For more than six years, social media has been a pretty amazing experience for me.
I started using Twitter in 2010 and quickly found a great community in BC and beyond. I’ve gotten jobs, met great people, been invited to cool events and shared meaningful conversation with hundreds of people.
It’s given me an outlet and the encouragement to follow my creativity, write, photograph, bake and learn more about the regions where I live and travel. LinkedIn never gave me that. I opted into free trials for premium packages, wrote articles, and added people with the oh-so-generic message all while wondering how the feed even worked.
It’s messy, not chronological, filled with ads for things I’d never use, and just plain ugly.
The only conversation threads I ever followed were when a former Sales Manager of mine was participating in group chats and commented on posts, and they'd scroll through my feed. But I worked with him for more than two years, so the clarity of his message is etched in my brain, and now in my self-employed workflow. He’s the only one I’ll “miss” and I have better access to him on other channels, or by calling him on the phone.
What I got most often, were messages from recruiters who hadn't even read my profile.
If they had, they wouldn’t've asked me to interview for rep positions with big Pharma, big food companies or insurance agencies because they had nothing to do with anything on my profile. When I would reply to let them know it wasn’t a good fit, and that I'd recently started a business (very clear if they’d read even the headline on my profile), they would always ask if I knew someone who would be.
So I quit LinkedIn.
Because I don’t have time or any desire to do a Recruiters' job. Especially for free, for people I don’t know. It’s just another channel I wasn’t getting any value from, and it was taking away from focusing on things that are working to connect with people like my newsletter, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I love writing to my readers each week, and sharing photos and stories online. I’ve added enough detail on my new website about my work, and it’s easier to contact me there anyway.
Don't even get me started on endorsements for things I'd never done, from people I'd never worked with.
So if you want to work with me, ask me for a referral or send business my way, I am no longer subjecting you to the LinkedIn model. Add me to your “professional network” in a way that actually give us both some bloody value. Like a real conversation on Twitter, or an email introduction through my contact page. But mostly I show up, and answer my phone. So I deleted the app from my phone, quit LinkedIn, and started calling more people.
Everyday I learn more about being an Entrepreneur. The constant theme is where and with whom, not to waste my, or my client's time.