My individual LinkedIn Journey and why launching 9ja Cosmos changes things.

Some of you may have noticed a change in my behaviour and content on LinkedIn recently. I’ve had a few DMs about impact from various connections.

Surprisingly most comes from people who tune into my content from time to time, but I actually don’t know well, and never met.

So I am going to set out what has had to change and why.

I’m over twelve years on LinkedIn.

My primary interest used to be finding new ‘intrepreneural’ salaried leadership opportunities in the West African Market, predominantly Nigeria.

I wasn’t hugely interested in building a network out beyond current and former colleagues, and industry contacts.

My mission was to ‘hammer’ my feed into shape so it would be telling me things that I need to know about… breaking opportunities, cutting edge technologies, major geo-market shifts.

Just because a contact’s skills and experience suggested a fit didn’t guarantee they would usefully contribute to my feed. The content a lot of people produce isn’t topical in the context of what their profile says about them.

As my feed began to lose focus, I found I had to ‘unfollow’ a lot of people.

Since releasing the first Web3 Top Level Domain in the world. (.9jacom for Nigeria), and the brand 9ja Cosmos – focus has had to change.

Reach has since risen in importance. I therefore need to pivot how I spend my time in order to achieve more reach.

Changing to Creator Mode.

The first shift was with my profile by changing to creator mode.

Where it previously said a catchy single line that summarized me, this has been replaced to ‘Talks about #web3, #nigeria, #datatransport, #fmcgmanufacturing, and #telecommunications’

Content: I will still write to assist build the Tekedia Institute Content Library, however, there will be a visible shift towards Web 3 and issues beneficial to 9ja Cosmos. I will still delve into other areas covered by my ‘Talks about’ hashes from time to time.

I will still provide sporadic insights as comments on other people’s posts. It is only fair. I think its unreasonable for members to expect traction with their content and no quid quo pro by themselves engaging with the posts of others.

I won’t be servicing comments I make on third party posts as long though. Once a comments I make on a third party post gets to be a few days old, it’s likely I won’t get to reply or even see additional comments made on it.

Tagging: A few people have become a bit bemused with tagging engagement lately. So I will set it out:

My Tagging: I tag people because I think they will appreciate what I am tagging them into. More often it is my own posts. Very occasionally, it might be a third party post or a comment I made on one.

Nobody is obliged to react or comment. Those that choose to comment, I would prefer they engage with the content rather than thanking me for the tag. While I appreciate the politeness, it may obscure a topical comment from someone else. NB –  A tag is never targeting someone, or suggesting aforementioned content is making a point about them.

Tags aren’t organised in any specific order, and I don’t tag the same people all the time. A second year STEM student could randomly appear in the list in front of a government minister, conglomerate leader, or senior professor. I try to keep my tag choices relevant, but it isn’t an exact science. I rarely tag people below 1^st degree. I know notifications tab can be overwhelming for those with more mature networks. If it is getting too much, please just message me rather than abruptly disconnecting, unfollowing or ranting in the post thread.

Your Tagging: The LinkedIn Algorithms are changing all the time, and one of the things they need to do as more people join, and as networks get bigger, is  they need to balance load from notifications and other automated activity.

It is getting increasingly harder for content to get reach passively. When I started, a post from  a 300 contact network owner was guaranteed to reach even their second degree contacts. Now, even a 10k network is no guarantee of traction with even first degree contacts without taking active steps.

RELEAVANT AND TOPICAL tagging will improve traction and I, like most people on here, will be ok with getting a tag. One of the benefits of creator mode is that I am making it clear the hashtags I am interested in, starting with web3 as the top priority.

When I get copied into content outside the scope of my hashes, it will have the expected effect (or lack thereof). So with #web3, #nigeria, #datatransport, #fmcgmanufacturing, and #telecommunications as my hashes, if I get tagged on something to do with real estate, insurance policies, or Brazilian hair, its predictable how that will end.

I also tend to ignore content that is too ‘human’, personal or vague. If I want to see drama, I can always turn on African Magic and close LinkedIn (though that’s probably never!).

Content also needs to be sufficiently exclusive to the claimed topic. I’ve seen a lot of short posts claiming to be about web 3 project planning, how to get your next web 3 job… how to build web 3 communities… how to produce ‘great’ web 3 content… etc etc etc.. and its so vague it could be applied to chocolate making, or fashion entertainment. pretty much anything.

I can’t be wasting my time with stuff better filed under ‘The Ministry of No Sh** Sherlock’. Definitely don’t end such posts with … ‘you can thank me later’… heard of bulls and red flags?

As long as its discriminant, tagging should be fine.

LinkedIn Network Development:

Since the advent of ‘Creator Mode’ new invitation recipients with the feature active, are immediately added to the inviter’s network as someone being followed. This is irrespective of whether they later choose to accept the invitation or not.

I follow ONLY companies I have worked for, had contractual dealings with, or some other kind of engagement. I don’t ‘follow’ individuals. I will be increasing the frequency with which I dump people with temporary follow status from me, moving forward. The window for connection acceptance before I withdraw invitations will be reduced drastically. This again, is just a time management and network efficiency measure. There is no need for content to be showing up in my feed when the reciprocal route for exposure of my own content, is not available to that authors profile.

Podcasts:

I will be pulling back from attending all and any podcasts. There just isn’t enough time in the day. Those that see value in including me as a panellist, doing interviews, or otherwise giving me a platform upon which to talk about my experience with launching 9ja Cosmos; with the Handshake Ecosystem, and generally around where Web 3 domains are going, maybe something that can be arranged. As a general attendee, I will be cancelling those already agreed for 2023, and not agreeing to any further.

There may be some more tweaks later in the year. I will see how it goes. However, 9ja Cosmos has fundamentally changed the way I operate, and how my LinkedIn engagement happens has to move with the times!

Thanks to those who have stuck with me through the years!