TLA Committee Corner – Technology Committee – William Davis

TLA Committee Corner and DEI Committee Report

TLA Committee Corner Technology Committee Report

William M. Davis,* Committee Chair

This year, the Technology Committee is working hard to magnify TLA’s presence on social media and create a new TLA website. We’re going to accomplish these goals with the assistance of Kellen and our many members who are savvy users of LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and similar social platforms. Here’s how we’re going to do it:

Valuable Content

Social media communications have the biggest impact when they invite interaction and commentary from a number of users. We are working with our management company to develop a system for collecting and vetting quality news stories involving law and all modes of transportation. These stories will be periodically shared through our website and LinkedIn page. The rationale behind quality news content is best explained by borrowing a line from Bonnie Raitt: “Let’s give ‘em something to talk about….” News stories are often a catalyst for discussion between our members and other professionals, so they are an excellent choice for social media posts since they invite commentary and interaction.

While the selected news stories will be presented in an unbiased, fact-based fashion—as is befitting for content posted by an organization as inclusive as TLA—we welcome our members sharing and re-posting the content through their own social media and offering their unique opinions on the content with the hope of sparking professional conversations on LinkedIn and other platforms.

The Committee has singled out LinkedIn as a platform of choice for several reasons. When looking at our member’s participation on social media platforms, it appears that LinkedIn is already a favorite. Many TLA members are active on LinkedIn.

TLA already has a good presence on LinkedIn, with regular postings submitted through our management company and promoted by our members via “likes” and shares. This established presence can be grown and improved at a rate faster than if we attempted to establish a new presence on a new platform.

Finally, the inner workings of social media sites suggest that our focus should be on achieving high levels of engagement on a single platform as opposed to mediocre engagement across several platforms. Many of you are familiar with the usual suspects when it comes to business marketing on social media: LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are the frontrunners, with other contenders such as Clubhouse and Twitter not far behind. These various platforms work quite differently in terms of how they prioritize and distribute content. Success on any one platform is achieved by consistent posting/interaction in a way that is consistent with the rules of the particular platform’s algorithm. The different platforms use different algorithms and focus on different types of content. For example, TikTok focuses on short videos (less than 10 minutes) while Twitter is a text-based platform. LinkedIn is a hybrid platform that allows text, photos and video—although most users stick to text.

Because of the inherent differences between the platforms, it is difficult to achieve success across multiple platforms simply by cutting-and-pasting the same content from one platform to the next. A posting that does well on Twitter might not be as wellreceived on LinkedIn. The Committee believes it is prudent to achieve excellence on a single platform as opposed to achieving average results across multiple platforms.

One of the most exciting aspects of TLA’s existing LinkedIn presence is that we have so many members who are very active in the LinkedIn community. We will be working to grow member participation on LinkedIn, which will foster online discussions between members and—most importantly—between members and non-members. Additionally, the committee will continue its work to mindfully and purposefully disseminate TLA content on LinkedIn as outlined below.

Spreading the Virtual Word

Social media algorithms play tricks on you. If you’re fortunate to have a significant number of connections on LinkedIn or friends on Facebook, you’ve probably noticed that you continue to see only the same small subset of connections in your news feed. Simply having a large number of connections does not guarantee that a particular posting will be circulated to all of those connections. Similarly, a user with a large number of connections is unlikely to see content posted by the majority of those connections.

The reasons for this are complex and varied, but there is one common truth to increasing the visibility of online content: it must be cross-posted in areas where it would not otherwise organically appear. For example, LinkedIn Groups is a feature of LinkedIn which

provides virtual spaces “for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to share insights and experiences, ask for guidance, and build valuable connections.”1 A LinkedIn user can join the group simply by clicking “join,” and then can interact with that group by posting content and interacting with other content found in the group.

We have identified a number of LinkedIn groups that focus on various areas of transportation, and we are in the process of identifying our members who practice in those areas and who are already using LinkedIn as a normal part of their professional development. Our hope is that these members will join these groups and share TLA content, thus bringing TLA posts to an entirely new audience on LinkedIn.

We have also developed our own internal LinkedIn group which is dedicated to promoting and sharing LinkedIn content. The group is very active and is doing a great job of publicizing TLA’s LinkedIn content. Incidentally, the members of the group also tend to do a great job of promoting each other’s content along the way. If you’re interested in being a part of this exciting group, please reach out to Billy Davis on LinkedIn or email him at wdavis@boviskyle.com. All TLA members are welcome, whether experienced with LinkedIn or brand new to social media.

A New Website

We are working with the management company to develop a new website for TLA! The new site will be modernized and have an improved look. The Committee is interested in member’s feedback regarding the design of the new site. Please reach out to Billy Davis on LinkedIn or email him at wdavis@boviskyle.com with any thoughts you might have regarding improvements to the site.

TLA’s online presence is likely to be an important factor in its future growth. The culture of the internet is moving away from static websites in favor of interactive media such as social media. TLA can ride this wave of change, and as its online presence grows the website and LinkedIn postings will become hubs of activity for members and nonmembers alike. Interacting online will create a pipeline for adding quality professionals to our membership. It will provide a source of connection for our geographically diverse membership. It will provide another avenue for professional development and recognition within our great organization. The Committee is very excited about the upcoming year! If you have any questions or would like to get involved, please contact Billy Davis.

Endnotes

1 https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a540824/linkedin-groups-membership-overview?lang=en#:~:text=LinkedIn%20Groups%20provide%20a%20 place,groups%20you've%20already%20joined.