Likes, Comments, and Shares

LinkedIn launched in the early 2000s and fundamentally changed how people network. It proved to be a valuable resource during the covid restrictions and served as a way for people to stay in touch and up to date with their colleagues, peers, and industries. As a platform, LinkedIn wields enormous power. If you are not on LinkedIn, you will have a problem with your job search. An incomplete profile missing essential information about you and your career path will not be beneficial either.

What began as a professional networking site became a social media platform. Whereas people previously only posted or shared updates of a professional nature, such as starting a new position, it has become a place where people come to brain dump. There are now “content creators” who regularly post on LinkedIn. Some of this is helpful, some of it cringey. 

The more active you are on the platform, the more likely your profile will come up in searches, so there is a self-serving benefit to engaging. But when it’s done, it should be done in a meaningful way. Relationships take work and require cultivation. Simply liking a post does little to advance the goal of staying current with your network.

But by far, the biggest problem I see on LinkedIn can be summarized by the following passage: “You wait,” she said, “my story’s not begun. You’ll taste another brew before I’ve done; You’ll find it doesn’t taste as good as ale; And when I’ve finished telling you my tale of tribulation in the married life In which I’ve been an expert as a wife, That is to say, myself have been the whip. So please yourself whether you want to sip At that same cask of marriage I shall broach. Be cautious before making the approach, For I’ll give instances, and more than ten. And those who won’t be warned by other men, By other men shall suffer their correction, So Ptolemy has said, in this connection. You read his Almagest; you’ll find it there.”

Of the millions of people on the platform, there exists the issue of people liking, commenting, and sharing without actually consuming the content. This is of no value to anyone, least of all yourself. If you read the article, watch the video, or listen to the audio and hate what the creator has to say? Not a problem. Voice your dissenting opinion; it can lead to intelligent debate, which is always welcome. If you like what you read, it’s fine to let the author know in the comments. It’s also acceptable to start an entirely new conversation from a tangential string. But if you comment without reading, your comment can make you look foolish. I once had a follower write, “I haven’t read the article, but…” and then three full paragraphs about why she disagreed with my response to another commenter. As you might guess, much of what she wrote was addressed in the article, which she would have known had she read it.

Please, like, comment, and share this blog post! Extra credit to anyone who knows the author of the poem included above.

Here’s to your brand, valuable posts, and career growth!