When did Linkedin algorithm become unwieldy and mad - the new Wonderland?

I was in the first 1% of users but how has LinkedIn become the new Wonderland?

I joined LinkedIn in 2007 as one of the first 10 million users. It was the mobile app launch that I think dragged me in. It’s now over 1 billion members. I have used it for networking over the years and when I have needed work or to change job it’s been a great tool in the box.

I have recently, well just over a year ago, sort of stopped working. I don’t want to say retired as in theory I still have over ten years left to work before retirement age and the word retired has, at least to me, some negative connotations. I won’t bang on about that here, maybe in another post? Anyway, the point of this post is that I have written and published a book as part of my ‘sort of stopped’. It’s a business book built on my experiences over the past 30 years, and it offers a framework of leadership behaviours and processes to drive successful transformational change in our diverging world.

Given books should be read, I have taken to LinkedIn to share the word. It’s a business book and LinkedIn is the premier professional networking site so a decent place to start. Wow, it’s a whole new world this algorithm thing. I made the mistake of entering the rabbit hole. Like Alice, my curiosity and it turns out unlike Alice, my stupidity got me in there.

The game one must play is madder than the tea party, the Linkedin algorithm is unwieldy and mad. I did Drink Me and Eat Me. I certainly cried my own pool of tears in frustration. I engaged with some of the advice on how to best manage LinkedIn (on LinkedIn) but it appears there are many grinning cheshire cats and caterpillars out there with cryptic clues and riddles, most of which are time critical and must be done within so many minutes, hours, days of the previous action. I started to come to my senses when I realised, I was about to become a full-time player. I had found my flamingo, sourced a hedgehog and borrowed the Mad Hatters pocket watch. I was about to bash the poor thing at the hoop when ‘Off with their heads’ echoed in mine.

It’s barking mad yet I see many out there playing the game. I can now spot a player, not because they have a flamingo in their profile photo but because amongst other things they over comment, over post and find the most tenuous of links to videos of a 12 year old skateboarding to make their leadership point!

I have already woken up, I am not willing to dedicate such time to playing the game. I didn’t ‘sort of stop working’ to replace it with a full-time job managing the algorithm. I guess I will reach fewer readers and sell less books, but I will retain my sanity.