Category: LinkedIn

Categories
LinkedIn

We are who we hang out with and because of our content.

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I recently was asked this question on Quora.com, “has LinkedIn become a toxic place or is it the same as ever?”

Let me first define Toxic: Webster says it’s Poisonous. The dumping of toxic waste. That sounds relevant to me.

I define Toxic in regards to social media, as any content filled with hate and attacking words which is detrimental to a positive society.

I don’t call content I disagree with Toxic. Just because I don’t agree does not make content toxic.

Only when it’s filled with ugliness, hatefulness, and attacking anyone or groups of people for any reason, does it get called Toxic by me.

Ok, this said, yes, LinkedIn is just as toxic as it has always been. Just like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat, YouTube, etc, they all contain toxic content in some way or another.

It really has not changed much over time. Maybe more people adding to the toxicity and maybe a little more diversity in the toxicity. However, just as in life, hateful & attacking content has always been out there.

So, if it’s true that all social media, including LinkedIn, contains lots of toxic content, how come I almost never see any? My LinkedIn newsfeed is for the most part very enjoyable and useful.

The answer lies with us.

Our social media news feeds are filled with content from our networks that we engage on and look for. This is accomplished by the mystical news feed algorithms the social media platforms use.

They want us to see what we want to see, so we stay on their sites longer.

Think about this for a minute. Social media platforms make money when their members are viewing the newsfeed and seeing and/or clicking on the social media ads they share with us. If your newsfeed contains content that is toxic in your mind, you’ll minimize the time you spend on that site.

There are three primary reasons you are or are not seeing toxic content in your LinkedIn newsfeed.

#1 – Your LinkedIn Network, hopefully, chosen by you and you alone does not share much if any toxic content at all. Therefore, who you decide to connect with on LinkedIn will have a direct impact on the types of content you see in your newsfeed. Connect with a lot of hate spewing LinkedIn Members (and I don’t doubt they exist), and you’ll see more toxic content.

#2 – Your LinkedIn Newsfeed contains the types of content you like to engage on. I proved this a few months ago when I stopped engaging on content about LinkedIn and started searching for and engaging on content related to sales leadership. The more I shared and engaged on sales leadership content, the more my newsfeed became filled with sales leadership content. Slowly this replaced the content about LinkedIn.

Eventually, I returned my focus to content about LinkedIn and sales leadership content slowly began going away from my LinkedIn newsfeed.
This fact of ‘what you touch is what you see‘ is why I developed the edict, “Never do, say or engage on social media in any way you don’t want to be seen, heard or perceived of in life.” It’s real.

#3 – You can influence your LinkedIn newsfeed based on many different things. Hiding specific content, reporting content, unfollowing or following people or companies, viewing the newsfeed by Top or Most Recent, your LinkedIn Group activity, and following content #Hashtags, are just a few of the ways you can influence your LinkedIn newsfeed content. 

In summary, we can control the visibility of toxic content in LinkedIn by adjusting our network, the content we engage on and the activities we do on LinkedIn.

Now, will this make toxic content go away? Maybe not by the actions of a few, but I’m certain if more people were deliberate about their LinkedIn Networks and what they do on LinkedIn, the toxic content will be kept from growing even more.

We are who we hang out and what we do and say in life, as well as on LinkedIn.  

Categories
LinkedIn Social Networking

Flight or Fight on LinkedIn

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Many of us have had it done to us in one way or another.

We post an article, video, image, our ideas or perspectives into a LinkedIn Post and someone jumps into our conversation with a negative, sometimes hateful comment.

When this happens we generally have one of two reactions.

The first reaction is ‘Flight’.

This reaction is where we publicly ignore the negative/hateful comments on our posts.

Dale Carnegie taught me to ‘Never Criticize, Condemn or Complain’. I believe Dale would have approved of my regular flight reaction to negative and hateful comments on social media.

To me, flight means I will never publicly respond to these comments in any way.

Sometimes I’ll delete the comment if it’s truly a hateful, disrespectful and/or irrelevant response to my post or another comment in the thread, so others in the conversation do not fuel the negative/hateful debate.

