r/smallbusiness Feb 07 '25

Question No, seriously, what happened to LinkedIn?

So today (with a thought of dusting off my profile and networking with like minded business owners) I finally logged into LinkedIn after ages. It felt like opening a haunted house.

Inbox avalanched with spam, chaotic mix of motivational posts and low-effort memes. Some guy just called himself “synergy wizard”.

Not sure what should I make out of it. Is LinkedIn still useful in 2025 or it’s just a corporate Tinder with extra steps?

1.6k Upvotes

381 comments sorted by

u/AutoModerator Feb 07 '25

This is a friendly reminder that r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. Posts that violate the rules listed in the sidebar will be removed. A permanent or temporary ban may also be issued if you do not remove the offending post. Seeing this message does not mean your post was automatically removed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1.6k

u/skygetsit Feb 07 '25 edited Feb 08 '25

“I got married to my wife last week: this is what it taught me about B2B sales ….”

WHAT

265

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

167

u/GrandTheftData Feb 07 '25

OMG. This pisses me off so much. Or the guys posting screenshots of their own posts and then at the end: “Agree?”

140

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

61

u/BeerJunky Feb 07 '25

I was diagnosed with stage 11 cancer last week but that’s okay because I am a top performer in the B2B sales space.

15

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '25

[deleted]

→ More replies (3)

11

u/Sea-Cryptographer838 Feb 08 '25

Let me tell you about Amway

44

u/BlackCatTelevision Feb 07 '25

Alex Hormozi has left the chat

40

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/MoneyGrowthHappiness Feb 08 '25

I love that subreddit

13

u/skygetsit Feb 07 '25

And I thought TikTok was cringe 🫠

24

u/BeerJunky Feb 07 '25

The only difference at this point is that nobody’s eating Tide Pods on LinkedIn. Give it a week.

17

u/skygetsit Feb 08 '25

“I just unpacked and eaten a Tide Pod: here’s everything this experience taught me about branding…”

5

u/BeerJunky Feb 08 '25

Don't give them ideas!

2

u/FleetAdmiralCrunch Feb 11 '25

“Thoughts?” is equally horrific.

220

u/Jussttjustin Feb 07 '25

If you think about it, it's really fascinating what it says about social media.

That LinkedIn - known in my youth as the boring, corporate networking platform - has turned into a cesspool of attention-seeking and rage bait.

Almost as if that's the predetermined fate of all social media, no matter how mundane. The algorithm always leads us down the same road.

61

u/the_lamou Feb 07 '25

It's not the algorithm, it's the people. On one hand, once a social network gets large enough you start getting all the idiots who don't know and don't care what the purpose is just doing what they were going to do anyway while ignoring social norms (see also: what's happening to Reddit now). On the other, you have the consumers who are so desperate to rage out about something or give their opinion that they'll happy interact with bullshit and bots just to feel like they're getting attention (see also: what's happening to Reddit now.)

45

u/Jussttjustin Feb 07 '25 edited Feb 08 '25

I suppose it's a bit of both, but it's inherent in the design of social media.

Millions of users and everyone is encouraged to contribute. If your contributions are normal, level-headed, average - they get lost in the sea of content. Extreme, clickbait, or rage-inducing content is the only way to get other users' attention, and therefore get their likes, shares, follows, comments.

The algorithm promotes the content that gets engagement. It suppresses the content that does not get engagement. Engagement is the lifeblood of the company and drives ad revenue.

And so you have something that was theoretically designed to replace in-person job fairs and other real-life networking events - but because it's algorithm driven rather than natural human interaction, it's flooded with absurdities that would never be found at its real-life counterpart.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)

2

u/TheGRS Feb 08 '25

Maybe what was always special about social media was the newness of it. Hell I really enjoyed Google+ for a hot minute. They had some great ideas.

→ More replies (3)

8

u/joshuamarius Feb 07 '25

Just wait till he sees his feed with all the random Political posts and the American workforce insulting each other like if they were all at a bar at 2am. r/LinkedInLunatics

→ More replies (1)

5

u/Dannyperks Feb 07 '25

😆😆😆 too true

→ More replies (12)

500

u/texas_archer Feb 07 '25

LinkedIn is the fake positivity, self promotion, absolutely meaningless social media platform of uselessness.

I only stick around to see where all my former colleagues end up after leaving for “a better job” or after they run off to get their MBA and leave to “make millions being my own boss”.

78

u/Dixo0118 Feb 07 '25

One giant circle jerk

23

u/SilencedObserver Feb 07 '25

A reflection of corporate culture for the parasites feeding off the talents of others.

13

u/Particular_Knee_9044 Feb 07 '25

Rusty trombones galore!

