One of my favorite quotes reads : “Writing, to me, is thinking through my fingers”~ Isaac Asimov. It speaks to me. While I write, I think, reflect and have fun. One of my managers once said to me “English is your second language, it must be hard for you to write.” He caught me in surprise and I didn’t know how to respond. If he is a writer, he would know that the passion and ability to write are independent from the language the write might be using; they are gifts that you either have or don’t.
When you like to write, you can take advantage of the web 2.0 world to create a personal brand. LinkedIn is allowing members to publish “long-form” posts. After publishing a few posts, I began to see the value of posting as follows:
- Our long-form posts are part of our professional profile and help building our brand and credibility.
- A notification is sent out to our followers and connections. It’s an effective promotion when we have a big network.
- Members that are not in our network can now follow our posts.
- LinkedIn also promotes our posts by displaying them on Pulse recommendation (by rotating among the other posts).
- People can easily share our post using Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn.
I know it takes some courage to publish; considering that there are icons showing view count & thumbs up, and the comments are not filtered. It’s daring us to take a risk. It took me a while to post my first one. And the second one came easier. After all, It helps to have faith that an authentic voice with the intention to share knowledge and experience will be appreciated. I applaud LinkedIn for its offer and invite you to give the long-form post a try.
