LinkedIn is becoming a casual landscape where people are free to post anything, no matter professional or not. Simply put, LinkedIn is slowly morphing into a social media platform for people to hang out, chat, and share irrelevant content of all sorts. There is a major disconnect in the objective of the platform and the expectations and ideas of some users out there.
With so much content out there, it’s always tempting to share most of them. But remember that the rules are different on a professional networking platform and breaking them will definitely infuriate your audience. Some of the faux pas aren’t really bad, but some others can leave permanent damages on your online reputation and professional aspirations.
On most of the days, our LinkedIn feeds are loaded with a whole lot of posts that should land on a Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus page. From personal posts, random quotes, irrelevant images and memes, birthday and anniversary wishes, to requests to contribute for charity programs, the line between 'social networking' and 'professional networking' is blurring. Some LinkedIn users bitterly fail to pull in the reins on the amount of content they share, and often run the risk of looking like spammers. Some others even overlook the danger of sharing sensitive information to hundreds of strangers and many more from extended network. A sizable number of users post numerous profanities and leave us baffled. A lot of articles and group posts are self-congratulatory and mindless link building exercises that add no value.
With millions of users from all over the world, it’s not easy to stand out on a platform like LinkedIn. If you intend to network professionally, refrain from sharing inspirational quotes, cartoons, memes, selfies, or controversial posts. Instead, upload them onto Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and you’ll get thousands of ‘likes’. If you can sell through knowledge and add value, there is nothing wrong in promoting and marketing a product or a service on LinkedIn,. But incessant number of meaningless, manipulative, and sales-y posts as status updates will hurt trust and ruin reputation of a person/company/brand.
Every online platform has its own identity and purpose. The next time you plan to share something on LinkedIn, take a step back and think twice whether you have something really insightful for your LinkedIn connections. Remember why you joined the platform in the first place – it wasn’t to share random low-quality content and get your reputation tarnished.