Networking, naturally

What I like (and don't like) about writing and sharing on LinkedIn

In 2021 I shared what would eventually become my first post in my journey of actively sharing bits and pieces of my knowledge on LinkedIn. Of course I had shared things before on the platform but the intention here was different. I wanted to put the things that I was lucky enough to learn professionally out into the world, digital world that is.

It’s been about three years now and I have been lucky enough to forge lots of digital connections that have turned into collaborators and in person connections. I have been able to talk with people around the world and find opportunities I never would have imagined. I wrote a book that started as a simple comment on one of my posts. I started a YouTube channel that has morphed into a video podcast and other various content. And yes if you are interested in numbers I grew my network from a few hundred to over 40,000 at the time of writing this.

Networking doesn’t have to be a dirty word

One of the biggest things I didn’t like about going down this path and what may have held me back for some time was a lot of the, for lack of a better term, cringe, that seems to be prevalent across the platform. If you don’t know what I am referring to then I suggest you check out this [sub-Reddit dedicated to the genre](https://www.reddit.com/r/LinkedInLunatics/).

On top of that there is the sense that there is an end goal of growing a network and using it to do something to, in the end, serve yourself. It would be short sighted to say that doing anything on LinkedIn is wholly in the benefit of others. The platform itself is set up to be a tool for you to share and enhance your professional growth (however you choose to interpret that). It wasn’t totally different for myself as I had my own goal as well.

How I approached LinkedIn

My first objective was to increase awareness around some of the open source tools I was using on a regular basis at my day to day work. I wanted to share this because it helped me a lot in my career, but also since we were using them it could bring awareness to those tools and in turn the work we were doing.

The next objective was that, in my particular field of GIS and geospatial analytics, the higher education programs generally teach a proprietary software for spatial analysis. While there is nothing wrong with that (plenty of design programs teach you how to use Adobe products). When I left school I had to learn how to use those other tools without any sort of roadmap or concrete learning system. My goal here was to provide that roadmap as an alternative to the more traditional learning paths.

What I have gotten out of it

I was never sure what any of that would morph into. I wey nt into it with a few core rules for myself that still dictate how I use LinkedIn today (I’ll share those in a future post) but what happened was, well, unexpected.

I shared a lot of the things that came out of my investment in sharing on LinkedIn personally and professionally, but what has made the most impact is the natural and unforced growth in my network. What I mean by that is that I have been able to meet and speak with people in nearly every continent (excluding Antarctica, but maybe one day) and at every level and stage in their careers. I’ve been able to learn so much, and I hope that I have been able to help them learn as much too. Forgetting all the other things that have happened for me, I count these connections and interactions as the most valuable from the entire process.

What I hope to share

I know that there are lots of people interested in growing their presence online, and LinkedIn just so happens to be one of the hot platforms for that right now. There are plenty of reasons why but generally they boil down to growing your career, growing your brand, or growing your business (either a side hustle or your own business).

And I have seen plenty of information and courses that focus on finding the fastest way to help you “narrow in on your niche”, grow an audience, and eventually sell something. It’s not to say that you can’t provide value by doing this, but the goal is to get to the end as fast as possible, I tend to think that one would miss the real value along the way.

So that’s what I am going to share here. The real things I have learned about sharing and writing on LinkedIn and how to do it in a way that isn’t unnatural, and one that let’s you benefit from all aspects of the journey while you share the value you have as well.

In the next post I’ll share the core four rules that I have used to help steer my journey on the platform.