Recently, LinkedIn informed me that my profile is among the top 1%, of their 200 million members, for 2012: http://lnkd.in/tsXCtH . To me, this is largely a reflection of desire to share insights and new information in key areas of enterprise direction, in my case particularly with respect to organizational culture and stakeholder behavior.
Building an extended network of business contacts and a personal brand (employers use b2b social sites like LinkedIn as a part of their candidate scouting activity) are important reasons for participation; however, posts to LinkedIn and portals like CustomerThink are critical, post-graduate venues and sources for time-constrained professionals to stay abreast of, and contribute to, thinking about new trends and emerging issues. This represents a true worldwide learning community, where colleagues in related fields get to objectively share information and knowledge they have amassed.
For me, customer and employee behavior metrics, brand relationships, positioning and messaging, impact of digital communication channels, service and experience cultures, text analytics and customer profile data leverage capture a lot of attention. Like many of my CustomerThink colleagues, I’ve been actively writing about, and sharing ideas regarding, these subjects for years; and I hope to continue doing so for quite a while. It’s all in the interest of lifetime professional growth and continuous learning, which, in addition to many other benefits, CustomerThink and LinkedIn help support.
Hello Michael
Keep sharing as I enjoy reading what you write.
Maz
Michael, congrats on your “top 1%” and thanks for your many contributions to CustomerThink over 10+ years. You’ve written many of our most popular articles on customer loyalty, and also have been one of our most active commenters.
Yes, social networks are about making new connections and even friends. And many find blogging a useful indirect marketing tool to build a personal brand and drum up new business.
But you’ve also demonstrated another huge benefit — “post-graduate” learning. For it is only when we are willing to put what they think out there for others to read and sometimes criticize, that we find out if our ideas are strong enough for the real world.
Thanks for your part in helping us think more clearly about customer relationships. That’s the whole point of this community.
…..and you can count on me to do so. And I hope you will do the same.
Michael
Since hearing from LinkedIn regarding a) their milestone of reaching 200 million members and b) my profile being in the top 1% visited during 2012, I’ve seen a number of comments – mostly with a negative, sniping tone – regarding this promotional program. Even considering the neural marketing effort from a tactical and superficial perspective, at least give some credit to LinkedIn for enhancing their own reach and credibility in a unique manner. If all the promotion accomplishes, as one critic wrote, is to ensure “a healthy amount of buzz around the platform”, that’s a pretty good way to begin proactively communicating and extending strategic member benefit.
Bob –
IMHO, you should stop for a moment to accept thanks and a public appreciation for originating, shaping, and actively contributing to this community. It’s your passion for advancing the thinking and learning opportunities respresented by customer experience processes, customer relationships, and related concepts that are the true and real engine for CustomerThink. Professionals like me absolutely value the collaborative forum that you have created and sustained.
Michael