I Spent a Month on LinkedIn in 2019. This is What I Found.
I’ve had a LinkedIn account since 2014, and I forgot all about it.
It was just one of those social media applications I downloaded because people around me said I should.
So I did.
Then, that was all and nothing more.
My only real interaction with Linkedin was job searching (if I decided to get into the application because I remembered it existed), and probably just to reduce the count of the notifications that were appearing as a bubble in red at the top right-hand corner of the application. I also learnt to disregard seemingly warm messages from people trying to sell me Bitcoin and Forex investments as well as those trying to headhunt me for jobs I have never heard about in my professional career.
Though I was amused, I wasn’t impressed.
Then things started to take a turn when retrenched colleagues around me started circulating how Linkedin saved them because they were able to network with people in that World who could present them the next tranche of job opportunities. My ears perked up. It sounded logical and started to make professional sense in terms of spending more time on that platform. Just before I started, I had questions that needed answers.
- Could LinkedIn add value to my professional endeavours?
- Was it worthy in terms of time commitment?
- Would I be harassed by hard-selling Salespeople?
I didn’t have any answers from the get-go and I shouldn’t. After all, I have not given it a proper shot. I decided to get actively involved in Linkedin for a month in order to evaluate how it could impact my professional life.
I have had some findings after a month of daily involvement and these are my takeaways.
Takeaway Number 1: Do not Treat it as Social Media.
LinkedIn is regarded as one of those popular social media platforms by many. We know it once we start talking about likes, comments, connections and number of downloads per year. I regularly hear business connections say “It is an imperative that our business is active on all of the main social channels; Facebook, Quora, Instagram, LinkedIn etc”.
There are strong propositions for businesses to be on Linkedin because their business connections are on Linkedin. One thing to take note, LinkedIn is designed for professional networking in principle. It is a modern, digitally formatted Rolodex. In that sense, it is not advisable to spam “Let’s Connect” messages or even images of swimming otters unless there is a relevant message contextualised to our business or professional decorum (such as having a bad day after being spit at by the client and watching swimming otters calmed me down before I actually scream at my boss).
Takeaway Number 2: Quality of Network Connections is more important than Quantity.
It really doesn’t matter how many connections we have on LinkedIn, so long as they are real, high quality connections. They should be people that we actually know, respect and want to be in touch with. The easiest way to validate this is to ask yourself, “Would I be happy to initiate dinner?” Or at the very least, “Would I meet up with them for business over coffee?”
Otherwise, what point is there to grow the follower count?
And that brings us to an interesting decision point. What about all those strangers already in our connections list?
We have two obvious options. Firstly, we can delete them. However, they might be possible prospecting candidates. In that case, we can send a message to invitation to meet and exchange business communication. The decision to remove them can come after the acceptance of invitation. There is no hurry. Even if we delete them today, we can send them connection requests should the business need arise in the future.
What I recommend might sound weird and unemotional, but the point is to surround ourselves with people we know and trust professionally and personally. We work to make our LinkedIn account valuable. We will then feel comfortable saying what we really think professionally, and we have a concise list of people within our network whom we can talk shop as required.
Takeaway number three: Post something interesting every day.
Being surrounded by a network of people we know, we should start sharing our predominant professional thoughts and experiences regularly. Please do not learn from those who spam advertising messages, or trying to hard sell them anything they don’t need and posting pointless pitches showcasing how cool our company is.
None of those work.
We should endeavour to put out concise content about what we really think and believe in within a professional context. Our posts should ideally be informative, thought-provoking and inspiring. Through that, we are adding value to their day, while also communicating who we are at work and as a person. Daily commitment sounds crazy, but it’s good practice in writing and it supports our article writing on Medium as well.
Takeaway Number 4: Write an Article Every Week
Articles on Linkedin aren’t the same mould as the one on Medium. While Medium focuses on quality writing for readers, Linkedin is ultimately a professional networking platform.
The articles that will be providing value to our business connections are those that are precisely commercial in nature.
It could be about Sales, Marketing or it could be about ensuring survival of a boutique consulting firm by the founder. Keep it all things business and the branding element online will grow.
We have gone through the takeaways, so how did it actually go?
I decided right from the start that I would only access LinkedIn on working days, so I only published posts to my LinkedIn account 20 times in the month. And I would only publish an article once a month. I found out that I enjoyed this rather quickly and I learned that LinkedIn only shows people the first three lines by default, which means copywriting is back in vogue again!
I also learned that people engage more with content that talks about real people those with a good photo or video. It was annoying at the beginning as I am not good at either though it was become rather obvious in hindsight.
Now that my post feed is only showing updates from people who I am connected with, it becomes a portal for professional learning and keeping up to date with their latest thoughts and ideas.
All in all, it has been a great month of September 2019.
Should I have done more on LinkedIn?
Actually, I did.
I continued my month-long experiment for about a year and I feel for the first time in over a decade that my LinkedIn account finally has a purpose. This experiment demonstrated to me that LinkedIn can be worthwhile if we embrace it as a place for business connections with others we know professionally, rather than a connection hub with random strangers. With that in context, it is a worthwhile investment of a few minutes each day.
To sum up, if we want to get more out of LinkedIn, do try following these simple tips:
- Update our profile to show who we really are today. It takes effort.
- Preferably, reduce our connections to only include professional network we would be happy to meet for a coffee chat. Or virtual coffee.
- Post concise, thoughtful content of value to our professional network.
- Reach out and catch up with our professional network, ideally in person.
- LinkedIn can be addictive. Don’t get lost into the Social Game!
I will continue this experiment as long as I can as the value proposition is clear to me now.
If we are acquainted and not connected on LinkedIn, feel free to add me to your connections. If we aren’t acquainted and are connected, feel free to delete me as you decide. If you have reached out recently and I haven’t responded, it is soon that I will.
Fancy grabbing a virtual coffee?
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About the Author:
As a Consultant by training, I believe in making the complex simple.
Because simplicity adds value.
Simplicity helps us gain clarity, and clarity helps us to grow.
And if we are not growing, then what’s the point of anything else?
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