Action story: The Power of "Action items" in communication

Action story: The Power of "Action items" in communication

When I joined ZS, a pharma consulting company, in 2015, one of the first lessons I learned was the importance of including action items at the end of every email. By doing so, readers become aware of the specific actions they need to take. 

On LinkedIn, I’ve written over 600 short hashtag#stories since June 2021. Initially, most of my stories received fewer than 10 likes and got 1 or 2 hashtag#follow requests. However, about a month ago, I started adding a clear action item at the end of each story: “Follow me for more such stories.”

The results have been remarkable. Now, each of my stories receives 20+ likes, and I’ve received 10+ follow requests. I take pride in this simple yet effective strategy of including an action item below each story.

Yet, as a data analyst, I can’t help but wonder if there’s another reason, especially since the stories remain unchanged. New connections are likely to chuckle 😋 at the "Action item" point and silently think, "Vivek, don’t get it wrong—we’re still not reading your stories. We follow you because of your new title."

>LinkedIn title a month back: Vivek Rathod - Data analyst by profession, Pharmacist by hobby, and Engineer at heart

>LinkedIn new title: Vivek Rathod - hashtag#Director - hashtag#Data & hashtag#Analytics - hashtag#Lifesciences

"Follow" me for more such alternate scenario stories