The Power of Bee-ing Likeable - Jim Murray - Canada

Jim Murray

6 years ago · 3 min. reading time · 0 ·

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The Power of Bee-ing Likeable

One of the more obvious things I have noticed about beBee is that a lot of people really seem to like it here.
You see a lot of what I have come to refer to as ‘Cheerleader’ posts from people who have signed up, cruised around and have realized that the character of beBee is both unique and different from most social media sites.
This post is one of those cheerleader deals, and I do them regularly. Not just because I am a beBee brand ambassador, but because I am a very happy camper here.
And because beBee represents a markedly different social media experience from LinkedIn and any other social media site for that matter.

We All Can See What LinkedIn Is Becoming

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Since the Microsoft acquisition, and even before, it has become increasingly difficult for writers to build a decent following, and for group managers to easily manage their groups.
And while it appears to be true that LinkedIn membership has grown, judging from the email I just received that stated that they had now reached 500 million members, it’s easy to assume that the majority of those people are nothing more than resume posters, and hardly what you would call prospects regardless of what kind of business you’re in outside of HR and recruitment.
The number of genuinely active and growing groups and group participation on LinkedIn has shrunk dramatically as well, through a combination of natural attrition, (just plain tired of being there), and lack of moderation tools, which have been systematically removed over to course of the last year.
In short, it very much appears that Microsoft’s main interest in acquiring LinkedIn has little to do with growing the networking aspects of the site, but exploiting the user profile information so that they can start monetizing LI to a much greater degree by analyzing, organizing and selling member profile information to advertisers, in much the same way as Facebook, which has dramatically accelerated its activity lately.
This is in the process of turning LinkedIn into a sellers heaven and a members hell. At least that appears to be the plan.

LinkedIn Fact Of Life

Every social media site needs to monetize in order to grow. That’s understood. But to increase the number of sponsored links (aka ads), that people need to confront while removing the opportunity for writers to build a following and groups to function smoothly, isn’t just bad for business, it’s downright stupid.
And what you end up with is something very much akin to a necessary evil that most people put up with, simply because they have a network on LinkedIn that they don’t want to lose.

The beBee Reality

About a year ago, I figured a lot of this stuff out with help from my friends Samantha Bailey and Phil Friedman among others.
Up to that point I had posted nearly 400 articles on LinkedIn, and had watched their organic reach go from respectable to pathetic.
When I started posting on beBee a couple of things happened.
First of all, I saw a lot of the kind of attention and engagement that I had experienced early on with LinkedIn.
Secondly, I saw that linking my articles from the beBee publisher to my LI home page, (which is what I did in the very beginning from my WordPress site), slowly started growing my LinkedIn numbers again.
So I didn’t lose my LI network, just communicated with them from a different place.
Additionally I was able to link to Facebook, Twitter and Google plus, as well as into 3 special interest groups (or hives), right from my finished post.
My following on beBee grew much faster than I expected and I did not really miss a beat over on LinkedIn either. Win Win.
And a whole lot of this has to do with the simple fact that the people you meet on beBee all genuinely like being there. They are interested and engaged. They like reading good stuff and a lot of them write good stuff themselves.

Just Do it

A lot of times people will discover good things and be very tentative about advising others to do the same. But in this case I am anything but.
Join beBee. Post there and link your posts back to LinkedIn.
It will be much more effective than just hanging around on LinkedIn Pulse and, figuratively speaking, beating a dead horse.

You want to grow your personal brand? You want to meet interesting people from all over the world? You want to find interesting articles to read and learn from? You want to unearth business opportunities from people who believe that doing business with people they like and trust is a better way forward?
BeBee offers you the opportunity to achieve all of that, and as it grows, and it will grow, because it’s a place that people like to be, that opportunity potential will only increase, while the opportunity potential on LI shrinks.
Me

If you think about it, I’m probably not really telling you anything that hasn’t been bouncing around in your head for a while.
But what I am doing is encouraging you to start doing something about it.
Sure, it may take some time. But wouldn’t you rather be on a good-sized cruiser that’s moving forward than rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?

