Despite my platform-agnostic approach to brand strategy, I receive a lot of questions about two platforms: LinkedIn and Substack. This week someone asked me whether they should spend effort on LinkedIn. They mentioned that they heard that “LinkedIn is over.”
Is LinkedIn over? It depends who you ask.
It’s over if you still follow the formula that started a few years ago. This looks something like spending X hours a day, X times a week to leave X number of comments and connect with X people per day.
It’s over if you spend a lot of energy increasing follower counts to get to X number who can see your posts that start with a hook and belong to your 4-5 content pillars.
It’s over if you are constantly trying to figure out what the algorithm wants based on what the latest LinkedIn guru tells you to do. As soon as you start following the new formula, LinkedIn changes its rules again.
If you treat LinkedIn purely as a content distribution platform, you will be disappointed. I hear this all the time: “I’ve tried LinkedIn and I haven’t been able to generate any business.”
If I go to this person’s profile, I see the same pattern. A modest number of followers, a thought leadership post once a week or so, and a handful of comments here and there. This formula doesn’t work anymore.
LinkedIn is still a social media network and I think some people forget about the ‘social’ aspect of social media. It’s not enough to share a post at regular intervals and then expect the leads to roll in. You have to invest in building and managing your community.
A few months ago, I shared the idea that I treat LinkedIn like a neighborhood. Conventional wisdom says that I should spend most of my efforts finding and connecting with potential customers.
My LinkedIn neighborhood is much more diverse. Some are people in the same industry and some offer the same type of services I do. Some are people that I share common interests with.
Not everyone has to be your potential customer. Perhaps someone in your neighborhood may refer you to a job or a business opportunity some day. Or maybe you just like to chat with them once in a while.
That’s the beauty of a network like LinkedIn where you meet professionals from all industries from all over the world. If you invest in building relationships within your own LinkedIn neighborhood, then this platform still has a lot of potential.
