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Shameless Work Influencers Are the Bane of LinkedIn

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Re: Shameless Work Influencers Are the Bane of LinkedIn

#121

It's the faux-thentic trope pieces on LinkedIn that annoy me. "I was working so hard I forgot to be me" or "after years of constant success my daughter showed me what success really means". Apparently it means getting likes from strangers. And then there's the business tall tales: "I hired a guy with no qualifications other than a big heart and now he's running a multinational". "I made 10k job applications and lande…

If I call out BS there’s a risk of the influencer incensing their followers enough for them to go after my employer and colleagues and tell them that I’m bully. Best not to poke the bear.

Assuming* that scenario were to play out, it would be such a painful irony for an influencer to encourage their followers to harass an ordinary stranger under the accusation of the stranger being a "bully", of all things.

* "Assuming" because you won't risk it, not because it couldn't happen

Re: Shameless Work Influencers Are the Bane of LinkedIn

#122
post #96

Counterpoint: as it is with Facebook, the quality of your feed depends entirely on your connections and who among those connections you have chosen to mute/unfollow. I have over a 1000 connections and I've assiduously unfollowed/muted anyone in my network or adjacent to my network who posts anything that I feel is not substantial. A sample of interactions I had recently: Discussing cost/benefit of going for hybrid/pr…

That isn’t really a counterpoint. If you have to assiduously pick through a thousand connections to prevent a tide of spam from taking over your feed, it’s not a very useful tool.

You could technically dig a trench with a spoon, but why would you?

Re: Shameless Work Influencers Are the Bane of LinkedIn

#123
post #7

The same exists on nearly every social media site, sadly. Natural progression I would assume. On Twitter, in dev circles, we have "Junior Dev Porn" where the same poll/questions are asked, the same anecdotes are recycled, and the same code snippets posted, all in the name of empowering junior developers. But at a high altitude it's glaringly obvious the majority are for engagement and follower gain. Especially so whe…

Personally I don’t have a problem with repetitive content that is overtly aimed at beginners and junior devs, since there is a constant flow of new beginners and junior devs joining social media.

Seems like it could be a constructive exchange: newbies get useful basic content; posters get likes and followers. But, only if the content is actually good.

Re: Shameless Work Influencers Are the Bane of LinkedIn

#124
post #25

LinkedIn is missing a major feature, different classes of connections. Your network is meaningless when it’s full of recruiters as well as people you actually worked with.

I have rigorously only accepted connections from people I’ve actually worked with in some capacity.

Makes for a nicer feed, but maybe that means I’m missing out on some recruiting opportunities? I thought recruiters could reach out to folks on LinkedIn without establishing a connection first.

Re: Shameless Work Influencers Are the Bane of LinkedIn

#126
post #25

LinkedIn is missing a major feature, different classes of connections. Your network is meaningless when it’s full of recruiters as well as people you actually worked with.

I have rigorously only accepted connections from people I’ve actually worked with in some capacity. Makes for a nicer feed, but maybe that means I’m missing out on some recruiting opportunities? I thought recruiters could reach out to folks on LinkedIn without establishing a connection first.

They can, but they seem to want to connect too.

I’ve never taken much interest in the ‘feed’ part, and view the site mostly as a tool for finding work, though I’ve not had to look for the last few years due to non-LinkedIn networking...

Re: Shameless Work Influencers Are the Bane of LinkedIn

#127
post #22

I find LinkedIn really cringy. And I haven't seen ONE post there that actually added value to my life. It is also toxic as hell. But I know people who got employment offers from LinkedIn. So it adds value in that sense. I just mute and block those influencers. And check LinkedIn maybe twice a week. One of the things I cannot find any excuse for is how fake people are. They are behaving in a fake manner even when they…

Never really occurred to me to read the feed on LinkedIn. I've liked about 3 things ever from people I actually know.

I get a fair number of interview requests through it though so it would have some value as a recruiting tool. Let's face it, CVs are a badly structured way of listing and distributing your employment history...

Re: Shameless Work Influencers Are the Bane of LinkedIn

#128

I thought it was the virtue signalling humble brags that were the bane of linkedin. Am I the only one who thinks linkedin is like the looking glass version of Twitter? Twitter: "So and so is so awful, gnash, boycott shame! Have you read my blog?" LinkedIn: "That sooo resonates with me! You're such a insightful thought leader, have you read my blog?"

Totally agree. The virtue signaling in my feed is so insufferable that I stopped reading it years ago. It has basically become twitter with the vitriol replaced by fake positivity.

Re: Shameless Work Influencers Are the Bane of LinkedIn

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would a better social media platform look like in your opinion?

Off the top of my head, it would have the tone of Facebook before they allowed public accounts outside of schools and right after they introduced news feed, it would be aggressively moderated, and it would cost enough money per month that people would think twice before engaging in a behavior that led to an account getting banned or using bots. There would be an initial setup fee of at least $100 along with a monthly…

Interesting ideas.

> Any attempt at bullying would result in an immediate ban.

Alas, that turns accusations of bullying into pretty effective bullying.

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