Why I Don’t Chase Views

(and why I don’t think you should either)?

If you have ever had an article you published on LinkedIn? get a large number of views, it is easy to get caught up in trying to do it again.?

When I first started writing on LinkedIn? in 2016, almost all my content was in the form of LinkedIn? articles. I used to post every week, and my articles tended to get in the middle to high hundreds of views each week, with my occasional posts getting ten to twelve times that amount.?

A good article for me was a thousand views. A good post was ten thousand views (remember that post views were counted differently). Once every six weeks or so, a piece of my content would get double these high water marks.

Then there were the true outliers. One got almost 88,000 views, another 25,000. And the granddaddy of them all: an article on (irony alert) "What Is A View" got over 170,000 click-to-opens. All of these were articles. The equivalent number of post views would have been maybe ten to twelve times higher.?

The upside is that at various times over the past eight plus years I have written and published? something on LinkedIn? that readers really liked. The downside is that since that “What Is A View” article that did really well, I have had around four hundred shots at publishing new articles and replicating that success. While I have had around four hundred opportunities to do so, I never have.

But I don’t worry about it and here’s why: I have no clue why those articles did really well and why none of my other several hundred articles did not. I think you can write as well as you can, hit publish and then it is out of your hands. If it goes viral, enjoy your moment in the sun. I published one article that got one hundred times the views I normally get. I don’t know what was different about that one from others I have written. I don’t know the secret.

And no one else does either. Anyone who writes that they know how to go viral is full of it. Otherwise they would be viral every time they published...and wouldn’t have to write articles on how to go viral.

And while views are good for the ego, engagement from those views is the real deal. LinkedIn? doesn’t tell me who my viewers are, so I have no way to identify and contact them if I wish to. People who like, share and comment are identifiable so I can contact them. I consider a post or?article with three hundred views and sixty people engaging with it to be more successful than having three thousand views and thirty people engage with my content.

Don’t sweat going viral or piling up huge numbers of views. Views are good for the ego.?

Engagement is good for business.

Today’s newsletter is a shorter version of my email newsletter. I usually publish one of the four articles from my email Newsletter on LinkedIn?. Today’s email Newsletter also included articles on 14 Outreach Message Do’s and Don’ts, LinkedIn? Newsletter Subscriber Churn, and? LinkedIn? Profile Do’s and Don’ts. If you are interested in this deeper weekly dive into Using LinkedIn? Effectively, here’s a link to the signup page: https://www.practicalsmm.com/free-email-newsletter/

This week All Access members will also get You Don’t Always Get Rewarded For What You Think You Will, and More adventures In AI Posting. All Access members also have, well, all access to everything I have ever written about using LinkedIn? effectively.

The obligatory disclaimer: I do not work for or have any business association with LinkedIn? other than being a user who pays for a Sales Navigator subscription.