The Water Cooler: Culture, Big Ideas and More Are What Professionals Are Sharing on LinkedIn
There are now more than 660 million members on LinkedIn. Every day on the platform these professionals discuss and share content that’s important to them. LinkedIn has become the Water Cooler of global business.
In this edition of the Water Cooler, we’re examining the articles that garnered the most shares on LinkedIn in December. As is often the case, an article about creating a kinder, gentler culture at work tops the list.
Also prominent on the list, as the decade came to a close, are articles that looked ahead or looked back. The seventh-ranked shared article was actually a video from Google that looked back on the year in search in 2019. The second-ranked article explored 20 big ideas for 2020.
Top 10 Articles Shared on LinkedIn
- The Possibility of Being Kind at Work By Karin Lindner
- 20 Big Ideas that Will Change Your World in 2020 By Isabelle Roughol
- 5 Books to Enjoy this Winter By Bill Gates
- Goldman Sachs' CEO Takes the Subway, Gets His Own Coffee and Has a Side Hustle as a DJ By Jade Scipioni, CNBC
- Burnout Is About Your Workplace, Not Your People By Jennifer Moss, Harvard Business Review
- Greta Thunberg Is TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year By Charlotte Alter, Suyin Hayes and Justin Worland, Time
- Google, A Year in Search 2019
- This Book Put Me to Sleep By Bill Gates
- America’s Most Responsible Companies 2020
- 5 Holiday Decoration Safety Tips to Consider
Lessons for Marketers
The top 10 list for December serves up a handful of lessons for marketers.
First, business professionals are hungry for articles that can help them improve the culture at their company. The top article focuses on bringing kindness to the workplace, and the fifth most-shared article discusses how burnout is often related to office culture.
Second, articles aren’t the only content that gets shared on LinkedIn: videos get passed along, too. Google’s “A Year in Search 2019” is an inspiring video about heroes — from superheroes to people just doing their job — that is worth a look.
Third, it’s a big world out there, and English isn’t the only language spoken on LinkedIn: The Portuguese and Spanish translations of “20 Big Ideas That Will Change Your World in 2020” also generated massive shares.
Fourth, business people are searching for knowledge and any edge that will get them ahead. The popularity of the “20 Big Ideas” article demonstrates this fact, and so does Bill Gates’ “5 Books to Enjoy This Winter.”
And finally, businesspeople are intrigued with sustainability as the high rankings for Greta Thunberg as Time’s Person of the Year and for Newsweek’s list of most responsible companies will attest.
If you want to take a deeper dive into the posts that are attracting the readership of professionals on LinkedIn, previous Water Cooler articles can be found here. And to keep pace with the latest thinking in marketing, subscribe to the LinkedIn Marketing Blog today.
