Kalkan Turkey
LinkedIn arrests my attention sometimes.
I freely admit it.
I enjoy the mainstream updates guaranteed to generate hundreds of likes if not thousands. Toss in hundreds to sometimes thousands of comments and you have yourself a steady stream of viral LinkedIn posts.
But LinkedIn is not blogging. Working LinkedIn versus working your blog requires a different skill set, let alone a different mindset.
Although most perceive LinkedIn to be a professional network, I place it under the umbrella of social media since the general gist is similar to Twitter and Facebook. Some really rich people own these platforms. The few who do have a set agenda. You and I as bloggers can use these platforms to reach readers but at the end of the day, bloggers need to spend most attention and energy driving people to their blog from these sites by thinking, feeling and acting like a blogger.
Never let their algorithm ruin your blogging success. Never allow their agenda to override what you need to do to thrive as a professional blogger.
Bloggers struggle in part because some think like social media users not bloggers. Think about those LinkedIn posts. Most users try to follow the formula of sharing a pretty looking photo, drawing down into a bullet point list and hitting on specific pain points. In truth, some of these fundamentals work nicely for bloggers yet a viral LinkedIn post and viral blog post involve developing different skill sets.
Never mind the fact that if you spend all day trying to get people to see your LinkedIn profile you’re not spending most of your day driving people from many traffic sources to your blog which you own and where your online business resides.
Think a hell of a lot more like a blogger and a hell of a lot less like a social media user to amplify your blogging success. Publish content to your blog consistently. Update old blog posts to remain current. Develop posture. Be confident. Give most of your attention and energy to your blog for your blog to grow.
I considered publishing a social media post a few moments ago before rethinking my strategy. Why not write and publish a post for Blogging From Paradise Dot Com? That made more sense for me. I’m a blogger. I should spend most of my time either blogging or driving people to my blog. I shouldn’t spend most of my time creating content which keeps people on social media. I’m not a social media user by profession. I’m a blogger by profession.
Seeing that LinkedIn formula really got me thinking about how many bloggers succeed as social media users but fail miserably as bloggers. Some become highly skilled at drawing people to their social media handles but never master the skill of migrating users to become loyal readers, customers and clients.
Never think that force goes into this equation. Honey works better than vinegar. Publish helpful content. Engage people who dig that content. Organically draw social media users to your blog through the power of content. Remember to connect with people who dig your content on these platforms.
The end game always goes back to your blog. This is how a full-time blogger thinks. Develop posture by getting into this frame of mind now. Think like a blogger who uses social media. Stop thinking like a social media user who considers blogging to be an afterthought. Never forget that self-sabotage arises often in the average blogging mind. Thinking like a social media user is one common form of self-sabotage.
So while you’re over there trying to master that viral LinkedIn post you appear to be going against bloggers who spend most of their time on their blog or sending people to their blog. Who gets ahead? Who builds a full-time blogging career? The one who masters the viral LinkedIn post? Or the one who masters their blog?
Look closely at your blogging strategy. Be honest with yourself. How often do you back burner your blog? Do you think of yourself as a reply guy on twitter? Do you see yourself as being glued to your messenger on Facebook? Do you reply to people on Instagram as quickly as possible? I need to reiterate that there’s nothing wrong with these strategies in and of themselves as long as you don’t backburner your blog in the process.
Of course, this post is for those who back burner in their blog to be social media specialists. Every blogger loses their way from time to time. I have been there. You have been there. Now it’s time to rededicate yourself as an aspiring blogger or as a seasoned blogging veteran who needs to remember that you are a blogger and not a social media user first and foremost.
I need to do this at times because I am imperfect. That’s why I sat down to write this post instead of writing and publishing another social media post this afternoon. My decision is a reminder to move in the direction that bloggers move in. Work on your blog first. Use social media to migrate individuals from these sites over to your blog by creating detailed content via these channels.
Never forget that where your attention and energy goes, grows.
Give most of your attention and energy to creating content for your blog or at the very least to directing people to your blog from social media. Do that by creating a steady flow of content which solves reader problems but always focus on your particular reader. Publish only blogging tips to social media if you are a blogging tips blogger like me.
Sear this idea onto your mind before proceeding today.
