The power of [your] engagement
By: Cíntia Mara
Tags: LinkedIn, Engagement, Internet, Social Media, English

How do you interact with your LinkedIn feed?

Engagement is very important to whoever wants to be seen in on any social media, but sometimes it’s effects on LinkedIn seem to be more intense. Have you noticed how many times you a “Someone liked this” or “Someone commented on this” on your home page?

Interacting with a post doesn’t only mean showing your support (or lack of) with what has been said, but also increasing it’s extent.

I like recommending quality content I see ont he internet, so I use to publish links that may interest to my network. As my goal used to be only that, recommending, I never paid much attention to the numbers. I there it went until the day I wrote a post about earning an important certificate in my field. This is something people interact much more than a mere link, so I got interested in watch the consequences it would have.

A few numbers:

The numbers of interactions (between reactions and comments) is ~8% of the number of followers I have and 20% of these interactions come from second or third degree connections (people that aren’t linked to me directly, but through one or more people).

(between reactions and comments) is ~8% of the number of followers I have and 20% of these interactions come from second or third degree connections (people that aren’t linked to me directly, but through one or more people). The number of views is about 3x the number of followers I have. That means that, at least, two thirds of the people who saw my post on their feeds wouldn’t have seen it without the reaction or comment from a common connection.

is about 3x the number of followers I have. That means that, at least, two thirds of the people who saw my post on their feeds wouldn’t have seen it without the reaction or comment from a common connection. Among the 9 companies with the highest number of views, 2 are companies in which I don’t how anyone but the person who interacted.

I also noticed an increase of views on my profile, some of those leading to recruiters contacting me, but the statistics aren’t enough for me to tell how many of those came from that specific post. I had similar results with another post I have, also about a certificate that I got.

Odd? No, it’s not. Anyone who ever had a blog, a fanpage or a Twitter account knows how important is the engagement.

It is interesting though to think how we, as fallible human beings, tend to give more attention to the things with don’t agree with. Observe that, in any social platform, there are accounts dedicated to creating controversial content to attract disagreement and obtain more visibility. As we say, “silence gives consent”. Then, we pass straight by the posts that are in accordance with what we believe or know, when these are the ones we should be amplifying.

Yes, we should express ourselves when something is wrong. But we need to have in mind that negative engagement is also engagement.

Share the posts from those people that bring you good content.

Like posts that deserve visibility.

Answer questions and surveys.

Comment where you can add something useful.

No one has the much time to spare, I know, but, sometimes, a click is all that it takes and it can make a great difference.