For the last few years I have tried to post a Brand Strategist’s monthly article on Linked In. I know, I know….you’re already picking yourselves up off your WFH floor at how infrequent this is, by way of taking hold of this professional social media über-tool we have at our disposal. Reality is I am a one-bod business. But who knows what success, fame and fortune might have arrived had I stuck to my own brief and posted consistently this summer? Reader, I took 2 months off and posted not. Oof.
And here’s the thing. I have no idea what I have done or not done, other than not post since May. I have no sense of the impact of not being present. I put this down to my own inadequacy and lack of understanding of all matters professional social media, but Linked In, what’s your excuse?
In short, nothing changed between me and the tool. I continued to receive the ‘Reactivate your Premium subscription’ emails (no thanks, as always). Nothing else. No ‘we’ve missed you’ or indication from the platform’s perspective that I might be missing out on business, news and views, things going on in my network or strategy and naming humdingers. Nothing.
In those 2 months I received about the same amount of ‘Connect’ invites and (this bit I did keep track of) the same amount of valuable business leads as well as time-wasting. I searched for what I needed and people seemed to find me.
This Brand Strategist took a decision in May that prioritisation was going to make or break this summer’s workload. For good or bad, it looked like this:
1) Deliver current client workload to a high standard
2) New business pipeline
3) Marketing and business growth stuff, where possible (ok, there was a little bit of Wimbledon and Euros in there)
4) Take a break.
I still havn’t got to 4, but 3 is happening as I write.
I’m not a social media person (other than Twitter for info in). So I know there will be those of you who can respond and explain what it is I have lost by not being regularly present in content terms. Please do. I know it will be to do with algorithms, keywords, search terms, my own lack of content strategy, rhubarb…..but the thing is nothing changed in Linked In’s communication with me, so how would I know? My perception is that I am not in a worse place for the absence. I was almost willing an inbound email to tell me how many Brand Strategist contract jobs had been lost to me, but cameth it not. I guess if I don’t care they don’t either?
So here I am – but I have no idea why. Other than it’s nice to see you all and say hello. With that, I shall be moving swiftly to number 4. Before I go, I’ll just check I’ve used keywords Brand Strategist enough times in this article and in the requisite places. Whatever that means.
