How to use LinkedIn publishing platform and be featured on Pulse

LinkedIn has recently extended to everyone the publishing platform that was before only available to InFluencers. This new tool has opened a great opportunity to reach a large professional audience and be featured on LinkedIn Pulse. Let’s see how you can be a publisher and how you could increase your chances to see your post featured on a Pulse category.

The largest professional network

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network with over 350 million users worldwide. Every second two new users join the platform and 107 million users are based in the USA. The other users are spread over 200+ Countries.

Another important fact is that 40% of users check LinkedIn everyday so the engagement is really high. That said, you can imagine how big is the number of people using the platform and the huge audience you might have.

Not just job seekers

Despite many people think, LinkedIn is not used just to find a job or to be reachable by Recruiters and Head Hunters. A lot of new graduates see the professional network just a place where to share online their CV and wait to be contacted by the HR. Same thing for more experienced professionals who join and actively use LinkedIn just when they need a new job or They are exploring new opportunities.

The reality is that LinkedIn, as any other social media, should be cultivated with a constant and long-term strategy. It is the best places to show your expertise, show your works and results and share your experience. An active and update profile will be for sure a reason for recruiters to be impressed and make you stand out of the crowd. After all LinkedIn can be a place to nurture your personal branding, whatever your goal is.

Business opportunities

But the business-social platform is also a place for marketers and sales representatives. Since the target is very business oriented, it’s used by marketers and sales to share news, tips and content that might help people to take better decisions or to choose the right product or service for their company.

LinkedIn publishing platform

That said, after a quick overview of numbers and people using it, let’s see what the LinkedIn publishing platform is and how you could you it to grow your reach.

While publishing a long-form post on LinkedIn doesn’t mean you’re a LinkedIn Influencer, publishing allows you to further establish your professional identity by expressing your opinions and sharing your experiences. – LinkedIn Help Center

The publisher feature was launched globally a few months ago and it allows you to share content and long-form posts with your network. Create a new content is pretty easy.

How to use it

1. Go to the LinkedIn home page and click on the little pencil logo you see in the “share and update” window.

2. Than you’ll be directed to a new page where you will see a page like this:

The publishing platform is pretty intuitive and what you need to do is just start writing. The headline should be as catchy as possible, It will be the main reason why people will click on it and share your content.

3. Upload an image for your post. The image should represent your post content or at least should be something that stimulates curiosity. If you are copying the pictures somewhere else, be sure to mention the source.

4. When you write a content, add H1 and H2 titles and subtitles in order to make your post well divided and easy to read.

5. Add other pictures inside the post. Pictures are engaging and make easier to read and understand the content.

6. End your post with a question and a call to action. One of the reason why you are publishing a content on LinkedIn publishing platform is because you want to share information and insightful content. Asking questions will increase your chances to involve your readers and start conversations that might lead to new business opportunities.

 Consider also to add a call to action at the end of your post. A call to action can be: and invite for your readers to discover more about a topic, lead them to your blog or website, or to a contact form where they can reach out to you.

Other Tips

• Length: Usually a content should be around 500 characters at least.
• Avoid non-original content: If you already have a blog and you want to re-publish a content, it would be better to change something without copy exactly the post as it is on your blog. LinkedIn didn’t say that it is bad to duplicate a content but it might be for Google in the long term. So, I discourage you copying all your blog post in your LinkedIn publishing platform. At least you can try say change something or write an original intro and then redirect to the original content. As I said, sharing a non-original content, it is not something LinkedIn policy totally prevents from doing but it could limit your chance to be featured on Pulse 
• Publish your post when people will see it or when they have time to do it. LinkedIn is a business oriented platform so the best days to publish are during the week and during working hours. Officially the top days are Wednesday and Thursday but also Tuesday performs good. Some people also suggests that during weekends users have more time to read content. My best advice is to try which day and hour is the best for your industry and area.

What is Pulse and how to be featured on a category

Pulse is a LinkedIn integration created to offer a news experience based on interests and category. The company was acquired by LinkedIn in 2013 and now it is available on LinkedIn under the “Interests” menu. Pulse is an incredible source of information and industry news. There are several categories and it’s like a daily digital magazine for business professionals.

Of course the more followers you already have the easier will be to have more people sharing and viewing your content. In fact, every time you’ll publish a new post all (Or at least a good part) of your connections will get a notification. Also, every time they will like or comment your content it will appear in their news feed. People can also start following you and see your futures posts.

All these features increase significantly the chance for your post to go viral. But most importantly, Pulse features some posts in specific categories and these posts will be highlighted with a tremendous visibility.

Now, if you want is to be featured on a Pulse category your goal should be to write content “interesting” for Pulse.

The topics with a particular traction are: Career, Entrepreneurship, Personal Development and Business. Pulse highlight some content based on these factors:

• Quality and length of the content: As I wrote before, try to write long and engaging content, with pictures and original.
• Organic reads, likes, shares and comments: when you publish your content, your connections will be notified and will see it. LinkedIn considers the numbers of views and comments a post have in a short period of time. That’s why having a good number of connections and followers will increase your chances to be in the trending posts.
• Topic and Title: Title and category are also a metric for the success of the post. A strong and appealing title increase the curiosity of people to view your post and share it.
• Frequency: It looks like being a “serial-writer” increase the chances for your to be featured on Pulse.

My personal experience

I started using the publishing platform not long time ago. The first posts had an average reach and engagement. Only one post was featured on Pulse three times in categories like: “Career: The Next Level”, “What inspired me” and “Technology”.

But the content with a real viral hit was the one in “Technology”.

That post reached a good number of readers in a short period of time. In this case the category played an important role. In fact “Technology” has over 7 million followers so you can imagine the reach your post might have.

Conclusion

LinkedIn publishing platform is a great tool to integrate in your content marketing strategy. Pulse its one of the best place to connect and discover business professionals and influencers. Entrepreneurs use LinkedIn both for personal branding and promote their business with engaging stories and compelling stories.

As a LinkedIn publisher, you shouldn’t just promote again and again your business, but engage your audience with the finest art of storytelling. Here is my LinkedIn profile, feel free to add me to your network. Also, I will be happy if you follow TheWebMate Company Page: