The View from the Office.

John Kraski met me at Soho Works in New York City’s Meatpacking district to talk about his plans for social media.

Fittingly, John and I first met online. It was a couple years ago when he was living in Dubai. He now lives in LA.

John has a big following on Linkedin and a talent for connecting with readers. He’s a great read to learn new ways to use the platform and is a good barometer for where social media is headed.

These days John is bullish on video and an evangelist for the potential of videos on LinkedIn, especially since the platform recently launched a Reels-like feature driven by algorithms. Since there is a dearth of video content on Linkedin, he argues you have a high chance of being featured.

John, who already posts videos often, wants to create a reality TV-style show to distribute via LinkedIn posts. He would be filmed walking around meeting people. It would give viewers a sense of the life of an influencer.

I visualize it like Curb Your Enthusiasm, where there is a rotating cast of people he knows and connects with, some in person and some via Zoom. I’ve already called dibs on a supporting role.

The bull case for videos on LinkedIn is that the platform has 1 billion users around the world, most are professionals, many are affluent. And yet, video accounts for a tiny percentage of the content on the platform.

John sees it as fertile ground not just for short personal cameos, but longer-form programming that involves narrative and storytelling. It’s not hard to imagine a significant increase in interviews with business people, for example. We’ve seen a similar evolution on YouTube.

John said the most successful creators on social media think of their feeds like programming. They worry about pace and variety. It’s not random. They publish three posts about work, followed by one personal story.

John said the two books that shaped his thinking the most about how to post on social media and develop an audience didn’t have anything to do with online content. One was The Last Great Ride by Brandon Tartikoff and the other was Top of the Rock by Warren Littlefield. Both men were programming executives at NBC Entertainment.

“It’s how I think everyone should think about their feeds,” he said. “Like a TV show.”