Why I Do LinkedIn?

Over the years I have been asked by more than a few people,

"What do I exactly get out of LinkedIn?"

"Nothing really."

"WHAT?"

"Why keep doing it?"

I see it as my hobby now.

But LinkedIn was not always my hobby. Things changed over time.

My approach to it originally was like many early users, a place to have a professional profile and bio about my career focus. Nothing really anything more.

And eventually, as a job seeker, I added my portfolio links and artifacts, but too few hiring managers or recruiters took it seriously enough to look or even consider it legit.

It didn't stop me from using it that way and adding links to outside portfolios or websites. Yet, rarely did anyone care, even LinkedIn.

What did grow was my connections in my industries and fields. Many networking and career events later, I have a rich community to draw information, insights, and refer opportunities.

My view has been to think of LinkedIn as my personal tool and a community - network contact directory, professional phone directory, and business trending news source.

Somehow, I never thought of it as my direct lead generator or business funnel to get customers, because most of my 18 years on LinkedIn, I have been a job seeker or employee only. Single focused, my personal use has been to simply find ways to get hired or discover new jobs before they got posted.

And even after all these years on the platform, I am far from ever thinking I am an expert of how LinkedIn works or what makes a great content creator.

Why? It's always changing.

Just like me. Ours is like a relationship between old friends, that over time we have come to accept each other, understand that changes happen, good or bad, and our commitment to each other is deeper because of our shared experiences.

To me, LinkedIn has become an oasis. A refuge from other platforms where anger, bashing, bullying, and all things of violence seem to be too much for me. Sure, there's some of that "real world crazy" here too. But we, the collective community try to stay on top of it, and with help from LinkedIn, it's moderated, band/jailed, and in extreme cases, the professional or business offenders are removed forever.

This business platform has become to me an extension of my own personal idea of an office where I can interact with fellow people sharing from their world of daily tasks, deadlines, problems in need of ideas for solutions, and innovative ways of seeing business.

A friend of mine calls LinkedIn "a water cooler business carousel" instead of a feed based platform where one can tap into what any industry or field are globally talking about or international business fears happening in real time.

In December of 2020, after a hard year of job hunting chaos, I moved more into LinkedIn as my hobby after I was diagnosed with lung cancer and shared the news as a post on my profile page.

After all we had been through, I thought I needed to tell the honest truth I face with my friends, connections, followers, and LinkedIn network. And I continue to share and update my progress and thoughts.

Austin Kleon, author of "Steal Like an Artist" said this about having a fun side thing to do:

"It's important to have a hobby. A hobby is something creative that's just for you. You don't try to make money or get famous off it, you just do it because makes you (happy).

A hobby is something that gives but doesn't take."

Hobbies don't box us into perfect policies, rules, or neat little boxes that follow have timelines and expected outcomes. They are outside the box and allow us failures to teach us new skills, gain broader knowledge, and open us to creative possibilities.

My announcement of my diagnosis moved me from employee/job seeker/side business owner straight into hobby mode.

However to be totally honest, I was probably always treating my relationship with LinkedIn as my hobby because of the smooth transition into my new attitude on the platform. I feel free to write long posts, drop little "Meg Gems" into comments, and make more creative content I enjoy to post.

My new found creativity allows me no pressure to post, make no plans to comment on specific types of content, or follow people only within my fields of career experience. I find it extremely regenerative and exciting actually.

And recently, when asked why I keep spending time on LinkedIn or posting despite not getting huge followers or special recognition from LinkedIn after all this time, I can admit, I look back and it all makes sense - it's just my hobby.

Should I find fame and fortune because of LinkedIn and my relationships gained over all the years, great! I still won't claim to be an expert or influencer or even a rockstar. I am just a friend on a platform that changes and allows me the same grace to change too.

And I am not dead yet, despite life being incredibly short, just like me at five foot and posting about my cancer journey on LinkedIn.