"30 For 30 LinkedIn Challenge" Results

I have completed my "30 for 30 LinkedIn Challenge" and the results are in! 

I focused on LinkedIn for 30 minutes a day for 30 days to see what would happen and in no particular order here is what I have learned:

1. Everyone is already on LinkedIn, but more and more people are spending greater amount of time on it and getting involved in the conversation. The amount of people that have come up to me in person at events, meetings or otherwise referencing my “30for30 LinkedIn Challenge” or my activity in general on LinkedIn has been shocking, and quite frankly awesome.

2.  I think and have been telling everyone that will listen, that I strongly believe LinkedIn will become a “currency” of sorts. Not in the traditional sense, but in the sense that every potential employer is already checking your profile and as LinkedIn 2.0 becomes more and more of a thing, depending on the job of course, it may matter how involved you are, how many connections you have. Putting it this way, how many friends you have on Facebook will not make a difference, because that is “social”, but how many connections you have on LinkedIn I think will because it is “business”. I run a business and I absolutely check to see how many connections someone has.

3.  I have direct messaged with a countless number of MakeOffices members (aka customers) that I do not think would have reached out to me over email.  This is a "BFD" in my opinion and hugely valuable to me.  Anyone involved in business should be thinking of ways to more effectively communicate with their customers and LinkedIn is one of them.

4.  The conversation on LinkedIn 2.0 currently is heavily focused on "how to get better at LinkedIn".  Good news that there are a great number of generous people on the platform that are extremely helpful with their time and tips.  That has been hugely appreciated.  No question our team at MakeOffices will be getting more specific training on the platform.  I am committed to doing whatever I can to further my teams personal and professional growth and LinkedIn checks both boxes.

5. I personally love #4, because it gives me the sense that I am involved in the early days of a new platform figuring itself out and that's really exciting to me.  I know that LinkedIn has been around forever, but this new functionality of LinkedIn 2.0 is more engaging than ever, and it is the only game in town for those looking to be social about “business”.  More and more people will be showing up spending more time on it and I like the prospect of having been here grinding away ahead of them.

6.  I am personally highly susceptible to the social media dopamine effect of a "like" or a "new connection"!  I do really love seeing those red circles alerting me to new arrivals. I clearly blew right through the 30 minutes, in fact the amount that I would check in reminded me of the late 90’s when everyone that was involved in the stock market would check their Yahoo Finance stock portfolio to see how much money was made in the previous ½ hour.  No problem here, it has been fun, but I will promptly set some ground rules for myself regarding timing of my usage.

7.  New friendships. I have had four in person meetings as a result of "connecting" that have expanded my perspective in immeasurable ways. This deserves its own article.

Sincere thanks to all of you for providing great content, sharing stories and supporting myself and each other in thoughtful and productive ways. My take away from the 30 for 30 LinkedIn Challenge is that the value far exceeds the effort and I look forward to keeping it going!!!!