I have earned the ultimate accolade.
I have reached Nirvana.
I shot; I scored.
Guru status achieved.
There’s really nowhere left to go.
What am I talking about?
Why, LinkedIn, of course.
Not the number of likes my posts get.
Not little applause symbols.
Not comments.
In the last month, ten (yes, TEN) different people have… in normal conversation… spoken to me about the content of recent Thursday ThoughtSparks.
Widely different subjects.
Very different people.
A range of different comments/additional points/disagreements.
But real people in real LIVE conversations… unprompted.
Is this because I’m a genius. NO.
Is it because I’m clever? Not really.
It is because – I’m convinced – the content is genuine and (at least moderately) interesting.
@william davis makes this point most eloquently in a recent post.
So much of what gets posted on LinkedIn is supremely…
- Self-regarding
- Trivial
- Parochial
- Ego-massaging
- Sycophantic
- Fake
- Fantasist
- Puerile
- Uninformative
- Valueless
So, I commend to you William’s advice, where he says…
Read out your posts to yourself before you press GO.
Several times if necessary.
This might give some chance of plugging-in-brain-before-posting to ask, “Would this grab me? Or does it just sound silly/dull/formulaic/lazy/self-consumed/false/etc?”
If in doubt, don’t do it.
In addition, I say don’t get consumed by the ‘reactions’ you can see on LinkedIn. They require almost no effort to perform. So, value them accordingly.
But if you find people are taking the trouble to say to you in normal conversation, “That was a really interesting post last week” or “I really disagree with your viewpoint in your post” or “You make a good point in that post but I think the situation is more complex” or whatever, then…
…you have truly reached the top.
That’s engagement.
But remember to be humble.
It’s not that you’re so incredibly interesting.
On the other hand you have managed to stand out from the tsunami of utter rubbish that typifies most posting.
If you want to look at some people who I think do it well, check out:-
@amy greenwood @ida tin @roger binks @sian eden @sally croft @richard kingsbury @christian ries @benjamin braun
