The Social Experiment: Leveraging a social media audience
...and other reasons I feel compelled to stick toothpicks in my eyeballs....
LinkedIn is an interesting place to hang out …
As I remain busy populating my Substack publication while networking with a wider audience on this platform, I’m also busy with updating my LinkedIn profile.
Which has been dormant since, well, forever. But oddly, I have over 900 connections there based on who I used to be in former lives. I’ve now cleared my profile and made it clear I’ve benefited from a sabbatical. I frequently check the platform, there to support the work of others in validation and comments.
Meanwhile…
My articles on Substack now start to include popular cultural topics as I like to write about mainstream trends, while often equating reoccurring patterns to a metaphysical reference. I’m also honing down my individual services I offer in private consultation, and ready to self promote.
So, instead of filling my LinkedIn posts with a bunch of self-promotional sh*t, I’m gonna use the handy dandy media asset decal Substack offers, and drop the url the platform offers. I think that’s how it works, right?
Toxic AF?
My main issue with LinkedIn is that it feels like entering a toxic work place where the environment is ruled by old crusty outdated hierarchical paradigms that ultimately only support a winning culture. Like where are the people that are struggling and sharing real talk?
Of course the pandemic and work-from-home efforts helped to bring personality and soft skills to the platform. But mostly I feel like LinkedIn can be a place to rate others based on achievements driven by a patriarchal funnel that is dominated by a population that sits behind desks and computer screens.
I understand comments from within my network of not feeling comfortable there.
“You have to pre-plan your posts and there are little moments to catch spontaneity.”
“Recruiting seems hit and miss depending on what and who you follow and DMs are filled with cold calls.”
“I don’t often feel I can really be myself there. And, when in a career transition, or otherwise having emotional responses connected to a job, the pressure of keeping up a pattern, or tone, is annoyingly anxiety-provoking.”
We should all be happy with the work & opportunities that are being offered, but already exhausted by what has been given to us.
It’s already difficult enough to connect authentically with others online, and unless this is actively part of your job or role in a working capacity, there is really no other reason to be on LinkedIn.
It’s not a total pissing contest by why isn’t there an equal representation of people promoting art and culture? Why are the hashtags so basic? What can’t people be funny there? Why can’t people share their political opinions if that is something they are passionate about sharing?
It’s actually a rather boring place to be, which I why I wasn’t there until recently. I liked hanging with the artists over on Instagram and moreover, many of my closest contacts aren’t on social media. Yet my audience has it's largest reach on LinkedIn.
My efforts in leveraging an audience away from well-known social media platforms have been mildly (un)successful. For the same reason I was, PLEASE NO!! NOT ANOTHER APP!
However, I remain optimist that Substack will slowly draw a crowd away from mainstream social media options as I foresee a grim dark future ahead for Zuck and Mush.
Eventually maintaining a social media account becomes a job itself, raising the question if social media was constructed to give us all side hustles in marketing?
In an article found here with Substacker comment included below, my sentiments are echoed:
“It’s like, everyone speaks in this bizarre “LinkedIn language” like they’ve all been brainwashed similar to that show ‘Severance’. You need to sign the LinkedIn Oath of toxic positivity, never saying icky stuff, and making up stories about your kids. You need to write in a certain way, where every sentence is a new paragraph. You need to be less human and more robot.”
The LinkedIn Space
I mostly use LinkedIn in recruitment, recommendation, and research measures. I have kept my personal brand elsewhere, where I’m done with resting in the bowels of Facebook and Instagram. From time spent on LinkedIn, I mostly participate as an observer, but recently have become more active in sharing my recommendations and my own articles.
has a Substack writers’ group growing slowly, like it should…slowly and organically, I can recommend here.Social media was where I wanted to connect with family & friends, not colleagues I spent 40 hours a week with.
My role in jobs in the last 18 years was to support leaders, while working in a diverse environments full of humans from diverse cultures and nationalities. By the end of my work day I was exhausted from hearing the multiple languages spoken.
Having a tendency to befriend colleagues and other health & wellness practitioners, I learned early on how to maintain ‘work-life friendships’. Though I “retired” from corporate life in 2021, I am grateful for this time and the learning opportunities presented. Moreover, thankful for the people I met that helped to transform my life during that journey.
Most of my personal contacts I’m also connected with on Metaverse applications. However, being our data is being harvested for ad campaigns, plus hacker & bot activity is on the rise, it’s time to streamline content and use fewer platforms.
I know there’s millions of other amazing humans already doing this successfully, but…
Substack Audience: Taking this moment now, to refresh and rebrand over on LinkedIn. Hence the CTA here is to link with me there as am in need of social media stranger support. AND I’m happy to help promote fellow Substack writers.
Who are you there and what are you talking about?
I use LinkedIn for my day job which is Project Coordinator but I’ve posted my Substack posts and gotten subscribers that were previously coworkers (and friends). It’s still so corporate but I like to read things posted by the Getty so the algorithm shows me slightly more artsy stuff. I followed you and would love to connect.
I followed a similar path to you Audra, in that I had built a sizeable inked in platform but left it dormant for years (due to chronic illness leading to change in career). I’m only recently back on there in a new way so having to re-establish a presence. Somethings changed though since I showed up in a new way. Barely any toxicity at all. All my tribe came in and I’ve made some really deep and meaningful connections over there. It’s the feeling of spaciousness that took me back there and this inner knowing that it’s going to become my biggest most successful platform. I find it easier to show up on there, post, engage and interact with others. I get a lot more from it than I do other socials pages.