Tag Archives: linkedin

The life cycle of the LinkedIn community

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You find me through search and check out my profile, see a comment I’ve made on someone’s post, hear about me from someone else or receive a message from me and decide I’m a good contact to have.

We follow each other’s activity on the platform. We add reactions to posts and a few comments here and there.

We learn from each other and build trust in the fact that each of us are subject matter experts and know how to solve the problems our clients face every day. We might get a coffee at some point down the line, or even collaborate on some content.

At some stage, we could work together. There was no direct pitching as we got to know each other – trust developed and it became a no-brainer.

I got a tremendous recommendation from you when we completed the project. Referrals from your friends and colleagues then began to arrive.

And we begin again…

Get off the fence

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LinkedIn is a place where the majority are frightened of saying what they think.

Those who put their cards on the table and make it known where they stand on matters tend to polarise opinion. At the same time, a lot of people are also secretly envious of their approach. 

“Look at what (so-and-so) said! Wow, that’s really out there…”

“(I wish I’d had the balls to post that.)”

LinkedIn is especially bad for this. It’s a social media tool used by professionals and is known as somewhere you show up in ‘business mode’, i.e. don’t piss anyone off and say nice things to everyone without causing any trouble. 

But above all else it’s a community. In communities of all kinds the reality is that not everyone agrees or gets along 100% of the time. 

I’m ok with this. I like to stir it up when I can and I’m passionate about the things I believe no matter who’s watching. 

Why not? We only live once, right?

So I feel for those poor people stuck on the fence trying to play nice with everyone and then resenting three quarters of the posts they see every day.

We need debate. We need a broad range of opinions. 

We also have our fair share of folks who just say things that they know will cause problems. I have a name for these people – I’ll let you make up your own. 

There is space for many, many more people to get off the fence and let rip, too. 

“It’s better to have something to remember than anything to regret.” – Frank Zappa