Blogging is one of the most powerful ways to demonstrate your subject matter expertise, and communicate your good-fit qualities for the jobs you’re seeking along with something of your personality . . . that is, your personal brand.
But setting up and maintaining your own blog may not be a realistic endeavor for you.
Did you know that LinkedIn offers a long-form publishing (or blogging) platform?
Using LinkedIn’s Pulse, you’ll reap many of the benefits of having your own blog, with almost none of the headaches. All you’ll have to do is:
- Write interesting content on the topics you know,
- Add a compelling title,
- Proofread it well, and several times,
- Post the content to Pulse,
- Hit “Publish” when you’re ready, and
- Share the post on other social media outlets.
What’s so great about the Pulse platform?
Just like running your own blogsite, you’ll be building your personal brand . . . demonstrating your subject matter expertise and thought leadership, and communicating your personality and good-fit qualities for the employers you’re targeting.
But also, because they’re on LinkedIn, your Pulse articles will draw people to your LinkedIn profile and keep you top-of-mind with your LinkedIn network. Each time you publish a new Pulse post, your LinkedIn network is notified.
Your most recent articles will show up near the top of your profile, which immediately:
- Supports the claims you’ve made in your profile about your expertise.
- Shows you have something to say about your industry and vocation.
- Demonstrates that you’re up-to-date with social media, and know how to leverage LinkedIn.
Where to find the Pulse platform on your LinkedIn profile.
I’ve found that most people on LinkedIn are not aware that they can make use of the Pulse platform, and don’t know how to access it.
With the 2017 LinkedIn User Interface, go to your “Home” page and look for “Write an article” at the top of the center column. This takes you to a blank page on Pulse, where you can start writing.
I suggest that you compose the content in a Word or other word processing document, so that you’re sure to thoroughly proofread it before hitting “Publish”. Don’t rely entirely on the Spell Check feature. Manually proofread the content several times, too.
8 Tips for writing posts on LinkedIn’s Pulse
1. The biggest stumbling block for most people, aside from finding the time to write, is coming up with things to write about. Here’s a good place to start:
Your LinkedIn profile should include plenty of keywords and phrases relevant to the kinds of jobs you’re seeking. These typically represent your hard skills or areas of expertise. These keywords should be in your Professional Headline, Summary section, Skills section, Experience section and throughout the content in your profile.
2. Before posting your first article on Pulse, make sure you have a photo and Professional Headline on your profile that is optimized with relevant keywords for SEO. People will see these at the top of your Pulse articles and be encouraged to jump over to view your profile.
3. Use relevant images or videos in your posts. Pixabay is a good, free resource for images, but there are many others.
4. Include links to other Pulse posts or other online sources in your posts.
5. Write a short personal biography of a paragraph or two to go at the end of each of your posts.
6. When you’re about to publish a post, LinkedIn prompts you to include a brief blurb about it. Be sure to add hashtags(#) to the relevant keywords in the blurb.
7. Try to publish a new post on Pulse once or twice a month, or more frequently when you can. Publish your posts Monday through Friday, when most people are on LinkedIn. Experts have suggested that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the best days.
8. Respond to everyone who leaves a comment on your post, with this caveat. Do NOT respond to snarky or negative comments that add nothing to the conversation. It’s been my experience that this only encourages such people to continue their mean-spirited rants.
Bottom Line:
Although most Pulse posts seem to be 500 to 1,000 words in length, even writing posts that are only a few paragraphs long will benefit you. Create a blogging strategy and get in the habit of posting on Pulse as often as you can.
[This article was first published for my gig as Personal Branding Expert on Job-Hunt.org.]
More About LinkedIn and Executive Job Search
Are You Executive Job Search-Ready?
Personal Brand Buzzkill: Snarky Comments on LinkedIn Pulse
5 Ways to Keep Your Executive Job Search Confidential on LinkedIn
How to Write a Dazzling LinkedIn Summary
3 BIG Mistakes That Screw Up Your LinkedIn Professional Headline
