As a professional, your company probably has a decent website: it touts your services, provides contact info, and houses a blog where you post useful updates aimed at prospects and clients.
But chances are, you’re not getting too many views or comments on your blog posts—and that's just because it takes the right kind of content and platform to build a following and see engagement. That’s why many professionals neglect or abandon their blogs eventually—they don’t think it’s worth their time.
LinkedIn’s publishing platform, Pulse, makes it easier to engage audiences and garner views through our active community of readers and contributors. Professionals can capitalize on it because it showcases their expertise while seamlessly sharing with their followers, bringing prospects to their profiles, and expanding their reach to a much wider audience.
Social seller Lindsey Boggs said she simply would not have used publishing as a tool to promote her company's offerings were it not for Pulse. "By publishing articles alone, I have gained immense credibility in what I do and attracted many followers,” she said. “Pipeline is flourishing every day simply by my activity and using LinkedIn as a platform to prospect and connect with professionals."
Let's look at three big advantages of the Pulse platform.
1. Your Post Will Be Read
Even if you haven’t written a post Pulse yet, you've probably been notified that a friend has. That sort of prominent, relevant advertising isn’t something that easily happens on lots of other social media platforms like Tumblr and Facebook.
When you publish on Pulse, the piece of thought leadership gets shared with many of your connections right on their homepages. People strongly connected to you will even receive that notification.
The folks following you on Pulse will also see it. And if it's an interesting post, professionals have seen high levels of engagement and lots of comments—clear proof that people are paying attention.
2. You Bring Prospects to Your Doorstep
When writing a blog post on any platform, it's always a good idea to include a call to action at the bottom. Common calls to action (CTAs) include sending readers to your website, to your social media profiles, or to another article where they can find out more about your company.
That's still important on LinkedIn, but Pulse makes the whole process considerably easier. Your profile is just a click away, where a prospect can learn about all the work you've done, read past Pulse articles (which are stored on your profile), and reach out to contact you in an instant.
In other words, your Pulse posts are the bait to entice prospects to explore your profile, which should serve as your social selling microsite. The seamless connection between the two is a big part of what makes Pulse popular among influencers, and why the platform gets tens of thousands of posts per week.
3. You Expand Reach
Your posts on Pulse can not only help your current connections and list of prospects better know what services you provide, but you also have the chance to reach people you've not even identified.
Pulse helps users "build identities that go beyond their connections … and a lot of these posts have also led to opportunities, which is unique to LinkedIn," Akshay Kothari, co-founder of Pulse, has said.
The more likes and shares the post receives, the more likely that it will show up on the screen of users who you aren’t connected to, serving as a kind of entrée to you and your company. And if they like your work, they can follow you on Pulse without adding you as a connection on LinkedIn. You can also be more targeted with your approach by sharing your articles with a LinkedIn Group centered on an industry you are trying to sell to.
Focus on Content
So now that you know why professionals love Pulse, it's time to get writing. But before you do, make sure you focus on the content.
Be sure to check out tips on how to write these posts well: including being succinct, focusing on your areas of expertise, and writing eye-catching headlines. Read through public relations guru Cheryl Conner's advice on Forbes and recommendations from LinkedIn's own Daniel Roth.
Short on ideas for what to write about? Andrew Hutchinson of Social Media Today suggests taking a look through what's popular on the platform. Several times I’ve scanned through The Pulse and thought of a new idea for a post, just by looking at what people are most interested in," he wrote.
When you put out truly valuable content that speaks to your industry expertise, people will do more than read it—they’ll respect your insights, view you as a resource, and come to you next time they’re looking to enlist your services.
For more tips on building relationships with prospective clients, download Proven Strategies to Find, Win and Sustain Business.
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