LinkedIn is a very, very, very interesting animal.\u00a0 It is also a very different animal now than it was at its origin.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year I decided that I was going to approach the platform in earnest to see what I could see.\u00a0 Earnest as in with deliberateness, not as in “Hey Vern.”\u00a0 But now I’m wondering what “Earnest Goes to LinkedIn” would look like as a feature film.\u00a0 Someone needs to make that happen.<\/p>\n
Where was I?\u00a0 Oh yeah.\u00a0 LinkedIn usage for reals.<\/p>\n
Admission of guilt: it started out as an endeavor to drum up business.\u00a0 Cannot and will not lie.\u00a0 All of the best advice at the time was that the road paved with gold was on LinkedIn and being there was a one-way ticket to glorious something.\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 For some folks, that is probably absolutely true.\u00a0 That is their sole purpose, their mission, and it really works<\/em> for them.<\/p>\n What has happened so far has been dramatically different, as outlined below in this next installment of “WALL OF TEXT.”<\/p>\n All of the big time content marketing folks have been saying for years that LinkedIn is (well, was) the single best place for “organic reach” where promotion is concerned.\u00a0 From the top of the heap to the people who take what the people at the top of the heap publish and give out for free, repackage it, and either reword it and give it away for free or sell it: Content, Content, Content.\u00a0 Not as in the state of being, but publication of STUFF and THINGS.\u00a0 Preferably at least three stuffs per day<\/em> without fail.\u00a0 “There is no other platform where you can make a first post today and have it seen by hundreds of people right out of the gate without paying a single cent for promotion.”<\/p>\n Welp.\u00a0 The reality is, they’re correct.<\/p>\n LinkedIn gives you the benefit of telling you how many views a post has.\u00a0 Type a thing, take a video, record something, put it up, release it to the world, and viola, Bob’s yer uncle, it gets viewed.\u00a0 Depending on the subject and hash tags?\u00a0 Hundreds of views.\u00a0 Thousands.\u00a0 Tens of thousands.<\/p>\n Or at least in my case, hundreds.\u00a0 Not gonna lie: that was a surprise.<\/p>\n My account was created sixteen years ago.\u00a0 2005.\u00a0 Promptly forgotten about.\u00a0 It wasn’t until this year (2021 at the time of writing) that I thought I would see what all the hubbub was about.\u00a0 As it turns out, that’s one of those shoulda coulda woulda” things.\u00a0 Had I been more active there than other social media networks, this might be a very different post.\u00a0 Written years ago, not minutes.<\/p>\n If the decision to approach LinkedIn took place more along the lines of 6 years ago, the impact on the businesses I represent would have been immense.\u00a0 As it stands for the time being, it’s probably not awful<\/em> either.<\/p>\n That first real actual post brought in several hundred views.\u00a0 Were they views or glances or scroll-throughs?\u00a0 Dunno.\u00a0 But that was a surprise given how hilariously tiny my network was at the time.<\/p>\n Actually, the network is hilariously tiny right now<\/em> compared to some of my peers within my industries and most certainly without. Or withinbetween.\u00a0 You know, that space that exists between In and Out.\u00a0 And no, it’s neither Taco Del Mar nor the land of lost socks.<\/p>\n But hey!\u00a0 I did a post!\u00a0 It did a thing!\u00a0 Every journey begins with but a single step.\u00a0 Of course, many journeys end abruptly<\/em> after that same single step but that’s not the plan for here.\u00a0 I started to really pay attention to “The Feed.”\u00a0 No, not the place where you strap the bag to the horse.\u00a0 Content presentation.\u00a0 Started to see what the few connections I had were doing.\u00a0 Which, to be frank, wasn’t much.\u00a0 Most of the connections I had made up to that point had long since abandoned the platform for other pastures.<\/p>\n A few however were still active and it was through this feed that I was able to see the things that were interesting to them.\u00a0 The things they liked, the things they supported, the occasional things they commented on, and that <\/em>is where the next big step was to come.<\/p>\n “No way, George!” you’re already going to tell me.