Reflections On LinkedIn

Photo Credit: Hugo van Dijk, PT, MBA (www.dhirubhai.net/in/hugovandijkptmba/).

To Publish or Not To Publish, THAT is the Question!?!

When I received the message from LinkedIn that I was now allowed to “Publish” on LinkedIn, I have to admit, that was an exciting moment in my 7 year on-going adventure on LinkedIn. It has taken me several weeks to actually start working on my Long-form Post, as LinkedIn calls it. Not because I was lacking the confidence to write, but mostly because I wanted to make sure I had something of value to contribute to the LinkedIn community.

As I am reading Post from other LinkedIn Members, even some of the so-called IN-fluencers, I start to wonder if they read the links I read on Publishing on LinkedIn.

Rights and responsibilities for your Posts on LinkedIn’s Publishing Platform:

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/47545/ft/eng

Best Practices:

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/47537/ft/eng#

The 7 Secrets to writing killer content on LinkedIn by Daniel Roth, Executive Editor at LinkedIn:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/today/post/article/20120906170105-29092-the-7-secrets-to-writing-killer-content-on-linkedin

My conclusion is: Not everybody has done their research before publishing. Some jump right in when they get the permission, others simply don’t follow the rules of giving credit when and where they should. And then there are those who just copy & paste from an article published elsewhere, while giving credit, but not adding any value or opinion.

The Photo:

I noticed that some authors have gotten the picture: they start off their Post with an interesting picture, mostly related to the content of the article; some realized that Humor attracts clicks and thus potential readers. I read a post once, solely because I was fascinated by the mystery of the photo, even though the title didn’t peak my interest at all. I actually thought carefully about my Photo and planned taking one myself during my last Business trip. Hope it has drawn in some readers and feel free to comment on what you think you see, or maybe you even know where it was taken.

The Title:

The title is probably the second item the viewer observes and makes them decide if this is worth their time to read or not. Just scanning through the Pulse page (under the “Interests” drop down) I notice that I am getting a little bored with anything that has a Number in it; 10 things, 7 lessons, 3 reasons, the #1 Rule. I tend to like a “?” at the end, because it challenges me to see if I knew the answer. Another good one is “How”, because I want to know How to do that also! Finally, a little humor or provocation in the title makes me want to read more.

Publishing:

Creating original content or just “re-publishing” articles from, for example, Bloomberg View or The Financial Times? One “Author” mentions consistently where the article originated from and gave the appropriate credits to the photo used, but it did result, after 82 posts, in more than 445,000 followers. LinkedIn has invited 500 Professionals to be Influencers, but is Re-Publishing what they had in mind when they invented the In-fluencer? I guess it is all about perceived added value. Or maybe even the simple comfort and ease of staying on LinkedIn to read what is interesting for your Industry.

As I continue my Reflections On LinkedIn, I want to add at least some value through a Tech Tip: when you use Mozilla Firefox as your Browser, you can use an extension called “Print Edit”. This allows you to edit a page or article you find anywhere on the Internet, strip it from all its advertisements and other distractions, to leave you with a “clean” version. Then, if you want to save on ink & paper, you use “CutePDF” to “print” your clean version into a pdf document. Enjoy.

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