Sometimes if the responder is someone I have felt some level of trust/respect for in the past, I’ll send them a LinkedIn message and ask them to ‘please be careful when responding to my posts on LinkedIn.’ I’ll only do this twice before I block/report and un-connect from the repeat offender. I have only had to do this twice in the past 11 years. 

Even though periodically I share a post that another LinkedIn Member may disagree with, the majority of my posts on LinkedIn do not solicit negative/hateful responses. I attribute this to the professionalism of my LinkedIn Network, thank you.

My flight reaction is only in regards to comments that are hateful, disrespectful and/or ugly in nature. I won’t walk away from a comment from a LinkedIn Member that disagrees with me. This is an opportunity for creative collaboration. Sometimes I’ll show creative curiosity and ask an open-ended question in a constructive way.

The second reaction to negative/hateful comments is ‘Fight’.

This occurs when we publicly attack those who comment with negative and/or hateful words. The energy put into a fight reaction on LinkedIn can range from simple yet equally negative words to a long drawn response of negative words in an effort to show those in the conversation how wrong, ridiculous, ignorant and/or uneducated the responder feels the original commenter is.

There are a few problems with responding to negative/hateful comments in this manner.

First of all pay attention to what George Bernard Shaw said; “Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”  

I was always taught, “Don’t stoop to their level, you’re better than that.” Additionally, I repeat what Dale Carnegie taught me, “Never Criticize, Condemn or Complain.”

It may ‘feel good’ for a moment as you hit that Post button shouting, “Take that!”, however, this feeling is short lived and offers no value to those in the conversation.

Secondly, when you get into a ‘war of words’ with these negative/hateful commenters, you’ll kill off any worthwhile engagement on that post. Most business professionals will swipe up and away from all posts that have arguments going on in the thread. We don’t want to be found in these conversations, regardless of which side of the argument others would perceive we land on.

Another problem with the tit-for-tat response to negative/hateful comments is our network will begin to perceive that we are not much different than the commenter with the original negative/hateful words. 

I strive to live by this edict; “Never do, say or engage in any way you don’t want to be seen, heard or perceived of in life.” @TLBurriss

Also, I do not believe I am responsible to ‘call someone out publicly’ for their negative/hateful words, especially on social media. I don’t believe we can change how others feel and/or act through the words we use in a social media comment or reply. If I want to influence someone in a meaningful way I know the best way to achieve this is through a face to face or at least ear-ear conversation. Unfortunately, social media arguments are more likely to explode, not resolve because all they see are the words. Positive influence occurs through tone and body language.

The purpose of sharing all content/engagement on LinkedIn should be to encourage meaningful conversation that presents you as an authority relevant to what you shared and/or engaged on.

The ultimate goal of sharing/engaging on LinkedIn is to become trusted, respected and even liked in order for your target audience to want to engage with you in business conversations.

The moment we allow and/or encourage (via response) negative/hateful debate on our posts and comments, we are in fact destroying any business value behind those posts and comments and in many cases, negatively impacting our professional and/or personal reputation.

Choose Flight, not Fight.

What are your thoughts?

Teddy 

Categories
LinkedIn LinkedIn Network

Purposeful LinkedIn Networking

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In one way or another, you have access to nearly 610 Million people who are on LinkedIn. Even if these LinkedIn Members are not active on LinkedIn, purposefully networking on LinkedIn is a powerful way to get into the right conversations with the right people, at the right time.

I routinely remind my clients of two important business process facts of LinkedIn Networking.

#1 You do not have to connect with every Tom, Dick, and Betty on LinkedIn. No disrespect to all the Toms, Dicks and Bettys on LinkedIn, they could be fabulous people. I’ll tell them as well, not to connect with every George, Harry or Sylvia on LinkedIn either. I use a very deliberate philosophy to decide who I should connect with. Relevance is at the core of this philosophy. I use the word relevance broadly around life, business, career, community, industry, role, interest and curiosity.

