How to Use LinkedIn Pulse To Drive Traffic To Your Blog

LinkedIn Pulse is the self-publishing platform created for the biggest professional network on the internet these days.  It used to be an exclusive club that became the influencer’s program for 500+ chosen experts in their field.  Pulse gives the potential for specialized targeting and a wider audience. Since it was acquired by LinkedIn in 2013, Pulse has become the leading news aggregator on social media these days.

According to Pulse CoFounder Akshay Kothari, publishing your content on LinkedIn Pulse is not just about all the people who would be able to read your posts “As an author, you have this amazing potential to reach millions of people [who are] really interested in what you’ve written about…You want to make sure the right people are actually reading your content and you’re getting the right commentary on it.”

LinkedIn’s goal was to become the authoritative source of daily news through providing significantly better content. With over 130,000 posts published weekly, Pulse has become one of the most popular products available on LinkedIn today.

Just a few months back, LinkedIn Pulse was relaunched to become the “world’s first personalized business news digest”. The purpose of the launch was to make it easier for IOS and Android users to use it and the focus was really on personalization.

Why you should give LinkedIn Pulse a try:

1. You get massive exposure from the biggest network for professionals.
2. You don’t need to write kilometric posts on LinkedIn as articles under 1000 words are also doing great on LinkedIn Pulse.
3. Your post gets published the moment you hit Publish. No need to wait for lengthy approvals.

Publishing on LinkedIn Pulse is very easy to do. Here’s how:

#1 Do Your Homework

• Before you attempt in creating your content masterpiece, you must be able to familiarize yourself with LinkedIn Pulse first. Know how to navigate the tool or how to use its publishing tool.
• Check Pulse by logging in to LinkedIn, Click on Interest, and select Pulse from the drop-down menu button. You will find the links to the trending articles by default. There’s another drop-down menu on the right side just before the word, Pulse. You can check different categories for the articles posted there. You can select the category you want to check on. Some categories included in Pulse are Technology, Entrepreneurship, Social Media, and Big Ideas & Innovation.
• Check what the industry leaders are writing about.

#2 Prepare for crafting your content

• Know what you want to write. Before you start, you must already have the target keyword for your content. Do not just write whatever you want to write. Your content should be something about your business or how your business can help your chosen industry.
• Once you already have your target keyword, research about it. You must have at least five references to your article from popular websites of your subject matter.
• Do not write directly to LinkedIn. Save your draft in another application. It could be on Word, Evernote or Wordpad.
• Write as soon as words flow from your system. Don’t bother just yet with proofreading your article every single time you add a few sentences. Write until you have exhausted your knowledge regarding the topic, and THEN you start proofreading your article. Check for your subject-verb agreement, your tenses and formatting. Even the experts blunder on occasion.
• Your headline must be really attention-grabbing. In fact, spend a significant portion of your time writing your headline. This is what makes people take notice of your post. A mediocre headline will receive a lukewarm response from your target audience no matter how good your article might be whereas an interesting headline will make your article trending on LinkedIn Pulse. A really great headline has just about 6 words.
• In the event that you are curating content from your own website, you can write a 200-word description of your article and include the link to your original content. Readers who want to know more about your topic would be compelled to click your URL to continue reading about it.
• Once you are satisfied with the content you have created, you can now go back to LinkedIn Pulse. Click on Publish a Post, which will bring you to their Publishing editor.
• Look for a really good image that’s at least 700 x 400 px that you can use as your cover image.
• Use h1 and h2 tags for SEO or rankings purposes.
• Post shorter length of paragraphs. Ideal length will be about 55 characters only.
• Attach high definition images or videos.
• Add 3 highly targeted tags to make it easier for people to search for your post.
• Click Publish.
• Promote your article on your other social media sites.

Your work as the content owner doesn’t end when you hit the Publish button. You need to know how well your article is doing. You can check your post’s statistics to learn how many views you are getting in the past week. Plus the demographics of your readers that include: top industries, top job titles, top locations and even top traffic sources. You can even check “Who’s responding to your post”. Knowing all this information will help you tailor fit more your content for your target market or audience.

Wrapping it Up

LinkedIn Pulse is a great platform to publish your content. Especially when most members of LinkedIn are professionals who are using this network to connect with other people from the same industry or niche. When you write often and publish your posts on LinkedIn Pulse, you are slowly creating recognition for you and your brand. It also opens opportunities for your post to be featured in one of the many LinkedIn channels. Once your post gets featured, it has the potentials of getting read, liked and shared by the millions of LinkedIn subscribers. Thus, possibilities of stronger brand recognition and better sales conversions for your business is really possible. Write as often as you can about subject matters important to you and your business.

Use LinkedIn Pulse now to promote your content, your brand, and your business.