What it means to be among the LinkedIn Top Voices 2016
LinkedIn has told me that my posts on the network have earned me the only place for a Spanish writer among the LinkedIn Top Voices 2016 list, a ranking which is based on popularity and feedback. I have been placed second on the list dedicated to Management and Culture.
Although I have been on LinkedIn since the beginning of time, using it more with my students in mind than for myself, I only made the decision to start sharing my content there relatively recently, in July 2015. My idea was to use LinkedIn to share my content in English: my Spanish posts were generating sufficient attention, and I was more concerned about reaching out to non-Spanish speaking students, who are now the majority.
My idea was that publishing in English could expand, as in fact has been the case, my profile outside Spain, which could lead to more international contacts and the possibility of more conferences. So far, I have posted a total of 397 articles on LinkedIn, available on this page, which can also be read here on Medium. I do not translate entries when they are only of local interest or references to the Spanish press, etc. Likewise, when I publish articles in English in other publications, I only post the link to the original publication on LinkedIn.
The criteria used by LinkedIn for its the ranking are, according to the company:
To compile the list, we use a combination of data and editorial signals designed to capture the voices making a mark in their industries. Some of the inputs include engagement (particularly the comments and shares of each post); growth of followers tied to publishing activity; and number of times the writer had been featured in a channel in his or her area of expertise. We also emphasize diversity of topics and voices. The list reflects publishing activity over a 12-month period, from October 2015 to October 2016, and as with all LinkedIn Lists, we excluded LinkedIn and Microsoft employees from consideration.
The reason I write every day is the same as always: to force myself to keep up to date in a discipline I find absolutely fascinating and that I teach every day to an extremely demanding public. Doing so in English as well as in Spanish is simply a reflection of the international nature of my teaching, which increasingly is delivered in English: sometimes I go for months without giving a single class in Spanish.
Since I started posting English translations of my entries in Medium in July 2013, I’ve noticed how the number of followers in that language has increased there and on LinkedIn. My Medium account already has some 15,000 followers and my page, 4,000, with both statistics and user interaction growing steadily.
As for my LinkedIn presence, I am proud to find myself alongside writers of the stature of John Battelle, Vivek Wadhwa, Tom Davenport or Martin Lindstrom, to name but a few, which is more than I could ever have expected when I started out producing content in a language in which there are a great many authoritative voices writing about the same topics.
To all who follow me, comment or share in Spanish or English, as always, many thanks! :-)
(En español, aquí)
