I’m sure on LinkedIn you have regularly come across posts that invite you to ‘follow’ the post author.
You may also have something turn up in your messages with the heading ‘promoted’, or you may have noticed a section under your ‘My Network’ tab that lists ‘Recommended people for you’ each of which invite you to ‘follow’.
The question is… what credentials merit that you follow them?
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That they are an eminent person in their profession – perhaps, or that they have a huge following already – maybe… But LinkedIn is a community, and in any community, engaging with others should be a key component.
More importantly, engagement is about listening as much as speaking. One of the things that should concern you about the human qualities of those you follow, should be their willingness to listen and participate outside the closed space of their own posts and articles.
It is easy to find out if members are sufficiently reciprocating, if they are ‘listening’ as much as ‘speaking’
Scroll down to the section in their profile called ‘Activity’ and in the right top corner of the section click ‘See All’. Scroll through their participation history as far as you have patience, and check how often they respond to or contribute to content that isn’t their own or that of a co-worker.
If you can’t find anything, then they are preaching but not listening. They are failing to engage on equal terms with their community.
What to do next ? Well if you don’t like their sense of self obsession, you can just decide to ‘unfollow’ them. Open their profile, at the top near their picture, move to the extreme right to find the ‘more’ button, click on it and select ‘unfollow’ from the drop down menu.
If they won’t listen to others, you don’t need to listen to them!
The BEST INFUENCERS are those open to being INFLUENCED by others for the BETTER.
Not everyone is at the level of routine engagement across connections, some have achieved thought leadership status and also can be referred to as institutions, so if you frown at them them for not commenting or liking your post(s), it’s your loss, not theirs.
The notion of equality is delusional, some have paid their dues, while others are still suffering from identity crisis…