You’re using LinkedIn wrong: how to romanticize the most hated social media platform

You know when you say something, and the sentence is so weird that you’re pretty sure no one has used the English language to put those words together in that order? That’s how I felt when I asked my husband the other day why more people don’t romanticize LinkedIn. By this point, we’ve managed to romanticize many un-romanticizable things (including some things we definitely shouldn’t be romanticizing), from co-dependent relationships, to grind culture, to serial killers, to Pablo Escobar. I’m assuming many would put LinkedIn in the same category, but as you should know by now, I’m a huge fan, and even if you’re not yet a convert (just you wait), you should at least accept it’s a great way for many of us to further our professional goals.

So, whether you’re a professional fangirl like me, or whether you see it as a necessary evil, here’s how to hate LinkedIn less.

This is absolutely critical and goes for most things in life. I am allergic to doing things that I don’t want to do, for better or worse, and so in my work life, I’m super passionate about finding approaches that work for me. For LinkedIn, this looks like:

• Not having a posting schedule. When I feel like posting, I post. When I don’t feel like posting… you guessed it, I don’t post. There are a ton of very smart gurus out there who know how to deep-dive into the data and tell you the exact time you should be posting for maximum exposure. They’re right—posting at certain times of the day, or on certain days of the week will indeed affect the reach of what you’re posting. The problem is, if I create a posting schedule and then skip a day by accident, I can guarantee you I’ll never post on LinkedIn as long as I live. Conversely, if you love a good routine and schedule, go ahead and try it out.

• Going with the flow. So much of what we do in life is rule-bound — your LinkedIn strategy is one thing that really doesn’t need to be. There are times when I’m all over LinkedIn (no shame in the game), engaging with people, consuming content, and all the other fun things you can do on the platform. And at other times, I’ll forget LinkedIn even exists, usually because I need to free up space on my phone and end up deleting the app. It’s all fine—take a break if you need to, and I promise it will still be there when you’re back.

• Following inspiring people. Unfortunately, LinkedIn is known for gathering the world’s most annoying people in one place. We’ve all seen the memes, and yes, they’re rooted in reality. Instead of letting that turn you off LinkedIn altogether, make the unfollow button your best friend, and focus on engaging with content that you do love.

Jonas Willett, founder of The Collective

Joshua Nu’u-Steele, co-founder of New Zealand startup Ideally

Emma Freivogel, the inimitable founder of Radical Recruit

Michelle Battersby, president of Peanut

Carly Valancy, founder of Reach Out Party

Alexis Barber, founder of the Too Collective, and no I’m not just saying this because she just invited me on her podcast

Everyone on the Storyarb team

I think part of the reason people hate spending time on LinkedIn is because they see it as a hyper-transactional platform that’s little more than a static CV. They’re not entirely wrong, but you really can switch it up to make it work for you. I see LinkedIn as a magical portal where you can connect with almost anyone at any company, with just a few clicks. The only thing standing between you and (some of) your dreams is a LinkedIn DM. If you’ve read this article on how one cold message got me over $100k of work, you’ll know I’m a big fan of the power of the cold DM.

For the past few years, I’ve hosted dinners around the world, in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Sydney, Berlin & NYC. While we usually know about half the attendees personally, the other half are invited via cold messages on LinkedIn. I’m always so excited by how many people say yes—including super inspiring, cool people working at some of the world’s most sought-after companies. Now, it’s cool to get inbound requests for partnerships, work projects, and collaborations with great brands.

For this reason alone, I’ll always be grateful for LinkedIn, but even if you just want to meet someone for a chat, or to learn more about a new industry, LinkedIn’s the easiest way to do this. I find it so helpful that you can see people’s career history, school and other details too, because you’ll often find a nugget that you can ask them about when you meet IRL, which helps break the ice.

Even if you only log into LinkedIn once per year, you can still get some great inbound opportunities if you finesse your profile. Unlike Tiktok or Instagram, where your profile shows your most recent content first and foremost, your profile on LinkedIn is static. This is excellent news for people who don’t want to post: you can literally set it and forget it.

Spend a quick thirty minutes getting your shop window in order—make sure you’ve got a good photo, background image, tagline and about section in place. Scroll to the bottom of this article, and you’ll find quick tips on how to make your profile look as good as possible. Remember, you can make it fun, too. Unless you work in a super corporate industry, there’s room to show your personality on LinkedIn, whether that’s through some well-chosen emojis, a stand-out tagline, or mentioning your love of the Kardashians at every opportunity (oops).

At the end of the day, love it or hate it, social media isn’t going anywhere. Any platform can be problematic or boring if you let it. With some super small tweaks (and most importantly, zero pressure), you can turn LinkedIn into a networking machine that’s there for you when you want it, and which you can log out of in one click when you don’t.

On the Social Currency Substack, we unpack the art (and science) of connection: from who to meet and how to meet them, to building your own ecosystem and creating those right-place-right-time moments that spark opportunity, whatever your goals in work of life. Expect interviews with people who do it best, practical hacks you can put to work immediately, and recommendations on tools, events, and strategies to grow your own network. You can find Phoebe at the imaginatively named phoebedodds.com.