The Guy Who Got Trashed On For Wearing A Baseball Cap On LinkedIn

I came across a video on LinkedIn probably 6 months ago and I've thinking about it here and there. He was a younger guy, I'm guessing younger 20's. He shot a quick Q&A with a guest and it was great. He had a positive message and he was putting himself out there. I wish I could tag him in this but I forget who it was.

The funny thing was the comment section: it had a handful of people slamming him for wearing a backwards baseball cap. It wasn't tough love or a professional suggestion, it had that passive aggressive LinkedIn venom. We've all seen it, those people that just can not hold back that big opinion:

Another interesting thing was one of the commenters was a sales director or manager (and there were a few other people jumping in as well). He's a leader at a company currently. Trashing someone publicly for whatever reason is never a good look. Probably the reason why some comments were deleted.

The irony in that situation: these sales leaders watched a video with dozens of thousands of views with a positive message (I think it was at around 40K views). It also included a young person putting themselves out there. The video did it's job and started awesome conversation. And for some reason the focal point for some people was: why is this kid wearing a baseball hat outside of the office?

I believe in looking sharp for job interviews, networking events or sales meetings. Those events are really important. But the way professional social media is moving is that it's becoming more personal and laid back. It's becoming the water cooler conversation and not the "mission statement presentation."

You're right, LinkedIn isn't Facebook or Instagram but it is a social platform. Some of my business heroes are unapologetically themselves. Some of them swear, don't care what people think, and they wear tee shirts sometimes.

And if you're someone who thinks I'm completely wrong and LinkedIn needs to remain within the professional lines, I'm completely cool with that too. I remember one of my old marketing videos I put out and my father told me I shouldn't have been wearing a Red Sox sweater. He see's it that way but he knows I'm aiming for a completely different audience.

I've heard an important mindset from more than one influencer: your audience size doesn't matter, it's the strength and connection that you have with them. Those moments I take off my baseball hat, change the way I talk or just sensor certain characteristics about myself, I'm not focused on strengthening my audience. I'm worried about satisfying people that most likely will not give me the time of day anyways. I miss another opportunity to connect with another new person.