5 Insights From A Year Of Blogging
Anders Liu-Lindberg
Leading advisor to senior Finance and FP&A leaders on creating impact through business partnering | Interim | VP Finance | Business Finance
So 2014 became the year when I started my first professional blog when LinkedIn opened up for all members to write content on the Pulse platform. It started with How To Break Free From A Stereotype and 28 posts later culminates with this year-end review. Before talking about my experiences let’s look at some numbers.
9,772 – total number of views for all posts
242 – total number of likes for all posts
58 – total number of comments
5 – number of posts featured on a Pulse channel
796 – highest number of views on a single post
127 – lowest number of views on a single post
56 – highest number of likes on a single post
To be quite honest I never imagined writing this many posts since I started in May. In some weeks I didn’t know what to write about next week until late in the week. Other weeks I had a few topics on inventory I could pull out however there is not one single place or topic where I pull my inspiration from. Rather it’s from being observant about what happens around me and the challenges I come across in my working life. I have tried to keep it limited to a few topics only: performance management, finance transformation and leadership. It has definitely been challenging and I have gained quite a few insights.
- Blogging is hard work and doesn’t yield many direct results right away
- Being featured on Pulse doesn’t guarantee a ton of views
- People read, but rarely engage with your writing
- Your network does notice when you start blogging
- What you find interesting is not necessarily interesting to other people
Despite these not so encouraging insights I have not given up on the writing and will next year aim to write more business related articles about shipping and oil & gas which is where the majority of my experience comes from as well as turn up the articles about finance transformation a notch when introducing the Finance Transformation Nine Box. Most likely I will write less articles about leadership as to be honest I need to gain more first-hand experience in this area to be able to write with credibility. To continue my efforts some goals on what to achieve would also be appropriate so here are few.
- Reach more than 25,000 total views on my posts
- Triple amount of likes to 750
- Receive more invitations to do guest blogging or write guest articles
- Be invited as a speaker for a conference or business association meeting
- Have more than 1,500 views on a single article
You should feel free to suggest other goals or how about you take up business blogging yourself and start your own journey towards becoming a well-respected influencer in your network. I for one hope you will keep following my blogging and if you are a first time reader remember to share, like, comment and of course follow me for all the content to come in 2015.
With that said all there is left is to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2015…
Pharmacy Technician at PillPack
8 年Thank you for sharing
Leader in HR business processes, HR analytics and IT projects in creating a supportive and fair work environment
10 年Thanks for sharing those figures. Good to know what might happen to me if I get the bug of writing, too. I enjoyed it so far. Perhaps you should trying more with conferences as a next step in your days off from work.
Courage Sparker | Inspires LinkedIn Confidence to Grow Your Business | Forbes Contributor ?? I Take the Guesswork out of LinkedIn for Professional Services Consultants
10 年Thank for sharing your stats, Anders, and your projection for 2015. You motivate me to create writing goals as well. Are you familiar with copyblogger.com? They are an excellent resource. I've gotten great tips from them. I also so agree, what interests you, even if written well, won't necessarily find an audience. To answer your question, what have I learned from blogging: the more I engage (in the best sense of that word) on LinkedIn, the more people respond, leading to phone conversations/ conversions. By putting yourself out there, even if it feels vulnerable/risky, creates a warm connection. That is exciting, isn't it? Be authentic, be relentless & consistent about sharing what you know in a helpful way, and the right people will find you.
Published Nonfiction Author | Technical Writer & Editor | Adjunct Professor of English | 2x TEDx Speaker
10 年You're off to a great start and thank you for sharing your unique insights with us. I have always been a writer and began blogging about 10 years ago. One of the lessons that is reinforced for me year after year is that you can't please everyone. For me, blogging (and all social media) has helped me strengthen and use my authentic voice with confidence, to become clearer in my messaging and develop more of a "don't take it personally" attitude when someone doesn't agree with me or like what I've written. Best wishes to you for a happy holiday and I look forward to reading more of your content in 2015.
Creative Outreach Director and Ambassador
10 年Numbers themselves are objective but how do you interpret them? If its all about increasing views then you just keep plugging away