Is LinkedIn really like Facebook? Or are we just taking ourselves too seriously...
Darren Bey
HR & People Specialist | Mental Health, Wellbeing & Culture Consultant | Mindfulness Coach
The aim of LinkedIn is "to build a valuable network and make meaningful connections that will have a positive impact on your career."
There is an ongoing divide about whether this means the content we share should be specific to achieving that goal - but what does it mean to have a positive impact on your career?
LinkedIn has become a Juggernaut of a platform and the usability has therefore changed. Evolving to encompass not just professional networking and meet ups (which is still a key pillar), but also professional branding and self promotion, thought leadership and knowledge sharing (ahem), a platform for which your voice can be heard and therefore freedom to seek and find like minded people.
Therefore it is inevitable that we get many forms of content and although you may not appreciate what you are exposed to, the reality is others will. People like puzzles to break up a mindless task. Others like to see a company celebrating and showing appreciation for an employee on their anniversary and believe it or not some will feel that being made aware of a specific cause or social responsibility is also relevant.
So where is the line between positive impact and unprofessional posting?
There are key distinctions that illustrate whether you are simply expressing your personality to help separate yourself from the drone mentality of being a professional cog. Or whether you are using LinkedIn as another platform to get hundreds of likes to reinforce a need for social acceptance (which is a recognised addiction)
The answer is to stop complaining about what people are posting and manage your own profile. Filter the people you follow, choose to block the content you aren't interested in, find another platform (there are many alternatives out there designed for just specific project collaborations).
LinkedIn's AI will pick up your user experience and thus filter out the content you are marking as irrelevant. Yes it takes a little effort but the reward is your experience being much more enjoyable and the content far more engaging.
Whether content has a positive impact on your career or not it not something LinkedIn can manage, it is totally subjective and the only person who can determine this is you.
Don't just take my word for it! Check out the links below...
Is LinkedIn becoming more like Facebook?