The fine line between getting noticed and getting embarrassed on LinkedIn

We all know the quote, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” For plenty of people, that’s posting on LinkedIn.

The professional social network is notorious for cringeworthy, performative posts.

But those posts also generate a lot of engagement and raise the poster’s profile.

With everyone worried about building their “brand,” people are asking: Should I be posting more, too?

To unpack the LinkedIn conundrum, BI’s Jacob Zinkula, Juliana Kaplan, and Henry Chandonnet spoke with marketers, PR experts, and creators about the fine line between getting your name out there and completely embarrassing yourself.

LinkedIn’s vibes have always been all over the place.

For a while, it was home to people explaining how getting their kids to eat veggies applied to B2B sales.

Then the pandemic happened, and all hell broke loose.

Being cooped up at home meant people started oversharing … a lot.

Others used it as a quasi-dating website.

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter splintered the social-media landscape, giving LinkedIn another boost.

Add in the rise of AI slop, and posting on the platform has been supercharged.

Meanwhile, one of the ways to use the platform to actually help you find work (you know, its original intention) is still hotly debated.

Feeling embarrassed while trying to build your brand is somewhat ironic.

We all have to do things in life we don’t necessarily love.

But forcing yourself to constantly write posts that make you shudder the second you hit publish creates a vicious cycle.

The more successful those posts are, the more you’ll be expected to keep producing them.

Maybe you view it as a way to network yourself into a better job.

Increased engagement means more eyeballs, which means a better chance a recruiter thinks of you the next time they’re filling a position.

But when they do come knocking, they might expect the same person behind those LinkedIn posts that caught their eye.

After all, that’s what you built your brand around.

So the next time you contemplate a LinkedIn post that might make you cringe, consider this: Why am I doing it in the first place?Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to post this on my LinkedIn.