Do You Have Your Finger on the Pulse?

As LinkedIn continues their roll out of 'long-form' (blog) posts across its membership, content is being created at an alarmingly fast rate. My own notifications I receive show from my personal connections are somewhere between 5-10 posts per day. And because I use many of the LinkedIn apps, including the flagship and pulse apps, it means I'm getting these notifications in 3 different places.

I know that some LinkedIn members are not at all happy about all these notifications, as some members do share posts that are all about self-promotion and as we all know we do de-test being sold to don't we?

I wanted to share my own balanced view of the downside and upside of Pulse long-form (blog) posts.

Downside

1. Too many notifications about your network’s posts, which delivers pressure for us to go and read them. And this pressure may mean that we are turned off and don't want to read any of them.
2. By seeing our network posting frequently, we then also feel pressured to make sure we keep up with all this posting and go into ’FOMO’ syndrome. (FOMO = Fear of missing out). The trouble is some of our network post 2 or even 3 posts per day. They really can't have a day job or they've employed someone to write all this material. Some of us (including me), believe this multiple posting is a massive turn off.
3. Obvious promotional copy about products and services is a real nuisance to some of us. We don't appreciate that these people haven't got anything better to say about themselves or are willing to respect people’s preferences. 

Upside

1. Being able to tie long-form (blog) posts in with your LinkedIn profile is hugely beneficial. It allows readers to get a great insight in to your experience, knowledge, views and expertise all in one place. There actually is no other place on the web where you can achieve this today.
2. As you post new articles, your network is notified every time you do this and thereby driving visitors to your posts. More views means more potential for engagement, comments and exposure. 
3. Your posts go to LinkedIn’s Pulse engine and categorised in the appropriate Pulse channel, creating even more potential for even greater exposure to LinkedIn members who you are not connected to.

You can draw your own conclusions about whether your personal brand will benefit from Pulse or whether the ’dementors’, who use it for self-promotion, will ruin its amazing potential.

You can always unsubscribe by following the instructions via:

http://styin.me/long-form-post-unsubscribe

How Do You Share Content?

As part of your journey into ’Social Selling’ and becoming your own ’Personal Brand’, you will inevitably need to share content. You don't always need to write your own content, although it’s obviously better if you did. Not everyone likes writing, certainly it took me a few years before I started blogging.

So curating and sharing other’s content is OK, providing it adds value to your own authority on your subject matter.

So how do you do it? Or rather how do I do it?

First we have to answer a few questions. Why share content in the first place?

Well, it shows that you are interested in your subject matter and more importantly that you wish to share it with your network and maybe, just maybe they will get something from it. Don't be concerned about not receiving any comments, likes or shares, that should definitely NOT be the reason for sharing your content.

However they might and it's that possibility that should encourage you to keep sharing. You just don't know where it could lead to.

I use just 3 apps for doing all my curating and sharing.

Firstly the best sharing app that I use is ’Buffer’.

I have written a separate blog on buffer, so go ahead and read more about it there.

The second app is Flipboard, where I follow different streams that are closely connected to my subject matter, plus all the posts from people I follow.

The third app is ’Pulse’, a LinkedIn app, which allows me to find more content, by LinkedIn Influencers and many other news streams.

Buffer allows me to email all content I find on the web, either via these apps or generally on the web.

I have set my buffer to share the content 3 times per day, meaning my content is posted automatically in the morning, lunchtime and evening. Times of the day that people are most likely to browse their mobile devices.

I will add additional content now and again on a more spontaneous basis. And I also add some personal comments now and again about any subject I wish. This will hopefully show people that it's not all about business and they will see my personality come through too.

So it's time to start writing, get searching, reading and finally sharing. Have fun and ensure that you have your audience in mind when sharing content.

Wishing you success always!