Ep. 164 - Should You Court Controversy On LinkedIn

I recently ran a poll on LinkedIn to see if my audience had heard of (or were using) LinkedIn Pods. Along with 'grenade posts', today we dive into what I suggest NOT to do on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is your business and professional network. Yes, it's true, people do buy from people - but LinkedIn themselves have asked people not to share content such as dogs in costumes - it is the platform where people go for business. So here are two things I suggest you avoid -

1. Being part of a LinkedIn pod - A pod is an organised group of people who are expected to comment on each other's LinkedIn posts. There is an obligation to comment on all the other member's posts from your pod. Why do people do this? Quite simply, they want engagement on their content and 'setting' up comments can actually trigger other people to leave comments as well. Why do I recommend not doing this? Listen in!
2. The 'grenade post' - this is where someone will post a deliberately provocative post in order to create controversy with their audience. This can generate a lot of discussions but unless it is how you like to work with clients, beware of turning people off!

If both of these tactics bring you engagement, why do I suggest you avoid them? Because of the very reason LinkedIn doesn't want you to share pictures of your dog in a fancy dress. LinkedIn is where people go for business. Sharing content that helps your audience creates genuine conversation and builds on relationships will lead to you winning business. Starting an argument will not. Faking your engagement will not only give you a false idea of how successful your strategy is on LinkedIn but people who are following you, will soon realise that the comments on your posts all come from the same group of people. Invest your time and money learning how to use LinkedIn for business. (yes, some pods are part of paid programs!) rather than trying to cheat the system. Get in touch if you'd like to build a strategy that will help attract your ideal clients to you. www.louisebrogan.com/workwithme