How to get the most out of LinkedIn Pulse (with secret feeds)

This post has originally been published at LinkedIn, October 16th, 2016: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-get-most-out-linkedin-pulse-secret-feeds-tom-laine I've been digging into the very core of LinkedIn Pulse lately, both for personal interest as well as trying to figure out how to get the most out of it business-wise. Here's a deep insight into LinkedIn Pulse with some really unique data.

Many of the following statistics and figures are available for anyone to find, if you know what to look for and where. Some of the figures are not publicly available, like with so many other things with LinkedIn, but can be found with a little bit of effort and creative thinking. I just thought these should be made available for all. If you think the information is useful, feel free to share it with others who may find it useful. And for the cherry-pickers, at the end of the post there are unique lists that you can't find anywhere else, but I'd still urge you to read the full story and not just scroll to the end, so you know what the lists are all about. Enjoy!

The Pulse

The Pulse is a news feed of information published within LinkedIn, either by us normal users, a group of thought leaders called the "LinkedIn Influencers", and a chosen group of media, all divided into channels that anyone can subscribe. You can subscribe to particular Influencers' posts, to certain media, or topics (called channels).

If you decide to write blog posts in LinkedIn, all you need to do is to click the "Publish an article" text at your LinkedIn home page, and voila, you have a simple text editor open where you can write your content. Whether you publish it immediately and with links, pictures or video, or save it for later as a draft, it's all up to you.

I'd just like to throw in a little thought for you to consider... Where else could you reach an audience of millions of potential customers, business partners, subcontractors, employees, and more? And for free? And not just any random users, but millions of people who have stated interested in the particular topic you write about. I think this is a unique chance to build a personal brand and to reach the largest online business community and convince them about your expertise.

If you just want to find the Pulse feed, here's a direct link. For reasons absolutely incomprehensible to me, LinkedIn has decided to every now and then hide the Pulse link and occasionally have it publicly available at your topbar menu (under Interests). For mobile users, there's a separate Pulse app.

Click the link below to access the Pulse channels.

If for some reason the picture link doesn't work, copy the following URL to your browser: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/discover

How to get featured at the Pulse feed and reach a targeted audience of millions?

That's easy. You just have to write an article compelling enough that people start reading, liking, sharing and commenting it. Easy, right?

LinkedIn explains: "Write content that resonates with your connections, followers, and target audience. The most meaningful and high-quality long-form posts will be promoted through member feedback, including views, likes, comments, and shares."

So there's no short cut, other than having been chosen as a LinkedIn Influencer, like Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Guy Kawasaki, and a few others. LinkedIn didn't pick you? Sorry, you just have to earn your reach by posting great content.

My content has been picked for promotion to a targeted audience of over a million subscribers of a specific topic, but that's not something I could reach everytime. I still haven't found that magic incredient to repeat the success too often, but there are certain types of content that clearly resonate better than others.

Once your article has been picked to the top list under a certain topic, your content will be featured at the top of the feed, on the cover picture section (certain apps or old desktop version), and it will be sent out in a newsletter to those who have subscribed to the particular topic. Depending on their settings and how people use LinkedIn (apps vs. mobile vs. desktop), the blog posts are shown differently.

So LinkedIn analyses your content, and tags it under certain topics (3 topics max.), apparently based on text mining. And if your article is better than average, based on views, likes, shares, comments., etc., you may be on your way to the top lists as a featured article. Even if you don't make it to the top lists and the Pulse feed, your network and possible followers will always be notified when you have published your article, that's where the first reach comes from that defines your destiny. Of course you can do promotion to your article at groups, etc., and try to enhance your possibilities to get to the top lists.

The Pulse setup

So how to find and subscribe the content? If you followed the link above, you've found your way to the subscription page. It should look something like this:

As you can see, you have a list of Influencers, Media channels, and Topics suggested to you. If you hover your mouse over the pictures, you'll be able to click the Follow-link to subscribe any or all of these channels.

Below the suggested channels, you can find the lists for all Influencers, Media, and Topics altogether. But the tricky part often is, who or which channel to follow. Far below I've collected full lists of all the above mentioned, and have arranged those to popularity order.

Great! You've read this far, so there should be a small reward, right? Here it is!

Here below are full lists of all channels; Influencers, Publishers and Topics, together with some direct links to access the topic feeds easily. These lists are not available anywhere else like this, so remember to share them with your friends by clicking the Like or Share buttons.

Here below you can find the full list of Topics, with links directly to each topic's channel, and arranged in the popularity order. You can see the number of subscribers right after the topic name. Note, that not all topics are in English, some are in Chinese, Portuguese, German or in French.

Secret feeds...

On top of all this, LinkedIn also has secret "Trending in industry" feeds. The feeds collect all interesting articles relating to a specific industry. The industries available are the same which can be chosen in the industry list at personal profiles.

There's a really long list of these hidden feeds, much too long to publish here, so I'll just publish here a short exemplary list for you to check out. Click the industry name you're interested in, there are direct links to each feed. In this case the subscription to each feed is called Following, not subscribing.

I believe this is the first time ever that this type of list is published, so do share it with others, if you think they'd find either this listing or the other lists useful. So Like, Share, and Comment and let's share these LinkedIn Tips and tricks and help people do even better business here!

LinkedInTom LaineComment