How Lawyers Can Get Their Articles Featured on LinkedIn Pulse

Having an article featured on LinkedIn Pulse can create instant visibility and extend the reach of your law firm’s online presence. It is one of the most effective ways to reach both businesses and other professionals across the country, and across the globe. It can bring your law firm many benefits ranging from new leads to new partnerships.

The featured content on LinkedIn Pulse is chosen by a combination of editors and an automated algorithm. Much like the algorithms for search engine results, the exact factors that go into choosing articles to be featured on Pulse are kept under wraps. Publishers have some fairly good ideas about practices that can help gain a featured spot, but nobody knows the exact formula.

Here we’ll discuss some of the commonly accepted best practices that will give your firm’s content the best possible chance of showing up as a featured article on LinkedIn Pulse.

Technical requirements and suggestions

There is at least one technical requirement that must be fulfilled to gain a featured article spot. You must have an “InShare” button on your content page(s). In plain English, this is a button that allows viewers to share your content on LinkedIn.

You should already have one of these buttons on your site as a part of your social media strategy. If you don’t, though, you can get information on how to set one up directly from LinkedIn.

This sharing button lets LinkedIn find your content. Once content is shared on the network, it becomes visible to the editors and algorithms.

LinkedIn also recommends that you set up a company page to help build an active audience, which will help to increase the visibility of your content within the network.

Provide value to your audience

First and foremost, your article needs to resonate with your audience. The more engagement your content creates, the higher the chance that it will rise to “featured” status.

When it comes to the specific topic that you’re going to cover, think about your audience, not yourself or your law practice. To generate high levels of engagement you need to publish content the audience wants to read, which is not necessarily the content you want to write.

The best way to find what the audience is looking for is to look at what they’re reading and what they’re saying. Look for recent articles that have been featured and/or received a lot of comments and shares from readers. Think about how you might be able to provide a different perspective or build on ideas to create something more valuable. Read the comments and take note of any questions the readers are asking. Ask yourself what would be the next logical step in the conversation.

Align your topic with a pulse channel

There are many different “channels” which are basically just different topics of interest. In addition to creating content that your audience likes, you’ll increase your chances of getting featured if your content aligns well with one of Pulse’s channels.

Publish and share at the right times

While other platforms like Facebook or Twitter have varying degrees of activity at all hours of the day, LinkedIn tends to have the most activity during regular business hours since it’s centered on the working environment. There is a profound drop in traffic during late night hours and weekends.

If you’re in the US, this means you’ll get the most eyes on your content if you publish or share it during the week, between the hours of 9am and 5pm, give or take 2 hours for differences in time zones.

Inspire as well as educate

Again, you need to consider the unique twist LinkedIn puts on social media. Professionals searching LinkedIn are generally looking for things that will help them in their jobs. They want to know how to be more productive, how to find a better job, etc. They are looking for inspiration as much as they’re looking for information.

Make sure your content speaks to this. A wall of statistics and facts isn’t going to get much traction. The point is not so much to show off what you know, but to show what you can do to help the reader, whether that is working with them, or teaching them something. Make sure there is a real benefit for the person who reads your article.

Post regularly

A major factor in having an article pushed up to featured status on LinkedIn Pulse is the engagement that article creates. The more natural attention you get from the community, the better the chance your content will get recognized.

By posting regularly, you will keep your name and your content fresh in the minds of readers. You will consistently be adding more followers and expanding your audience. As your audience grows, so do your chances of publishing a runaway success that ends up as a feature article. LinkedIn recommends posting up to 20 times per month, if you can keep up with that schedule.

As we said, there is no magic formula that will guarantee success, but if you keep these tips in mind as you’re creating content, you’ll enhance the chances that your law practice will win one of the coveted featured spots on LinkedIn Pulse. Remember, too, that it’s not an all or nothing proposition. Even if you don’t get that featured spot, your content will still be seen, and you will be building links and relationships that will ultimately help your firm.