If your business has reached the point where talking to an experienced communication professional would be the preferred option to banging your head against the wall or whatever, lets talk.
Download my free ebook Small Business Communication For The Real World here:  https://onwordsandupwords.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/small-business-communications-for-the-real-world/
All my profile and contact information can be accessed here:
 https://www.bebee.com/producer/@jim-murray/this-post-is-my-about-page  

"""""

#LinkedIn #Power #Bee #LI #ing Likeable

Comments

Martin Wright

6 years ago #39

Jim, that is an excellent observation. Its strange that linkedin's alorithm writers have decided to treat something shared from an external site as bei g more eadily spread than an intetnal post. Whoever did that may end up a prize of a resume writing course. I get the impression that the new owners pf linkedin are learning that it is the active users who really decide how a site evolves.

Jim Murray

6 years ago #38

#42
Thanks Preston \ud83d\udc1d Vander Ven. My experience on beBee echoes your own.

David B. Grinberg

6 years ago #37

Excellent points, as usual, Jim. I strongly echo your sentiments having shared a very similar experience myself. I would just reiterate that one of the great aspects of how beBee promotes user engagement -- rather than tramples on it like LI -- is that beBee blog posts are shared with everyone in a user's network. Moreover, users are also able to share their posts on three separate hives to maximize engagement. Some of the nearly 30,000 hives have upward of 100,000 members and more worldwide. Thus, if someone is still relying on LI Pulse they will never know how much organic reach and engagement they are truly missing. Put simply, beBee Producer beats other publishing platforms hands down. Thus, it's should be a "no brainer" decision for writers/bloggers who want to amplify their message and maximize their reach: just remember this simple equation: beBee = Better Buzz! cc: Javier \ud83d\udc1d beBee

John White, MBA

6 years ago #36

#39
Outstanding. We will schedule out a TON of tweets.

Jim Murray

6 years ago #35

#38
Will do John White, MBA. Went to TO today.

John White, MBA

6 years ago #34

Jim, you should tweet this to buzz @beBee. It qualifies for promotion. Congratulations!

Bill Stankiewicz

6 years ago #33

I love it that you & Juan are so engaged here on beBee.com, you are both invited to Savannah for lunch or dinner at any time. Keep up the great efforts & zeal. I LOVE beBee.com! regards, BILL STANKIEWICZ , Savannah Supply Chain Guy, # 1.404.750.3200

Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸

6 years ago #32

I love our community because beBee is associated with passion, emotion, excitement and dedication across the globe. To be a beBee fan requires the 'living' experience of beBee. It is not about being a mere spectator — it is about being a participant. It is about writing stories. It is about learning and teaching. beBee is an important means for our bees to form and maintain strong connections. Thanks beBee. I AM LEARNING DAILY.

Jerry Fletcher

6 years ago #31

Jim & Phil, Both of you know the limitations of social media--all of it. Your voices are part of what kept me here. I can accept fewer posts but I urge both of you to continue for selfish reasons: You stimulate thought provoking conversations. You two are like dropping rocks into a standing pool. The ripples reflect off one another leading to a kaleidoscope that lures others to drop in. Stick around guys. The party is just starting.

Milos Djukic

6 years ago #30

Numbers... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YPiCeLwh5o

Jim Murray

6 years ago #29

#25
OK, so we're straight on that. Because I agree with you. Pulse sucks. But the organic reach on your news feed is pretty decent. When I was talking those low numbers (2), it was on Pulse. Phil Friedman

Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸

6 years ago #28

I also love our community because we often stick together in order to defend our feelings. I can tell you we expect an amazing and vertiginous final quarter ;) enjoy the trip with us !

Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸

6 years ago #27

There are a lot of cheerleaders for beBee because they love the platform like you. I am proud of them. Buzz on ! 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Milos Djukic

6 years ago #26

The Fractal Revolution in Society, beBee affinity network is the first social media. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fractal-revolution-society-social-media-first-milos-djukic #26

Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸

6 years ago #25

#2
Harriet (Honey) Smith thanks for your words.

Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸

6 years ago #24

John White, MBA

Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸

6 years ago #23

I am proud of our community. It is still small, beBee is young but we expect to grow faster during the last quarter. I love this Jim Murray. You deserve the best with us. Definetely, the character of beBee is both unique and different from most social media sites. beBee offers you a open platform with 100% organic reach of your network, forever, without restrictions on your following. "You want to grow your personal brand? You want to meet interesting people from all over the world? You want to find interesting articles to read and learn from. You want to unearth business opportunities from people who believe that doing business with people they like and trust is a better way forward? BeBee offers you the opportunity to achieve all of that"

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #22

#23
Jim, are you talking about the difference between posting an "article" on the publishing platform (Pulse?) vs. posting an "update" in the main feed? If so, I agree that often posting updates in the feed gets you more response than articles on the publishing platform. And I have suspected for a long time that is because Pulse distribution is choked down by the algorithm, while the general feed is less restricted. And I think that opinion is consistent with the observations of major online marketers like Candice \ud83d\udc1d Galek. Cheers!

