‘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.
What Is LinkedIn Pulse?
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.
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How to Post on LinkedIn Pulse
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).
Next, you can select whether this post should be published to everyone, to your connections only, or to a selected group. In the content area, you can type out text (with no character limit), add links and media files (images and videos). Adding a catchy headline and body with a link to your original content (which can be a blog or article on your business website) is a great way to drive relevant traffic from LinkedIn to your website.
Add relevant hashtags before posting. Hashtags help LinkedIn sort your content and show it to the right audience, which is very important to ensure you get the right type of traction. LinkedIn also suggests hashtags based on what you have already tagged, making it easier to find the right ones. Once the content and hashtags are added, you can click on ‘Post’ to make it live.
Enabling comments (which is enabled by default and can be disabled under settings before posting if required) will allow readers to comment on your post. Comments are a great way to further generate traction, as posts with a higher number of comments get more traction.
The quick post method is usually used to post short messages, status updates, share images and videos, and to share links. This method is a useful way to drive traffic back to a website.
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.
This will take you to a new post page. Users who have used LinkedIn Pulse will have used a similar interface, and it is similar to most blogging interfaces.
This interface provides all the features needed to create and publish an entire article. The ‘Publishing menu’ dropdown can be used to save articles as a draft, to navigate to past posts, and to publish the current post. The formatting options to the right of the ‘Publishing menu’ dropdown let you format the content you add. Just below these options is a tab to add a featured image for your post. The featured image will become the post banner when you share the article link. You can then write the article in the space below the featured image tab, starting with the headline. Make sure to add a catchy headline. You can add images or videos to the body of the content, and can also provide external links.
Follow the best practices of article writing, like splitting content with headlines, using bullet points, etc. Once done, you can publish the article. At this point, LinkedIn takes over and circulates your published post among members who follow you and for whom the content seems relevant.
With these simple steps, you can post an article on LinkedIn. This method is usually used to build a readership on LinkedIn and build an influencer status within your business niche.
Once you post a LinkedIn article or quick post, make sure to share it on groups that you are part of. Also encourage your followers to like, comment and share the post. This builds traction and indicates that your post is useful, which will further boost distribution on LinkedIn. Asking your employees/coworkers to like, comment and share is a great way to get immediate traction.
Here’s a guide to help you write more engaging articles: Top 15 Hacks for a Winning Content Marketing Strategy-Webinar Recording.
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:
Try and post around the same day and time for maximum traction.
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: Social Media Marketing Trends to Watch Out for in 2020.
Get Started With LinkedIn Pulse!
Whether you are a one member freelancer, a small startup, or an enterprise, LinkedIn can prove to be a massive platform for growth. We have already discussed how popular it is, and it’s important to know that one important use of LinkedIn is for knowledge and growth. By publishing on LinkedIn Pulse, you can reach out to members looking for information and build a significant following in the process. This following will prove valuable when you are looking to promote a product, service or brand.
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Nice post about using LinkedIn plus, Linkedin plus is one of the best feature of LinkedIn for sharing article, read other article based on topics. Thank you for sharing, keep update more.