#2 There are two people you should connect with on LinkedIn (and in life). I urge everyone who wants to get the greatest value from their LinkedIn Network to make a new connection every day of their life. The more you network on LinkedIn the easier it becomes to network on LinkedIn.

Many years ago LinkedIn used to show the size of our 2nd level network. Back when I only had a few thousand connections I remember this number being close to 13Million people. Today I am fortunate to have a large and highly relevant LinkedIn Network. As I research new LinkedIn Connections today it has become far easier to connect with them.

The old quote of “6 degrees from Kevin Bacon” has morphed into my quote, “2 degrees away from my Most Important Viewer”.

Here are the two people you should connect with on LinkedIn:

(A) People you can help

These are the people you could help in some way or another.

Maybe it’s your ability to encourage, motivate, inform or educate them through the content you share and the ideas you bring to relevant conversations.

Maybe you can help them through a direct conversation over a LinkedIn or email message or even a quick phone call.

Maybe you can help them by alerting them of future opportunities you discover from your LinkedIn Network that they could benefit from.

Maybe they need help connecting with that a LinkedIn Connection who could be the most profound connection and conversation they have ever made.

(B) People who can help you

These are the people who can help you in some way or another, either in business, life, community or career.

Maybe you can get encouragement, motivation or educated from their content and engagement in relevant conversations.

Maybe you can get into an open and mutually beneficial conversation with them via LinkedIn message, email, quick phone call or visit.

Maybe as your relationship and reputation grow with them, they would be able/willing to introduce you to your next great LinkedIn Connection, (i.e. a potential client).

Maybe these LinkedIn Members are actually your Most Important Viewer (target audience) and again, as your relationship and reputation grow with them, they would be open to a direct business conversation which could turn a LinkedIn Connection into a prospect or better yet a client.

You can adjust my definitions of People you can help and People who can help you as you wish to best fit your specific business or career goals. However, don’t disrespect the core definitions by driving them down to ‘people I can sell to’.

If you are not networking on LinkedIn for mutual benefit, as we should in life, I can guarantee you’ll get far less long term value from networking.

One of the truly rewarding aspects of networking with these two people on LinkedIn is that often one becomes the other. Sometimes you don’t see it happening until the person you thought needed your help introduces you to someone they know well who needs your services, products or skills. And, maybe that person you connect with who became a client, personally needs your help with their own goals.

Two additional important aspects of networking on LinkedIn, which I am committed to are:

  1. My research (searching) on LinkedIn is focused on people who can help me. This is typically influencers or my Most Important Viewer.
  2. I immediately engage with everyone I connect with on LinkedIn. I think it’s a huge missed opportunity when LinkedIn Members fail to do this.

The amount of time I invest in my immediate engagement is based on the potential value this LinkedIn Connection could have to my business goals. Often those I can help will get a friendly LinkedIn message thanking them for the connection and letting them know I will help them in any way I can. Those who I believe can help me (often the influencers or my Most Important Viewers) may get a phone call or business email message thanking them for the connection and inviting them to a conversation regarding their business goals or needs. No sales pitch, ever.

I strive to live by my edit of “Networking is finding, developing and nurturing relationships that mutually move people forward through life.” As I discovered the potential of networking on LinkedIn I encourage all LinkedIn Members to do the same.

If your sales team needs to understand and start networking on LinkedIn purposefully, let’s talk.

Teddy
336-283-6121
info@burrissconsulting.com

Categories
LinkedIn

Are you paying attention to new LinkedIn features?

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New LinkedIn Features

One of the newest features is the LinkedIn Messaging Forwarding option.

See the post I put on LinkedIn regarding this feature:

So how can you use this feature?

Here are a few ideas:

  • Capture a link to 3rd party content via messaging and share it with a peer.
  • Share a great message from a peer with someone else who can benefit from it.
  • When someone messages you an article, video, or an image, you can share it with someone else who it may be useful for.

I’m sure there will be uses that are less than mutually beneficial, and even some less than authentic or ethical forwarding of messages. This occurs every day. I tolerate this misuse, while I look for better ways of using new features.

What about you? 

