Don't tell me what to write or how to write on LinkedIn...

#inittogether

800M+ LinkedIn users and growing.

800M+ Professionals, 800M+ Humans. A large part of these professionals have only created a profile, that's it. They are not actively participating and don’t get the result they could have. We call them ‘lurkers’. As they don’t create, not participate nor engage (at least not detectable), we also don’t know if they consume or spend time on the platform. We as users that is. LinkedIn knows of course how much time each user is spending on the platform.

We also have the group of professionals that isn’t creating content but does engage with likes and/or comments on created content.

Last but not least we have the active creators, professionals who post and create content on a regular base. Content that is consumed or engaged upon.

CONTENT

So let's talk about the content that is shown to us users in our feed. Selected by the algorithm based upon our network, engagement with others (likes, comments, shares) and other activities. Remember these activities (besides likes, comments and shares) are important as well. Perhaps even more than you would think. It could mean adding a new connection to your 1st degree network, or more than one in a specific region or industry. You could also be visiting someone’s profile (perhaps more often than just one time). It could mean visiting groups (yes they still exist), clicking (more often) on certain type of videos or posts, or pausing for a while at a post. It could also mean following a hashtag or subscribing to a Newsletter (this one perhaps?) …all kind of activities together will help LinkedIn to create your personal feed. Some activities have an upward effect, others perhaps a downward effect. Once more, all of the above combined influences our feed and content shown to us users. Or as one also hears; to help LinkedIn's members discover the most relevant conversations and content to help them be more productive and successful.

Now, are you happy when looking at the first five or ten posts in your feed? Do you even scroll that far down, or do you go even further? By default your feed is filtered on ‘Top’ posts. Posts that other people engage with best or fast. You can also manually choose to filter your feed on ‘Recent', have you ever done so?

Some, perhaps many of you will say "No, I'm not happy with what I'm seeing in my feed at the moment". My advice to you unhappy people: Stop scrolling, start getting your act together. It's easy to say "LinkedIn is not working for me" and blaming others. It takes some time and practice to turn this around. The flip side, for content creators: Don't let others tell you what you can or cannot write, never! If it feels right, it is right.

A recent Dutch publication in a glossy magazine referred to LinkedIn as "a platform for windbags". The author (a trainee) interviewed someone who wrote several management books. To others he might be an expert, based upon this publication I disagree. So lucky we have freedom of speech, so fortunate I was born in the Netherlands. I like quality interviews with fair hearing (or tutorial ones explaining stuff after conducting an experiment e.g. so we can learn from each other). This post mentioned above wasn't written with fair hearing. The article (a short one) was approved by the editors-in-chief (to my surprise) and was published.

One of the statements that was made in this short article; avoid ‘cliché posts’ e.g. a post of someone next to a big pile of books celebrating they passed their exams. Or a trainer showing gratitude for being able to perform a training. "This is your job isn't it?" the author wrote. He called it bragging. Don't publish a post eiher of you changing jobs was one he mentioned...your network will be informed automatically.

This notification might be true but why not publish these these kind of posts? I really don't understand. Others might not know what it took you to get this new position. Can't we be proud sometimes of what we've achieved in live? Readers just don't know the full story perhaps. Or they missed the notification.

This Newsletter is called ‘The human side of LinkedIn and more’ for a reason. The simple explanation; we’re professionals but we’re also human. People do business with people….they know, like and trust. And... people like stories.

If you're interested in learning more about stories in business, sales and marketing I highly recommend reading Donald Miller's book 'StoryBrand'. Stories help our brains to process and simplify all the information they receive. Most business leaders struggle to talk about what they do.

On top of the above I’m also a fan of the LinkedIn Campaign #InItTogether [click on previous hashtag to watch one of the videos about this topic.]

Don't tell me what to write or how to write on LinkedIn. Don’t act as LinkedIn police. I'm living my live, doing what I love, for a living. We're all professionals... I am open however for constructive feedback. We can never learn less.

?What's your LinkedIn Goal? Do you have one?

So let’s agree to disagree sometimes. Have respect, be kind and be human. We’re all professionals, we sometimes speak different languages, I can tell as a European. And we also have different behaviour styles. Different professionals use LinkedIn differently. Choose what works for you, what feels right and what brings you the results you're happy with. Just a question in between, what's your reason for being here on LinkedIn, do you have a goal?

Look at yourself in the mirror occasionally

To finish off... Do you want to improve your LinkedIn feed? Stand in front of the mirror sometimes and check out your personal activities. You might come to the conclusion to unfollow someone or something. Perhaps you have to tweak your settings and notifications. Yes it takes time, a lot sometimes. So plan for regular care of your LinkedIn garden. Pull weeds and water your plants.

Need some help? We can always set up a (Zoom) call if you want to hear some direct Dutch feedback. I'm not the type of LinkedIn Trainer or strategist to tell you what to do and what works for you. You're the CEO of your profile. But I do have an opinion...and some LinkedIn experience...just saying.

We're in it together.

Hi my name is Guy, I've been an independent LinkedIn strategist since 2009. Due to my international background (Dutch, French, Belgium and Hungarian roots), connecting lies within my DNA. Based in the Netherlands, working globally, e.g. supporting international Sales Teams.

LinkedIn Strategy | Social Selling | Personal branding | Corporate branding...

This is the 3rd 'The Human side of LinkedIn" #Newsletter.... Go ahead and subscribe! Feel free to follow #LinkedInbyGuy as well, my personal hashtag. I like to finish off with something I learned from my father... "the more languages you speak, the more people you will meet." Stay safe, have a great day!

Happy to connect on LinkedIn but do add a human note. A personal video to finish off with, it's just a story of a guy called Guy. It's a happy story, it might bring a smile upon your face... if so, just let me know https://bit.ly/2tPsftF?

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