The business-focused social network LinkedIn is expanding its publishing platform to include all English speaking countries, greatly increasing the potential contributors to the site’s longer form article posts.

“Early last year, we gave every LinkedIn member in the U.S. the ability to publish posts on LinkedIn – and the response was swift and enthusiastic,” wrote LinkedIn’s Akshay Kothari. “We want each one of our more than 330 million members to be able to share their insights with other professionals across the globe. We’ve taken another big step toward that goal as we expand the ability to publish on LinkedIn to all members in English-speaking countries.”

LinkedIn posts are less status updates and more long-form articles, with topics generally focusing on ideas and thoughts relating to different types of businesses or professions. Examples include articles predicting future product trends or those offering advice on the best software for graphic designers or tips on generating sales leads.

“Valuable conversations”

The site initially released content in this format by enlisting A-list businesspeople and other leaders for its Influencers program. This included articles by industry leaders such as Richard Branson and Bill Gates, as well as political leaders like U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama.

LinkedIn eventually opened up its publishing platform to all of its American users, and the site has just celebrated its one-millionth member post. Now that publishing platform has expanded to include English speaking users from outside the U.S, dramatically increasing the number of potential contributors to the format.

“Each week, members publish more than 40,000 posts on average,”  Kothari wrote. “Posting on LinkedIn is a powerful way for members to underscore their expertise in their respective fields, extend their professional reputations beyond LinkedIn, and have valuable conversations with the largest group of engaged professionals ever assembled.”

By further opening its platform, LinkedIn allows for a wider variety of user-generated content that can appeal to a greater audience.

LinkedIn performed strongly in 2014 despite reports that Facebook Inc. was working on its own business-focused social network, which would allow Facebook users to create a professional profile that would divide their personal contacts and status updates from their business persona.