LinkedIn recently added a new option for many of its members — the ability to write and publish posts that would be put before a broader audience than their own connections. If you see a little pencil icon next to the paperclip icon in the “Share an update…” box at the top of your home page, you have the ability to create and publish posts. Both my consulting profile and my freelance writing profile have these icons as do all my clients’ profiles.
So we’ve been experimenting with this option to see what kind of activity we’re able to generate.
Yesterday I posted an item on LinkedIn that I’d recently written as a blog post–“Four Little Words That Can Reveal a Lot: ‘Why Do You Ask?'”–the response has been phenomenal (at least by our standards). Last night as I was reviewing online activity for all of my accounts I noticed that I had about 400 views and 24 comments, quite a bit higher than I was used to seeing. But, this morning when I took a look the results were even more astounding–about 3000 views, 156 likes and the same 24 comments. As I’m writing this, a quick look shows me that I now have almost 6000 views, 227 likes and 33 comments.
To put this into perspective, this compares to my formerly highest viewed post coming in at 106 views, 3 likes and 0 comments.
And, some of our posts to client accounts have also generated some significant traffic: one at 10,500 views, 990 likes and 194 comments.
So, what gives? Wouldn’t I like to know! If I could come up with the secret recipe to generate massive amounts of views, likes, comments and followers I have a feeling my client base would grow exponentially. Toward that end, I’m continually trying to learn from my own and others’ experiences. Here are a few of the things I’ve gleaned, to date, from this experience:
- This post was based on a personal experience that others readily identified with–either as consumers themselves or in customer service roles they hold with various organizations.
- There is a big difference between the two examples I shared reflecting two opposite ends of a customer service spectrum.
- The “takeaway” is simple; it doesn’t cost a lot, if anything, to do what my experience suggests.
- At some point the “multiplier effect” takes hold, or what Malcolm Gladwell would call the tipping point. I don’t know what that “magic number” is, or if it could even actually be calculated, but it seems that at some point a comment, post or blog is shared enough that its reach increases exponentially. (Consider what happened with Ellen Degeneres’ selfie tweet during the 2014 Oscar broadcast.
As I continue to ponder this experience (and hope the numbers jump into the 5-figure range), I’ll continue to try to draw insights that I can hopefully put into practice for myself and my clients in the future.
One key insight I’ve already gleaned: stay humble. A look at the “top posts” on LinkedIn today makes my results seem fairly inconsequential. Wharton professor Adam Grant’s post, “If you do this, your emails might be rude,” leads the pack at 167k views and there are several other heavy hitters right behind him.
It’s all relative I guess!
Recommended Reading:
The Everything Guide to Customer Engagement
Tags: content management, content marketing, linkedin, media relations, pr, Social Media