4 ways I keep Linkedin casual and unserious

Welcome back!

Fun fact: I opened up Beehiiv today and I was down a subscriber. I love how writing a newsletter keeps me humble. Keep those moments coming, please.

Aside from the fact that it felt like Summer in Chicago earlier this week/last weekend (glorious; midwesterners get it), overall, it was a good week. Busy.

This week I want to talk about a few things I do on Linkedin to make it my own. These are approaches I take to avoid the more “traditional” route of what we think to be the ‘norm’ of how to show up on Linkedin.

Let’s jump in.

If you’ve been around a while, then you know that I tend to be very present on Linkedin. In many ways; comments, posts, reactions, keeping my profile up to date, all of it.

My strategy for showing up on Linkedin (at least what it has evolved into) is to ensure I keep it causal, unserious, and celebratory, for the sake of all the good news I see shared by friends and colleagues.

Let’s take my profile banner as an example. I mean, that’s prime real estate! I’ve seen folks use the otut of the box images Linkedin provides; I’ve also seen folks use that as a way to advertise who they are, what they’re about, and services they offer (smart!). I’ve used it as a space to uniquely extend the ‘theme’ (for lack of a better word) of my career at that point in time. So right now, it’s on brand with where I work (using our purple) with a llama peeking out from the corner of the image (the llama being our mascot and a key part of the overall brand). I was thinking how I could make the banner something unique and different, while also on brand (from my POV), and also unserious and fun. And that was it. At the end of the day, Linkedin is not that serious. And the way we approach our profile set up should reflect that.

The headline. Oh the Linkedin headline. I have some thoughts. My take here (maybe piping hot????) is that this part of the profile is waaaay over thought-out and sometimes overly crowded. I don’t think that’s what the headline is for. I see it as a place on your profile for something short and sweet. So short and sweet in fact, that someone doesn’t need to click on your profile to read the whole thing. The way I approach mine, which I started doing maybe early last year, is to take a short phrase and pair it with the work I’m doing, or make reference to the company, product, brand, service, etc. While I was at Slack, it was: Career hack: use Slack (or something like that; I actually can’t remember lol). Because people are happier using Slack. It’s the truth. Now being at Vanta, it’s now: Ilma has entered the chat 🦙 And why is that? Well, I love a mascot, esp one with their own name and identity (Ilma being Vanta’s mascot name), and I also work in Community. Within communities, there are discussions happening (this is the chat). The two go together well. Who wouldn’t want the company mascot to be participating in the chat? (go with me; it’s also not that deep lol).

(Popular) culture references. As far as posting on Linkedin goes, I have a variety of different formats, one of them being making reference to what’s happening out in the wild; whether on the internet, news, what’s trending, etc. Take last week’s newsletter—prime example. Shoutout to Staples Baddie. In fact, that Linkedin post I think is the post with the most engagement out of all my posts ever ever ever. (And I noticed some Staples team members engaging too, which is super fun. I like how Staples is leaning in). But anyway, I take moments happening out in the world or on the internet and I share them on Linkedin. If we think broadly about who is on Linkedin, it’s the people who make these brands and pop culture moments come to life. The designers, the producers, the end users, the creatives, the executives, the PR pros, the engineers, the product designers, the marketers, the social media pros, the strategists; they’re all on Linkedin. So my charge to you: Try extending your content beyond your day job and incorporating what you’re seeing out in the wild; bring your POV to Linkedin and share!

If I don’t know you but love your content, you’ll know. Something I do often, if I am scrolling and see a post I love but a reaction isn’t enough but I don’t have a full thought fleshed out yet to share, I’ll drop to the comments and write: “instant follow.” I need the author to know their post was great, and as a result, I need to see more content from them. I’m proactive about that because why wouldn’t I be? Like I said at the beginning, I use Linkedin to celebrate people. Sometimes, a reaction isn’t enough. So I comment: “instant follow.” I also hope other people see my comment and do the same if the content is also their jam. Comments sections are underrated.

Just some of my lil Linkedin habits and tidbits. What are yours?

Thanks for reading and for being here. I don’t take for granted that you care what I have to say. Or even if you don’t care, and you’re still here; thanks for being a fan anyway. ❣️

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