Thursday's Thoughts: Why Are We on LinkedIn Anyway?

What are we all DOING on LinkedIn? I ask because I had a little extra time this morning, so I thought I'd visit the writing groups I'm in to see who's posting interesting stuff.

I admit I haven't done that as often as I should.  No surprise: There's a lot of great stuff out there! And I got lost reading some of the posts in my main groups: Publishers & Bloggers, Writing on LinkedIn, and Writers 4 Writers. I realized I hadn't seen some of the posts through normal channels, so I began liking and commenting on a few.

I also checked my recent posts on those three sites, and I began to notice something I didn't like: NO likes. NO comments. A big fat ZERO in both categories! Ugh.

So I returned to the other posts; many had been posted within the hour or at least recently, so I didn't expect a lot of numbers to be high for their likes and comments.

But I was truly shocked by what I saw:

In those three groups, over 90% of the posts I saw had
NO likes and NO comments.

I read further, trying to find some with many likes and comments, but it was tough going. Yes, I finally found a few, but I'm saying four or five . . . not 20 or 30.

Talk about feeling and being invisible!

This whole idea of seeing what's going on came from a friend's recent post. And Shenoy U.K. is right: although he has over 2,600 connections and/or followers, hardly anyone shared his post, which was an important one for him.

So my question is -- what the heck are we (and I include myself) doing here on LI? Just posting our own stuff and hoping for the best? We're here because we're selling ourselves, our company's capabilities, our talents. But we cannot do this alone. We need each other, and it starts with each of us personally.

Well, they say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So. Change is necessary.

Here's what I will do differently:

I will check my three groups every day to see who has posted something I can like, comment on, and/or share.
And I will ACT.

I will make a list of my support team and check their posts at the same time. And I will ACT.

Oh, my support team? Just like yours: those are the followers who like our posts regularly. They sometimes even comment. Sometimes even share! And they are worth my time for their posts. I usually do remember, but not 100%. That will be my new goal: 100%.

I know we're all busy, but this might take oh . . . 30 minutes or so. And I will learn from all those writers who have taken the time to educate me (and you) in their areas of expertise. They have something precious to share: their knowledge. Their wisdom. Their voice.

Are you with me? Will YOU make this pledge, too?
WILL you?

If we all do this, we all win.

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As an international corporate trainer, I have worked worldwide for 20 years teaching American grammar (only in the U.S.), business writing, and a variety of interpersonal communication skills workshops. I am also a copy editor and proofreader, mainly of business-related materials. My home base is in Massachusetts, but I will travel anywhere to help business professionals look and sound as smart as they are.

My blogs are all on my Web site, GrammarGoddess.com, where they're grouped by categories so you can easily choose which to read first. I hope you find many to enjoy and learn from.

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