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rfmcdonaldI do have a profile on LinkedIn but I haven't done much with it. Forbes's Cheryl Conner seems to argue that I'm not unique in doing this. Leo Mirani's Quartz article seems to argue that LinkedIn might be most useful as a news aggregator of sorts of professionals.
(But what industry in my case? Hmm.)
o get things started, the company launched LinkedIn Today in 2011 as a way of enticing professionals to log in every morning to catch up on industry news. The following year it signed up “influential thought leaders” to provide occasional commentary. Last year, the company bought Pulse, an app that focuses purely on content, and which the company would like professionals to check for a quick update on news relevant to them. And now, it runs a content behemoth that drives the internet’s manicured hordes to business publications around the web.
All these moves are coming now coming together. In February, LinkedIn opened up its publishing platform from a small group of well-known businesspeople, such as Richard Branson, to all its members. It’s a classic online publishing strategy: build-up a readership by linking out to good content and once people are used to finding interesting things on your website, use that traffic to drive your own stuff.
LinkedIn is counting on people to use the network as a platform to express their own thoughts, hoping they will spread the word themselves. Like any writer, those publishing on LinkedIn will want their work to be read, essentially giving LinkedIn free promotion and giving its millions of members an incentive to bring others to the platform. If the approach works, it will boost pageviews and users and, eventually, ad revenue.
(But what industry in my case? Hmm.)
