Breaking out of the Business Selfie Bubble
Have you noticed anything different about LinkedIn in the last 12 - 18 months? As one of the world's most important professional networking sites the changes there have wide-reaching impact.
A few things have struck me:
My time line is populated by posts from people I have no idea who they are – followers of my “friends”. They almost always have zero relevance. I haven’t find a way of fixing it systematically, so am busy muting.
Second-up is the arrival of what I’ll call "selfie-culture". Imagine a post from a conference speaker thanking the organisers for the opportunity to present – lavishing praise all the while on the high quality. The organizer responds – thanking that person, and returning the praise, suggesting that the audience ate up every word.
Sounds cheesy?
Then there’s the celebration posts – people highlighting a team achievement, or a team member who has done something amazing. The photo is invariably mean to look lively, so people are sometimes captured in a FB style jump. Business people jumping for joy.
When’s the last time you jumped for joy in a business context – and asked for it to be captured for e-eternity?
The net result of the above is probably two-fold: SM providers can boast higher “reach”, documenting more “views” (however meaningful that metric is other than as an ego-booster for the publishing author), but engagement levels are likely to drop as the waters get muddied, and people drift away with a yawn.
Making the Voice of Research Heard
The above means that the task of raising the profile of market research/ insights/ analytics/ the business of evidence is likely even more challenging, especially for bashful folk such a MR professionals.
But an opportunity surely - analytics, data science, contextual inquiry are all areas of potential growth. We're not badly placed.
And an opportunity for us all to step up: making our voices heard is something we are collectively not that good at - the vast majority of researchers I know do little if nothing to up the visibility of what they do. We're still more comfortable with hoping that the market will ebb and flow in our favour.
So here's some thoughts on what we can do to cut through the clutter described above.
What’s to be done?
Stop being shy - we need to get out and engage more, not just going to events digital or otherwise, but thinking about connecting with people - and following it up.
It's so tempting to stick with your tribe - lunch break at a conference, catch-up with folk you've not seen for a while. Breaking out of that is tough - but brands grow by gaining new users, likely that the popularity rules are the same for people.
Think longer-term, stick with content you believe in, build up a reputation and your own blog, ideally a channel that is independent of SM.
Influencer marketing in B2B isn't about brand endorsements - yet. I'll keep an eye on Instagram, of course ;)
Another is to simply keep it up with blog frequency, fine if they're short.
Be creative - visualise a bit differently, try your hand with vlogging, develop your own style, polarise rather than be bland.
To conclude: despite my reservations about the direction of B2B networking communication, without fame, and followers, our pulling power and the ability to be a force for good is limited. So if that means adopting “rules of influence” – however defined, then so be it.
Robert Cialdini lists 6 principles in his famous book - including reciprocity. So engaging with others, commenting on posts, being considered with positives and praise.
I will continue my search for alternative ways of sharing what I have to say – hopefully keeping it fresh.
Curious, as ever, as to others’ views.