‘𝘠𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴,’ a friend told me earlier.

He’s right. I’m posting less, but I’m also more relaxed about what I post or comment on. 

Partly because I’ve stopped trying to play a bullshit game I don’t (care to) truly understand. We've all seen the ‘gurus’ out there telling us how to master the LinkedIn algorithm; they know what it likes, what it suppresses, when to post, how often, what format to use and where to put the link.

Maybe they do, and maybe some of it is useful. But I don’t think I’ve ever gone out of my way to follow a set of rules I didn’t actually understand.

I know I’m not the only one. I loved posts by Michelle Redfern on why she’s done with algo ‘𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴’ (1) and Christian Lazopoulos on the dangerous fiction contained in the phrase '𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘨𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘮 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥.' (2) 👏 both of you.

I’d hyper link to their insights right here, but unlike most online fora, I can’t do that fluently mid-text — because god forbid you'd go somewhere else to follow good ideas — so check them out at the bottom of this post. And yes, I’m damned if I’ll waste your time making you dive into the comments to find the the links just because apparently that’s what’s required by the algo. 🖕

My ‘𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴’ isn’t just a LinkedIn thing; it’s also closely connected to what my work is all about. I'm increasingly realising that people don’t hire me to toe the party line or tell them what they already know. That’s best done by people already on the payroll.

I’m hired to provide a different perspective; to point out things they might not have spotted and challenge assumptions. I’m unlikely to do much of that if I’m constantly shaping what I say around someone else’s rules; particularly ones I obviously don’t understand. And since much of my work is about what happens when rules meet humans in the real world, I’m increasingly fine with that.

So if, like my friend, you’ve clocked a lightness — of volume, content or tone — rest assured it’s not by accident. I post when I have something I want to say. If that displeases the algorithm, so be it. 

Because optimising for the algorithm is a pretty strange way to protect the thing people actually hire me for: an independent point of view.

If that's your thing, check out my Substack: https://lnkd.in/en64RBGc?

__________________

𝗙𝗧𝗡𝗧𝗦

(1) Michelle's post on when a platform’s commercial decisions are somehow repackaged as an '𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥', so the people who made them never have to explain themselves:

https://lnkd.in/eArVmBgP?

(2) Christian's post on why '𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘨𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘮 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥' is the most dangerous lie in business: https://lnkd.in/eJ2B-EKB