What frustrates me about LinkedIn
I can’t help it. I can’t defeat this.
Cute kitties are loved on social media. Along with puppies, babies and inspiring stories that sound great but that might be made up – they often are.
There’s a wonderful discovery I made on Twitter: @StateOfLinkedIn. Thank you Roderick Cameron in the comments section for this.
Now the truth is that people like cute kitties more than me. Look at this picture below. I downloaded him from a stock image site. He’s adorable.
But hey, let’s work with this. How’s this for a LinkedIn post?
“Found this kitty in the dustbin last week. Staving, homeless and sick. He just needed a second chance and a bit of love. Unfortunately he also had a heart defect. But it was too late because he had stolen my heart. I paid the $2,000 in vet fees with no regrets. Now he won’t leave me. So, we’ve become work buddies.”
Come on, how could you not like this? Even if you don’t like cats it’s sort of cute and relates to the work environment.
Honestly, I hate these kinds of posts, but they work especially well on LinkedIn. It’s the kind of thing I would “like” and that annoys me.
I’m going to publish it on LinkedIn tomorrow and see what happens.
Update:
May 2. It’s live. Let’s see how far we can make it go. “Like” it if that’s what you would normally do. I would “like” so I have. Here’s the link.
May 3. 556 likes and counting. The post has brought the best out of human nature. Their are some beautiful comments.
My thoughts
This is one of the few social media networks that works for me so I really want to fight this. The best way to tackle this is to learn from it.
Ok, so let’s look at a recent viral post that was put on LinkedIn as an example. It uses this technique.
Half a million likes and 25,000 comments. Wow. Have you read the story?
But how? What? There’s a problem, here right?
How did Lomoro Sam Laki MBA actual do this?
Something here doesn’t add up. Here are some ideas on how he made this post.
Scenario 1
The mother drives off. Mr Laki MBA pulls up to the pump. After he gets out, he sees the offensive $3.12 amount so he carefully takes a picture with his smartphone before driving off after the mother.
I actually ran through this today. Check the video below. It took me 45 seconds. Add another 45 seconds to drive next to the pump and turn off the car and that’s a minute and a half.
I couldn’t simulate the rest, but here is goes.
He drives after her, breaking the speed limit and runs through a couple of red lights. He pulls over the petrified mother of two. After her children have stopped screaming out of fear, he manages to convince her that he’s not robbing her.
Instead of giving her some money that she desperately needs, he forces her to drive back to fill up her car. Fortunately, a gallon of fuel is enough to get the mother back. She gives him a hug.
Scenario 2
This is the same as Scenario 1 except this time he drives straight after her without taking the photo. When they return to the gas station Mr Laki MBA whips out his smartphone in front of the impoverished mother of two and takes a picture and posts it on LinkedIn. He gets slapped.
Scenario 3
Mr Laki MBA fills up his car with $3.12 worth of gas. He takes a picture and then writes a nice story about a fictional mother of two on his LinkedIn account. It goes viral, but he doesn’t get a hug or a slap. What a shame.
The moral of the story: don’t lie!
No seriously, this may shock you, but this post was a success: it got half a million likes and 25,000 comments.
Yes, it was totally unethical to post this because it’s a big fat lie, but it worked because it required very little mental bandwidth to process the message and was deeply emotional.
This is what you and I are up against. It’s super annoying because it devalues the LinkedIn network.
Often you will find that these posts have been prime-pumped with bought likes. And, they will sometimes come from completely from fake accounts. The one above might have, but we’ll never know now that’s racked up half a million likes.
It’s frustrating and I don’t really know what the purpose behind them is.
My theory is that these posts are a data collection tools. For instance, if you go on Facebook and you “like” coke, then coke will target its marketing towards you. I’m fine with that because it’s transparent, while these posts are not.
This post for instance is probably trying to capture middle-class Americans from the bible belt who drive a lot and go to church on Sunday. I don’t know it’s just a guess.
What can we learn from this?
Much that I hate to say this, but these posts have taught me an important lesson.
There’s a very simple rule to making content work on LinkedIn. Before you post, just think, does anyone care? Why should they care? Do I actually care?
If they care, then they’re going to interact with you.
A lot of large companies are really bad at doing this because they don’t really think this way. They feel the need to come across as these invulnerable entities with well defined values that they’ve bolted down in tired marketing copy.
The truth is that people don’t buy this on social media. If there is nothing in it for them, they are not going to leave a “like” or a comment.
Frankly, I don’t care if a company has gone all out with the Simon Sinek “why”. They won’t inspire me, unless it suits my needs.
If you want to be successful on LinkedIn, you’ve got to be human. These annoying posts might be fake, but they take advantage of human nature.
Just show your vulnerability and be honest. Speak from the heart and give people something that affects them emotionally.
If you can do this, then your posts will fly.
