Exploring Engagement : The Pros and Cons of Having a Pulse

mycommunitynet
Feb 26, 2015
2 min read

If you’re one of the 17 million regular LinkedIn users in the UK, you’ll have noticed an increase in the number of blogs appearing in your feed. This is thanks to Pulse, a standalone publishing platform integrated to the site last year which lets users broadcast advice and opinion across their professional network.

At MyCommunity we like to get our hands on all forms of online engagement. Pulse, however, has us divided. Some of us love it; others think it needs work. Whose side are you on?

Elspeth Hinde

Social Media Manager, loves Pulse

Pulse is right up there with Twitter and Facebook for reaching out to existing or future customers and users. Creating and sharing useful content is crucial for establishing yourself as an expert within a field, and LinkedIn allows you to do so in a well-designed, professional format. By hitting the right notes and writing content others want to read and share, posts are broadcasted to an audience of thousands for free. Better still, Pulse articles are tracked by Google and show up in searches outside LinkedIn, adding a valuable boost to your wider online profile.

Pulse is also a great source of content to share across other social networks. Crucially, it allows you to comment on posts written by others. This interactivity is the best part of Pulse because it promotes conversation – the heart of social media and something which all businesses and organisations should encourage. Conversation is a source of new leads, useful connections and high-quality feedback about your work and interests. What's not to love?

Callum Dunbar

Content & Communications Manager, remains unconvinced

I’m a big fan of LinkedIn. It allows me to create meaningful connections without the noise that makes other social networks hard work. Rather, it did. Pulse has refocussed the network on user-generated content, and I’m not sold on the change.

As a marketer I understand the thinking behind Pulse; content has always been key to success online. My problem is with the quality of the articles hosted on the platform. By adding another channel to the marketing mix, LinkedIn has challenged businesses and organisations to create additional content or recycle existing work to fit the Pulse mould. This is harder said than done; the typical LinkedIn user ends up with a feed full of well-meaning content of limited quality.

Many posts promise more than they provide: “THE ONE WORD THAT WILL MAKE YOU MILLIONS” (why tell everyone?); "WHY YELLOW WALLS MAKE FOR BLUE SKY THINKING” (contains spurious statistics); “TEN WAYS TO HACK YOUR NEXT INTERVIEW” (and then what?). Articles like these are the professional equivalent of dodgy sidebar ads promising “One trick for losing belly fat – your fitness instructor will hate you for it!”. Pulse is 17 million people advising you how to behave in the workplace. I’m calling in sick on that one.