Linkedin is still one of the most underrated platforms on the internet.
Here’s what LinkedIn can help you do (these all happened to me):
- Start a side hustle
- Get promotions/raises /new jobs — not everyone is going to quit their job
- Board positions / startup investment opportunities
- Quit your job and never work for a boss again
- Start a business
- Find customers
I got to meet iconic people like Tony Robbins and Gary Vee, thanks to LinkedIn. I even connected with Mark Manson. If I can, you can.
The biggest changes to my LinkedIn approach were these…
I stopped overthinking LinkedIn
Too many people overthink LinkedIn.
They think a lot about “what’s my niche” or “how do I get popular” or “should I add more connections” or “should I create a new logo.” None of this matters. Stop listening to the personal branding coaches.
LinkedIn is simple.
90% of users don’t post anything. If you post content that helps people with work/careers/business, then you’ll open up a world of opportunities. The rest is all masturbation.
I stopped caring about what people think
Mark Manson was right. The subtle art of not giving a f*ck will skyrocket your progress on LinkedIn.
When I stopped caring about opinions everything changed.
My focus was to be helpful, polite, professional, inspirational, and not angry. I stayed away from controversial topics. The truth is your boss or colleagues can’t be angry and tell you to quit LinkedIn if you follow these simple rules.
No one walks around all day thinking about what you posted on LinkedIn. In fact, you can post the same stuff two weeks later and they won’t even remember.
Go on, try it.
I stopped trying to game the algorithm
This one is for suckers.
You know the ones. People who believe in random luck or getting things they haven’t earned. Some of them buy lottery tickets too.
You can’t game LinkedIn. If you figure out a hack, LinkedIn will block it within a few weeks/months anyway.
If you do dumb stuff — like abuse features such as polls to get ‘likes’ — people will switch you off, the same way they switch off the news full of anger and fear.
I’ve seen plenty of fake growth hackers get banned on LinkedIn.
If you run mass-message tools, screen scrape data, or use auto-like tools, you’ll get banned. Automation is a strict no-no, despite what the snake oil salesmen will tell ya.
There are no shortcuts in life, or on LinkedIn.
I wrote one thing on there every damn day
Habits build online empires. Read that again.
Systematize your LinkedIn habit and you’ll be even more badass.
When are you going to write? When are you going to edit? When are you going to post? When are you going to reply to comments? Will you use any software to make life easy?
That’s it. That’s the stuff career dreams are made of.
I made a simple 15 minute a day system I could follow
If LinkedIn takes lots of time you’ll never do it.
I’m a lazy ass.
If I had to spend hours on there every day, I’d drop dead. When you create a system, make it one that only takes a short amount of time.
Optimize for time, and you’ll get better results thanks to the compounding effects of daily execution.
I didn’t create a dumb personal brand
Personal branding is a plague.
The virus is even worse on LinkedIn. A personal brand focuses on “what can I get out of this?”
It’s a goal full of self-interest. You’ll end up posting daily selfies with inspirational quotes you stole from other influencers that have watermarks and the text of your website address.
Don’t do it. Nobody cares about your name or brand. You’re not Coca-Cola.
You’ve been lied to so you can get sold a 1–1 personal brand coaching package that will turn off the audience faster than a bad one-night stand.
I didn’t fall in love with myself or take a million photos
Look at my LinkedIn timeline of posts.
There’s about one photo of me per year. People don’t come to LinkedIn to look at my big ears, odd-shaped nose, yellow teeth, and bad taste in fashion. Good.
Less photos, more gorgeous words.
I expected negative comments and ignored them
Haters gonna hate.
Don’t let their bad day become yours. The absolutely beautiful thing about Linkedin is they have a strict hater policy.
If you troll and leave nasty comments, you’ll get banned so fast you won’t even have time to take a piss. Timmy real talk. Seriously.
The key is to make people think, not have them agree or disagree with you.
I didn’t think I was better than anyone else
There are a lot of private jets and Lambos on LinkedIn.
The egos of some of these entrepreneurs that have had success selling a protein shake for jacked-up gym buffs that their daddy funded is incredible. It has to be seen to be believed.
I didn’t do it that way.
I’m not better than anybody else. I talk to everyone on the same level on LinkedIn. I don’t tell them to “be like me.” Instead, I tell them “you do you.”
Ego destroys LinkedIn potential. It can destroy your life too.
I shared stories
Doesn’t matter what platform it is, humans eat up stories like they do chocolate cake.
The trick is to look back on your life and pull out all the stories. Everyone reading this has tons of stories. The trouble is we forget them. That’s why I have my Roam Research App everywhere I go.
Certain situations or people help me remember stories.
The trick is to retell your best ones on LinkedIn and link them back to business/work/career.
I added loads of vulnerability
This isn’t for everyone, I get it.
I published things that made me feel sick. Some nights I couldn’t sleep. The temptation to hit delete was enormous.
Vulnerability took me time to lean into. I didn’t have the guts to do it on day one of my LinkedIn journey 8 years ago. As James Altucher says, if it scares you to hit publish, it’s probably one of your best pieces of work.
People want real.
They want to hear the emotion. They want the real story, not the PR story done for show and this year’s revenue targets.
If you can muster up the courage, share a few of your more human stories.
I read LinkedIn’s vision
Many people don’t know this. LinkedIn, like all platforms, has the ability to curate content manually. This has happened to me many times.
Wanna know the big secret?
I read their vision on their website. I also read up on what content they love.
Lucky for me, many of my posts fall into the stuff they want to promote. LinkedIn’s vision is “to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”
I keep this in mind when I write on LinkedIn. Am I helping create more economic opportunities?
Notice how selfish personal branding posts don’t fulfill this vision? They seek to take, take, take so they can rape and pillage all the economic opportunities for themselves and get famous.
I spoke to strangers
Over the years, much of my time on LinkedIn has been spent talking to strangers. I’ve met lots of interesting people who’ve introduced me to even more interesting people.
Another thing I did was message my idols. I removed all the self-interest, did my research, kept it short, and started conversations.
This habit has led me to make many cool friends over the last 8 years. You can access the same opportunity, although you’ll need LinkedIn Premium to do it.
I learned the platform psychology
Every platform has its own psychology. Study it.
The psychology on LinkedIn is people want to get inspired. They’re hungry to learn. What you post has to be professional because our boss, customers, and colleagues are watching.
People want to look smart too. If you post smart things people don’t know, they’ll gobble it up.
The content that goes mega viral on LinkedIn has nothing to do with the creator. It has to do with whether the audience thinks the post is true.
Take this one action and change your career
Stop hiding in the corner afraid to speak. If you’re shy or introverted, you can always write on Linkedin and not add videos or pictures. That’s what I do.
LinkedIn is at the center of all the best opportunities. Dare to post every day.
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