Like, ZOIKS, Scoob! Here’s your fifth weekly dive into LinkedIn’s perplexing ecosystem of real, live professionals doing professional things. Super engaged burrito-eating, for example. Ok, we don't have a clever preamble so let’s just get going.
Here’s the question: do we get anything meaningful out of our LinkedIn feed? Or is it a high school pep rally where we just show up and clap, for better or worse?
Answer: As always, it’s both. You have your lens and worldview, and you see what the algorithm thinks you want to see based on your “network.” Is there value? It’s up to you.
But there’s a big, big problem. We’ll get to that.
In the meantime, let’s see why one man’s burrito got Reddit in a fuss.
We’re noticing a trend: LinkedIn fanatics vs. the r/LinkedInLunatics who love to criticize them. Like a moth to a flame, we’re enamored with both. Networking needs a major fix and that’s what we’re here for — so let’s dig into the watercooler talk and discover whether any networking occurred.
This curated burrito post from Reddit user Vegetable-Ant-879 brought joy to the Lunatics for so many reasons. Coming in at 359 upvotes and 157 comments as of this writing, one man’s Mexican delicacy became the Lunatics’ feeding frenzy:
Yeah, that’s right, we upvoted it. Because our immature side sees the humor. Yet it's also quite insightful if you have the gift of self-knowledge and seek to live mindfully, even if some phrasings can be construed in an unfavorable, R-Rated manner.
Regardless, we’re just referees here. Let’s see what the LinkedIn Complaint Box had to say.
Reddit had plenty of jabs directed at Andrew Ting, who seems like a really nice guy. We admire folks taking a risk on their own content, and for what it’s worth, kudos.
Let’s kick off this rundown with a comment on a comment, because it’s the most illuminating. User Serious-Ad4378 points out:
It does read rather scandalously for twisted minds, but that’s more of a funny observation than the real point of this article.
Fact is, almost everyone is on LinkedIn to network, build an audience, support their company, market, sell, or some concoction of them all. Knowingly or not… we're all just trying to build trust.
All in all, Mr. Ting's posts seem to be well intended and possess a transfer of wisdom and insight that one can't simply wave away because it stimulated your inner 17-year-old boy. It's inherently valuable.
But here’s the aforementioned big, big problem: can you really build meaningful trust on LinkedIn or any other social media platform through content alone? And does this equate to networking success?
It depends. If you're a Chief Legal Officer and you want to nurture your established following, absolutely. It's good for your brand. If you just graduated from high school or college and want to carve out an audience, prepare to work really, really hard at today's most prominent “networking” strategy: publishing your thoughts consistently with the appropriate hashtags, optimization, reciprocal engagement, and cadence to “make a name for yourself.”
It’s definitely audience building, public relations, and marketing -- and we wholeheartedly support this pursuit -- but as always, we’re not sure it’s networking.
Sorry, sorry. We're getting carried away; back to the comments.
Wow, we hadn’t even scrolled this far yet but the Lunatics seem to agree with themselves:
Ok gosh it’s getting to be too much:
Can’t. Stop. Laughing.
Haha, yes we recommend healthy nutrients on a doctor-recommended cadence:
Ok look, this is meant to be good-natured and comedic, and we don’t condone many of the comments in this thread. Don’t read too far into them unless you have a strong constitution. Reddit does what it does.
But back to networking: you want to know people, and ideally people want to know you. With reciprocity, generosity, and earnest good will, all the good opportunities in life come from real networking. Why does this have to be so difficult? **shrugs**
One thing’s for sure, the Reddit peanut gallery never disappoints. We’d like to acknowledge user Dano558 for his/her/their insightful quip:
First of all, how dare you pretend to know this man, Dano558. Second of all, it's a funny question and we're suckers for a funny question.
So, friends, who wins this week's clash between the lions of LinkedIn and ranters of Reddit?
Maybe they both win. We all sit in our corner of the internet, throwing 0s and 1s at whatever drives us. Based on Mr. Ting's content as a whole, he's trying to put positive insights out there and build trust with his followers. Reddit, on the other hand, gets its dopamine hits from zingers, funny insights, and on occasion, helpful tips.
EDIT: After some deep thought (and in spite of our LinkedIn criticisms), it's unbelievably difficult and risky to enter the marketplace with your own ideas even as an established, C-suite executive. In contrast, it's ridiculously easy to fire anonymous shots across the bow of someone else taking this risk. We took a deeper look at his content, which is uplifting, insightful, and positive without exception, and Mr. Ting wins. With more than 10,000 followers and engaging content, even we followed him!
We're a broken record, we get it. But in all this hullaballoo we're still perplexed: where does the actual networking come in? You know, the part where you meet new, interesting professionals and grow in tandem. We don't see it in digital networking and they've had 20 years to figure it out. If you're established and deep into your career, we applaud you. But what about the rest of us who want to get out there?
Well, if you’re serious about building a real network of business allies, you can only do that one on one. We’re building the only app where one-on-one, in-person networking is the expectation, not the exception. By aligning these expectations, anyone who joins has access to everyone else on the platform.
That, my friends, is how you build your network. Skip the content, likes, follows, and DMs and join the Tripally waitlist. Meet people one on one almost instantly. It’s launching soon for beta, and it's free!