Most people associate LinkedIn® with networking. It can also be a great source for blog topics.

You have to register (no fee) for LinkedIn® to get access to the basic services. You can also upgrade (fee-based) for additional options.

For my niche, LinkedIn® is a wonderful resource. Only you can decide if it makes sense for you.

Looking for Answers

There are many tips on finding blog topics – like this great list from Carol Tice, guest blogging at Copyblogger.

In addition to Carol’s tip #44 of asking your connections for ideas, here are additional ways of finding topics on LinkedIn®.

• Search Answers for ideas
• Review Groups discussions

There are several ways to use Answers and Groups discussions for finding blog topics.

Since this is Techie Tips Thursday, here are a few step-by-step methods.

How to Find Answers

This is how you locate the Answers section on LinkedIn® —

• From your home page, click on More… to get the dropdown menu.
• Click on Answers.

• You have an option to do a keyword search.
• Put in your keyword in the Answers search bar at the top of the Answers page.

There is an Advanced option you can click on that provides:

• Search bar for keywords
• Option to search Questions and Answers for keyword – or – Questions only
• List of Categories to select from
• An option to review only unanswered questions

There is also a list of categories, under Browse, on the Answers home page.

Here are a few of the categories

• Administration
• Business Operations
• Health
• Marketing and Sales
• Startups and Small Businesses
• Technology

You can also simply scroll through the questions.

Why they call it Answers when the list is really Questions, I don’t know.

Blog Heaven

Whether you just scroll the questions, search by category or keyword, you will think you have fallen into blog heaven

• Reading the questions stimulates ideas
• Clicking on those with answers provides other points of view
• You can see how hot a topic is by the number of responses
• Some topics create great controversy

Join the Group

If you are a member of LinkedIn®, you probably already know about Groups.

The Groups feature allows individuals to create a group on any topic or specialty and invite others to join. It provides a platform for asking questions and sharing ideas.

Group discussions are a natural for blog topics.

You are already in a group in your niche or target market (aren’t you?) and you have access to many helpful ideas.

• Trends in your niche
• Questions that need answers
• Polls of the group

You can take one of those ideas and create a blog post, a new poll or a how-to document. Priceless.

LinkedIn® offers more than networking. It might hold your next blog topic.

How have you used LinkedIn® for your blog?

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