Producer vs. Update: 2 Ways to Skin a Cat

Cats are like college roommates. They're fun to have around even if they never pay rent.

I digress.

Lately, I've been seeing many posts to Producer that belong more as an update. You know the type. They show a nice picture. They give a good title. All they have inside is a link to somewhere else.

As a reader, I find that disappointing. I come to Producer to read longer posts. And, I don't like being pulled away from beBee.

It's an accepted fact that disappointing readers is not the best engagement strategy.

Still, you want to promote your posts. I get that.

So what's a body to do?

Here's the thing. Yes, Producer is more feature rich, but not much more than a simple update. Most of the difference is in allowable length. You can just paste your post into Producer, but many people want to drive traffic to their company sites.

Some of you are saying, "But, Paul, I need to include an image and a link. I can only do one or the other in an update!"

No, That is not so. It only looks like you need to choose between a link and an image on an update. 

How to Update with a link AND an image

• From your profile home page, click on "Share content with like-minded bees." A window will open up. Write what you want. You can go right up to 2000 characters (250-400 words less the link). I wouldn't add a bunch of mentions here. That can get annoying to those you mention. They will be notified every time someone does anything with your update.
• When you are done with your text, add your link in with the text. Don't use the add a link button. Paste the URL right in with the text.
• Wait for the link to populate below the text. When it finishes doing its stuff, click the X to get rid of that new image and text that just popped up.
• Now, click the "add image button."
• Add your image. Wait for the back-end to load the image.
• Now, click share.
• Choose up to three hives like you would on Producer.

There you have it. The same functionality as Producer aimed at shorter posts. If anything, your image will have a greater impact. It's much larger when someone clicks.

Let's keep Producer for those posts that need its long-form functions. Short posts actually work better as updates. 

Right now, we are only 11,000,000 and change. What will happen next year when we are double that?