What Have I Learned From My 30-day LinkedIn Writing Challenge?

Rome is not built in 30 days; your network will neither.

Doing unpleasant things is mandatory if you want to grow. I like to push my limits, so recently, I challenged myself to write 30 days consistently on LinkedIn .

I must admit — I have a hate-love relationship with LinkedIn. I’ve never found a real network here and never went deeper than shallow conversation. I’ve been treating that place in the past pretty much like an online resume.

I am reestablishing my connection with LinkedIn as I thought it could be a good place to find leads for my content marketing offers.

But this journey was also about testing my limits, learning from my experiences, and discovering how to leverage the power of this professional platform everyone is bragging about lately.

How did it go?

Well…

I failed.

Why?

Let’s break it down.

Week 1: Getting started.

It was an ad hoc decision. Not much planning or thinking went into my decision. As someone who builds a side hustle publicly, I published a LinkedIn post on the first day to keep myself accountable.

Then, I prepared posts for that week. It felt good to plan content ahead (as I usually do with other networks, but not with LinkedIn).

If I were more honest:

Using public space for accountability is bullshit. You’re the only one who is responsible; don’t use other people as motivation or excuse.

Week 2: Finding My Voice

I have a strong, powerful voice. In Serbian, my mother tongue.

In English, I’m not so confident. Yes, I’ve been writing for the last five years in Australia.

But I started writing publicly only in January this year.

So, I’m still a rookie public writer in English, still finding my voice here on Medium, in my newsletter and certainly on LinkedIn.

And I needed help finding my voice on LinkedIn.

You see, I suffer from something called “imposter syndrome”. It’s no rare condition when, although you have vast experience and knowledge, you somehow feel less competent than those who know nothing but believe they know everything (Dunning Kruger Effect).

And LinkedIn is full of the Dunning Kruger gang.

I tried to follow LinkedIn “guru” advice:

• Post consistently
• Follow big creators
• Engage with them daily
• Copycat them — steal topics and give your personal view to them.
• Use templates.

But I failed miserably, especially with the engaging part.

Yes, I commented on the posts when I had something valuable to add; sometimes, it was quite difficult to add anything reasonable to add.

I can’t write anything while my gut is telling me “this is a shallow bullshit, the fact it’s broken down in small sentences means nothing”.

Often, my commenting ended up getting new connections, to discover just hours later that person was trying to sales pitch me.

Annoying.

If I were more honest:

I’d be even more open about Broerty (thanks, Renee Zulie, for discovering this term ) happening between big creators.

It is perfectly explained in this Carina Remplet’s Article on Fenwick Media :

Broetry is bad writing by every stretch of the imagination. It’s full of clichés, sweeping generalizations, unnecessary line breaks, and pseudo-profundity. As someone who cares deeply about clear and precise writing, it hurts me almost physically to read it. Yet it’s strangely effective — when I scroll past one on LinkedIn, I often find myself inadvertently clicking “see more.”

If I were more honest, I’d be more blunt about the sea of sameness I saw as a pattern there.

But that’s not a great way to get new followers and leads.

So, I was honest but not brutal.

However, LinkedIn nor LinkedIn gurus didn’t like it — I have almost 2000 followers, yet one of my posts about honesty had THREE impressions.

IV. Week 3: Building Momentum

Despite struggling to get more likes and engagements on my posts, my Substack newsletter, which I’ve been sharing on LinkedIn weekly, worked quite well.

I got good traction with new followers and even got into the LinkedIn Guide to Creating spotlight. They have recommended my newsletter, which resulted in new followers and increased reach.

If I were more honest:

No matter if I liked LinkedIn or not. That network, like any other one, has its own rules, culture, and way to leverage.

If you want to impact, you must play by the rules.

Simple as that.

Week 4: Did I fail?

At this time, I started doubting myself. Yes, the number of followers was growing, and the number of cold sales and blunt sales messages was exploding.

I became tired and uninspired.

Inspiration?

But marketing and LinkedIn gurus say we must be consistent regardless of inspiration or motivation.

I create the best content when I’m inspired and write out of joy and because I’m passionate about the topic, not by copying someone else’s templates or copycatting the big creators to get a few more likes.

I found myself without inspiration and a real plan for what to do next.

I didn’t want to bother new connections, and I didn’t want to add 5 CTAs in every post.

Most big creators talk about the millions they made to their clients and how they succeeded by being consistent.

My approach was and still is to be more human — share my failings, learnings, and real life. Combining inspiration with a plan — that works well for me.

Well, except on LinkedIn.

If I were more honest:

I can’t say I am unhappy with the results. They are reflections of my effort — I didn’t put 100 % (even not 50%) of my time and energy into this project. Given that, the results are not bad.

So, it’s not only LinkedIn to blame.

It’s me to blame.

And being accountable is a really big lesson to learn.

Key takeaways (TL’DR) — LinkedIn style

Recently, I made my writing on LinkedIn a challenge.

I wanted to post 30 days in a row.

And failed.

I published 25 posts.

But I’m not sorry for doing this experiment.

Posting every day is not easy if you want to do it right.

• Everyone can rewrite the existing viral post.
• Everyone can copy/paste someone’s post.
• Everyone can write a famous quote.

If you do that, people will realise you have nothing to offer.

“ You can fool some people sometimes. But you can’t fool all people all the time”

Yes, I tried to be consistent.

But, when I felt I had nothing useful or valuable to say, I kept quiet. I didn’t want to drown in a sea of sameness.

Instead:

• I’ve been reading valuable things that others have offered.
• I’ve been thinking about how to make a better offer.
• I’ve been engaging.
• I’ve been learning.

I don’t pretend I know everything.

I’m a work in progress, which makes me happy and confident in the value I bring to my clients.

Don’t follow a herd — find your own pathway.

But this is just half of the truth.

The other half is that I:

• didn’t prepare for this challenge properly
• didn’t focus 100% on creating content and following the best practices
• wasn’t ready to engage fully (I despise cold messaging)

So, results reflecting my effort.

Although LinkedIn is not worth all my time and focus at the moment, for some people, LinkedIn IS a powerful tool for personal branding, generating leads and getting sales.

As with everything else, we choose our network.

Our approach.

Our tribe.

The Internet is, luckily, big enough for everyone.

My tribe, at this point, is Medium, my website and my Marketing Fairy newsletter (if you want to join my tribe, the free content planner will land in your inbox).

See you there.

But I still didn't quit on LinkedIn. Who knows?