One Social Media Thought Leader’s Perspective On This Growing Platform
For the longest time, people thought LinkedIn was just for job seekers to post their resume online. In fact, I still get that a lot from people. However, savvy business folks have realized that LinkedIn is a formidable force in the social media world. Silent, but powerful, this social media giant stands as perhaps the most powerful social media platform out there today.
That’s a pretty bold statement to say that it’s the most powerful, but LinkedIn offers a lot and here’s why I love it.
- It’s serious. You don’t get all the dumb stuff like cat memes and goofy videos that you have to sift through to find the actual content you care about. People on LinkedIn post content and comments of value. This means that they usually think about if something they want to share has a place in the professional world. Compare that with let’s say, Twitter, and you have a night and day comparison.
- LinkedIn provides easy social proof of your achievements. Between endorsements and recommendations, YOUR connections can validate the skills and work experiences you have listed in your profile. This validation is social proof that you actually know your stuff.
- LinkedIn is always changing, but not for the sake of changing. As a social media manager, I have a personal annoyance with how often Facebook changes the look of the program or the algorithm of how posts show up in a news feed. LinkedIn rarely drastically changes the layout or features they provide, or the algorithmic rules. Then, when they do, there is a clear purpose as to why they make these changes. For example, they changed the way you can post updates because they now feature the Publishing tool. Yes, this was a change, but it was a useful change.
- LinkedIn gives me good reach with my audience. I have a huge list of connections on LinkedIn and I get regular feedback either through comments, likes, or verbal comments that people are seeing my posts. Whereas, my reach with Facebook is pretty minimal and Twitter has good reach, but the lifetime of that tweet is really short, on LinkedIn, I get solid reach to my audience when I post updates either on my business page or my personal profile.
- People are paying attention. Remember that first reason I mentioned? Because this is a serious environment, people actually take it seriously. When you post something, they pay more attention to it. My connections actually read my posts and interact with them on a regular basis, as opposed to my posts getting lost in the jumble of cat memes and videos.
- I’ve made lifelong friends on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great place to start and I’ve met some amazing professionals who have turned into clients or friends through this platform. The best part is that these relationships don’t stay on LinkedIn. Many of these are people I regularly interact with via phone calls, video chats, or in person meetings when possible. LinkedIn was the starting point!
- LinkedIn helps me build authority. As a thought leader and speaker on content marketing and social media, LinkedIn has allowed me a place where people are serious about wanting to know thought leaders and to learn. Between posts, groups, and publishing posts, I can showcase my expertise in these subjects and get to know others who have similar interests or needs.
- Publisher/Pulse gives me a great place to feature blog content. The addition of Pulse and being able to publish articles on LinkedIn has been a great tool to increase my personal network, while showcasing my expertise. It also gives me a great place to repurpose blog content that I am already writing for my blog already. Not only that, but I come across amazing content written by others everyday through this feature as well!
- LinkedIn provides me resources to interact with like-minded professionals in Groups. The groups are great because they provide a forum where I can pose questions or glean thoughts from others who are deep in the content marketing trenches as well.
- LinkedIn is constantly evolving. I love how LinkedIn is always evolving and adding new features, but yet the core functions are all still there. Yes, if you are looking for a new job, you should be utilizing LinkedIn for sure! However, if you want to use it for much, much more, then the features are there for that as well. Go check out the documentary on LinkedIn that is on Netflix. It will blow your mind to see the vision the leadership has!