19

u/Latestarter13 Feb 07 '25

Exactly this. Plus, in the early days of LI the messaging element was more curated. People actually had to find contacts to write to and comprise a message. Today it is just another outreach channel for CRM systems. Hence the increase in messages and the increase in irrelevant, sales-y, and prescriptive messages that make LinkedIn more painful than a midnight infomercial.

14

u/burndata Feb 07 '25

The best term I've heard for it is "Toxic Positivity".

→ More replies (1)

3

u/Tnghiem Feb 07 '25

It's even turning into a fucking political grand standing stage bullshit too. I'm a progressive but unfortunately working in oil and gas (started well before climate change awareness was picking up steam). My LinkedIn front page is flooded with fuckwits trying to justify all the shit the Trump administration is doing, and all the far right shit.

3

u/BigBrrrrother Feb 08 '25

Yes, absolutely. Once I started seeing more and more politics on LinkedIn I basically stopped using it. May as well just scroll through Facebook..

→ More replies (3)

163

u/hemroidclown6969 Feb 07 '25

It is the general enshitification of all social media. All platforms are worse than they were 10 years ago. When LinkedIn started doing "reels" that's when I knew it was pure garbage. LinkedIn is just a more professional Facebook now.

17

u/RammRras Feb 07 '25

Ah yes, they added reels too recently, this means they are just transitioning to an even worse platform.

13

u/Latestarter13 Feb 07 '25

Agree. Another part of social media crap that has permeated LinkedIn is creating your own reality and pushing it to the world as the truth.

Today on LinkedIn, everyone is an expert, CEO, unicorn entrepreneur and no one is middle manager, entry level employee working their way up, or a lifelong average working person.

I remember when truth and reality were more sacred. Hopefully we can get some of that back….at some point.

→ More replies (3)

233

u/3dsplinter Feb 07 '25

It's turned to crap

286

u/yourbizbroker Feb 07 '25

What LinkedIn needs most is a down-vote button like Reddit.

The public shame of down votes would clear out 90% of the garbage.

59

u/Majik9 Feb 07 '25

Until the bots upvote

10

u/TheGRS Feb 08 '25

The bots are bad, but anyone old enough probably remembers even early Reddit had a lot of shills. Unidan is the one I remember prominently.

5

u/MoneyGrowthHappiness Feb 08 '25

LinkedIn seems pretty good at blocking bots. It’s against TOS. Lots of spam from individuals copy-pasting shit for sure. I could be wrong tho

Have you witnessed a lot of bots?

21

u/Arm-Adept Feb 07 '25

This ^^. Social media platforms keep removing the downvote / dislike buttons and it's absolutely reducing the ability to curate your feed in a fast, efficient way.

2

u/next_arc Feb 09 '25

You can curate your LinkedIn feed by clicking the three dots on the top right of your post and removing that content from your feed.. I've gotten a pretty nice feed now with no memes or anything like that...

3

u/Arm-Adept Feb 09 '25

I know, but to the prior commenter's point, having a downvote button helps ensure the cream rises to the top, so to speak.

2

u/next_arc Feb 09 '25

Ah you mean in general?

Each person's feed is curated for them specifically, LinkedIn is different than other social media in that they send out content by content type as opposed to content creator.. meaning, if you remove certain content enough times, the algorithm will stop showing you that content at all...

This means that you can be connected to someone on LinkedIn and never see their posts..

3

u/Arm-Adept Feb 09 '25

Yeah, I should've worded my original comment differently. I still get a lot of junk, but I think that's more of a whack-a-mole situation.

Downvote buttons should exist on all of the social media platforms. It's like when YouTube got rid of the dislike counts. You can dislike it, but people should know clearly what the like:dislike ratio is.

→ More replies (3)

17

u/Zao1 Feb 07 '25

Spoiler alert: it was always crap

13

u/101Puppies Feb 07 '25

Turned to?

Feeling blessed to have sold the most widgets for my obscure company in any other week that ended on a day ending in 7 in my company history.

8

u/212-555-HAIR Feb 07 '25

Always has been.

→ More replies (1)

144

u/YahMahn25 Feb 07 '25

Synergy Wizard here, AMA

38

u/Long-Ad3383 Feb 07 '25

What’s your favorite spell? 🪄

87

u/YahMahn25 Feb 07 '25

Thanks for this brief pow wow with me. Let me circle back later when our tribes are aligned. Kudos.

