LinkedIn Publishing Platform vs. LiveJournal

It seems like a great tool to offer valuable content and increase the visibility of my brand. I've learned it's not a good tool to try to sell directly

Incentivized

In general, I would not recommend LiveJournal to organizations wanting to communicate to potential customers. Although it is an easy-to-use blogging platform with a large number of free and relatively inexpensive customization options, it is known primarily as a source of user-generated content. Smaller organizations looking for a free or inexpensive blogging platform may find LiveJournal useful, however, as a way to communicate with employees or existing customers.

• It allows a direct line of communication to professionals that follow your business online.
• Gives a company a dedicated space for their company to display whom they are, and what they do.
• Contributes to keeping your company relevant by posting content.

• Anyone can use it: The default formatting for LiveJournal is so simple that anyone could grasp it. It's true that the results are quite bare-bones without customization, but depending on how you want to use it, this may be a good thing.
• It has free options: By default you'll be added to a Plus account that gives you 1GB worth of space and the basic freedom to create decently detailed posts.
• There are advanced settings too: For those that have the experience, HTML and other forms of coding are allowed. This makes it easy for qualified individuals to get the most out of even the basic services. You can even program your own custom themes if you have the know-how.
• Tagging features mean that SEO enthusiasts can try their hand at making their posts more present in popular search engines.

• As LinkedIn rolls out its new interface, the Publishing Platform is losing some of what made it awesome before. Especially re: images. I've lost the ability to resize my graphic by clicking the resizing arrows that appear on the border of most applications. Now I'm stuck with the default size of the image, and all I can do is select whether it's left-aligned, right-aligned or centered.
• Another thing that seems to be getting worse is my ability to quickly see who's viewed, liked, shared and commented on a blog post. This inhibits my ability to engage with my readers. I had a client express surprise that I hadn't acknowledged her reaction to my article. The weird way it's set up now, I can't even see her comment.
• I used to be able to click "My articles" and see a checkerboard with tiles of a summary of my articles: Images + headlines + # of views/likes/shares. This checkerboard showed 3 - 4 of my article tiles per row. This was something I used regularly before publishing a new blog. It let me scan quickly to make sure I wasn't going to use the same image or headline as in a previous post. Now, when I go to view my articles, I have to slowly scroll though a long list that shows 1 image headline at a time, and doesn't let me see my analytics. It takes a lot longer to scroll through my 90+ articles. #Frustrating
• For some reason, I get a lot fewer views than I used to. On average, I used to get between 50 - 80 views per article. I even have one post that's grand [total is] 140,000+ views. Sadly, my most recent posts have gotten 8 - 20 views. My writing's gotten better over time, and I follow the guidelines LinkedIn offers in its Help section. And last year I aligned some of my content with LinkedIn's editorial calendar. I wish I knew what's driving the reduction in views. Is it me? Is it LinkedIn's new approach to Pulse and the Publishing platform? I'm starting to question whether publishing here is a good use of my time.
• It would be great if LinkedIn could give us a roadmap of what's changing and why - BEFORE & DURING the change. A few years ago, LinkedIn did a lot to encourage people to use the Publishing Platform. So I did what they asked, and got into the habit of publishing an article almost every week. With all its capabilities, I'd think LinkedIn could do an analysis of who's used the Publishing Platform seriously, frequently and ethically -- and communicate directly to us to let us know what's working well (and not-so-well) for them - and ask us what's working well (and not-so-well) for us. That could lead to some mutually-beneficial brainstorming of how to optimize things for everybody.

Incentivized

• Slightly more extensive customization options.
• Cheaper usage fees for paid accounts.

LiveJournal has a sense of community that is unlike that of other blogging sites. LiveJournal's layout and setup allow for user engagement that is on a different level than those of WordPress and Blogger. Community and a sense of being in one is important when communicating with customers, as well as responding to comments and complaints. LiveJournal makes it easy to address these issues

You can use your own profile and it is intuitive, easy to manage with good headings and tools.

Incentivized

The problem with Facebook for Business is that it is on Facebook. Facebook is a great way for a company to brand themselves. However a companies content is surround by other content that is often not professional. For example, if someone follows my company on Facebook and scrolls down their timeline and sees my post, it is intertwined in their feed with their Facebook friends. This could lead to your content being mixed in with others. With Linkedin, it is solely supposed to be used for professionals. People are not supposed to (even though some do) post things that may be deemed offensive. That is not the case with Facebook.

I do not have a basis for comparison because I do not use other blogging platforms.

• Positive: top choice for extending reach for awareness campaigns and delivery of time sensitive information
• Positive: a must have tool to follow other competitors and influencers in a sector

Incentivized

• No impact on our business