LinkedIn is one of the most unique social media out there. It’s a great tool for people looking for jobs, but it’s also an excellent tool for businesses who are looking to establish authority and increase brand recognition. So few brands actually use the publishing tools on LinkedIn or do not use them correctly. Can publishing on LinkedIn actually be good for your business? When done correctly, LinkedIn a great tool that can significantly improve your business’s chances of being noticed online. LinkedIn publishing is not exactly new anymore, but it is being underutilized, so right now is the perfect time to get on board. Here’s why you should:

Your Audience Is Waiting for You

While LinkedIn is far from being the most popular social media, your audience is probably already on this platform and the platform itself actually makes it easier to reach out to those people. The whole point of a strategy like blogging is to develop thought leadership and brand authority, and the most difficult part about this process is actually getting people to pay attention to what you post on your personal blog or website.

What makes LinkedIn different is that they make an effort to put relevant information in front of the people who might find it interesting. You do not start from scratch when you start publishing on LinkedIn. What you write is shown to all of your connections. If they interact with your post, it can then be shown to their connections. If what you are publishing is extremely valuable, they will be willing to market it for you, publishing it again for their connections or on other outlets.

You already have an audience of people waiting to hear what you have to say on LinkedIn. The tools that this platform gives you makes it extremely easy to reach them. For those who feel that posting on a blog on their website often feels like shouting into the wind, publishing on LinkedIn could be the perfect solution. You’ve already made the connection, now you can start talking to them and proving your worth as a brand.

LinkedIn Features Your Insights

When you post on LinkedIn, those posts do not just disappear into the ether. When someone comes to your profile, anything you have published on this platform is featured on your profile. It has its own section, which means that building a portfolio that proves your authority and shows off your skills is easier than ever. When someone looks for a brand like yours and finds your LinkedIn profile, they will not just find a list of experiences, they will find writing that actually proves that you have the knowledge and experience that you say you do.

This is the perfect place to share examples of your work, to talk about your past experiences, to explore your opinions of related news, and more. One of the biggest bonuses of posting on this platform – Everything that you write is searchable. You’ll be much more visible on this platform than you would be on any other platform. Those looking to build their reputation as an expert on their industry should not pass over this opportunity.

LinkedIn Promotes Content They Like

This is something that no other social media or publishing platform will do. If you write something that is relevant to one of LinkedIn’s interests (like Professional Women or Big Data), you have the chance of actually getting your content featured on a relevant channel. What does that mean? It means that you could get what you have written in front of hundreds of thousands of interested parties who never would have found you otherwise. And LinkedIn does this without asking for anything from you.

While Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr all give you the ability to pay to get your content in front of people that do not follow you or are not connected to you. Only LinkedIn actively looks for content that they like and puts it front of people that they would be interested in it. If you’re not getting the eyes on your content that you want just from posting on your own blog, LinkedIn might be a better idea.

LinkedIn Has Better Reader Engagement

Who cares if you can get your content in front of people if no one actually reads it? LinkedIn has the highest rate of reader engagement out of any similar media. If you really want people to read your content and interact with it, there simply is no better place to publish than on LinkedIn. There are tools for getting the conversation going. And they won’t just “like” the content like they might on Facebook. The users on LinkedIn are much more likely to challenge what you have to say, ask you questions, applaud you for your knowledge, and thank you for sharing.

While this does mean that you may occasionally have to defend what you’ve written, if you’re interested in getting a conversation started, this is exactly what you want. Don’t be wary of having people disagree with you—that is par for the course when you put your opinions online.