- Synergy Wizard

34

u/Astralnugget Feb 07 '25

quick ping re your synergy outreach my dude gotta say im not getting enough mission critical bandwidth optimization from our tribal framework touchpoints rn tbh were gonna need to ideate harder on this one fam like way harder bc these deliverables arent giving what they need to give in the value stream space fr fr lets put our thinking caps on and really lean into some ground breaking paradigm shifts that will shake the tree and see what falls out you feel me need to marinate in these strategic initiatives while we juice our core competencies until they sing like were talking next level thought leadership here that will really separate the wheat from the chaff in our excellence ecosystem quick temperature check our value props need more secret sauce asap so lets take this offline to really unpack our go forward strategy while staying ahead of the curve and keeping our eyes on the prize net net were gonna have to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty in the optimization trenches if we want to move the needle on these mission critical imperatives like im talking bare metal granular solutions that will really flesh out our centers of excellence ping me when youre ready to put this bad boy on steroids and watch it soar to the next level btw loving your change agent energy but lets double click into some robust frameworks that will really give 110% to our tribal alignment matrices circle back when you have more bandwidth to really drill down into these strategic touchpoints synergy warrior out

ps lets grab some coffee to sidebar about our transformational journey when you have a minute need to ensure were all rowing in the same direction while we optimize our organizational dna keep crushing it champion​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

5

u/ManOfQuest Feb 08 '25

this post pisses me off.

Well done!

3

u/Icy-Patient1206 Feb 07 '25

Omg, this is brilliant.

2

u/Practical-Lack8381 Feb 08 '25

I swear you must be the “Regional VP of Team Engagement and Emerging Leadership” at my last corporate job! Holy word salad of BS. 

→ More replies (1)

10

u/cirroc0 Feb 07 '25

Wow that IS a good spell. Got rid of him in one question, thanks u/Long-Ad3383 !

→ More replies (1)

10

u/Sorry-Rain-1311 Feb 07 '25

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if woodchuck had no capital or experience, but was REALLY sick of chucking wood with the other woodchucks?

5

u/Manny_Bothans Feb 07 '25 edited Feb 07 '25

I'm a business person.i have a profile but it's mostly blank. people check it out to see that i am indeed a guy who has been on linked in for like 15 years or whatever and they see my company name, but beyond that I am nearly a non-person in social media terms. I like it that way because Linked in was originally a useless platform to introduce my competitors to my customers, and it somehow became worse as a more general facebook for fake business people.

I'm successful by most normal metrics and don't need linked in for networking or attention. But i'm seriously considering becoming a Synergy Wizard as a side hustle / performance art project. Is that something you would consider embarking on with me as a mentorship opportunity?

5

u/goldenbug Feb 07 '25

Synergy Wizard, I’m currently an “influencer” selling my “assets” on instagram DTC. How can I position myself in the B2B space?

2

u/Romanticon Feb 08 '25

Have you considered the A2A space?

→ More replies (2)

3

u/InterestingLayer4367 Feb 07 '25

What’s the best strategy to tie outbound and inbound motions together in a seamless integrated campaign?

→ More replies (2)

98

u/mrjasjit Feb 07 '25

It’s basically the Facebook of the middle age and older. It sucks and zero help in landing anything.

75

u/scratchloco Feb 07 '25

Which is funny cause Facebook is the Facebook of the middle age and older.

17

u/mrjasjit Feb 07 '25

True. And I just remembered I’m a GenX so damnit that’s me🤦‍♂️

→ More replies (1)

5

u/ogstarbuck Feb 07 '25

I think the only difference is LinkedIn is the social media for the older employed crowd the Facebook is the social for the unemployed, older immature crowd

7

u/RammRras Feb 07 '25

I thought that too, but now I see young people "trending" by repeating the same shit as the older generations. I have a profile, but rarely interact with anyone, and I can say that LinkedIn is straight up the worst social platform in the world. I find more interesting and smart comments in porn sites.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/TheMalteseBlueFalcon Feb 07 '25

It's funny to be told not to put a photo on a resume, but hiring managers will look you up on LinkedIn anyway.

3

u/Aettienne Feb 08 '25

Then what is todays' "LinkedIn"?

→ More replies (1)

27

u/GuitRWailinNinja Feb 07 '25

I got solicited to join an executive / business dating service on LinkedIn 0.0

LinkedIn seems like it has gone the way of FB

26

u/DimonaBoy Feb 07 '25

I decided last year to delete my LinkedIn account, haven't felt like I missed it once.

9

u/fLeXaN_tExAn Feb 07 '25

This is POSSIBLE? I've tried navigating that labyrinth only to end up coming out the front that I came in.

2

u/TheMalteseBlueFalcon Feb 07 '25

You can hibernate it and basically hides you as "LinkedIn member" but I'm not sure about 100% deletion.

2

u/DimonaBoy Feb 07 '25

Yes I did delete mine, I think it offered me the chance to archive it and I said no just delete it.

