Tag: linkedin

  • X Marks the Spot

    X Marks the Spot

    After I got laid off from my last job, I started working full time on my consulting business while applying for jobs as a product manager. I also started posting more on LinkedIn and Twitter (X) as a way to engage with the product management community.

    I’ve been following Dan Koe and Sean McCabe (formerly SeanWes), both of whom have encouraged me (through their writing) to start with writing – so I wanted to share a few thoughts on what I’ve been doing and how it’s going so far.

    A follower or connection doesn’t usually count for much of anything on its own. However, those followers only allow me the opportunity to say something interesting and possibly attract new consulting business or product manager jobs.

    Trust Beats Consistency, and Consistency Beats Message

    Ultimately, if people don’t trust what you have to say, the rest doesn’t matter. What you say needs to communicate trust. If you are consistent, you will learn what to do. Practice leads to improvement, which leads to success.

    But the main reason I want to post every day is because I believe my income depends on it. But it’s also a form of journaling, which helps me think, create new ideas and synthesize thoughts; and it helps my brain work better.

    Finding Your Voice

    Most people don’t find their voice on social media because of consistency. It takes practice and time to find your voice. It is scary to post something where your friends at the companies you are posting about might find offensive.

    Before posting, ask yourself these questions:

    • “Can my audience learn something from this?”
    • “Would I have liked to learn this earlier in my career?”
    • “Do I have something unique or different to say about this issue?”
    • “What are people in this industry thinking about but are afraid to say?”
    • “Do I have a bias here, and is it apparent to both me and the audience?”
    • “Is the intention of my feedback to tear down – or to guide improvement?”

    But generally speaking, a good rule of thumb is to stick to what you know. When you find yourself overreaching your expertise, you risk your credibility.

    My goal is to post every day at least once. Eventually, I settled into every business day posting something that I saw interesting in the industry.

    I enjoy writing, and I have for most of my life. I’ve written many blog posts here and even some books, and although there were long periods of time when I didn’t write anything, I never lost my love for writing.

    Consistency Pays Off

    So far I’m in the early stages of developing the habits of daily writing, journaling, and posting, but I’m already seeing some effects from it in the form of increased interactions and direct messages. I’m going to keep doing it.

    I don’t know exactly where I’m going to end up, but having a plan and working towards a goal with intention will put me in a better position than randomly doing things and reacting to the world around me. X marks the spot.

  • Seesmic VS Path

    A friend of mine recently started testing two social media tools, Seesmic and Path. Here is what he discovered:

    I would recommend Seesmic. It currently is free only because it is in beta. It will be a pay service when it comes out of beta.

    Pros:
    -Can post to multiple social media outlets at once (and can easily switch your mix in-message)
    -Can handle multiple iterations of the same social media platform (your can connect as many twitter, etc. accounts as you want)
    -Can schedule post and reliably deliver at the scheduled time
    -Adjusts the “Characters remaining” indicator according to the max of the minimum social media platform (i.e. it shows 5000 char remaining if just facebook and 140 if twitter is in the mix.)
    -handles photos, links, and tags accurately and intelligently
    -interface is simple, efficient, and aesthetically pleasing; good UX
    -has a “save drafts” queue

    Cons:
    -Only posts to facebook, twitter, and linkedin
    -their icon/badge (especially on facebook) looks stupid and will be on your messages viewed on the web
    -the cost of service is unknown
    -there isn’t a “pending posts” for posts that have been future dates
    -setttings management is somewhat limited on the iphone app – some things have to be done on web
    -links aren’t auto-shortened (may be too long)

    As an alternative, there is Path. Compared to Seesmic, Path’s advantages are:
    -free
    -can post to tumblr and foursquare also (but not linkedin)
    -can be used as one-stop social media manager and public-or-private quantified self tool
    -added functionality to tag with people, places, music

    As an alternative to Seesmic, Path’s disadvantages are:
    -can’t schedule posts
    -no characters remaining gauge
    -no “saved drafts” page
    -can only establish one profile per social media platform (1 facebook, 1 twitter)
    -difficult to add new profile once you have it set up