Categories
LinkedIn

Top 10 LinkedIn Changes going into 2019

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Blink your eyes and LinkedIn will change.

Ok, maybe not that fast, but the application changes routinely and there is no expectation this will slow down. Actually, I expect significant changes throughout this year, some we will appreciate, some we won’t.

Here are 10 new changes you may not have noticed yet this year (2019):

#1 – LinkedIn Search results of LinkedIn Members who are ‘Connections of’ are limited to 1000, regardless of the filters you apply (or don’t).

LinkedIn says they are doing this to reduce server requirements from LinkedIn Searches.

#2 – The PYMK (People You May Know) has been redesigned into Recommendations for You.

This section of LinkedIn is still on your MyNetwork Page, below any pending invites. This section now includes People, Groups, COmpanies and Hashtags (Communities and content).

Teddy Burriss LinkedIn Recommendations for You Page

The content in these areas is displayed in a Gallery form, vs the older listing of People. More graphically appealing presentation.

#3 Group Navigation Column

LinkedIn Group NavigationWhen you are viewing any of your LinkedIn Groups, owned or just a member the left column of the LinkedIn page shows the Management button (if a manager) and your Recent as well as all LinkedIn Groups.

This makes LinkedIn Group engagement easier as you move in and out of numerous groups.

The top of the column has your LinkedIn Profile access.

The bottom of the column shows your Communities (Hashtags) and the Discovery button.

 

#4 & #5  – Email Address Privacy changes

There are two changes here.

LinkedIn Email Privacy

The first is you can make your email address visible to no one, your 1st level LinkedIn Connections, 1st & 2nd Level Connections or Anyone on LinkedIn. The default is your 1st level connections.

Email Address in LinkedIn Export

The second change is now when you export your LinkedIn Connections (alone or in the Data Archive function) you no longer get LinkedIn Member’s email addresses. LinkedIn Members have to opt-in to include their email address in this data. Only 3 of my clients opted-in to include their email address in this export.

#6 – Home Page Navigation Column

LinkedIn Home Page Nav

The left column on LinkedIn continues to change. Now you can see your entire Headline and the top three Analytics (per LinkedIn).

You also have your LinkedIn Company page access and basic analytics.

Below this is your LinkedIn Groups, most recent accessed and the entire list (via ‘show more’)

Lastly on the bottom of this navigation column are the #hashtags or LinkedIn Communities you are following.

This makes moving around LinkedIn just a little easier to do.

#7 – Group activity in your Newsfeed and Notifications

LinkedIn has committed to rejuvenating LinkedIn Groups. One task towards this goal is to include your LinkedIn Group activity in your LinkedIn Home Page Newsfeed as well as in your Notifications. Of course you could always turn this off, however, I encourage if you like the groups you are in, accept the notifications so you can engage in them.

#8 – LinkedIn Company Page Content Suggestions

LinkedIn Compay Page Mgmt

 

 

This is a rather interesting new feature of LinkedIn Company Pages. You can filter these content suggestions by Topics, Industry, Location, Function, Seniority, content from all LinkedIn Members, Page Followers, or your employees. This is a great way to find relevant and useful content for your Page followers, beyond your own content.

#9 – LinkedIn Communities

Followed HashtagsI’ve referenced #Hashtags and Communities a few times now. #Hashtags are getting new attention in LinkedIn in Posts, Articles, Company Page Posts, Comments, and even Group discussions.

I believe the term Communities is being replaced by Followed Hashtags.

If you want to be included in these topics, start using relevant #Hashtags in your posts.

I feel this functionality of LinkedIn may have some stickiness.

 

#10 – LinkedIn Search Home Page

LinkedIn Search PageIn their new theme to use gallery images, the LinkedIn Search page has three areas on it:

  1. My Connections
  2. People in my Company
  3. People who also went to the school I went to

I like the new gallery layout, easy access to their LinkedIn Profile, to send a message and see the first part of their headline and shared connections.

Pay attention to the changes occurring with LinkedIn. Some are an improvement, some may not be. However, understanding the changes and how to work with them can help you to be more efficient using LinkedIn as the application morphs.

Teddy