Why I'm fed up with LinkedIn polls (and why it matters - even if you don't use LinkedIn for business)

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:: 00:00

Hi, it's Janet Murray here. And here's why I'm fed up of LinkedIn holes and why you should care about it. Even if you don't use LinkedIn for business. Last week, I looked into LinkedIn for the first time for a few days, and almost every post that came up in my feed was a poll. Now don't get me wrong. I love polls.

:: 00:21

They are grateful starting conversations on social media because they're super easy for people to respond to. But some of the polls I looked at seem to be about really random stuff that didn't have anything to do with the posters business or even their personal interests. There just seemed to be no strategy behind the posts at all things like, do you work on Sundays? Have you put your Christmas tree up yet numerous polls about whether people will be wearing a mask again next week.

:: 00:53

So as I'm recording this it's late November, 2021, the UK government has just announced that we're going to have to start wearing masks again on public transport and also in shops. So I get why people are asking about it, but seriously, if you see more than a couple of posts about it, that should be a sign that perhaps you ought to pick another topic.

:: 01:14

But no, it seems that's asking the same question as everyone else on LinkedIn seems to be the in thing right now. Now hands up, perhaps I have to own some responsibility here. When I first started teaching social media a few years back, I noticed that most people were just broadcasting on social media, but they couldn't understand why there weren't any engagement.

:: 01:39

So I actively encouraged people to start asking questions to create their own polls. So things like, which is your favorite image, a B or C, or which of these options would you choose? 1, 2, 3, or four, which can be a great way to get engagement. But when any content becomes repetitive and predictable, for me, that's a sign, it's time to innovate.

:: 02:04

So why should it matter to you, especially if you're not using LinkedIn for your business? Well, because being a courageous content creator is not about copying what everybody else is doing. It's about being responsive to what's happening around you, which includes being able to spot when a strategy is becoming tired and stale. And if your newsfeed is full up of everyone doing the same thing,

:: 02:31

that is a big sign. It's also about having the courage to step away and try something new. Even if it doesn't work as well as you will tried and tested strategies to start with because great content doesn't generally get made when you're playing it safe. And if it's starting to get on your nerves, it won't be long before it starts to get on other people's nerves.

:: 02:54

In fact, it probably has already.