Imagine LinkedIn Incorporating Legal Blog Posts
Imagine LinkedIn incorporating credible legal blog posts.
Since Microsoft acquired LinkedIn five years ago, I’ve seen nothing but improvements and experimentation with the platform. All to the good of legal professionals.
Improved algorithms are enabling better content sharing and engagment. Users are seeing more of what they want to see and finding it easier to network with those with whom they want to build relationships.
There’s a steady flow of feature additions enabling users to showcase their skill, experience, education and passion.
Why a body of blogs, an incorporation of blogs, or a blogging platform in someway?
LinkedIn’s mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.
As part of connecting professionals and helping them be more successful, LinkedIn has has always looked to leverage users sharing content – that content published or shared by users.
Content, as bloggers know, drives a reputation, engagement and learning. Things that LinkedIn is all about.
As a social network, LinkedIn enables users to mostly share content in posts.
LinkedIn has offered the LinkedIn Publishing Platform for users publication of original articles for some time.
I haven’t seen LinkedIn Publishing take off in any significant way – at least in the legal profession. Though I am sure, by the shear volume of LinkedIn users, there has to have been a large number of articles published on the platform.
The challenge – for both the platform provider and the author professional – when publishing in a closed environment and on someone else’s site is that there is no ownership and no big reputation build.
There’s a big difference between blogging on IP issues in the pharmaceutical industry on my own blog, versus writing my articles on the LinkedIn Platform.
I own the domain, I have my own branded publication, I control and own the content forever and my audience of influencers, clients and potential clients sees me as “writing the book” on IP law in the pharmaceutical industry. I’m the leader in the field.
Sure, I want to leverage LinkedIn in blogging for visibility and engagement. But I want that “book ownership.”
LinkedIn could empower and inspire legal bloggers – and bloggers from other professionals – by offering a platform and related service that drives independent blogs which could then be fed into a users profile – perhaps with excerpts displaying.
LinkedIn could also aggregate and curate blogs by subject to have, in effect, subject matter publications running as part of or adjunct to LinkedIn.
Little question that LinkedIn’s presence in the law, and other professions, continues to grow. It would be cool to leverage this presence via more effective publishing for professionals.