Linkedin used to be somewhere to go and check out some pretty awesome content. I have always thought of it as a confused social network – struggling to find where it fits in the whole “social” side of things. I love reading blog posts and really good articles – which I used to get from Linkedin. But somewhere along the way – in the past year or so – the whole point of Linkedin has been lost to the marketing plea of “buy my crap”.
No, I don’t want what you’re selling.
IMHO LinkedIn has now become almost entirely pointless, a selfish social network.
LinkedIn is / has been suffering from a severe identity crisis:
- Is it meant to be a social network platform like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter?
- Or is it a platform for “professional” networking – whatever that is?
- Or indeed has it now simply become a platform for grown-ups to form their own reality show of self-serving video crap that we all need to suffer?
Who knows? It seems to be a butchered-up version of other social networks for the business network. What is the actual purpose of LinkedIn?
One of the main problems with LinkedIn is the newsfeed.
For a newsfeed to work on a social platform, the content needs to be interesting, engaging and add value.
For the past 6 months most of my LinkedIn newsfeed is full of self-serving “me, me, me” content, which only the dedicated LinkedIn user suffers because they care about networking – online and offline.
But this is my problem. Because it is me who connected with these people. My 3246 connections are made up of:
- Previous work colleagues (obvs – I love seeing what they are up to)
- Some of my friends (who I don’t be friendly with on Linkedin)
- Some bloody amazing and inspirational people (who I am grateful to be connected with)
- And mostly – MOSTLY – people I have accepted a connection request from who; a) I do not know and b) could not care about in the slightest (sorry – but it is the truth)
I created this problem. But now what do I do?
Obviously – we can all create and share quality content but – more often than not – the people who take the time to do this are those with a vested interest in doing so -for example, marketers like myself. Most Linkedin’ers do not engage and probably aren’t overly active on the platform – unless someone like ‘me’ has told them they have to be … because – you know – “LinkedIn is social” – but actually – in a very antisocial way.
So ultimately – now my newsfeed is just full of pointless crap I don’t care about from people I don’t know or care about. Go figure.
What do I share?
I often share what I am doing on Linkedin – not because I am trying to sell my services – but because I like to document the amazing opportunities that I am getting in my business start up journey – so that others might be inspired too.
But – as a result – two months ago – I became the target of trolling on Linkedin. I brought it on myself. I shared what I said to our Prime Minister at a meeting and boy did it enrage so many of you. I should’ve just kept it to myself but most people – who know me – know that I just like to tell it as it is. With no hidden agenda.
The post has been seen almost 900,000 times (Yup almost 1 million!) with 4769 likes and 852 comments. My inbox has hundreds of message of hate, death threats but also lots of nice messages of support. Hands up if you can beat that?
Anyway – I have decided that in 2019 I am going to share less and not go on Linkedin as frequently. Because quite frankly – kinda over it. The platform needs to find its way quickly before it is too late.
Instead you’ll find me over on Instagram stories plugging my pointless crap to those who continue to follow me.
