I belong to a very small group or Network Sidebar, more like the size of a bowling team, on LinkedIn. It is the only group I still belong to on that site, which has gone pretty steadily downhill from the glory days of just a few years ago.
The three other people in the group are all attached to the marketing and communications business in some form or other, but what I like about them is that they are all really smart, business savvy, and internet literate folks.
Over the past few years, I have learned more from this group than I have from any other single set of individuals. One of these individuals is someone who does analysis for LinkedIn and I assume also Microsoft, so she has a pretty good handle on what that site has achieved and, more importantly, where it is going. She shared some information with us that I found quite useful in terms of the kinds of posting I am doing on LinkedIn and to a lesser extent of Facebook. (I don’t use Twitter. I think it is a joke).
This posting I am talking about is done in one of two formats. One is a straight text and image posting. The other is a slightly longer version of that which I do in the form of memes I create.
I was very pleased to find out that this form of communication has become, far and away, the preferred form for this site.
It falls into synch with the notion that people hustling business or looking for work, don’t really have time to engage with a whole long format post. Not all, but a growing significant percentage.
This actually started out as an experiment on my part to see if there wasn’t some sort of better mousetrap I could build to increase my readership.
When I compare the views and comments I get doing these shorter, more highly focused posts, I come out way ahead in these two formats. In fact, one day a couple of weeks ago I noticed that one of my political posts generated 47,200 views, 50+ shares, and more than 200 comments.
Not all the posts garner the same amount of attention. But I think a lot of it has to do with the combination of brevity and focus. And, of course, subject matter.
So What Does This Mean For BizCatalyst 360°?
I personally think that Dennis and Ali Pitocco have created is very much in line with the intelligence I am gathering about the future of business to business on the Internet.
They have not just created a site where anyone who wants to join can post longer formal pieces on just about anything they desire. But there are a number of other areas of the site that feed the hunger that business people have for knowledge and insight, that do an excellent job at building community, and that provide access to high-level expertise in a number of areas.
In other words, they have taken up a lot of the intellectual space that sites like LinkedIn are in the process of relinquishing on their way to becoming a much more limited resource site.
This, of course, makes BizCatalyst 360˚ much more than simply a place to post your blogs and have them properly promoted. It’s an entire business knowledge and insight resource centre. And I believe its utility to a large segment of the current LinkedIn membership will only grow as LinkedIn’s focus continues to narrow.
I have been blogging and posting online since way before I joined any social media sites. I have watched them start, grow and eventually morph into more focused versions. Because this is the way of things on the web. Throw all kinds of stuff at the wall and then see what sticks.
I think BizCatalyst 360° had the advantage of a lot of info and insight before they established themselves. The same is happening, but to a lesser and more focused extent on a European site called beBee.com. The focus they have chosen is the long format blog and I assume they will attract their share of migrants from LinkedIn as well.
This is not to say that these sites do not generate their own traffic. I have been posting on beBee for 6 years and on BizCatalyst 360° for about a year, and I can tell you that both sites are run by people who know what they are doing, what they have, and where they are headed.
I’m just happy to be along for the ride.
Hi Jim. In many ways, I have been a “closet writer”. Like you, I started writing at a young age however in my case it was truly therapeutic. I read your bio and just wanted to reach out with kindness and healing energy as you “learn to walk again”.
Thanks for the kind words, Laura. This learning to walk stuff is the hardest thing I have had to do in my life. Mostly because I have to do a lot of it with a mask on. Sucking in your own breath for long periods of time just plain sucks, and I’m pretty sure it’s not good for you either. PS, you can come out of the closet anytime. 🙂
Thank you Jim! Also so grateful to be part of this community that actually cares about the right things and starts with the people that are part of it.
On behalf of the entire BIZCAT Team, we’re Grateful for your kind words, Wendy …
Thanks Wendy. I am already quite pleased with the activity my posts have been able to generate here and elsewhere.
Thanks for the comment Karin. I have felt the same way about LI since long before the pandemic hit. I was in the first wave of writers who was invited to post on their publishing platform. The trade was that I would provide the content and they would provide the promotion. That lasted about 6 months, and then it got to be too much like work for them. Plus, we discovered that they were just trying to build their writer base to make themselves more attractive to potential buyers. This pissed me off totally and I moved the majority of my blogging to beBee, Where I stayed for the past 6 years. But now they have re-designed their site and in that process everyone lost a substantial number of readers. So now here I am at BizCatalyst. It’s a gypsy life for sure, Internet-wise.
Quite a journey for you Jim, but we (and our global audience) are so very pleased that it led you to our doorstep – hopefully the last stop along the gypsy lane.
Jim,
Thanks for your insight in this article. Have been struggling with Linked In as a writing platform since pre-pandemic. It’s an uphill Sisyphus battle to get readers. Recently joined Bizcatalyst 360 and feel as if some weight has been lifted from my mind, leaving space to actually Write. Social media is not journalism. It is a marketing and sales tool leaving little room for thoughtful in-depth conversations. Posting in many ways a volume vs quality formulae. It is exhausting. As writers, I feel it is becoming harder and harder to be heard in the noise of propaganda and, sales. That is not what we do. Writers, write. We rip our souls out at different levels to create doorways to worlds and ideas for our readers. Again, thank you @JimMurray and @Bizcatalyst360 for creating space. It’s good to know, in our technologically disconnected world, as writers, we are not alone.
Pleased to hear that the freedom you’ve discovered on our Site has indeed, lifted so weight so you can spread your writing wings far and wide, Karin. From our perspective and from day 1 circa 10 years ago, it begins and ends every day by putting our writers first. And by putting them first, our audience always wins.