\u00a0 “There is no way on this presently snow-buried Earth that you suffer from crippling introversion.\u00a0 You function in life!\u00a0 Talking to people happens\u00a0 You do stuff!\u00a0 I SAW YOU SING ON STAGE WITHOUT EXPERIENCING DEATH.<\/em>” Correctumondo on pretty much all of those things.<\/p>\n The part that you do not<\/em> see is the recharge phase that takes place after any of those things.\u00a0 For some folks, being around people and interacting with them regularly is as necessary to their psyche as water is to their vital functions.\u00a0 For those of us who fall under the more introverted category, it is still possible to be “high functioning” in a socially acceptable manner. Rather than recharging the batteries and providing nourishment like more extroverted folks, being the proverbial “social butterfly” comes with a catch of being completely drained and needing silent alone time to regroup and think about what we’ve done.<\/p>\n We’ll use the “on stage” example since it’s the wildest of the paradox comparisons.\u00a0 For the three of you who have ever seen me do things on stage in performance groups – be it in live bands, in barbershop quartets, or public speaking – there’s a certain level of … how shall we say … “spastic energy” that comes through in the total surrender to the music and its portrayal.\u00a0 Also: being a nut-job on stage is a coping mechanism for what would otherwise be the catatonic terror of stage fright.<\/p>\n What does any of that seemingly unrelated confessional have to do with LinkedIn?\u00a0 Here’s how that plays out.<\/p>\n It took months of observation before finally realizing the following: “If I post something on the platform, I am going to be out-of-my-mind delighted if someone actually says something<\/em> in response, whether I know them or not.\u00a0 Why then am I so certain that a comment from me to someone I might not yet know is going to be viewed through the lens of ‘who the devil is this interloper and from whence did he appear and how soon shall he return and bother me never again?”<\/p>\n We’re going to overlook the various levels of “imposter syndrome,” “lack of self-worth recognition,” and other various and sundry for the time being.\u00a0 Suffice it to say: I eventually got over myself and started to “butt in.”<\/p>\n It started out as being extremely difficult and uncomfortable.\u00a0 As do most things that are counter-intuitive, really.\u00a0 Once I realized that the key was to find something I could relate to where commenting was concerned, it all fell into place after that.\u00a0 The thing that has kept the momentum going is that I am absolutely fascinated about virtually everything ever.<\/em>\u00a0 It started to become a euphoric experience to see something interesting, ask questions or share a story or something related, and find out that most<\/em> people were interested in dialogue on the subject.\u00a0 That led to conversations about jet propulsion, how copper surfaces reduce in-hospital reinfection rates, copy writing<\/em>, pandemic-related research, entrepreneurship, content creation, blogging, podcasting, vlogging, and a seemingly endless list of super fascinating stuff.<\/p>\n There was (and still kinda remains) one problem: finding other peoples content to comment on and engage with was one thing.\u00a0 There were and are two more components that complete the Triforce of LinkedIn: producing content, and *gulp* sending connection requests (read: Making Friends).<\/p>\n Below are some things that I have found to be either less-than-savory, just plain weird, or downright awful in the experience.<\/p>\n Profiles on LinkedIn do this thing that …. kinda grate on the back of my neck in that not wonderful way.\u00a0 When I was not paying too much attention, it seemed that most people would list their job title or some key information below their name in their profiles.\u00a0 At some point, it became overrun with “I <verb> <target demographic> to <buzzword related to growth> <more business buzz words> and <SEO inserts for more productive things>.”\u00a0 I also see posts regularly promoting that this is what people should be doing regularly because “job titles are boring.\u00a0 Who cares about job titles?\u00a0 I want to know what you do.”<\/p>\n My impression had always been that there was a descriptive and narrative section of the work experience that handled that aspect of responsibilities, duties, benefits, and features in the profile.