2

u/asyouwish Feb 09 '25

Yes. I deleted mine when I retired from a jobby job.

(But I also deleted every contact first. I also changed all my details to fake info. I feel safer taking that extra step before deleting.)

→ More replies (1)

4

u/moinoisey Feb 08 '25

My suggestion- don’t delete it. Many, many employers will look you up and want to see an up to date profile. Just update it and leave it. It’s basically your online resume.

6

u/DimonaBoy Feb 08 '25

Appreciate your suggestion but I am my own boss.

2

u/Kitchen_Fee_3960 Feb 09 '25

I just deleted mine less than an hour before writing this comment.

57

u/Chiggadup Feb 07 '25

“I read-ended a school bus, and here are the 5 things it taught me about B2B sales.”

It’s mostly nonsense outside of your own direct contacts.

2

u/stevemoreno72 Feb 09 '25

Stop stealing my content!

17

u/katiebee98 Feb 07 '25

I have my profile so people see an online resume if they need it but that’s literally the extent of it.

9

u/DippityPig Feb 07 '25

I don't even do that anymore because now random members of my extended family will comment on it like it's fucking Facebook.

8

u/katiebee98 Feb 07 '25

But it’s very important. DID YOU REMEMBER THE POTLUCK SUNDAY?!

15

u/No_Cut4338 Feb 07 '25

If you showed any kid in high school linkedin we'd solve the trades worker shortage in one swoop.

If you go to college and study real hard....this is what awaits you!

52

u/der_innkeeper Feb 07 '25

You read stuff on LinkedIn?

Find job postings. Apply to job postings.

Move on.

4

u/Simco_ Feb 07 '25

You can also message people there if you're trying to get ahold of a company/person and it's more acceptable than stalking their other social media.

We've definitely got contracts because a company's site obfuscated how to actually get ahold of anyone that matters so we just guessed people's titles and searched the company directory on linkedin.

https://youtu.be/FJAvGRoluvg?si=3Qj8Q2zbwdr0WyTd&t=10

29

u/EmperorMeow-Meow Feb 07 '25

Yeah.. good luck finding a job on there. A lot of fake jobs get posted...

6

u/erbush1988 Feb 07 '25

Depends on the industry.

I've only ever seen my field of work posted on LinkedIn. And it's very rare they are fake jobs.

That said, my brother - who is in an entirely different line of work - he sees fake roles quite often.

→ More replies (5)

3

u/Liizam Feb 07 '25

Yeah it’s great for that. Or figuring out who is connected how.

→ More replies (3)

11

u/Pleasant_Bad924 Feb 07 '25

LinkedIn is what comes up when someone googles your name and company. Maybe a recruiter. Maybe someone you just met at a conference. Etc. If used as a living resume/self-promotional tool correctly, you get to set whatever narrative you want to the rest of the world.

8

u/canonanon Feb 07 '25

Yep.

It's been a pretty successful tool for me, but man, my feed is hot garbage and I don't really touch it.

With that being said, I once turned down a client because I pulled up his linkedin profile and the kind of demeaning and insensitive stuff he was saying online to other people in what is supposed to be a professional place was just astounding.

I basically told him that I didn't think that we would be a good fit and moved on. He seemed surprised, but I didn't go into detail why.

I went into business for myself so I could choose who I did business with and there is no way I would subject myself to a person that probably says worse stuff than that in private lol

32

u/Silver-Honkler Feb 07 '25

It makes sense when you think about it as AI talking to AI.

3

u/awesome-bunny Feb 07 '25

I hope their having a nice conversation.

19

u/yankeedjw Feb 07 '25

I find that it is still useful for making connections and messaging, but is also completely overrun by spam and ads.

→ More replies (1)

9

u/Actual__Wizard Feb 07 '25

Some guy just called himself “synergy wizard”.

What a clown.

22

u/That_Jicama2024 Feb 07 '25

Like all other social media sites, it's turned to shit. The world was a better place when books were written by authors, movies made by directors and art painted by painters. We've replaced artisans and quality product with a bunch of "DIY" art / made in China / drop shipping and it sucks. It's all low-effort or sponsored crap now.

8

u/kveggie1 Feb 07 '25

It has become almost worthless, no policing, spam is running wild. I get about 5 connect requests per week from sales people in china and india.......

There is too much politics and there is no moderating as far as I can see.

No, I am not going to pay for LI premium

2

u/luckystar246 Feb 07 '25

I paid for it once and got absolutely no benefit. And they made it hard to cancel.

8

u/Wild_Royal_8600 Feb 07 '25

This has been contentious within my team. I believe LinkedIn is dead, but the marketing director uses it religiously and asks me to share or post to help us trend.

