Do you avoid LinkedIn as you think ‘it’s just not for me’?
Recently I’ve met a lot of people who tell me that their LinkedIn feed is just full of rubbish content. When they scroll through their feed all they see is sales messages or, at best, content which just doesn’t resonate with them at all.
The content in your LinkedIn feed is largely determined by who you connect with on LinkedIn. The LinkedIn algorithm will put content from your connections into your feed as it assumes that’s the content you want to see. It makes sense doesn’t it?
Even the ads you see in your feed will be targeted to you because of your activity on LinkedIn and also your connections on the platform.
So how do you change the content in your feed? How do you tell that lovely LinkedIn algorithm that you no longer want to hear about tax law, but you’d rather know about social media trends or what’s happening in the hospitality industry right now?
It’s simple! You sort out who you’re connected to! You find yourself people who’s content you DO want to read, comment on and share. By doing that, you will also find people who want to read, comment on and share your content too! It’s a win win!
As with all social media, I advise you to treat your LinkedIn connections in exactly the same way as you treat your connections (whether business or personal), in real life.
Have you ever been to a party and found yourself talking to a group of people and you realise you’re in the ‘wrong crowd’?
Not that there is anything wrong with that group of people but they just aren’t ‘like you’. They’re talking about stuff which doesn’t really interest you. You find yourself zoning out as you can’t (or don’t want to) contribute to their conversation as it just doesn’t interest you at all.
You look over your shoulder and you see ‘your tribe’. There they are chatting and laughing, and you know that’s where you want to be. Fomo begins to set in which makes it all the more apparent that you’ve ended up in the kitchen when you’d so much rather be in the dining room.
What do you do? Pretend you’re having a good time whilst getting increasingly frustrated, or do you politely excusing yourself, join ‘your group’ and have a great evening?
No one would expect you to stay with a group of people who don’t align with you. Chances are, the group probably sense your discomfort and would rather you weren’t there. Your presence may be making them feel uncomfortable too.
If your social media feed is full of conversations that don’t resonate with you, then perhaps it’s a sign that you’re hanging out with the wrong crowd there too.
If you’re scrolling through your feed and the posts are – well – not interesting and there is little in your feed which makes you want to comment on, share or like any of the posts, then maybe it’s time to stop and think.
It’s easy to think that the platform you’re on is not for you. In fact this happens a lot across all social media platforms. Often, when people are connecting with the wrong types of accounts on social media, they see it as a sign that they are in the wrong place. This can lead to desertion of the platform which could be a huge mistake.
There are 675 million monthly users on LinkedIn, surely there must be some people on here who talk your language; who are having conversations about the things which you find interesting?
Maybe now is the time to start exiting from your current group and to start searching for a new ‘tribe’ to hang out with.
‘How on earth…?’ I hear you asking! ‘I can’t do that, I’ll offend people, I won’t have any friends….’.
Nonsense! In fact you’ll end up with better friendships and connections as you’ll be building on the ones which are right for you. Just like at the party. Those people with whom you have nothing in common wouldn’t ever really be your ‘friends’ anyway – nor would they ever want to do business with you. You’re just not compatible.
What’s more, right here on LinkedIn, if you remove someone as a connection, they may not become aware of that for a long time – if at all!
How to improve the quality of the content in your LinkedIn feed – and get better connections at the same time!
So, what I recommend you do, is take a look at all the people you’re connected with and ask yourself two questions:
- Do I have enough in common with this person to warrant keeping them as a contact?
- Am I ever likely to want to do business with this person?
If the answers to BOTH of these questions is a resounding ‘no’ – then it’s time to (politely) say ‘goodbye’.
So, what are the practical steps you can take to begin tidying things up and start ‘making better connections’ on LinkedIn?
First of all, go to your profile page on LinkedIn.
Then, follow these steps:
➡️ My network
➡️ Connections
There they all are!
Have a good look through. Can you see any people in that list who would get two resounding ‘no’s to the questions above questions?
If so:
➡️ 3 dots on the right
➡️ Remove connection
You could go a step further:
➡️ Search with filters
➡️ All filters
Here you can filter your search for connections in certain industries – for example. Go through the connections and take a closer look at their profiles.
If you decide that a person isn’t for you:
➡️ More
➡️ Remove connection
As I mentioned earlier, what’s also great about removing connections is that the person doesn’t know! The first they’ll know about it is when (if) they go to view your profile and LinkedIn will show the ‘connect’ button asking them to connect with you.
When you’ve cleared out your connections, you should notice a huge improvement in the quality of posts appearing in your feed.
But this isn’t the end!
The next thing you need to do is start connecting with people who you DO find interesting and relevant. It’s a similar process but sort of in reverse! Keep an eye here and I’ll do a ‘how to’ on that soon.
Enjoy your new freedom and relish your new feed with joy!
