Hip Hip Hooray, I have influence on LinkedIn!
Social Networking With Algorithms.
I love playing with algorithms. And by that I do not mean that I am a wiz at creating them. I find it very pleasurable telling Facebook that I was born in Tonga, educated at St Trinians and live in Beijing. Cue, adverts offering me English lessons in China and when I did not buy and probably because the algorithm spotted that most of my friends were in the UK, Summer schools in London for English lessons.
It also paid attention as I swapped my relationship status from married to ‘its Complicated’ then married again and promptly offered me a ‘quickie divorce.’ I have never been married.
Last week, the adverts offered a private helicopter rental service to the Cannes Film Festival. I am going all right. By EasyJet, with accommodation provided by Air BnB not The Majestic. If only Facebook adverts were wishes. Actually my wishes are probably the adverts on my timeline appearing in Mandarin. If only I could read them. But that is data mining for you.
It goes without saying that when a few of my peers or speakers at events continuously waxed lyrical about being influencers on LinkedIn, it was time to hang out with my new playmate — The LinkedIn Influencer algorithm. LinkedIn for me was one of those things that I signed up to when I first read about it in Techcrunch, years ago. It became the place to offer to connect with anyone I barely knew who asked if I was on Facebook the first time I met them at a networking event. Overtime, I have logged in more frequently, shared posts via the scheduler on hoot suite but never really paid much attention to the effectiveness. I had no plan. I just used it.
I signed up to a few groups. I liked a few articles. I could see the algorithm getting busy. ‘Congratulations, you are building influence’ it said. I shared them. Apparently I was almost there. And then I commented. Hurray, I was ‘on my way’ to becoming an influencer. And then a few folks liked my comments, responded to my comments and I became a top contributor. All in one week, in less than one hour, cumulatively.
My profile views and connection requests from folks I did not know soared. My inbox had 53 messages from strangers wanting to bond over commentary. Sales pitches, meeting requests, proposal for speaking engagements, (I declined, I am petrified of public speaking), and last but definitely not the least, offers to meet with head hunters. They liked my comments. If I was really looking for a job or speaking gig, who knows where this would have led or whether it would have led to anywhere once they actually met me or realised that we were in different continents and they had to cover my fare to get there.
After a week of experimenting, I took a day off. The following day, I was no longer a top contributor. But by now I knew the formula. A few more likes, a few more shares, one or two comments, I was back at the top.
Putting it mildly, I get why speakers and peers were waxing lyrical about using LinkedIn to become thought leaders or increase your visibility. I also discovered that there were some really insightful articles and discussions in some of the groups.
But the ease with which I became a top contributor on everything from Big Data to Leadership and Lean Start Up’s concerns me. Strangers were reaching out on the basis of my profile being featured on pages as a ‘top contributor’ without any photograph or verification of my skills and education.
I am who my profile says I am on LinkedIn. But it could have easily been a copy and paste job. But until then, lets hear it for me. Hip Hip Hooray, I am a Top Contributor on LinkedIn!
