I’ve been a LinkedIn “Influencer” for a year or so, and while the honorific is flattering, I’m afraid I’ve fallen down in my duties to post there. The platform has proven it has significant reach, and for folks like me, who thrive on attention for words written, it’s certainly an attractive place to write. Of course, it pays nothing, and LinkedIn makes all the money on the page views my words drive, but … that’s the quid pro quo. We’ll put yer name in lights, kid, and you bring the paying customers.
One reason I don’t post on LinkedIn that often is my habit of writing here: there are very few times I come up with an idea that doesn’t feel like it belongs on my own site. And by the time I’ve posted it here, it seems like overkill to go ahead and repost it over on LinkedIn (even though they encourage exactly that kind of behavior). I mean, what kind of an egomaniac needs to post the same words on two different platforms? And from what I recall, Google tends to penalize you in search results if it thinks you’re posting in more than one place.
But this news, that LinkedIn is opening up its publishing platform to all comers, has changed my mind. From now on I’m going on record as a passionate advocate of posting to your own site first, then posting to LinkedIn (or any other place, such as Medium).
Why? Well, it comes down to owning your own domain. Building out a professional profile on LinkedIn certainly makes sense, and bolstering that cv with intelligent pieces of writing is also a great idea. But if you’re going to take the time to create content, you should also take the time to create a home for that content that is yours and yours alone. WordPress makes it drop dead easy to start a site. Take my advice, and go do it. Given the trendlines of digital publishing, where more and more large platforms are profiting from, and controlling, the works of individuals, I can’t stress enough: Put your taproot in the independent web. Use the platforms for free distribution (they’re using you for free content, after all). And make sure you link back to your own domain. That’s what I plan to do when I post this to LinkedIn. Right after I post this here.
Hey I just read this on LinkedIn! Only joking 😉 Good advice though and thanks for sharing.
Ha! It’s funny to see how many more folks DO read on LinkedIn…
I completely agree with the recommendation to own your own site. I’ve had mine (http://www.effectivecio.com) for six years, and it has provided a great place to create and manage my own content independent of any other publishing channel.
I struggle with how to align this with the new LinkedIn publishing service. Traditionally, I would post to my site and then post a link to that content on LinkedIn. It would garner the appropriate attention, and users would be gathered to a single location to share in a single conversation.
My concern with the split posting model is that you wind up with multiple conversations occurring in parallel. This dilutes the value of content as a means to generate conversations and collaboration. Should I copy this comment and post it on LinkedIn as well?
I think there’s a big need to bring all these threads together for sure.
I agree with one caveat: Owing your brand, not your domain.
Future of publishing is you get paid to cover yourself.
Not downstream through the influence and reach LinkedIn and Twitter give you–but at top of content discovery funnel.
You’ve been doing it for a long while now (ads, etc.) but the future of Twitter, Facebook, etc. is users getting paid to cover themselves. Commerce not ads are primary mechanism.
Where Bitcoin as the payments and payout technology can play a major role.
You mean, paid by the platforms?
By fans of you and your content.
Can manifest itself in:
– tips
– paid messaging
– e-commerce via your interests/recommendations (affiliates meet endorsements)
– etc.
Platforms are the sales, marketing, commerce, and payout engines.
Vertically integrated into a single system.
Then distributed as the new ad networks with higher payouts than banner, etc.
So future of e-commerce is “containerized”.
Basically, everyone and everything gets paid to cover themselves in exchange for users giving up data to the platforms so the can harvest it–and innovate.
Key is the payout system. It’s tricky.
Tricky indeed. But coming I agree.