‘Content is king’ is an overused phrase in marketing. And this is for a reason, which is that it is true. Content (whether textual in the form of articles or visual as banners) is what helps a company take their business proposition and vision to their audience. It helps businesses promote services and products, and in the long run, become influencers for the particular niche. Before we get into LinkedIn Pulse, let’s understand the two pillars of viral content – quality content and digital promotion.
While creating quality content is one part of the journey, having your content discovered is the second important aspect. An article written by an expert, no matter how perfect, is going to garner no traction if the right audience doesn’t find it. This precisely is why businesses need to expand their reach by publishing their content on multiple channels, and leveraging popular networking platforms that their target audience frequents. Publishing quality content that is easily accessible is the path to becoming an influencer on any platform.
Eight out of every ten consumers have purchased something after having seen it as a recommendation by an influencer.
This brings us to LinkedIn Pulse.Before we tell you how to post on LinkedIn Pulse, let’s understand what LinkedIn Pulse is.
LinkedIn Pulse is LinkedIn’s news aggregator platform. In simple words, it is a news feed that shows you articles posted by other members, based on topics that are relevant to you (based on the members and channels you follow and past engagement history). When LinkedIn first launched LinkedIn Pulse, only industry influencers like David Edelman, Richard Branson, and Peter Guber could post articles while everyone could follow and read them. In 2014, LinkedIn opened up Pulse to every LinkedIn member, making it one of the most important and popular content-sharing platforms. Until 2017, LinkedIn Pulse was a separate platform, but as of 2017, LinkedIn integrated Pulse into their homepage news feed. Now, the interface you see on logging in is where all aggregated relevant articles published by members are listed. The reason for this was to simplify article promotion and access.
Looking for more ways to build a brand? Check out this knowledge article we recently published:
Now that you know what LinkedIn Pulse is, you can learn how to post on LinkedIn Pulse (which as we explained is not a separate interface but the homepage feed).
You can post two types of content on LinkedIn, one is a quick post, and two is an article (that was formerly LinkedIn Pulse articles). Each has a different approach, reason and end result. Depending on your needs, you can choose the right medium for you. A quick post is usually a status update or a short post. LinkedIn articles are long for articles intended to provide in-depth information.
Posting a Quick Post
You can do this by clicking the ‘Start a post’ button at the top of the homepage (after logging in to LinkedIn).
Posting LinkedIn Pulse Articles
The next way to publish content on LinkedIn is by posting an article (also called LinkedIn Pulse articles). You can think of LinkedIn as a complete blogging platform that can be used to post entire blogs or articles. This is what LinkedIn Pulse was intended for (before it was integrated into LinkedIn). If you’re wondering how to post on LinkedIn Pulse, here’s how it is done today:
Once you log into LinkedIn, you have to click the ‘Write an article’ button on the homepage. It is just below the ‘Start a post’ button.
Following Relevant Content on LinkedIn Pulse
Now that we have explained what LinkedIn Pulse is and how you can use it to publish articles, you, as an audience, can access relevant and useful articles published by other members.
Firstly, LinkedIn Pulse articles are shown directly on your news feed on the homepage, and you do not need to navigate to any other page. Secondly, LinkedIn will automatically show you content posted by members you are already following.
Next, you can access the curated links present on the right side of the feed for the day’s trending topics. This list is created by LinkedIn’s editors:
Next, you can read content that is sorted for you based on hashtags you follow. I order to follow hashtags, click the ‘Followed Hashtags’ button and follow hashtags that you are interested in. This is the reason we stressed on adding relevant hashtags to your published content earlier.
Finally, you can click on the ‘Discover More’ button (as seen in the image above) to follow relevant pages, members, and/or to join relevant groups.
Why You Should Use LinkedIn Pulse
LinkedIn has quickly grown to be one of the most popular networking sites for working professionals.
According to a report by 99firms,
LinkedIn currently has over 610 million members with 172,800 new users joining in every day.
A more important statistic is that LinkedIn has around 303 million active users per month, with 40% of them visiting the platform every day. This makes it the most popular networking platform for professionals.
So why should you use LinkedIn Pulse? Because it is the best way to position your content to relevant professionals and build brand awareness in the process. Companies acquire customers, partners, products, services, and employees from LinkedIn. Whether you’re looking to sell a service or product, to find new clients, or to attract talented individuals to your company, LinkedIn is the perfect platform, and LinkedIn Pulse is the way to reach out to them.
Posting relevant content on LinkedIn Pulse drives followers, which positions you as an influencer in your niche. As a LinkedIn influencer, you can use your authority to drive traffic to your website, to acquire customers, and to provide advice when required.
Building an Audience on LinkedIn Pulse
Like we said when we began this article, an article written by an expert seems like a good plan on paper but won’t work until you ensure it reaches the right audience. Building your LinkedIn Pulse audience is important to drive traffic to your articles (as these articles are shown to your followers). Here is how you can build a massive and relevant audience:
Stick to your niche
LinkedIn members are professionals who prefer to read content created by experts, and that is core to the writer’s domain (which can easily be seen in the writer’s profile). Instead of posting general content that is vague, write niche, domain-specific content that is narrow and provides value.
Use a catchy headline
Similar to content on search engines, users on LinkedIn click on articles depending on how catchy and relevant the headline is. Make sure your headline is catchy and gives the crux of the article, without being false and clickbait. Clickbait headlines might get you clicks but not followers.
Use images and videos
Most users today have a very short attention span and prefer to get their information from images (like infographics) and videos. Use as many of these as you can.
Use keywords and SEO rules
Similar to optimizing content for search engines, use SEO rules when writing content for LinkedIn Pulse. It gives the platform algorithm a sense of what your content is about and helps show it to the right audience. This video (webinar) will help you understand the rules of SEO: SEO 2020 and Beyond.
Post frequently
Users prefer to follow influencers who post regularly. Posting regularly also helps with increasing awareness and influence. However, ensure you are not compromising quality for the sake of quantity, as that will prove to be counterproductive.
Choose the right day and time
Depending on your audience, there is definitely a day of the week and time of the day when the number of online members from your targeted audience is highest. You can better understand this by analyzing past post statistics:
Cross-promote
Finally, you can cross-promote the LinkedIn Pulse article link on other platforms like Facebook and Twitter to drive more traffic and increase followers. This article will help you dominate social media marketing: Get Started With LinkedIn Pulse!
