Is LinkedIn turning us all into headless chickens?
Bawk bawk, bawk bawk, cluck bawk.
The LinkedIn challenge
100 days ago, I gave myself a challenge. That challenge was to spend 100 consecutive days on LinkedIn. It was not the first challenge I’d done. Or the second. Or the third. But it was of my own making, instead of using prompts from someone else. The aim, as is the aim of most freelancers on LinkedIn, was to eventually get new leads. But I knew that it might take months to reap those benefits. So I was also looking at the following goals:
To curate my profile so that I was seeing more relevant content and following a range of people I could learn from, and be entertained and inspired by.
To increase my follows.
To increase my relevant connections.
More than anything, I really wanted to like the time I spend on there. I’m connected to fellow writers who truly seem to love it. They have built a community and a network around it. They get work through it.
The only rule was that I had to show up on LinkedIn for 100 days straight. Even if it was only to read someone else’s post. I didn’t commit to 10 comments a day or 7 posts a week. Nothing like that. Just showing up. And trying to engage when I could, where it felt natural to do so.
So what happened?
The results
I posted, commented and engaged more than I ever have. Admittedly, it wasn’t a crazy amount, but that wouldn’t be sustainable anyway.
My feed is more curated. I definitely see less marketing and sales bro stuff, like “I got 75 million follows in 2 hours, here’s how I did it”, or. “I just made £50k in a day. Steal my process!” I see more chat about actual marketing. People discussing the pros and cons of different methods. BUT…
I still see some posts like the above. I see a lot of posts that use the same tired old hooks. “Unpopular opinion…” and then they proceed to tell you something that is neither an opinion nor unpopular.
SOOOOOOO many posts telling other people to not be afraid of posting. When maybe, actually, some people shouldn’t post unless they’ve got something to say.
The same topics over and over again. Not a lot of new angles. And although there’s nothing inherently wrong with posting about a topic that’s already been posted about (‘nothing new under the sun’ and all that), most of these posts are written as if they are the first person ever in the world to talk about said topic. One of the first rules of writing and marketing is to find your unique selling point. But that seems to get missed a lot on LinkedIn.
A high number or posts that take a negative “telling off” stance. “You’re doing everything wrong!” “This is why you shouldn’t…” “Stop doing this!” I’m not totally against this tactic. I’ve used it myself. But I provide solutions. In LinkedIn world, people seem to talk down a lot more. Like they’re a school teacher and you’re the naughty, stupid, child. What they’re trying to do is make themselves sound like an expert. That they know more than you. They want to cause controversy. I’ve even seen people say “If you’re not receiving hate, you’re doing something wrong.” Excuse me???
Often I go to reply to a post and then see an argument happening in the comments and I move on because I’m not interested in that. Everyone is so angry!
And now let’s get onto the actual functionality and usability of the platform.
Most of the time, LinkedIn doesn’t notify me when someone comments or engages with a post of mine. (I’ve checked all the settings several times. Nothing seems to work to rectify this.)
But I get notifications about people I’m not even connected to.
Sometimes I see the same post for days at the top of my feed, even when I mark it as not wanting to see it anymore. Even when no one new has commented on it. Even when it’s 2 weeks old.
My relevant connections and follows have indeed increased. But my reach has tanked. Impressions are extremely low.
I’ve heard others report similar and it feels like there’s a paid “solution” on the way. Which seems to be the way most platforms are heading.
Chasing the algorithm doesn’t seem to be as openly talked about on LinkedIn as it is on other platforms. People are still advising you use what I personally would call a hack, or trend. Like when people say you have to spend time engaging, because it’s a “social” platform. Really? Do we still think that? How much time? How many comments? How many likes? How many…oh.
And with all this “advice”, it’s really hard to decipher what’s genuine, what’s clickbait, what’s fact and what’s just the latest in an always changing environment. It’s got everyone running around like headless chickens trying to work it out. Trying to work out how much time and effort and energy to give. To a platform that could theoretically go down tomorrow. Or you could get hacked. And all your hard work would be gone. Poof!
I could commit to LinkedIn even more. I could actually post twice a day. I could comment on at least 10 posts a day. I could, I could. But when I think of the time that would take. Sure, it might get me more attention and a client later down the line. But it could also…not. Would I ever really be able to discern just how much of my time led to one or the other? And that’s time I’ll never get back. Time I could spend elsewhere in my business, or with my family and friends, shooting the breeze.
Social media does a very good job of making us think it needs us to be all in. But our time is finite. “She spent a good 30 hours a week on LinkedIn, what a gal” is not a line that will ever be uttered by anyone, ever.
What’s next for me and LI?
We’re never gonna be bezzies. Will I still show up on LinkedIn? Yeah. But not as much. It seems pointless. It’s not where I want to spend my time.
I’ll be focusing my marketing efforts on writing this newsletter for the foreseeable future. Am I in my own little bubble here? Yup! Just how I like it!
You’re more than welcome to join me. I promise I won’t try to get you to like a post or DM me “currazzzeee” for the latest crazy hooks! (Tried that. Felt icky. No more). You’ll see the same ‘support me if you want to’ buttons on here. So, you can support me if you want to, or swing on by if you don’t. This bubble is cozy, calm and undemanding.
And so…
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