LinkedIn for civilians: meaningful connections and self expression

Why on earth would anyone want to log in to LinkedIn every day? And how can you get the best out of LinkedIn if you’re not an influencer or sales bro?

I’ve been a habitual user of LinkedIn for a few years now. When I was head of content at a marketing agency, it was a useful way to:

• (softly) sell our services
• get insight into our target market
• pick up industry gossip
• connect with and commission freelancers

But I soon found that I enjoyed it and even when I changed jobs kept up my habit of posting almost every day.

First, there’s a certain pleasure in consistency. Whatever else is going on, in the day job or on my project, I know that I’m going to carve out 10 or 15 minutes to write a post.

It feels like a sort of warm up exercise: write something that (no offence) doesn’t really matter before getting down to serious business.

Secondly, it’s an outlet for things that I want to get off my chest. Bits of professional trivia, things I’ve learned, trends that worry me… It feels OK to post these on LinkedIn in a way it perhaps doesn’t on other social platforms.

Thirdly, there’s the vibe. Thanks, in part, to some careful curation (more on that shortly) I find LinkedIn to be overwhelmingly calm, upbeat and supportive. Some people find that wearing, and I might too if it was the only space in which I existed. As it is, it’s something of an oasis.

Finally, there’s the sense of professional community. I’m experienced in content but relatively new to content design. The way I learn best is by listening into conversations the grown-ups are having, and by reading. LinkedIn provides that.

The downsides

You need to be vigilant on LinkedIn. It’s all too easy for your timeline to get cluttered with:

• generic content
• grifting
• pyramid schemes
• desperate hard selling
• ‘toxic positivity’
• productivity cults

And a new one:

• people overusing ChatGPT

Because LinkedIn doesn’t have block like other platforms, it can be a little harder to clean house. The tools you have are more oblique.

For example, resisting the urge to comment on posts that annoy you. Because LinkedIn doesn’t care that you hated that post, it only knows that you engaged with it. So it will show you more of the same.

On the flipside, taking the time to comment on or like posts that interest or excite you tells the algorithm what you are interested in, so you’ll see more of it.

Otherwise, it’s entirely possible for LinkedIn to decide that someone you’ve connected with or chosen to follow isn’t interesting to you.

In general, having to play the algorithm is frustrating, especially as its workings are opaque.

On that, I’d say you can either:

1.????????Treat it like a game and enjoy the process.

2.???????Ignore it and post what you like, when you like.

I do something in between, of course, playing along with the algorithm when it suits me (posting once a day feels about right) and ignoring it when it doesn’t (I never got into putting selfies on all my posts when the algo insisted upon it).

Making LinkedIn work for you

Connect with the right people and keep connecting. Every day, I find someone new to connect with – someone I think I can learn something from, or who posts interesting stuff. If they accept the connection, for a couple of weeks, I’ll see everything they post, and they’ll see everything of mine. This is the algorithm trying to help us get to know each other. Constantly adding to your network keeps it fresh and balances out those who’ve drifted away.

Post something every day. It doesn’t have to be deep or profound. Think of it like journaling. You’re just turning up and recording a thought. My colleague Anne Dhir has been doing this for about a year now and I love seeing her content in my feed.

Or, actually, scratch that – post as often as suits you. If you can’t post every day, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth bothering. Once a week is fine, algorithm aside. Just be present so that people know if they connect with you, they’ll get something other than silence.

Follow hashtags. This has been a gamechanger for me. Instead of trying to connect with every content designer on earth, I can follow and dip in and out. Sure, there’s some spam to sift through, but it’s also how I’ve found some of the most interesting content on the platform.

Avoid advice about using LinkedIn. It’s so easy to end up with a feed that has nothing but posts about LinkedIn. And, like films about filmmaking or books about struggling writers, it quickly becomes tedious. (I am aware of the irony here, and I really do try not to post about LinkedIn very often at all.)

Posting is better than commenting. Commenting is better than liking. The more you get involved – the less passive you are – the more rewarding LinkedIn can be.

Don’t get obsessed with stats. It’s nice to go viral, or see big numbers of impressions on a post, but unless your job is managing social media, those numbers aren’t hugely important. A small number of meaningful engagements is worth any number of drive-by likes from people who will never think about you again.

Play the long game. I occasionally get asked to recommend services, agencies or freelancers and my first thought is almost always of someone I know through LinkedIn. Several years of daily posting have lodged the thought in my brain: “This person knows their stuff.”

You’re a human dealing with other humans

If you want to use LinkedIn in a way that feels healthy and constructive, think of it as an interface for a distributed community of actual human beings.

Those little circles with their colourful backgrounds are (mostly) real people. They might be playing a version of themselves – perhaps more earnest and professional than they’d be on, say, Instagram – but they’re people.

Think how you’d like people to interact with you and try to do the same.