JR shared the history of 'The Best of LinkedIn' account on Twitter with us. "Back in 2018, I was an Account Executive for a SaaS company in San Francisco. I had a boss who was a dinosaur—his idea of a good follow-up to a meeting was mailing laminated copies of the deck we presented to the prospect after the fact. The phrase, 'Stop by Kinko's' was uttered a few times in my short tenure there (Kinko's was dropped by FedEx in 2008, ten years prior)."
A large part of JR's job at the time was cold calling on LinkedIn. "I was already dissatisfied with my role, my career, and the company, so spending a few hours a day on LinkedIn just about pushed me over the edge," he was very candid. "I began seeing the first inklings of these so-called 'LinkedInfluencers' and started screenshotting their posts and sharing them on my personal Twitter account. Once those gained traction, I decided to create a dedicated Twitter account for it, and thus, @BestOfLinkedin was born."
Bored Panda was curious how JR would describe the professional network's culture. He told us that 'toxic' gets thrown around too often lately. "I would say the best way to describe LinkedIn's culture is 'downright demented.' It's just a giant back-patting circle/echo chamber where people aren't even telling a version of the truth anymore," he stressed that the amount of fiction on LI is utterly absurd these days.
"It's unoriginal sellouts who regurgitate corporate buzzwords and stories of incredible business acumen in an effort to game the LinkedIn algorithm and try to hide the fact that there isn't a single thing that's interesting about them. And nobody will call them out, for fear of losing their job or it blowing back on them professionally. The entire platform lacks accountability, which is insane because its intention initially was to be just that," JR pointed out that very few people are willing to put their careers on the line for the sake of calling out downright lies.
That's not to say that LinkedIn doesn't have its upsides. The founder of 'The Best of LinkedIn' said that the professional network is a "terrific place to read business news, as well as to find jobs, recruit talent, and network with people in your industry.
"It's a valuable business development tool but sadly it's been watered down by these self-proclaimed 'Linkedinfluencers' and their BS success stories. LinkedIn could improve the user experience drastically by focusing on moderating these posts and suppressing them when they don't offer anything valuable," he suggested how the platform could change for the better.
"If the only reason you're posting on LinkedIn is to show off a picture of yourself with a story about how you were called 'too pretty' to be in business then your post will be taken down. If you aren't sharing anything educational or valuable, and instead are attributing incredible management advice from your FIVE YEAR OLD, your account will be banned. Sadly, I wish this was an easy fix, but LinkedIn has replicated every other social media platform and become another runaway train of trash," he said that he's not holding on to much hope that LI will improve in the future.
"LinkedInfluencers, for how much 'expertise' they have, have some of the thinnest skins on the Internet. Because they 'create' their content strictly for LinkedIn, where nobody criticizes or calls them out, they lose their minds when an account like @BestOfLinkedin does. Personally, I've created content for over a decade now in the forms of comedy, podcasting videos, and articles," JR told Bored Panda.
"When you create anything for the Internet, there's going to be 50% or more people who hate it. So you have to know that criticism comes with the territory. But when a LinkedInfluencer sees me poke fun at them for @BestofLinkedin? Oftentimes they don't know what to do with themselves. Usually, they'll try to doxx me or get me fired. Good luck, I'm a freelance Creative Director and don't have a boss. I get paid to write things for social media and more. So yeah, I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to. If you don't like what's being said about you on the Internet, the proper response isn't to take your ball and run home. Or worse, take your ball and run and tell your parents."
JR’s ‘The Best of LinkedIn’ social media project is a great archive showing how even the most seasoned professionals can feel insecure about themselves. It’s a slippery slope when you start making up stories for clicks.
Don’t even get us started on how ridiculous it is to try and motivate people while humble-bragging in between the lines. Look, nobody says that LinkedIn has to be super serious all the time (we actually rather enjoy some of the fun, quirky, and artistic posts that fly across our feeds from time to time), however, it’s downright embarrassing when industry veterans go all out and think they’re the next big ‘self-help’ guru.
Now, that’s not to say that motivation and finding joy within and beyond the rat race aren’t important (they are!), but it all really comes down to how you try and motivate people. Copying someone else’s post, borrowing someone else’s ideas with a few small tweaks, downright faking entire experiences just so you have something to feed your followers doesn’t reflect well on you.
It speaks less about you as a ‘leader’ and more about your insecurities and desire for attention. If you’re feeling creatively bankrupt, it’s perfectly fine to take some time off: get off social media. Take a break. Fight that burnout! It’s way better than flooding LinkedIn with trite stories and ‘inspirational’ stories that make people’s eyes roll. And yes, we might be low-key judging anyone who writes, “So true!!!” in the comments.
If you genuinely enjoy a post, good for you. But like it or not, there’s just way too much pretense online. Especially on LinkedIn where you pretty much are what you say you are.
LinkedIn does have its upsides, though. When you make an account and polish up your profile, you’re putting yourself out there for recruiters to see. You become far more visible. You can find jobs that you like way more easily. And (probably best of all) you can actually connect with professionals from all around the world.
Need some advice on publishing a book, learning to program, or how to raise your EQ stats? Well, there are tons of people who’d be happy to help you, as long as you’re polite and genuine. Of course, there are some pros who would ignore or even look down on someone asking for advice, but hey, those are the rules of social networks, right
You’re bound to get some jerks in every community. In our experience, the vast majority of people using LinkedIn have been phenomenal and super friendly. Then again, we haven’t chatted with many folks who thrive on bragging.
Career coach Jermaine Murray, from JupiterHR, previously told Bored Panda that ‘turbo-charging’ your LinkedIn profile can lead to greater visibility and success. In his opinion, first impressions matter. However, they might not be overly long-lasting. That means that if you make a mistake on your LI profile, it’s not the end of the world: you can recover from this.
