Four killer Pulse writing tips for 2016

LinkedIn Pulse is a powerful publishing platform that, used properly, can allow you to connect with new audiences and forge deeper connections with your existing network. However, it’s not enough to publish a few lines  and pray. In fact clicking on the 'publish' button is only the first step. There are four key elements that you need to focus on to get the best results: length, audience targeting, images, and promotion. Let’s take a look at each of these elements.

1. Write enough, but not too much

One common mistake I see is Pulse posts that are only 40 or so words long. Especially when they are promoting an event. It is important to recognise that LinkedIn Pulse is a publishing platform that is more akin to blogging than Facebook or Twitter status updates. According to LinkedIn, the best received Pulse posts are over ten paragraphs in length. The industry average for web content is around 350-500 words a page, with copy over 1000 words tending to get more backlinks.

Pro tip: 350 words of quality content is better than 1200 words of drivel. Keep your article focused on a single topic and go for quality rather than quantity. If you can write longer content that continues to be engaging, then go for it but only if you can't see a natural segmentation that could be broken up into a few articles.

2. Know who you are targeting

It is vital to remember that LinkedIn is a business focused platform primarily for B2B businesses. For B2C businesses this can require a shift in their marketing approach. I often get inquiries from these business owners asking how they can find single mums in their 40's, people who invest in property or those who own luxury cars. Think about how you filled out your LinkedIn profile, did you provide this kind of personal information? How could LinkedIn segment members like this if it hadn't collected this type of information?

Therefore for a B2C business you are not connecting with your customers on LinkedIn; you are connecting with suppliers and referral partners that deal with your consumers.

Here’s an example. Say your business sells early childhood toys aimed for 0-2 year olds. You might think “my audience is parents" well yes but not on LinkedIn. There is nothing on my profile that says I am a mum of two primary school aged boys. Well, now there is 'cause I just wrote it, but you know what I mean. You cannot segment an audience on LinkedIn in that way; it’s not possible. Instead, shift your thinking to people who have your end consumers as their customers and audience. For example, you might target early childhood educators, child psychologists, special needs therapists, and maybe even human resources professionals because of their connection to staff on maternity leave.

3. Get visual and be seen

On the LinkedIn Pulse app, viewers will initially see only your article’s cover image and headline. This is what they will use to make a decision about reading your article or passing on by. The size of images for Pulse articles is huge – 700 x 400 pixels. Take the time to properly source an image that can speak about your article on its own. If necessary, use a picture editing tool like Canva or PicMonkey to add text to the image to increase its impact.

The headline should be no more than 50 characters, any longer and the end becomes '.....' on various views, such as mobile, which statistically repels viewers.

4. Promote, share and amplify

Depending on the size of your connections’ networks, Pulse articles can be easily lost from their feed in as little as a minute or two up to an hour or two. This is why content promotion is vital, and I believe it is more worthwhile to write fewer quality pieces and promote them more across your social media networks, including Facebook and Twitter.

There are people in my network that must be flat out like a lizard drinking when it comes to their Pulse articles as they publish them every few days. The thing is I can see it's a publish and prey strategy as sometimes they have barely 10 people look at each post and unluckily for them everyone can see that!

Most importantly, you should leverage LinkedIn’s direct marketing capabilities. Share your content directly and intentionally with key connections, rather than just hoping that they might see it in their feed. Stay top of mind with customers, prospects and referral partners by sending a direct message about your latest piece of content and why you think they will find it useful.

Going back to our previous example it's a great practise to publish your Pulse article about the latest technology in wooden toy manufacturing and then share it directed through LinkedIn's email system with the 25 early childhood educators that you are already connected with. Just a quick note to say, 'thought you would find this interesting.'  That message not only sits in their email within LinkedIn until the next time they log in, but also is replicated through their own Outlook or Gmail account on the spot. 

Don’t leave content discovery and promotion up to chance.

Aim to spend only 20% of your time on content creation and

80% on content promotion and amplification.

Pro Tip: A good school of thumb is to aim for readership numbers to be half of your total 1st connection base. Eg. If you are connected with 1000 first connections aim to see 500 people read each of your Pulse articles. With 50,000 articles being published each week on Pulse it is very rare for it to go viral and get readership in the 5, 6 or 7 figures, so the goal above is great to aim for.

This is only the tip of the iceberg regarding LinkedIn Pulse, even I'm finding out terrific new tips and tricks as this platform evolves. Including the tags below, optimisation, channels, integrating & notifying the editors via Twitter plus much much more. As Australia’s only fully certified LinkedIn Ninja, I can show you how to harness the power of LinkedIn (including Pulse) to generate targeted leads for your business. To find out more about my services, visit www.linkedinninja.com.au. or contact me via LinkedIn.