I joined LinkedIn many years back because it was a valuable business tool and a way to connect with other relevant businesspeople. I still use it for that purpose but am increasingly annoyed by the difficulty of finding the important business posts.
Over the last few weeks, I have been investigating why this may be, and have concluded that the real purpose of Linkedin is being drowned out by the noise created by self-promoting egotists or influencers.
It really stood out for me when I saw one of a series of posts from such an influencer where she was visiting various groups over a period of several days. In all cases she contributed nothing in the post other than a series of photos of her being present with people who were really doing something.
What was even more noticeable was here ability to appear overdressed and standing slightly apart from the rest of the group in the photographs to make sure she was the one noticed in the photo rather than the real doers.
This posting of photos that appear to associate her with others doing things is only part of the ego trip. These are the same people that make sure that they regularly tell people about the gifts they have received. I assume that they receive money for this subliminal promotion.
But the most glaring abuse of Linkedin is when they eventually decide that they need to post something. Rarely do these people have anything meaningful to contribute to debates, so they resort to meaningless platitudes or else they post other people’s work as if they are endorsing the views of others.
If people want to display they holiday photos or their trips to visit real businesspeople, then by all means do so, but please use a site that is designed for that purpose. Apparently good influencers have the following characteristics:
- #1: Authenticity.
- #2: Expert Content Creation.
- #3: Community Management.
- #4: Trust.
- #5: Passion.
So please ditch the ego trip and start providing us with original content that is useful to us serious businesspeople.
