Nope, not going to sing Vanilla Ice. Did I get your attention with my title?

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in the past year or so is “In order to grow your business, collaboration must be part of the equation.”

Another lesson I’ve learned is the power of education, learning and teaching.

LinkedIn launched Collaborative Articles in early March of this year.  I didn’t buy into it right away.  In fact, I didn’t understand all the hype surrounding them UNTIL I attended the LinkedIn Collaborative Article Day event on June 29th, then my mindset shifted.

Once I heard from the people who work at LinkedIn about why they created the articles and everything that went into them behind the scenes, I thought, “Let’s give this a shot.”  Going into adding my insights to Collaborative Articles, I thought “The badge idea is pretty cool, if I get one in a few months, even better.”

Little did I know the power that my insights had.

 I now make adding my insights to Collaborative Articles here on LinkedIn part of my weekly routine here, and this is why.

1.  A lot of People on LinkedIn are on the platform to LEARN.  These articles are created by AI BUT humans are sharing their insights inside of the articles.  Humans also are “upvoting” the insights on whether or not they are insightful.  I’ve found so many articles that I can lend my voice to, ranging from content marketing, social media, to entrepreneurship, to client success.  I LOVE sharing the knowledge and these articles are fantastic vehicles in which to do so.
2.  A whole new audience is there waiting to meet you and learn from you!  Every single time I add my insights to Collaborative Articles on LinkedIn, I’m becoming more and more visible to people who have not seen me in the feed.  They don’t know me, like me, or trust me yet but my insights are contributing to the value I bring.
3. Don’t make it super short and sweet but don’t write a book either. There’s a happy mediumk between insights that don’t have any meat to them and those that are long-winded. Find somewhere in the middle. Again, think two insights per article and at least two or three articles when you do add your insights.
4. The Badges bring a level of credibility.  You can earn a Collaborative Article badge by the amount of insights you add (LinkedIn recommends two insights per article and multiple articles at a time) and the quality of insights you add.  The same thing I say about commenting applies here.  Don’t add your insight just for the sake of adding it.  Make sure it’s a quality insight.  While I may not be a “top voice” here on LinkedIn, the Collaborative Articles team have awarded me three Collaborative Articles Top Voice Badges in a month.
5. The power of networking…in another avenue of the world’s largest professional networking platform.  I’ve met people through sharing my insights and reading other people’s insights in these articles who I may not have never met in the feed.
6. Don’t swim in the ocean, choose a pond.  What I mean by that is if there are articles with dozens of people already adding their insights, find ones where it’s a smaller group or if there aren’t any at all, add a quality insight or two to those.
7. Test, Test, Test.  Just because it works for the goose, it may not work for the gander.  If you can’t find articles to add your insights to or you don’t enjoy doing it, that’s totally OK.  What works for me, may not work for everyone, so you do you!

Have you tried Collaborative Articles yet?  If yes, what do you think?  If no, what’s your favorite LinkedIn new feature?