Is THIS Missing from Your Articles & Posts?

Are you among those who seem to get little value from LI or other social media platforms?

Are you among those who think it only works when you have 50,000+ connections? When you're seen as an "Influencer"?

Trust me: I was pretty much invisible for a lot of years, but I have grown my network every week, especially in the last few years as I saw how others grew theirs. And that growth has given me colleagues whose support I value, friends whose love I cherish, and information, wisdom, and knowledge willingly shared by remarkable connections who know so much more than I do or ever will!

Over the last few years, thanks to my original mentor, John White, MBA, and so many others, I have learned a lot about using social media to my benefit. OK, yes. MY benefit.

No, it's NOT all about me, but it starts with me. It starts with my writing something that I hope helps someone else learn from and enjoy, whether it's about American grammar, business writing, life lessons, or my Friday Funday articles that I have faithfully posted for over six years now. Every. Single. Week. (OK, sometimes on Saturday, but still. SIX YEARS.)

And because of all those lessons I've learned from others, the questions I've asked about how to succeed here on LI, I've come to realize how many of us are not getting that critically important engagement with others who see what we have written but don't end up seeming to give a rat's rump.

They don't engage. They hit the "like" button, or maybe one of the newer choices LI has given us, and they move on. They find other articles and posts to read that give them that one reason to linger, to be seen by others, and to make the author feel visible and valued. To make them feel a part of the story.

So, what's that one missing thing?

A Call to Action.

"WHAT?!?!" you exclaim. Yes. A CTA, the last thing readers see after reading your article/post. The last few words that pull them into the article, that give them permission / encourage them to comment, that give you feedback, that give all of you visibility.

But without a CTA, your article likely just ends with a thud. Whoopee. It looks like a term paper, something to read but so what?

Now I am NOT suggesting your CTA should be about buying something. No. Not at all. It's not about "click here" or "download now," although there may be a reason to occasionally use those.

I am suggesting you ask others for their opinions on the info you presented. Their ideas. Their suggestions. Their thoughts.

What did they agree with? Not agree with? What examples do they have that they'd like to share? What stories does YOUR article remind them of in their life? (Oh, and if you don't think stories sell, you must not be connected to Sarah Elkins. She knows better than most that stories are the foundation for all we do.)

We can write brilliantly, and we can offer information that's hard to come by, but if we get no engagement -- if we have no one interested enough to comment and give value to us and our ideas -- we may simply decide it's not worth the effort. It's pretty disheartening to realize we put our time, our heart, maybe our soul into an article, if no one seems to care.

(This article sprang pretty much full-blown this morning after I read several others that got a bunch of "likes," but nothing else, even though the authors all have several thousand connections. I noticed after reading the fourth or fifth one they all ended the same way: with a thud.)

So, what are YOUR thoughts here?

What has your experience on social media been like? Have you found that adding a few words at the end of your posts gets you more engagement? Are there other ways you would suggest?

*****

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Sad to say, I'm not perfect.