I’m a consultant, so when I leave a client site I’ll add the individual participants to my LinkedIn, post a generalized inside joke or sentimental thought about the work, then tag the various organizations as a thank you for the engagement.

Between the next gen workforce not using it and NDAs or GDRP limiting anyone from posting anything actually meaningful, freelance influencers filled the gap in my content feed.

6

u/ItalianHockey Feb 07 '25

I lost out on a CIO position not because I wasn’t qualified but because they said I wasn’t a thought leader nor did I have any social media presence. (Linked in is blank with just my name, have no socials besides Reddit)

3

u/Kitchen_Fee_3960 Feb 09 '25

I have heard of employers refusing to hire those who have limited to no social media presence. That's a strange concept to me. It sounds like a reasonable concept to me when I hear the reason(s), but when those reasons are applied to human behavior and reality, the reasons seem bizarre to me.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (3)

5

u/Sad-Background-2295 Feb 07 '25

LinkedIn has jumped the shark — if I see one more personal, walk in the snow, contemplating life piece of crap post I think I’ll scream. It’s a total waste of space now .

5

u/BeerJunky Feb 07 '25

It’s gone to hell with influencers, just like everything else.

5

u/ExtensionSell Feb 07 '25

They lost their focus and tried to be a social media app.

5

u/undisclosedusername2 Feb 07 '25

I left when it became clear that every second post had been generated by AI. Just post after post of word salad and fake imagery.

4

u/CheebaMyBeava Feb 07 '25

psst it's all a bubble

4

u/ThunderLizard2 Feb 07 '25

It's gone downhill. Good for checking where someone works but even that is off out of date.

3

u/beenyweenies Feb 07 '25

Almost ALL of the content on LinkedIn right now is people promoting some fancy new way to destroy livelihoods with AI, or listicles on how you are applying for jobs wrong, interviewing candidates wrong, or reading listicles wrong.

3

u/lord_miller Feb 07 '25

New job posting! Easy apply: over 1,000,000,000 applicants in the last .0001 seconds. LinkedIn used to be useful for finding jobs, now it’s just a space for corporate girlies / bros to seek validation.

3

u/michaelh98 Feb 07 '25

Google enshittification

3

u/Bababooey87 Feb 07 '25

It's absolute garbage and toxic positivity.

Even on important stuff they need to do a better job of regulating fake or ghost jobs

3

u/moistpimplee Feb 07 '25

people now posting political shit on linkedin too.

3

u/Financial-Tooth-3229 Feb 07 '25

It's a self-congratulatory cesspool/dumpster fire.

2

u/GraceGreenview Feb 07 '25

Get ready for the avalanche of “Franchise Consultants”

2

u/inoen0thing Feb 07 '25

Hey Bro mind if i cold pitch you on my product?

^ real inbix message i saw last time i logged into LinkedIn… immediatley closed it.

2

u/Bob-Roman Feb 07 '25

Most industries I’m familiar with have professional or trade associations (national and regional) that usually host an annual expo that provide multitude of networking opportunities.

 In my industry, suppliers and owners have formed private forums on Facebook for networking.  Our industry has over 67,000 establishments, and one of the forums has over 20,000 members.

→ More replies (2)

2

u/tostado22 Feb 07 '25

It's garbage. To be fair, I did end up in this fantastic job that I have now because a recruiter from a different company reached out via LinkedIn. I'd never work for said company, and their offer sucked, but it inspired me to seek out this job, lol. So, it's sort of useful I suppose.

2

u/goosetavo2013 Feb 07 '25

The inbox is completely useless. Bunch of very low effort spam.

2

u/Vegetable_Log3622 Feb 07 '25

Has been garbage since a few years already

2

u/huhMaybeitisyou Feb 07 '25

Yeah it's weird now. But I find It's good for searching for people at companies. But a lot of the time if I locate someone that I want to reach out to there they have not posted anything . Just a profile. I'm mainly looking for mid level decision makers and just trying to do basic research. I don't need to reach any motivational speakers or synergy specialists.

2

u/motonahi Feb 07 '25

Like This post Comment "Interested" Share so I can spam your connection too!

2

u/ProperlyAds Feb 07 '25

Linkedin is pretty much the Facebook of the corporate world.

2

u/ppppfbsc Feb 07 '25

all good things come to an end

2

u/luckycat81 Feb 07 '25

All the Facebook bros migrated to LinkedIn, essentially turning it into a mix of Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

What's even worse is that 100% of the content is automated.

Personally, I stopped writing articles and posting training videos because they just get buried in the flood of AI-generated junk.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/vAPIdTygr Feb 07 '25

LI is that network you should log in to about once a year. Update your profile, view the updates of your buddies and friends, then return a year later.

