The tale of copying and pasting content on LinkedIn
Why sharing is less of sharing but blatant copying?
Sharing content would be very simple. So, you would think but it is not. Copying content without giving credit has always been there on the internet. But on LinkedIn, we would assume that people are professionals and would behave professionally. To the surprise of many out here, we have been flooded with copy-pasted content on LinkedIn lately. It has become like an epidemic.
Take this for example. A post that was recently doing rounds on LinkedIn. Every one of these professionals happened to experience the same with great co-incidence.
Would the “share” button soon become redundant and LinkedIn may decide to remove it altogether? Most likely not but why people are not using the share button to share content and instead copy it as their own.
Possible reasons for the copy behavior
Content creation is tough. Creating continuously and frequently can give one an edge in the algorithm’s sight. Everyone wants to be a “Storyteller” but where will these stories come from? Lack of creativity has propelled people to copy content and paste as their own without thinking twice that it will in fact diminish their own brands. People will eventually find out.
It is very easy to just share the original content which also gives highlight to that person. An argument is that the LinkedIn algorithm does not prioritize the shared content but it gives preference to the original content. The end goal for many people is to just have as many likes and comments similar to Facebook or Instagram.
It also reminds me of the phenomenon where LinkedIn prioritizes original content over content that has links leading outside of LinkedIn.
Improvements in the content copy epidemic
Sooner or later, the copycats were to be caught. LinkedIn does have the feature to report such posts. Hopefully, they are able to flag copied content just like “fake news” flags on Twitter or Facebook.
There has been slight improvement by the people themselves in recent times. People now know that it can adversely affect their brand. In response, people have started adding hashtags such as #copied, #neverjudge.
I cannot really understand why people should not judge for a blatant copy. Some of these people have got better by at least tagging the person who they copied from. It still does not solve the issue as it is hard to know where the post originated first. At this point, it may also be said that why should we care? These posts may motivate someone. Let it be. I guess, the only solution might be an automated AI solution to check the plagiarism.
The SHARE button is here to stay but we have to make it usable
It seems the race to get popular on LinkedIn and have an influencer tag has brought forward many mediocre “storytellers” who want to ride on the work of others. People are realizing the harm of it to their own brand and finally, some have started with giving credits or at least admitting that they copied.
Though, it is still far from actually using the SHARE button for what it was intended to do. We should definitely increase more shares and encourage the original storytellers.
