LinkedIn Culture: The Good & The Bad

It’s pretty strange, isn’t it? LinkedIn.

On some days, it is a place where business happens at its finest hour. It is somewhere that you are actually able to connect with individuals whom you would never be able to come across otherwise: designers, CEOs, freelancers, salespeople, small-business owners, photographers, marketers, and total novices who have no clue where they are going. It really doesn’t matter how fancy or impressive your job title is. You get to do your thing here; build, learn, try.

That’s precisely what I like about it.

When LinkedIn is great, it’s fantastic. A platform like LinkedIn is like a slightly “mature” version of Facebook. LinkedIn is where individuals share their success stories, discuss exciting projects they have been working on, celebrate achievements, and discuss interests and experiences related to professional life and business. LinkedIn can inspire and motivate.

However, there is another part of it. The aspect which sometimes makes one wonder whether it isn’t a bit strange.

It appears there is an increasing level of “toxicity” in LinkedIn, which cannot help catching one’s eye after seeing it. The secretive cliques, performative postings, and posts which are less about sharing and more about proving superiority in terms of being able to say things smarter or louder and more provocative than everyone else.

Worst of all, sometimes it results in someone getting attacked.

Smaller accounts are being dismissed. Hard work goes unnoticed. People wanting to learn and improve are being dismissed simply because they don’t have a large followership yet, or “authority”. It’s funny, really, because LinkedIn is supposed to be a place of connections and opportunities, but sometimes, the feeling comes that you have to be somebody already to be recognised.

And personally, I hate that attitude.

I really enjoy it when smaller accounts post. When they post their first project, their first success, their first client, their first try. Real stuff, basically. Because nothing begins as a perfect business or a perfectly formed audience, everything begins with some mess.

And those deserve just as much recognition as any huge success. Maybe even more, sometimes.

Because then you start thinking… when did “big” matter more than “real”?

When did we make LinkedIn a place of competition rather than connections?

And most importantly, what kind of network would we like to be a part of?

Or would we rather have it be a space where individuals have the confidence to tell their stories despite their lack of experience? Will it turn into yet another platform where only the loudest individuals can be heard?

For those of you who use LinkedIn:

Whom do I follow, and why?

Am I giving smaller individuals a chance, or only the bigger, more established ones?

Why am I writing, to add value or to impress?

What kind of environment am I fostering with my mere presence?

The fact is, we all play a part in this, whether we know it or not. Every like, every comment, every bit of encouragement contributes to the environment. And there is something that I find very appealing about LinkedIn, if only it were a tad better.

Imagine for me, if you will, a platform:

Where people lift others up.

Where progress is valued more than perfection.

Where someone else's small win still matters.

This is what I would like to see. And let’s be honest, doesn’t it sound like the type of platform we all contribute to building?