When someone views your profile, they see the number of blogs (or articles as LinkedIn calls them) that you've published. Without the razzmatazz of a firework, they quietly stay, sticky like a toffee apple. Even when your blog has fizzled out of the newsfeed, they stick to your profile like rock solid candy.

Despite perception, blogs don't have to be ultra serious. You might want to write about something highly specific to your industry - but bear in mind that very technical blogs can be niche. You might want to blog about an experience that's relevant to your network. You might just want to have a rant (be careful with that though!) 

So the more articles you publish, the greater the potential you have to be seen as someone who is credible and with expertise.

When I first started publishing blogs, I was super disappointed with my views - a lot of hard of work for what I perceived was very small return. But those blogs have stayed on my profile, whilst my posts have disappeared. I now appreciate the value of a blog even if my views will be lower than my posts.

But don’t forget that blog views (even if they are low) mean that someone has clicked on the link to your blog and started to read it - the challenge is to blog content that keeps your reader reading and wanting to engage with it.

Hope this goes some small way to understanding the difference. I look forward to reading your blog.