Sharing Content vs Sharing Activity

If you've been anywhere near a social platform, you've seen messages like this: "Friend A likes this update" or "Friend B" has read this article" (and, clicking on the article title seems to always require you to hand all your information to the publisher before you can see the content.)

Facebook, in particular is very keen on you seeing your friends' activity. LinkedIn, too, wants you to know that a connection has followed a company, connected with someone else, answered a question, joined a group.

The problem with that is exactly the same problem as talking to a friend who walks you through every step of their day, without degree or distinction; waking up, brushing teeth, eating breakfast, commute, meetings at work, home, etc... no one wants every single detail of your day. What we'd like to hear is the juicy bits, the good stuff. ^_^

Each social platform is a different conversation. Even when you have the same people talking about the same thing in the same place, there's subtle differences in audience, tone, attention, and acceptable length. Posting Twitter conversations on LI is meaningless to anyone not already in that conversation.

Be mindful of the difference between "activity" and "content." 


Facebook wants us to know all our friends' activities. What they read, what they commented on, what games they played, etc.

If your Twitter feed is automatically sent to LinkedIn, all your contacts are getting all of your activity, your RTs, your @s, your replies. The only thing that will be meaningful to many of those people in all of that is any content you share. And how patient do you think your contacts will be when they have to wade through 3 dozen chatty posts to get to a brilliant piece of content?

Quora, a platform I adore, yesterday launched a new feature that shared your Quora activity on your Facebook Timeline. I enabled it and ten minutes later, disabled it. I have no doubt my friends on FB would be interested in some of the answers I post to questions there, but equally, I have no doubt at all that no one not already on Quora cares which other answers I upvote. While the content I generate there may be of interest, my activity on Quora is entirely irrelevant to the folks on FB.

Small and medium sized businesses on Twitter, and individuals whose expertise is their business, often have only one Twitter account. To be authentic and real, these people tend to chat as well as share good content from this same account. This works really well on Twitter, where each tweet is viewed individually but, when it becomes a stream of half the conversation on a Twitter feed embedded on a web page, it simply makes no sense at all. Like sitting next to a person on the train who talks loudly enough that you can't not listen, you're getting an intrusive half a conversation you don't really want to hear.

Worse, when companies keep their Twitter account for purely professional contacts, that embedded stream becomes an obsessively narcissistic stream of "me me me." Again - it works fine on Twitter, but watch where else it gets shared or you can seem like you are incapable of listening to others.

So, by all means, share content! Just be mindful that your not drowning it out with all of your activity.

Three Common Mistakes on LinkedIn and How to Fix Them

LinkedIn, because of its placement as the most populous professional networking site, can significantly boost your presence online, even if you don't have any other social presence. Maximing your LinkedIn presence is merely a matter of simple steps, and building a Business page is straightforward. From that point on, all that is required is participation and maintenance of your profile.

Because use of LinkedIn is so relatively simple, and because there are no moderating features, LinkedIn frequently has examples of behaviors that more sophisticated users of social platforms eschew. Here are three behaviors that can completely capsize you on LinkedIn and you may never know why.

This morning, I checked LinkedIn and ran into three very common mistakes right away in my inbox:


Request for Recommendation (From Someone You Don't Know)

I'm pretty generous with recommendations. If we've worked together directly and you've shown yourself to be professional (at the very least) I'll probably find something nice to write about you. Today I received an obvious generic email sent to all of the person's connections - asking for "glowing praise."

Well, you know, I don't know this person. We have never worked together. LinkedIn is a professional networking site, but despite their limited (and pointless) security against connecting with people you don't know, many folks there do connect with people they do not know. That is, in fact, the point of professional networking. However, if he feels that a mass mailing is the most appropriate way to gather recommendations, he's missing the point of "social media." The conclusion? I unconnected with him.

Do it Right: If you're looking for recommendations to bulk up your profile, be as authentic as possible. Don't spam your connections - take a moment to find people you've done business with, who you respect and who are likely to feel the same way about you. Those recommendations are much more likely to be meaningful.


Contentious Replies to Answers

You asked a question on LinkedIn Answers, but aren't getting the response you wanted. Instead of thanking people who are trying to help - or, at the minimum, saying nothing - you are replying by telling everyone how wrong or unhelpful they are.

Do It Right: LinkedIn makes editing impossible. so before you post a question, sit on it for a while and think how you can make it better. What clarifications will make the criteria more useful? Consider too, whether you're looking for validation of your already-decided opinion, or are looking for feedback that gives you a different perspective.  Lastly, consider if the "advice" you're looking for is really something you should be paying for. Many people use LinkedIn Answers to ask a question for which they should really be hiring a professional to do the work. Once you've decided your question can elicit useful answers - thank everyone. It took them time to answer. Even if you hate the answer, or don't find it useful, thank them for their time. Don't forget to assign Good and Best answers when you close the question. Those markers are the only form of reward on LinkedIn, it is critical that you assign them, so that people will want to answer your next question.

