Hundreds of discussion topics are proposed via LinkedIn groups every day. In the public relations industry and well beyond, the vast majority of them fail to generate any responses. The ones that do succeed in getting a conversation started stand out like bright flowers in a field of forgotten links.
What makes these select few so irresistible that people can’t help but comment? Following are six ways to spark a discussion on Linkedin.
1. Ask for Real Help
People who are genuine in their request for help typically get it. For instance, one user posted a question asking if she should fork over a media list to a client or protect it like precious intellectual property. LinkedIn users are happy to share their experiences and show off what they know and believe, but they can also tell if someone is asking for help simply to promote themselves.
2. Dish Dirt
If you can tie your intellectual capital to the Tiger Woods scandal or whatever story is dominating the headlines, you have a hole in one. In this instance, you can provide your point of view and ask people to agree or disagree with how you would handle the situation if you were in the newsmaker’s shoes.
3. Invite Plugs
Inviting people to pitch their products or their skills is popular for obvious reasons. Who can resist a free plug?
4. Request Inspiring Quotes
One of the most outrageously popular discussion starters on LinkedIn simply asks people to share their favorite quote. People seem to relish the opportunity to inspire others.
5. Tap Industry Controversy
Right now there’s a debate raging (137 comments) in the “Public Relations Professionals” group about the misperception in and out of the industry that public relations and media relations are synonymous. At the same time, in a Business Intelligence group, the fact that BI has fallen down the priority list of senior executives is gaining stream.
6. Request Twitter accounts
Asking members of a group to post their Twitter addresses generates hundreds of replies, which is understandable. It’s easy to do and many people want more followers.
Just as we consider what makes a tweet retweetable and what makes a blog engaging, we should consider how to successfully ignite a LinkedIn discussion. What has worked for you?
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Hi Amy – great post. As a LinkedIn advocate and group owner I’m kinda biased – your number one is mine too. I like number 5 – at least the mischief maker in me does. The quote thing leaves me cold mind you – just never understood why that is so popular.
Good work – Doug
Doug, Thanks so much for your comment. I completely agree with you. I don’t understand why asking for a quote is so popular, but it certainly is. One of those discussion posts has almost 5000 responses at this point. It’s one thing to know what is going to pique the interest of a reporter. It’s quite another to understand what is going to inspire people to comment on LinkedIn.
There was on in Linked:HR whose opening question was “Who am I?”, that got 5,000 comments and counting.
My feeling after observing hundreds of LinkedIn conversations over the past 18 months is, this is simply hit-or-miss. And if there is some specific feature that “ignites” the discussion, I’ll bet more often than not it’s injected by a later comment that happens to hit a nerve, rather than the initial post.
That said, I have noticed a few Linked:HR discussions that clearly did spring from an initial post that raised “hot-button” issues, like how to treat overqualified candidates. But that’s just my point: some initial posts that seem destined to get the fur flying do in fact accomplish that, while others that begin with similar or equally compelling topics end up getting no comments at all, and yet others get thousands of comments from a foundation of pure air (“Who am I?”)
It would be interesting to see some kind of statistical study that attempted to quantify just what does “fly” on LinkedIn and/or other social media sites.
Jon, Thank you for your response. I love your phrase about fur flying. I completely agree with you. It seems pretty hit or miss. It was difficult trying to find patterns.
A great article, Amy, thanks for posting it and the discussion on LinkedIn which brought me here.
I’ve explored this concept myself twice now, in posts which asked the question of, “What Makes Content Royal?” In other words, what kind of post generates a lot of comments and links?
The posts generated comments and links and based on the feedback, it seems that what gets people going is a level of personal interest. That sounds obvious, but it ties in to what Jon says above: that it’s something of a hit and miss adventure because there’s no real way of knowing how someone is going to view one’s post or discussion topic. Sort of…
Because if you post a discussion topic in a LinkedIn group which is bang on target for that group, your odds of starting a great discussion are much higher than if you post every topic to every group you belong to. Again, sounds obvious, but if you look at the various topics posted on the various groups, you will see that this last piece of advice is often ignored.
Thanks for your reply Eric. Great point about the importance of targeting the topic to the particular group. I agree that most people are ignoring that piece of valuable insight. I wonder if group managers will become like traditional news reporters complaining that people don’t take time to read the group’s content before they post.
Hi Amy and Eric
I agree with the concept that targeting your discussions is important however, I think we do need to remember that within the Social Media environment the majority of the community are consumers rather than contributors.
With this being the case, although a Blog Post or discussion appears to have little response it does not necessarily mean the post is not hitting the target.
Some additional reading on this is available at:
http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2008/11/reconciling-soc.html
http://socialmediainfluence.com/2010/03/12/bursting-the-90-9-1-rule-of-online-community/
You obviously asked a question that is stimulating discussion and the key element in the posts I see gaining huge replies is just what you demonstrated… asking people for the opinion works.
It can be open ended, like your question, or asking the comparison on 2 sides of an issue (think “tastes great” vs. “less filling” or whatever that beer commercial’s messages were).
I believe the quotes work because they do inspire. I’m in the inspiration business and they invigorate me to use them and share them.
thanks for stimulating a great discussion!
gail
P.S. love your use of the Yiddish word Maven!
Hi Amy
I like your list but I also think that lack of use of compelling headlines prevents a lot of discussions even being viewed.
Many people still use just a word or two as their headline.
For example, if you had called this “LinkedIn Discussions” rather than “6 Ways to Ignite a LinkedIn discussion” I wouldn’t have stopped and read it.
Nice headline by the way:)
Melinda
Great point Melinda. Thanks for making it. BTW, I love your catchy url…clickwinningcontent!
Hi Amy,
Great topic and really sound advice. I have found that linked in discussions are a great way to increase traffic to my blog, and frequently result in new business opportunitites.
One question that I have, however, is how useful others find some of the posting types that you recommend. For example, I find the requests for twitter accounts really annoying. These “discussions” dominate the group for weeks and aren’t that productive for increasing anyone’s followers. I’m much more likely to follow someone if they offer something of value (e.g., a really good question, a link to a useful article, resource, etc.). Thoughts?
Hi Amy
I like your list but I also think that lack of use of compelling headlines prevents a lot of discussions even being viewed.
Many people still use just a word or two as their headline.
For example, if you had called this “LinkedIn Discussions” rather than “6 Ways to Ignite a LinkedIn discussion” I wouldn’t have stopped and read it.
Nice headline by the way:)
Melinda
Hey Amy,
Great post! I’m a social media editor at a B2B publication and I’ve been looking for more ways to promote conversation. This has been a big help!
Cheers,
Kyle