Wrong answers only

Welcome to work(ish) by jacob season 2, episode 2.

First, I don’t know how much more of the glitches I can handle. Linkedin, get it together! Suddenly I find myself reacting to my own comments, and while I’ve been told it’s good for the algorithm (well, for parent posts, mostly), I don’t want to be reacting to myself.

Speaking of the algorithm, it’s time I stop pretending to know stuff:

I think Linkedin is the perfect spot for stuff like this. On a platform where it can feel very inauthentic (been there, sometimes still feel like I’m there, done that), it’s time to bring to light more of the authenticity, this time, in the form of what we don’t actually know. I want to show my network that I actually don’t know stuff sometimes, and I own it. This post’s topic and focus on algorithms is many things:

• Honest

• Relatable

• Part of the cultural zeitgeist in many ways

• Something confusing that we collectively have no idea about (hello community)

  • Side note: I love building community over silly little specific niche things

Short ‘n sweet ‘n I’m old

Want to know what I’m a big fan of? Text-only, very short Linkedin posts.

If I’m able to get by without the “..more” showing up, I feel like I’ve won. No one has time for anything anymore. Or at least priorities have shifted, and we’re always on the go, so something quick, easy, and accessible that can be read quickly; it works. Doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it’s great.

Exhibit A:

I’ve been using this them/me format for a few of my posts recently. It’s a fun way to make a point and say the thing, without actually saying the thing. So, I’m old. But instead, I’m from the 1900s, which is funnier, obviously. And building in a question I’m sure many of (in corporate) get asked all the time, even funnier.

Here’s another one-liner:

and another (we’ll talk about #weirdlinkedin later)

Wrong answers only

I tried another format this week where folks contributed wrong answers only to the topic I presented. This format invites people to participate around topics that we collectively feel need to be talked about, like not overusing @channel in Slack, and taking care of yourself at work and not letting your career consume you (among many other career hack wrong answers):

That career advice thread grew fast. It’s a hot topic and many of those things needed to be said.

Can’t stop, won’t stop

I’ve got some other post formats floating around out there too. Like the asterisk format, where I asterisk a word or phrase, then toward the bottom of the post, I clarify what I mean. Sometimes I like to separate the phrase and the additional clarity. Why not? If you give everyone everything up front, what do they have left to discover? (Which, btw, is my approach to running online communities. Don’t give your members everything all at once. Leave room for them to discover things on their own)

“You know what, hell yeah.”

I’ve seen this across social over the last few months, and I have to be honest, it makes for a great emphasizer. For this post, I didn’t end with it, I said a little more. But ending with it does pack a good punch.

And by the way, yes, everyone should be their own creative director. Do you.

This week I was traveling for work, so I sprinkled in some London and work-specific posts, some swag here and there, London happenings, some life-size characters, some lapel pins here and there. And perhaps a dash of S Club 7. You know, just Community Manager things.

Thanks for reading and for being here. I don’t take for granted that you care what I have to say. Or even if you don’t care, and you’re still here; thanks for being a fan anyway. ❣️ 

Let’s connect!