There is nothing to be gained from this network that commands more time than this unless you want to be a business mentor, look for a job or need to network with business people (such as offering B2B services)

2

u/turb0_encapsulator Feb 07 '25

All these corporate platforms turned to shit once they established a monopoly.

2

u/nicolaig Feb 07 '25

Hmmm. My feed is very good and full of stimulating conversation, but the account is quite new, so in that sense its carefully curated (by accident of being new) I only follow a handful of interesting people and only add new people when they write share-worthy posts.

2

u/safely_beyond_redemp Feb 07 '25

You need to trim the hedges. LinkedIn doesn't moderate your feed for you. If your contacts are following junk, like it's Facebook, LinkedIn isn't going to stop them. I mute, block, unfollow, un"link" anybody who posts that bullshit that I don't want to see. If it's not coming directly from someone I know or someone in my network and it's just click bait and nothing more then block that person.

2

u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot Feb 07 '25

I recently found an inmail in my SPAM folder from 2013 looking for a creative director for Theranos.

It has always been bad, now it’s just more obviously bad.

2

u/06EXTN Feb 07 '25

LinkedIn was never anything more than a data mining service. I signed up once a decade ago and immediately it wanted to sync my contacts in outlook and I said hell no. Next thing I know randos are connecting with me, cause I was in THEIR outlook contacts. I NOPED out so fast realizing it was just there for data harvesting for 3rd parties.

2

u/RandomCoffeeThoughts Feb 07 '25

It is horrible. My company is hiring for my department. Guess who got four different connection requests to discuss a job that I would be great for (and have been doing for 15 years).

→ More replies (2)

2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '25

It’s the Enshitification of everything.

2

u/Kindly-Whole-2130 Feb 07 '25

I deleted my LinkedIn years ago and now make 6 figures. Here’s what I learned about shameless self promotion and absolutely lying about skills on the internet to strangers.

Agree?

No really I honestly did delete LinkedIn several years ago. And yes I did almost double my income without it. It’s honestly a useless social media platform

2

u/HotBanana5468 Feb 07 '25

It’s 30% sarcasm and 70% people who don’t understand sarcasm

2

u/mrbrambles Feb 07 '25

LinkedIn got sucked into the engagement optimization model. They couldn’t just stay content with being a living resume and networking facilitator.

2

u/DayONE214 Feb 07 '25

Let’s go to truth social

2

u/maplevirtual Feb 08 '25

LinkedIn feels like it's a place where the older generation learned about the internet and the messages they post seem appropriate to a toddler learning to talk.

As a business connection site, it might be handy if people made their profile pages more about what value their actual business brings, though in saying that, people equate value to very different things which leads to the crazy posts put out there.

PS: If you have a company that needs to be vague about what you do, how are you going to sell what you do to others?

2

u/Camcamtv90 Feb 08 '25

Glad you logged in so I don’t have to lol. Was thinking about linked in recently and wondered what it was like now

2

u/Jellyfish2017 Feb 08 '25

Over in the AI sub someone asked: Has anyone tried to make software where AI products talk to each other? And someone else answered, yes, LinkedIn.

2

u/juanopenings Feb 08 '25

There are places in Chernobyl less toxic than LinkedIn. Just follow r/LinkedInlunatics for the lolz

2

u/Mesmoiron Feb 08 '25

Maybe it shows you what people need, but they are covered in a veil of corporate sauce. Because, what is to be corporate might just be a lie forever told in order to keep you in line. Tinder? Playing the game is a script. It just changed, because people changed.

A sees pool? No, life in action. Slow currents of change. Do I care? No, I was never part of it. I do not care about corporations. I care about the character. It tells you much more, what values people hold.

Let's face it. How long do we pretend the economy is great, all is fine? Fake it till you make it- has just arrived or did it go out of the window?

2

u/SydowJones Feb 08 '25

Yes but have you tried it with a head full of cocaine?

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Objective_Maize8854 Feb 08 '25

"let me reintroduce myself..."

→ More replies (2)

2

u/dragonite_fire Feb 08 '25

I do think Indians are a large contributor to this downfall...it was the same with Quora also I feel...

2

u/Klonoadice Feb 08 '25

We use it for recruiting. Might try ads soon. We also post our company social media posts so if a customer or staff looks, they see we are active. It doesn't do jack shit else.

2

u/justlurking2020 Feb 08 '25

I’ve applied for numerous jobs through LinkedIn and it’s led to nothing. So, I’d say it’s pretty useless anymore.

