If you’re a regular reader of my work you may know that I’m sceptical about the power of social media for marketing in 2023, at least for small businesses.
I became disillusioned with Facebook and now, I’m wondering is LinkedIn relevant in 2023? I have growing doubts.
Before I dive any deeper into my issues with the platform, I’m not saying to stop using LinkedIn. I would agree that it’s important to have a well-crafted LinkedIn profile aligned with your branding in 2023.
For example, say you meet someone however you don’t exchange business cards in person. That individual will most likely look you up on LinkedIn. You want your profile to be the best referral you can get.
However, in order to create content that actually appears in your audience’s feed, you have an uphill battle that takes time and effort. And if you’re a small business owner chances are you’re not blessed with extra time.
Oversaturation
LinkedIn has become oversaturated and, as a result, it takes more time than ever before to stand out amongst the crowd and as we previously mentioned, time is not something small business owners can afford to waste.
This is an issue I have with many marketing companies, particularly the ones that do not cater to small businesses. These companies demonstrate ways to light up your social media so it generates additional engagement, however; they neglect to point out that so many of their ideas for improving engagement take time.
People love to say that time is money and while I would agree that time does have a certain monetary value, ultimately unlike money, we can’t make any more!
It’s okay to be casual - generating LinkedIn engagement is doable, however; only if you’re passionate about the work it takes to get there. If you are, and you love logging in multiple times a day, if you love replying to every comment, and if you love the banter with your network, then why are you still reading this? Get out there and start posting!
However, for the rest of the business world, it’s frankly just not worth the time and effort. If you aren’t going to commit to engaging with everyone who comments or likes your post then it isn’t worth the energy it takes to join.
One thing I think is often overlooked is that it’s okay to do the bare minimum when it comes to social media. This is quite frankly an area where it’s acceptable to be slack.
Dying features
Have you received any LinkedIn direct messages that you found helpful and relevant lately? I have not! At least, I haven’t found any that are helpful and relevant, possibly because anything valuable would be lost among the five million ‘cold call’ style sales messages I receive every time I log in.
Why are we all suddenly carpet bombed with unsolicited pitches? Because LinkedIn is promoting ‘social selling’, that’s why! It’s a woefully optimistic term for trying to prospect for new business on LinkedIn.
I’m sensitive to the idea of cold messaging people on social media,
as I think most of my generation is. For the past decade women I barely know have been sliding into my direct messages with a chipper hello, trying to get me to ‘join the team’ as a fitness coach, lipstick hawker, or purveyor of ‘essential oils’.
Social selling is firmly the domain of multi-level marketing schemes and if you’re a small business, you don’t want anyone to mistake you for one.
Too much content, not enough traffic
When I examine my LinkedIn feed I see posts from politicians, famous journalists, and Ryan Reynolds.
I don’t see my own colleague’s posts, or posts from my friends – even my husband is buried beneath the celebs!
The newsfeed has become bloated, tedious, and irrelevant.
Recent statistics suggest that around 20 per cent of users log in each day. That means that four out of every five users aren’t logging in each day.
In other words, most of your network isn’t going to see your posts in their newsfeed because they aren’t on the
site when you post.
LinkedIn tries to help you ‘game the system’ by telling you the best time to post, but if everyone is following that advice, then all you’re doing is creating a drop in the content tsunami.
LinkedIn has its place in your marketing strategy, however, for these aforementioned reasons when it comes to pouring my time into posting, I’m LinkedOut.