What's up with LinkedIn?

Been thinking about LinkedIn recently. Opinions on LinkedIn's identity and purpose have been highly polarized for a while and are becoming even more so in the era of AI. Since I pay money to LinkedIn, I wanted to pause and consider what I want in return.

What’s the scoop?

On one hand, a steady stream of people keep telling me that, for a small fee, they will help me build a business around LinkedIn—to the point where it’s likely the only business development channel I’ll ever need. That assumes my buyers are actively engaged with LinkedIn and view it as a highly credible destination. This was definitely true in the past. It’s probably still true. Maybe it will be true in the future.

On the other hand, a steady stream of people say LinkedIn has lost its way as a business-centric social media platform and is awash with AI slop, rage-bait, personal updates better suited to Facebook, and other noise.

Here’s what I know:

LinkedIn is not a good source of business-relevant news and opinion, as it’s impossible to find anything except the last few posts in my feed—i.e., you’d better read that thing in the moment because you’ll never see it again.

Furthermore, there are way too many “influencers” serving up nothing but rage-bait, especially surrounding AI. Please stop telling me the infrastructure investments of AI data centers will spell doom for us all. It’s a fair point, but it has been made.

I presume but buyers feel the same way but I dont have reliable data to prove it.

Here’s what I also know:

LinkedIn is the best online brochure for me and my business (better than my website). I tend to get the most value from prospects who have discovered me via some other channel and are now doing due diligence.

LinkedIn is a good way to keep up to date with people in my network and their careers—which is interesting as well as a good business development data source.

So it seems the value I get from LinkedIn comes from the free outcomes. Great, but why am I paying?

Furthermore, when the AI slop, rage-bait, and non-business-related noise reach fever pitch, I’ll tune out of LinkedIn just as I did with Facebook, Twitter, and basically all other social media. If my prospects feel even remotely the same way, then there is diminishing value here. Even the value I get for free dries up.

No outcome. No insight. In fact, you could argue I’m adding to the noise I am railing against.

But there you go. Happy New Year.