Lisa Gallagher

6 years ago #21

I'm with Paul Walters Jim, I too would pay money to see that! There are a lot of cheerleaders for beBee because they love the platform like you. Your photo, "I've seen some weird shit," well that made me laugh. Thanks, I needed a good laugh and you made great points.

Jim Murray

6 years ago #20

#22
Phil. I get that and if I have a post that I really think LI people would be interested in, I post directly to my home page. But I don't post on Pulse, because I consider that a dead end street.

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #19

#20
Jim, I certainly am not denying that. I was only addressing your complaint (?) that your posts were no longer receiving much play there. I was also suggesting that it is possible to reach your avid followers on LinkedIn by posting to beBee's Producer, and sharing to LinkedIn Pulse, but that, while you will reach those followers with your post, you won't help yourself with the LI algorithm which will likely ignore those instances of contact. (Can't say for sure.) For that reason,I do that kind of sharing, but I also re-post directly to LinkedIn, which does tweak the algorithm's magic twanger. Cheers!

Jim Murray

6 years ago #18

#18
Phil Friedman You're welcome. And I applaud your decision to get back to where you really want to be. I'm more or less doing the same thing. But I have promotional threads on beBee that I have been encouraged to continue with, so I am. If I can help this site grow, that's good for everybody, I would think. We all have to do what we have to do. I quite enjoy promoting beBee and, for me, it's not any sort of big time suck. So what the hell.

Jim Murray

6 years ago #17

#18
Phil Friedman...Oh yeah, the other thing is that I actually do have a precense on linked in because I have picked up at least 1000 new followers there, since I stopped posting on Pulse. It's really a case of different strokes or hard and fast rules not necessarily applying. I'm as popular as I ever was there since I came to beBee.

Jim Murray

6 years ago #16

Phil Friedman. LinkedIn doesn't give a shit about me, and vice versa. It's a very workable arrangement, which means I have more time to do other things, like gardening and lawn maintenance.

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #15

#13
Paul, I genuinely appreciate your saying that. Coming from you, it's gratifying. Right now, I'm not so grumpy, as I am weary. In large measure because something about the cheer leading has a hollow echo to it. I hope that you, Jim, and others will read the post cited, before drawing any conclusions about what I'm saying. A special thanks to Jim here, for allowing me to hijack part of his comments thread. Cheers!

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #14

Jim > " The last post I published on Pulse got 2 page views and, sadly, no comments." Jim, I cannot explain that with any certainty, but I suspect it is as I said earlier, a self-fulfilling prophecy. And that your withdrawal from activity on LI is producing the very results that are driving your withdrawal. What I know is that a day ago I posted a share of a recent post by @David Rynne, and my share post has 757 views, mostly by 1st level connections, including 5 by people from beBee. Also 8 likes and a comment. That ain't much but it's a hell of a lot more than beBee cheerleaders are claiming it is. My posting on LI of our last He Said He Said no. 27, racked up 893 views, 7 likes, and 3 comments. Again not great. But a lot, lot better than you are getting. Why is that? Continuing to be somewhat active on LI.

Jim Murray

6 years ago #13

Paul Walters... There are a lot of things that can happen in this life. It's a big place, this world, as you know, but me doing the splits with pom poms is decidedly not one of them. Unlike @Phil Friedman, whom I love and respect, I will continue hyping beBee to the ever growing number of followers on LinkedIn that I have, oddly enough, been able to attract simply by linking my posts from beBee to LinkedIn. The last post I published on Pulse got 2 page views and, sadly, no comments. I'm not sure people on LI have much to say, as they are too preoccupied with questions like "What the fuck happened to this web site?" to bother.

Jim Murray

6 years ago #12

#14
Paul Walters, whom I love and respect, I will continue hyping beBee to the ever growing number of followers on LinkedIn that I have, oddly enough, been able to attract simply by linking my posts from beBee to LinkedIn. The last post I published on Pulse got 2 page views and, sadly, no comments. I'm not sure people on LI have much to say, as they are preoccupied with questions like "What the fuck happened to this web site?" to bother.

Paul Walters

6 years ago #11

#1
Kevin Pashuk I dont know Kevin, I think I would pay real money to see that !