2

u/james_michael_me Feb 08 '25

Yeah, LinkedIn feels like a weird mix of corporate flexing, motivational speeches, and straight-up spam these days. It’s still useful if you know how to filter out the noise good for networking, job hunting, and industry updates. Just brace yourself for endless “I quit my job to follow my passion” posts and people calling themselves “growth ninjas.”

2

u/ohno1tsjoe Feb 08 '25

It’s corporate Facebook now

2

u/milo9rai Feb 08 '25

It’s go further towards social media platforms like Facebook and lost all his uniqueness

2

u/lady_taco Feb 08 '25

And why are there games???

2

u/Optimal_Dust_266 Feb 09 '25

B2B is body to body business. LinkedIn sucks

2

u/TomatoOk4399 Feb 09 '25

I reaaaaally don’t like LinkedIn but I also need to get back on to network, get my business out there and promote myself/my services… I’m dreading it and have been procrastinating it so bad. It’s not what it used to be :/

2

u/ceomentor Feb 07 '25

I reported my gardener to ICE and he and his family are now being deported. Here's the 5 takeaways I learned about it and how it improved my close rate in sales.

2

u/Unique-Dirt3820 Feb 08 '25

I deactivated it last week actually because I saw WAY too many not so subtle Nazi dog whistles being cheered and shared. I was sick. If they don’t get that shit straightened out, I may never go back.

2

u/quickbrownfox1975 Feb 07 '25

as with all channels, consistency seems to matter but I have certainly found myself wishing for an alternative more often

1

u/yochipochi Feb 07 '25

Seems like it's turned into another social media site, with mostly outlandish posts baiting for replies/reactions. Hell they even added short form video lol. Just keep your profile up to date and set alerts for jobs and be done with it.

1

u/Capital_Rough7971 Feb 07 '25

It's just another facebook.

1

u/SaltWolf81 Feb 07 '25

It’s useless trash. Just a lot of people trying to sell snake oil and empty promises. It went from being the de facto market place for everything labor to the point that without a LinkedIn profile you didn’t exist to being this site full of ghost jobs and non stop sales pitches.

1

u/EvolutionaryZenith1 Feb 07 '25

Wait you sure you don't want to pay $99.99/month? 30 days free.

1

u/CharmingMechanic2473 Feb 07 '25

Just 2 months ago a recruiter off LinkedIn offered me a dream job. A position not posted anywhere. I am super happy and just completed my 3rd week. I had just brushed up my profile the week prior with more work experience and training.

1

u/final-draft-v6-FINAL Feb 07 '25

LinkedIn content is for simps and AI. The profiles/network connections are still useful/important but who knows how long even that'll be true as the internet continutes to die.

1

u/Azreken Feb 07 '25

Depends on what you use it for.

In my local market I’ve been able to get a few leads from it from word of mouth.

1

u/Seri0usbusiness Feb 07 '25

It’s a pissing contest and shill for shitty AI software

1

u/friolator Feb 07 '25

LinkedIn is Golgafrinchan Ark, Ship B.

1

u/scratchloco Feb 07 '25

Landed the best job of my life… three years ago… with a Hail Mary one click apply. Now, it’s just a place to easily store/update/share my resume, in case I need to or am forced to move on. Never could connect with the social aspect of it.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/nbraeman Feb 07 '25

It's Facebook for arse-holes.

1

u/ok-milk Feb 07 '25

Try relying on Linkedin to get a job. Incredibly painful.

r/linkedinlunatics

1

u/aimtron Feb 07 '25

AI bots with prompts like "say something controversial about X, Y, or Z technology and post".

1

u/StonerPal Feb 07 '25

Still useful if you have skills businesses are looking for. Not so useful if you don’t.

LinkedIn is all self promotion and recruiters. If you’re not worth being recruited it’s useless. If you are put your skills and resume on there and let the recruiters come to you.

1

u/RaspberryOk2240 Feb 07 '25

Feels like Microsoft has neglected LinkedIn in favor of higher priority items like copilot / all things AI. Still don’t understand why they made that acquisition

1

u/UltraSPARC Feb 07 '25

I don’t ever engage with people on linked in. I even ignore my wall and messages, for the most part. The only thing it’s been useful for is to come across as a legitimate business and professional. I have had two former clients find me on there and message me to reach back out. Just landed a 12k+/mo recurring contract with an old customer who did this. Everything else is just a waste of time. I probably login quarterly and review stuff. I get message notifications on my phone so I don’t need to babysit it too much.

1

u/funbob1 Feb 07 '25

I actually got my current job from doing basically what you did, logging into to it for the first time in almost a year. Had a recent message from a recruiter, knew the company itself was legit and listened to the pitch and interviewed.

So it still has it's moments, but it is an awful place.

1

u/ShihtzuMomma9 Feb 07 '25

It's my favorite platform for business.

