SlideShare PRO Features Unlocked. Here’s How to Use Them.

Businesses using SlideShare presentations as a part of their content marketing mix will soon see changes to the platform.

According to a blog post published by SlideShare Product manager, Amit Sawhney, SlideShare will discontinue PRO accounts (formerly $19/month or $49/month, depending on the plan) and make many PRO features free for all users.

This comes after a small period of time when SlideShare did not allow users to upgrade to a PRO account. If you’ve tried to upgrade recently, you may have been met with the following message:

However, starting in September new features will be introduced to all users each month. These four features are:

• Video Uploads– Host videos such as tutorials, conference recordings, webinars, or Product demos.
• Private Uploads– Upload presentations and share them exclusively with people who have received a link.
• Profile Customization– Create custom banners and curate presentations that your audience will find useful.
• Analytics– Track engagement for specific presentations and view traffic sources. This will be the first feature that will be released in September.

What happens to existing PRO users?

PRO users, who already have access to all of these features, will be able to keep using them during the rollout process. As a note, monthly subscribers have not been charged since May 2014 and annual subscribers will be eligible for a pro-rated refund.

But what about leads?

Perhaps the most coveted PRO feature — LeadShare — will not be available to non-PRO users until Early 2015, and it will be at a price.

LeadShare allows users to collect the emails of people who download presentations and insert lead capture forms within presentations.

This feature will become a part of LinkedIn’s Enterprise Solution starting next year.

Why SlideShare?

With the introduction of these newly free features, the benefits of tapping into the power of SlideShare are even greater for boosting your content marketing efforts.

Content marketers can use SlideShare to:

• Reach 60 million visitors per month 
• Reuse and repurpose existing content into SlideShare presentations using the content marketing pyramid For example:
  • Break down a bulleted blog post into a series of slides with visuals
  • Extract key messaging or steps from an eBook
• Gain brand recognition and awareness with Profile customization (similar to other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook)
• Track results and optimize future presentations for success
• Understand where traffic is coming from and cater future presentations to these specific audiences and personas
• Embed presentations into many existing social media and CMS platforms, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and WordPress.
• Collaborate and streamline workflow within a large company with private uploads

Take a look at the following posts to learn the best practices of creating SlideShare presentations. (One tip? Keep presentations brief!)

• SlideShare Pro Features Go Free by ClickZ
• 6 Presentations Design Dos and Don’ts by SlideShare
• 7 Ways to Optimize SlideShare Presentations for More Traffic and Leads by Hubspot
• SlideShare Best Practices by CopyBlogger

For further inspiration, here are some of our favorite SlideShare presentations:

To learn more ways to repurpose your existing content in SlideShare presentations, see our guide to using the content marketing pyramid.