Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity
elliotcsmith.com

Now that we have HR going whole hog on AI processing of job applications, up to and including the first round interview, can we please get rid of LinkedIn?

Instead, I would much rather see job applications come in three parts. A cover letter, a human resume overview page, and then the deeper multi page CV that is primarily for AI processing.

> Nothing you post there is going to change your career.

I can attribute millions of dollars in revenue to LinkedIn, as can a lot of my 'LinkedIn friends'

> Doing work that matters might.

This is a pre-requisite for winning on LinkedIn. The kind of content that performs best are strong opinions informed by actual expertise.

> Go for depth over frequency.

Unfortunately that's not the way marketing works. 95% of your audience is not 'in-market' and ready to buy when they see your content. Sometime over the next 3-5 years they may move into a buying lifecycle, and they are much more likely to trust you, and therefore buy from you, if they've seen your content 1,000x vs a couple of long reads.

> If writing online matters to you, you’re probably better off starting a blog and building things there.

Your long form, in-depth content lives on your blog, and your LinkedIn profile should act as a funnel, moving people from newsfeed --> your profile --> the most important piece of content you want them to read. From there, you can capture their email to touch them on another channel (inbox), push them to your YouTube / Twitter / community, etc.

With that said, while LinkedIn is responsible for a significant % of my total revenue, it's also responsible for a significant % of my anxiety. Building in public invites folks to publicly blast you if they don't agree with your ideas. 'Getting ratio'd' happens. LinkedIn eventually becomes a mentally exhausting slog. But as a career driven individual the upside has been very high and I think the trade off was worth it. I would do it again knowing everything I know now.