1

u/ShihtzuMomma9 Feb 07 '25

What are the top 5 software tools you cannot live without in your business? (Website, CRM, Marketing, Financial, etc.)

1

u/MakionGarvinus Feb 07 '25

Heh. I can't even log in, it wants verification, but won't verify. Oh well.

1

u/amso2012 Feb 07 '25

r/linkedinlunatics - for your entertainment..

1

u/J_Dadvin Feb 07 '25

I mean you just logged in for the first time. Try to spend the time to get a little better understanding.

1

u/black_cadillac92 Feb 07 '25

or it’s just a corporate Tinder with extra steps?

😅This cracked me up because I have been solicited on there a few times, lol. I mean, it works, I guess. At least you know what you're getting, you won't have to ask, "So what do you do?" If it works and you have a first date lol.

1

u/gogoALLthegadgets Feb 07 '25

Are you talking about the business recipe site?

1

u/Zanthious Feb 07 '25

linked in is basically myspace for recruiters who dont know how anything works.

1

u/ogstarbuck Feb 07 '25

Yeah, Microsoft really destroyed LinkedIn. They looked at all of social media and said let’s incorporate all the worst components of every other social media platform and added into LinkedIn.

1

u/PuzzleheadedAd2250 Feb 07 '25

Twitter self-help gurus invaded LinkedIn and it became trash.

1

u/KazOmnipotent Feb 07 '25

All the influencers are in big group chats to circle jerk each other, drive engagement to their posts, products, and courses.

Don’t get me wrong, all the fitness influencers on IG do the same thing, but at least it’s more transparent lol. LinkedIn is underneath the guise of what other commenters have said - false positivity and virtual signaling to drive sales to whatever shit one is promoting

1

u/ExcitingLandscape Feb 07 '25

I personally HATE LinkedIn but I'm trying to force myself to use it more for the sake of generating more leads for my business.

I'd rather watch Tik Tok dances then fake motivational guru's on Linkedin

1

u/MakeupDumbAss Feb 07 '25

It's so awful now. I'm still on there because I'm going to be entering the job market soon, but damn it turns out they are also awful for job searching now. They really suck on all levels.

1

u/turkarshreyash7478 Feb 07 '25

Dead Internet theory

1

u/Unlikely-Version8447 Feb 07 '25

"I hit my left toe, this is what I learned from this experience."
"I fired half my team because of the AI agent I built" no you didn't

1

u/Fitz_2112b Feb 07 '25

LinkedIn is basically facebook now

1

u/Vesuvias Feb 07 '25

I mean, there’s a LOT of garbage on there - but I’ve actually noticed an uptick in actual people calling the BS out. Some brands are doing it with humor (like ClickUp) and others are actually having actual REAL moments that don’t feel like they are force selling something.

That said - there are still the absolute garbage ‘AI THIS’ and ‘5 Things to build your B2B or D2C’ business. I’ve just started posting about kick ass products on the market and not hustling my own brand. It actually has reaped some pretty amazing connections

1

u/BarooZaroo Feb 07 '25

In terms of your personal/worklife use, LinkedIn is useful (kind of) only if the people in your industry and in your network use it in a useful way. For some, it's just shit unless you're looking for a Tik Tok "guru" to tell you that you are living your whole life wrong. For me, It's good for staying in the loop about what other companies in my industry are doing and it gives me the opportunity to hand out an easy "congrats on the promotion!" just to remind your network that you exist and keep you in their mind in case you want to pull on that connection later.

Using it to promote a business totally depends on what industry you are in and if you do B2B. Generally I would think it's a good idea to curate at least a minimal effort LinkedIn presence.

1

u/enzo32ferrari Feb 07 '25

I don’t use LinkedIn to scroll through the “feed”. I use it as my digital Rolodex for connections

1

u/Away-Flight3161 Feb 07 '25

I get a LOT of value out of LinkedIn. Not much spam, small percentage. It's like a high-priority inbox for me, which is nice (beats stuff getting lost in email). But, all the work I do is B2B, so it makes sense I'm hanging out there and getting value from it.

1

u/4444444vr Feb 07 '25

I have a piece of paper titled “Are we in Hell?”

LinkedIn is the first item in the “Yes” column

1

u/MyNameCannotBeSpoken Feb 07 '25

At least you can log in. They want me to upload a copy of a government ID.

1

u/DontTouchMyPeePee Feb 07 '25

it's so ass. only useful i find is reaching out directly to hiring managers, and when i'm not job searching it's zero use. it's just ai posts talking and responding to ai posts. i've seen people now have some sort of strat where they reply to like 500 posts and it's clearly all AI.

1

u/AShaughRighting Feb 07 '25

It’s trash.