Paul Walters

6 years ago #10

#10
Phil Friedman Sounds like a grumpy post!! I read your posts ....all of them ..!! And I take note of what you say for I respect that you know and have studied and researched the field ! Couldnt you scribble under a non de plume!! Dont go Phil , dont go!!!!!

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #9

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #8

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #7

#8
Jim -- Pt II I started out about a decade ago not understanding anything about social media and taking everything and everyone at face value. Now, after much activity and thought and study, I've ended up understanding just a little and believing just about nobody, especially not anyone who is in the business of social media. Except for a few people a lot smarter than I about social media, who I trust to speak the truth with acumen and accuracy, and some of whom are mentioned below under "Suggested Additional Reading". What I've witnessed over the last decade or so is the accumulation of vast fortunes by a number of those in the business of social media, whilst at the same time, I've watched the wanton squandering of the ever so high potential social media held for worldwide engagement and free exchange of ideas and opinions. And truth be told, I am feeling more than just a bit weary about it these days. Which is why I am planning to return the focus of my writing to my core offline activity of marine sector technical and business consulting. " Cheers!

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #6

#8
Jim, you are correct. And yes, it might make a topic for an upcoming He Said He Said -- if you will start it off. I've just published "Busting Myths About View Counts... And Other Engagement Metrics" ( https://www.bebee.com/producer/@friedman-phil/busting-myths-about-view-counts-and-other-engagement-metrics ) Which I intend to be the last piece I ever publish on the subject on beBee, as I believe I've said all I have to say. From the postscript to my latest article: "This is very likely the last post concerning beBee and social media I will ever publish on beBee. Which I'm confident will come as good news to some. By my count, I've done more than a dozen articles on the general topic of social media under my solo byline and maybe another four or five as part of the HE SAID HE SAID series I 've co-authored with Jim Murray for more than two years and 27 installments to date, starting on LinkedIn and continuing here on beBee. Fact is, I think I've said just about everything I have to say about the topic of social media. At this point, I seriously doubt that anything I have said or have left to say will have any affect on those who steadfastly cling to their illusions (or delusions). Or upon those who speak in one breath about "authenticity" while in another spin their representation of the facts to their own marketing-driven ends. I started out about a decade ago not understanding anything about social media and taking everything and everyone at face value. Now, after much activity and thought and study, I've ended up understanding just a little and believing just about nobody, especially not anyone who is in the business of social media. Except for a few people a lot smarter than I about social media, who I trust to speak the truth with acumen and accuracy, and some of whom are mentioned below under "Suggested Additional Reading". What I've witnessed over the last decade or so is the accumulation of vast fortunes by a number of those

Jim Murray

6 years ago #5

#7
Phil Friedman. As you know I tend to try and reflect my own experience and let people decide for themselves. My experience is that that this methodology works for me and so I advise others to at least try it. I know that your objectives are different than mine over there and therefore your method will be different. All methodology should be based on strategic objectives. Totally understood and respected. Thanks for the comment. Cheers, Jim (PS This might be a topic for a HSHS discussion)

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #4

Jim, as I see it, the only drawback to cheerleading -- other than you having to don short shorts and a halter top -- is that some people mistake it for reality. I understand as much or more than most your anger with LinkedIn and how it treated Indie writers and bloggers, but your suggestion to post on beBee exclusively and share back to LinkedIn for your followers there is more than a little off. A lot of us have tried that. And guess what? Our Reach on LinkedIn continued to shrink. The reason is the LI algorithm that controls distribution rewards you for activity on the platform and punishes you for allowing your activity to fall off. Thus, if you get pissed off at your dwindling reach there, and follow your suggestion about moving entirely over to beBee, with share backs to LinkedIn, you will be actually causing your Reach on LI to fall even further. In other words, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just saying. You can, of course, do whatever you choose to do. And maybe being entirely on beBee gets you what you want. For me the question boils down to do you prefer 1) to have strong, supportive engagement amongst a relatively small population, or 2) to attain a less intense level of engagement, but reach out to a greater number of potential readers? Cheers, bud. Great Post!

Jim Murray

6 years ago #3

#4
No Problem Harriet.

Jim Murray

6 years ago #2

#1
Yes I can see how that would be a bit of an eyesore Kevin Pashuk

Kevin Pashuk

6 years ago #1

Nice cheerleading piece Jim, but picturing you with pom-poms doing the splits is a tad on the side of disturbing.

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