LinkedIn Needs Me To Not Help You
Have you ever noticed that when you had a good job, you probably spent less time on LinkedIn? When you were supported in that job, attending good events, and networking in real life… you spent less time on LinkedIn?
You probably came to it when you felt you needed it. Oh, better have some sort of personal brand and post something. Oh, better tell people I got laid off, and ask for help. Oh, better see if anybody is posting that they are looking for people like me. Oh, better brush up my profile since I’m back on the market.
As time goes on, I hear fewer and fewer positive comments about LinkedIn and what it’s like to use it.
I tend to hear or read (even in LinkedIn posts) that:
- Premium accounts are not worth it at all. Zero ROI. People are angry. They announce cancelling it!
- People still can’t find a job. They ask for all kinds of help, and most people are unfortunately not in a position to help. It’s not that they don’t want to help. It’s that companies are more likely to be reducing their workforce than adding to it.
- They see the same people over and over in their feeds. Sometimes these are people they don’t love or agree with.
- Heaps of posts from people with good followings writing that their posts aren’t being shown to anybody. People with tens of thousands of followers or connections are barely getting hundreds of views on a post. They are being pressured to pay for reach, like it’s Facebook 15 years ago.
So… why? How would LinkedIn benefit from this being your experience?
Let’s follow the likely KPIs and money. LinkedIn probably wants more “engagement,” and their definition of that is probably broad. More logins. More reads. More clicks. For the love of the god of your choice, more everything!
We know that LinkedIn is desperate to keep people on their site and show engagement numbers because they want you to come and play games. It’s a work-based platform, but come here to do the opposite of work! Someone said, “Make it stickier! Make it more addictive! Add gaming!” Maybe next they’ll add crypto trading.
Who is more likely to spend time on LinkedIn? Someone having no problem connecting with people, getting interviews, and finding work? Or someone who still can’t find that next job? The second one. The more successful you feel, the less time you might spend on LinkedIn.
Then what does LinkedIn want you to see? Something that genuinely helps you, solves your problems, or teaches you something new? Or something that makes you angry, hopeful, or feeling some other potentially extreme emotion?
Probably not the helpful stuff. Then you are helped, and maybe you don’t need to come back to LinkedIn so much. The better your career is going, the less you need to post to or read LinkedIn. Best to bait you with bullshit, more AI, bullshit about AI, bullshit written about AI, bullshit about AI writing bullshit, etc. Then you will engage, and LinkedIn only cares about that.
Engagement numbers matter because LinkedIn sells ads.
They make more money when humans are on the site seeing the ads. LinkedIn makes way less money when you arrive on the site, and find really relevant and excellent content immediately. LinkedIn makes less revenue when the algorithm shows you a webinar that would really help you right now, you sign up, and you close the app or site.
Let’s imagine helpful content.
Someone has written a new book. Or they have a webinar that will teach you something. They want to offer career coaching. They are opening free mentoring hours. It could be anything.
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Does LinkedIn benefit when you see this post? If you are LinkedIn, and you want engagement at all costs, then you have to fine tune your website and app to be the casino slot machine. You have to show a few wins to keep people coming back. If it were 100% awful, people would just abandon it. You’ll need to watch the numbers, and carefully balance it so you show them just enough helpful stuff to keep them coming back. The rest should be time-wasting garbage.
And we’ll check on that by showing you a random one-question survey from time to time asking if the content you saw today felt worth your time. My guess: they hope you say no. They hope you are on the site, scrolling and doom scrolling, clicking like, arguing with rage baiters, and seeing lots of sponsored posts. And maybe playing games and posting about your gaming streak on a work platform.
It’s always frustrating when people I’m connected to didn’t know I had a new book out, or someone following me had no idea I held that free webinar they would have attended. I did post to LI about it usually at least five times, but it was kept from you because it might help. And a stronger, happier person probably needs LinkedIn less.
I try to not bother being frustrated because I understand the game and why the game is against so many of us. Baiters win. AI posts, especially about AI, win. They offer you little, and keep you on the site to see more ads. Helpful posts might reduce your (perceived) need for LinkedIn.
I became a hand-picked Top Voice of LinkedIn. I then was shadow banned. My growth has essentially stopped. I’ve had nearly the same number of followers for years. Nearly nobody sees my posts. And the more LinkedIn alienates the people providing any decent, helpful content, the more the snake eats its tail, and anybody looking for help will realize… it’s not on LinkedIn.
They’re slowly undoing themselves. (whistles) Here, Bending Spoons, Bending Spoons! Come here! Got a bone for ya!
It’s OK to walk away from something that isn’t positive.
The trick is to make the break. Use LinkedIn less often and see how you feel. See what changes in your life or career. Understand that many listed “open” jobs are fake, and even people who like and respect you probably can’t help you find a job.
LinkedIn is counting on you thinking, “If I stop using LinkedIn, I’ll stop seeing the few helpful and useful things it dares to show me each week.” But there are always ways to keep up with quality creators and experts. We all publish outside of LinkedIn.
For example, I have a page at https://dcx.to which shows everywhere you can connect with me… my free Discord, my free Medium articles (same ones published to LinkedIn without the negative experience of going to LinkedIn), and more. Subscribe to what you want to know about. We’re all happy to send you stuff and notify you when we wrote something, are teaching something, or offer something else we believe will genuinely help.
Choose to follow and subscribe where there is no algorithm. If you subscribe with notifications to my Medium publication, you don’t have to hang out on Medium. You can wait for an email announcing a new article. That’s also announced in my Discord, pinging a role that wants to be notified when I have a new article.
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