Back in June 2016 when Microsoft paid $US26 Billion for LinkedIn, we all expected there to be changes. You do not spend that sort of dosh, even when it is just change as it is for Microsoft, without a plan.
The advice from many, including myself was that it had just become even more important than ever to own your own digital real estate, a functional and attractive website, delivering your value proposition, rather than relying on rented real estate, someone else’s platform like Facebook or LinkedIn.
All the platforms monetise by being wholesalers of eyeballs, they sell advertising by many names to those who want to reach you, and do not care much about how you feel, only that you are reachable, and they have found remarkably innovative ways to do so, and I suspect the pace of innovation is just accelerating.
Early in January, all LinkedIn members received an email from our friendly hosts at LinkedIn saying they were ‘retiring the notes and tags features’ our connections page for those using the free version. This is simply code for if you want it, you can pay for it.
As the platform is theirs, as with a rented house we live in, we have no control over the terms and conditions, we accept them or leave. Not too surprising I thought, but nevertheless, annoying as the tags feature particularly is (was at the end of March) very useful.
Now I opened up LinkedIn this morning and there is a whole new look, no doubt aimed at making my experience better, code for we are going to charge you for something else you have had for free to date.
Again, not surprising, but annoying, not just because it will start to cost me, but because I will have to adjust to a whole new layout. I am 65, change does not come as easily as it once did.
Never has the importance of having your own digital real estate been more important, and never has it been harder to build. No longer can you stick up a dodgy website and have people find you, there are millions of sites, and billions of posts daily, being found by chance is harder than finding a particular grain of sand on Bondi beach.
The best time to start building a digital platform you own was 10 years ago, the second best time is now. It is a bit like the telephone in 1915, everyone had survived to date without one, it seemed that you could continue to do so, but by 1920, no business could survive without a phone.
Do not stuff around, but it is not free, there is a substantial investment of time, skill, and money involved, but like the phone 100 years ago, you cannot survive without one for long.
