The LinkedIn Pulse is a content publishing platform that allows members to share long-form content on their LinkedIn profiles. It serves as a blogging platform for LinkedIn users to publish professional insights, ideas, industry perspectives, and more. The Pulse aims to foster community and thought leadership within the LinkedIn ecosystem.
History of the LinkedIn Pulse
The LinkedIn Pulse originated in 2010 from LinkedIn’s acquisition of start-up Pulse, an RSS reader and content recommendation engine. LinkedIn saw value in integrating long-form publishing into its professional social networking platform. The rebranding to “LinkedIn Pulse” occurred in 2013.
Since its launch, the LinkedIn Pulse has become an invaluable tool for establishing thought leadership. It provides members a space to showcase expertise, gain new professional connections, drive more targeted traffic to their profiles, and boost personal branding. LinkedIn itself benefits from the enriched content created.
Who Can Publish on LinkedIn Pulse?
All LinkedIn members have access to the LinkedIn Pulse and can share content. However, to achieve maximum reach, it is recommended to have at least 500 1st-degree connections. Those with larger networks and a consistent posting cadence tend to gain more readers.
Influential thought leaders, C-suite executives, founders, investors, authors, journalists, academics, and more leverage the Pulse for knowledge sharing. For individuals who actively cultivate their professional brand, the Pulse provides a means to organically amplify their voice.
Benefits of Publishing on LinkedIn Pulse
Establish Thought Leadership & Industry Expertise
Publishing insightful, useful articles enables professionals to position themselves as subject matter experts. Consistent, high-quality content allows members to build authority and trust within their niches. Readers will come to rely on those thought leaders as goto sources of information.
Expand Professional Network
Strong Pulse content attracts new connections organically, as readers follow contributors whose work resonates with them. The Pulse affords opportunities to connect with like-minded professionals worldwide. Expanding one’s network can open doors to career opportunities, partnerships, investments, and more.
Increase Personal Brand Visibility
The Pulse gives LinkedIn members a voice and visibility. By sharing knowledge and perspective with the LinkedIn community, contributors build awareness of their personal brand. Pulse articles linked to member profiles serve as testaments to their expertise. This can aid in establishing reputation and differentiating their brand.
Drive Targeted Traffic
Articles published on the Pulse appear in followers’ feeds and on Google searches. Quality content can thus funnel targeted traffic back to LinkedIn profiles and external sites. Strategic keyword optimization and promotion further helps amplify content reach. The Pulse enables contributors to attract precisely the audience they seek to engage.
Showcase Thought Leadership to Employers
For those exploring career options, the Pulse provides a conduit to demonstrate subject matter expertise to potential employers. By publishing insightful articles, members can effectively showcase their proficiency and thought leadership to recruiters.
Promote Business or Organization
Contributors can utilize the Pulse to promote their company, products, services, initiatives or organization by providing value-driven content. However, overt self-promotion is discouraged – the focus should remain on useful information relevant to the target audience.
Supplement Content Marketing
The Pulse can act as a content distribution channel to complement other marketing efforts. Pulse articles can extend the reach of and drive traffic to marketing content published on company websites, blogs and other platforms. Repurposing evergreen content on the Pulse can maximize its shelf life.
Types of Content Best Suited for LinkedIn Pulse
The most effective Pulse content provides valuable insights and practical takeaways for readers. Some themes and topics that tend to resonate include:
- Industry trends, analysis and insights
- Career, leadership and management advice
- Expert interviews and Q&As
- Diversity, equity and inclusion perspectives
- Skills, professional development and best practices
- Technology, innovation and transformation
- Research studies and survey findings
- Tips, how-tos, lists and guides
- Event overviews, key takeaways and highlights
- Book reviews and key lessons
The Pulse welcomes a wide range of topics relevant to professionals. However, overly niche or promotional content may enjoy limited engagement. Focus on producing high quality content providing value and insight to readers.
Best Practices for Publishing on LinkedIn Pulse
Follow these best practices when publishing on LinkedIn Pulse for optimal results:
Craft Compelling Headlines
Strong headlines attract readers and get clicks. Use keywords, provocative questions, or intriguing quotes to capture attention.
Write Relevant, Insightful Content
Articles should educated readers with useful takeaways – not overtly promote the author. Offer new perspectives, share experiences, uncover trends or provide actionable advice.
Share Multimedia
Include visual assets like images, infographics, videos or presentations to add interest. But ensure multimedia is on topic and enhances the content.
Incorporate Call-to-Actions
Invite readers to continue engaging with calls-to-actions at the end – whether to share feedback, visit your site, or connect with you.
Optimize for SEO
Research keywords and incorporate relevant terms throughout your article to improve visibility on search engines.
Promote New Articles
Increase reach by sharing new Pulse posts on additional platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn Groups and email newsletters.
Analyze Performance
Track metrics like views, shares, comments and follower growth to glean insights and sharpen your Pulse strategy.
Engage with Readers
Reply promptly to comments and messages from new connections made through your articles.
Post Consistently
A regular cadence of new articles sustains interest and demonstrates your commitment to thought leadership.
Pros and Cons of Publishing on LinkedIn Pulse
Pros
- Reach a professional audience of over 660+ million members
- Establish a thought leadership presence
- Expand your network and visibility
- Promote your brand, company or organization
- Showcase expertise to recruiters and hiring managers
- Drive traffic to profiles, company pages and external sites
Cons
- No revenue directly generated from content
- Can be time consuming to consistently generate content
- Promotional content may turn off some readers
- Difficult to build readership without existing strong network
- Metrics and performance data not readily shared by LinkedIn
Overall the Pulse provides significant opportunities for thought leadership and personal branding, if leveraged strategically. Consistent, high quality content and engagement are key to seeing benefits.
Pulse Article Performance Tracking
LinkedIn does not provide authors with detailed metrics on Pulse content performance. However, some data points are available:
Views
Authors can see total views for each post within LinkedIn Analytics. Third-party tools like Google Analytics can also track views when connected.
Likes, Comments, Shares
The number of likes, comments and shares per article are visible. Click “View discussion in feed” to see these engagement metrics.
Followers
Notice follower growth after publishing to gauge if articles are drawing connections. Check Analytics for demographic info on new followers.
Article Links & Mentions
Utilize Google Alerts to track links and mentions of your articles elsewhere online. This reveals added reach and engagement.
Traffic to External Sites
When linking to external sites in articles, use URL shorteners or Google Analytics campaign tracking to measure clicks and site visitors from Pulse content.
While not comprehensive, these signals offer directional insights on Pulse content resonance and impact.
Conclusion
In summary, the LinkedIn Pulse offers professionals an impactful platform to establish thought leadership and amplify personal branding. By consistently publishing insightful, useful content, contributors can expand their reach, develop industry expertise, drive traffic, and showcase skills to target audiences. However, organic readership takes time to build. Focus on providing consistent value rather than promotional messages. With a strategic approach, the Pulse can significantly elevate a thought leader’s visibility and credibility within their professional networks.