These first two mistakes fall under the category of self-delusion, mistakes made when people are using a tool and not really considering how it makes them look. This third mistake is often because of naivete or inexperience.


Joining a Group with Incomplete Profile or Credentials

I run a group on LinkedIn. Because it is a group focused on the Industry of a field of Entertainment, I receive a lot of requests to join that are wildly inappropriate. They usually boil down to one of three kinds of applications.

 - No Connections

 - No Experience in the Industry (Job hunting)

 - No Note to express *why* they would be a good candidate

Do It Right: Yes, you might want a job as a Marketer, but if the group rules state that the group is only for people who are members of a specific Marketing Association, and you are not, don't apply. It makes you look sloppy, at best. Spend time working on your profile, so you've got connections that make sense to the industry. If you genuinely think you'd be great for a group, but you're new on LinkedIn, don't yet have a job in that industry, but you know you can bring value to the group, write a note to the Group leader and explain that cogently. Avoid "I should be in this group, because I run a website devoted to that topic," unless the topic is technical. There are a million fan pages for everything in the universe, running a fan page doesn't make you a professional. Have a full, relevant profile, strong connections and the note will be the icing on the cake.


These mistakes are common - but they are also easy to fix. Don't let them hold you back on LinkedIn or anywhere else on line. Do it right - be professional, courteous and relevant and your reputation will be as solid on LinkedIn as it is everywhere else in your industry.

Connect with Erica on LinkedIn.

Maximizing LinkedIn for Your Company: Three Questions Answered

Last year, it was my pleasure to be invited to write a post on Good Practices for Maximizing Linkedin as a personal Professional Development platform on Shelly Kramer's V3 blog.

This year, I have been asked to consider how a Company can use LinkedIn for development, beyond HR using it to look at candidates.  Here are the answers to the top three questions I've received.

1) Why Should My Company Be on LinkedIn? 

LinkedIn was designed with individual Professional Development in mind, but there are a number of reasons why you want your company there:

Search Engine Visibility is considerably increased when you and your employees are on LinkedIn. For instance, searching on my name brings up my LinkedIn profile first, although there are other platforms on which I have been active much longer. LinkedIn is a powerful force for visability.

Corporate Presence in Social Media - Not every business is right for a blog, or a Facebook page. You may not be able to reach out to clients on Twitter, especially if you work in an externally regulated industry. By having a coherent LinkedIn presence, you can show that your company is not opposed to Social Media or behind the curve. You understand the need for Social Media, even - especially - at the corporate level. LinkedIn keeps it Professional.

Highlight Employee Expertise - This is your best weapon in Social Media and no less on LinkedIn. The Answers forums give your employees a chance to apply their experience and skills to a variety of business-to-business situations. They can learn from competitors and peers, just as they might at an industry meeting. And they will have a chance to show off the same expertise that they apply for your company. When your employees actively, intelligently participate on LinkedIn, it shows the world that your company has it together.

Professional Credentials and Recommendations - Groups on LinkedIn can highlight professional associations, credentialed institutions or affiliations that your employees - and therefore your company - are aligned with. Recommendations are another way for your employees to bring their A-game to a publicly visible space. When your top producer has fistfuls of recommendations from clients, it says something important about them and about your company.

2) What if my employees are reluctant to embrace LinkedIn?

One of the concerns that employees often express in regards to professional use of Social Media is that they "don't have time." This often masks fear of the unknown, or fear of failure. It's very easy to see a new task as an obstacle that has to be avoided, rather than a new skill to be embraced.

Social Media as an overarching concept tends to be used to refer to the technological platforms, like LinkedIn, through which we communicate with other people. Forget the technology - it's just a platform. LinkedIn is no different, really, than talking with people in person, by phone, by email. Setting up a profile is no more difficult or time consuming than taking a moment to establish who you are to a lead over the phone.

Whatever function employees are already doing - communications, marketing, sales - does not change. Only the platform on which they are doing those things changes. Whatever the function was, it still is. So Marketing on Social Media is still Marketing. Communications/PR through Social Media is still Communications. Sales is still Sales. Your employees are just picking up a new kind of phone. Give them clear guidance as to your expectations of their participation and use, provide training and feedback and they'll integrate their LinkedIn profile into their daily routine in no time, just as they did with email.

3) How do I implement Social Media Participation in my company?

Implementation of a Social Media Policy is similar to any other technology or policy roll-out. There needs to be stages for education; expectation training; implementation training; and follow-up/reinforcement/feedback. There also need to be some checks and balances in place for surveillance and enforcement.

A rollout of any policy should go hand-in-hand with a communications campaign and reminders of responsibilities and rules for employees.

The problem that I've seen with most with new policies in corporations is that there is an initial rollout, and then no follow-up. Wherever there are new people coming in, there has to be continuous education on the policy, as well as retraining for employees who have been around a while. Provide a continuous cycle of training, feedback and policy adjustment for as seamless a transition as possible.

With an eye on these basics, maximize use of LinkedIn to promote and expand your company's presence and allow your employees to participate actively in their professional development at the same time.