\u00a0 Having said that, this is the era of Twitter.\u00a0 If you can cram the elevator speech into 10 words, have at thee I suppose.\u00a0 It still makes me a bit uncomfortable though.<\/p>\n Then there are the dumpster fires. Disinformation propagation.\u00a0 Political venomry.\u00a0 Extremism.\u00a0 Just …. really bad behavior.\u00a0 You know, the kind of stuff that you would expect to run rampant on Facebook.\u00a0 Definitely not the kind of thing that a business platform should be known for, right?\u00a0 Whoops.<\/p>\n I make absolutely no secret about where I stand on many of those subjects.\u00a0 But here’s something interesting I observed and have verified through a few new contacts I’ve made.<\/p>\n Keeping content relatively neutral resulted in minimal engagement.\u00a0 Mostly ho-hum.\u00a0 Nothing particularly exciting.\u00a0 Engage in peoples content where it relates to one of the topics above and it’s like you’ve joined the inner circle of enclosed wagons and there are people<\/em> there.\u00a0 Those topics seem to serve as beacons and rallying calls and banners to throng to and throng they do!\u00a0 And maybe that’s why there’s so much of it; it breeds engagement.\u00a0 It’s the social media version of click bait articles.\u00a0 Which, by the way, are used in many of those rallying calls.\u00a0 Which also means that LinkedIn is suffering from the same thing that Facebook continues to do little about: as long as engagement is high, there’s no reason to let that train derail.<\/p>\n It’s like when Howard Stern was on the air in his early days.\u00a0 People who loved in tuned in for X number of hours per day to find out what he was going to do next.\u00a0 The people that hated<\/em> him?\u00a0 They tuned in for X+1 number of hours per day to find out what he was going to do next.<\/p>\n Engagement<\/em>.\u00a0 It is the key and it’s so terribly easy to provide the kind of low-hanging bottom-shelf content that prospers.\u00a0 Seen any good polls lately?<\/p>\n Me neither.<\/p>\n Two turntables and a microphone?\u00a0 Almost.\u00a0 At least the microphone part.\u00a0 But that was another blog post about nerdy recording stuff.\u00a0 Back to LinkedIn.<\/p>\n This story does not have an end at this time.\u00a0 The project continues. Where it has<\/em> gone so far is to make some new friends who are incredible people<\/em>.\u00a0 Fascinating in their fields, insightful in their perspectives, wildly intelligent beyond my comprehension, and all-around amazing people.<\/p>\n I still see the advice of “Your mission for today is to find 5 people on LinkedIn who would benefit from your services and send them connection requests.\u00a0 Do this every day for a year.” I just cannot get behind that<\/em>.\u00a0 It feels disingenuous and almost deceitful.\u00a0 If that advice was where I ended up going, there is no way I could have possibly made some of the extremely meaningful connections that I’ve made this last year with some amazing people.<\/p>\n Would I like to do something to expand business opportunities?\u00a0 Sure! I struggle with what is considered to be the “correct way” of going about it though.\u00a0 And honestly: I think I realized very quickly that the method outlined way above might be right for some folks in some industries.\u00a0 It just isn’t something I can get behind and feel good about.\u00a0 So what started out as dipping a toe into a highly promoted method of building up a book of business eventually evolved into developing new friendships and making new contacts.<\/p>\n As it stands right now, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.\u00a0 Some of you reading this are some of those new contacts and I am SO grateful for being part of your circles. Thank you for inviting me in and trusting me to do right by your network and to not <\/em>be That Guy who alienates everyone in their path with the hopes of making a sale or two.<\/p>\n Until next time!<\/p>\n -= george =-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" – Or: How busting into other peoples conversations stopped being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\nHow the LinkedIn adventure started<\/h2>\n
Tell the nice man what you did on LinkedIn<\/h2>\n
Introvert Paralysis<\/h2>\n
Where it headed<\/h2>\n
The double edged sword that is LinkedIn (and social media in general)<\/h2>\n
Where it’s at<\/h2>\n
Where it’s going<\/h2>\n