Great content is key to great marketing, adding value to any marine-marketing strategy. The facility to publish content on a professional platform such as LinkedIn therefore arguably offers even greater value and opportunity to today’s marine marketers in targeting contacts and generating leads within the superyacht industry, while also offering up the platform as a much more interesting place to explore.

What is LinkedIn Pulse? 

As luck would have it, back in February 2014, LinkedIn announced that it was opening up its publishing platform, LinkedIn Pulse, to users, allowing them to publish content publically making the platform more valuable to marketers than ever before. 

While some have taken this time to embrace this opportunity, others are left standing on the sidelines wondering how to break into this unknown territory. Yachting Pages therefore uncovers the what, when and how of publishing on LinkedIn for those not yet ‘in-the-know’. 

Not on LinkedIn? What are you waiting for?

If, as a modern-day business entrepreneur and keen marketer, if you, your business and/or its employees are not registered on LinkedIn, it prompts us to ask, why?

Launched in May 2003, LinkedIn is one of the oldest social networks, and is now the world’s largest professional network. In fact, DMR announced that, as of 27th October 2016 there were a total of 467 million international users on LinkedIn.

In a SlideShare released by LinkedIn on the launch of their new publishing platform, LinkedIn described the social media platform as “the working world in one place”. They wrote, “LinkedIn has millions of executives, entrepreneurs, entry-level, workers and people about to retire” – a valuable audience for you to explore, yet one that should be used strategically in line with your business website and blog where your niche audience visits.

They continued, “When you publish a post, it becomes part of your profile, gets shared with your network and reaches the largest group of professionals ever assembled, helping you to grow and engage your network”, which is a potential goldmine of your industry’s key players, influencers, clients and end users.

Understanding LinkedIn Pulse

As with all content marketing, it is important to first understand the audience, tone and functionality of the platform before publishing anything and everything that might spring to mind.

The overall feel of LinkedIn Pulse is unique to the platform itself, so if you are new to LinkedIn, or to Pulse, start by reading through a handful of successful posts by selecting ‘Pulse’ from the ‘Interests’ tab in the navigation, and select the ‘Top Posts’ option. 

Once you feel comfortable with how people are using the platform, it’s time to learn what to post, and when. 

Posting on LinkedIn Pulse

According to LinkedIn, there are a few points to take into consideration when publishing on Pulse:

• Write about specific areas in which you have experience and/or expertise
• Keep your writing focused. Avoid covering too many topics in the same long-form post
• Keep your voice authentic
• Don't shy away from expressing your opinion. However, keep your long-form posts appropriate for the LinkedIn audience. Don't post anything obscene, shocking, hateful, intimidating, or otherwise unprofessional
• Publish whenever you have something valuable to share with LinkedIn members. In general, the more long-form posts you publish, the more credibility you will build, and the stronger your professional profile will become
• There are no limits on word count, but the long-form posts that are best received are more than three paragraphs
• Upload pictures, videos, presentations, and documents to add to your content. It helps bring your insights to life and is a good way to showcase concrete examples of your experience
• Use the share box on your homepage to share short-form thoughts, questions, and other media such as articles and images. (Learn more about sharing on LinkedIn here)
• Have colleagues, friends, or family members review and edit your long-form posts

How to make your Pulse posts successful

Aside from the content and structure of your articles, there are a few points to remember in making your Pulse post's successful.

1. Choose your title (and content) wisely

The structure of your title has a lot to do with the success of your article. When you publish a post, a real-time notification will appear in front of your connections. Take your chance to capture their attention and increase click thru’s. That being said, ensure there is good reason for sharing this post on Pulse in the first place!

Research from Noah Kagan and Search Wilderness analyses the 3,000 most successful LinkedIn Pulse posts to find that ‘how-to’ posts and listicles perform the best, whereas question posts perform poorly in comparison.

For example, “How to write a LinkedIn Post” or “Eight ways to improve your LinkedIn posts” would perform better than “Why publish on LinkedIn?", attracting an average of up to 8,536 more views.

Additionally, their research suggests that it is best:

• To make your titles between 40 and 49 characters long to increase post views
• To make your posts visual with eight images where possible, but not to add videos or other multimedia
• To divide the text of your post into five headings using ‘header-tags’
• To ensure that content is long form at 1,900 to 2,000 words long
• To use neutral language and objective content
• To make your content ‘easy’ to read with a readability score of 80-89
• To promote your content on other social channels, especially Twitter, using the 80/20 rule where 20% of time is spent crafting content, and 80% promoting it

Of course, these are only suggestions, which you will need to ‘tweak’ in order to find what works best for you and your audience.

2. When to post on LinkedIn Pulse

Finally, it is worthwhile considering when it is best to post your content on Pulse. Being aware that LinkedIn is geared towards business professionals, it’s best to ensure that your posting schedule is aligned to professionals’ LinkedIn usage patterns. Also keep in mind that, as a marine business, you are likely to cater to international clientele across different time zones, so it may take a little trial and error to work out the best times for posting to reach your audience.

Knowing that Monday morning and Friday afternoons are probably not a great time for posting new content, as users are likely catching up on emails or preparing to leave the office for the weekend, Noah Kagan and Search Wilderness’ research shows Thursday to be the ideal time to post by a considerable amount, seeing the highest average total views (19,164), followed by Sunday (18,219).

3. Add a call-to-action

Adding a call to action at the beginning or end of your content encouraging readers to click the ‘thumbs-up’ and like the post is a great way to see an increase in views and shares: “If you enjoyed this post, click the thumbs-up icon and let me know.”

For other marketing insights and tips, visit our marine-marketing guides. For assistance in creating standout print advertising, contact us today and learn more about our specialist marketing services.