How to use LinkedIn professionally without dying inside?

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I was recently promoted and as part of my new role my big boss has reminded me how important profile is both for me and our organisation. He wants me to post more on LinkedIn. I'm cringing myself inside out just thinking of what that requires. Is it possible to not be a total tosser if you post on LinkedIn, even if you avoid the my child getting catapulted off a banana boat ride on our Carribbean holiday taught me these five valuable lessons about B2B collaboration maxxing?

You could start by sharing posts? But I find it so self congratulatory cringey that I’d feel the same.

I’m glad to read this as LinkedIn just makes me so unhappy and insecure every time I look at it and thought it was just me. It’s just so performative and word salady and I find it really difficult.

Ugh. I’d hate this performative bollocks too. Chat gpt is your friend here OP.

Share stuff you think will be useful to your network. And use chatgpt.

Easiest place to start is reposting other organisational posts, ideally with a small bit of commentary alongside. Then posting about actual events you are going to / are at / have gone to. And posting interesting articles / research if that’s relevant to your area. I don’t post much on LinkedIn, but these are the posts I see that are the least cringe and sometimes actually useful. As you say, if you avoid the spurious extrapolation into life lessons then you’re avoiding the worst of it.

Oh it’s awful and it’s got much worse since AI since the performative word slop is three or four times as long.

I would negotiate some very limited targets that your boss is happy with and then I would post actual relevant information fairly frequently in short, human-written posts, ideally genuinely interesting things that you have read or heard. And some jokes.

I got told once when I protested that “If you aren’t on LinkedIn, you don’t exist professionally.”

Despite being at first I duly signed up and just started by being myself. I avoid all the ‘honoured and humbled’ stuff and AI and just post relevant things / give my opinion about stuff in my field and ask questions / join interesting discussions.

After several years of consistently doing this I now regularly get invited onto podcasts/webinars, to speaking events and even occasionally name checked as a ‘top influencer/ top person to follow’ in my (desperately boring) field 😂 S’all a bit silly but it has probably opened a few opportunities too.

Just reframe the way you think about it.
LinkedIn isn’t all self congratulatory posts. In fact posting is only a small (and increasingly less important in terms of raising your profile) part of it.

Think about what area of expertise and knowledge you/ your boss wants you to be known for and start looking for people who are talking about this. Comment on their posts. Have conversations via the comments, move on to DM’s when you’ve got to know them.

You can learn so much and benefit your career if you think of it less about posting about you and more about connecting with others in your field.

Can you post about what you know about? It is bloody awful these days with all the ‘I’m honoured and delighted to have been recognised for this award/been invited to speak at a conference in Latvia/recognised by a business forum as upcoming star of the universe’

It’s full of tossers OP. I agree. Sadly they all post on it and think it’s evidence of how well respected they are in their field. We are told to post and share all the time at work. I hate all the self congratulatory bollocks too.

I'm glad I'm not alone in hating it, but some very useful tips to get me started, thank you all. I've been doing a lot more sharing and reposting in the last few months and the odd comment on relevant/network/people I actually know posts. I am an expert in what I do, a reasonably niche area, so @AccidentallyOnTrend and @WallowingInMud you're both right about getting conversations going. I just find it all so contrived. And I'm Irish, so the fear of notions is real 😂

It's full of self congratulatory drivel, it's just embarrassing! I honestly couldn't take a manager who wanted LinkedIn posts seriously, I'd think they were a wanker.

Also my main gripe with LinkedIn is that peoples CVs are often not even genuine. People exaggerating their roles or flat out lying. I've seen people in high places where I know for a fact that they've completely lied about their career history.

I hate it when people just post everything about themselves ie look ate I had a thought today! and the same people comment on how wonderful they are even if it's a load of rubbish what they put. Also people they put their titles and letters after their name drive me mad. I know it's a way of showing qualifications but I work with people that are genuinely high up with titles and letters but they just put their names no showing off.

It’s pretty straight forward.

-Choose a key issue relevant to your industry and post your opinion.
-Talk about your company’s new product and WHY it is great. Not self congratulatory unless you designed it personally.
-Use LinkedIn to thank a department who are unsung heroes.
-Point out something ironic or positive about govt policy relating to your industry
-Publicise an employment milestone e.g. your co. establishing four graduate apprenticeships in whatever you do.

Link to others in your industry and comment on their posts, share them with others etc.

The main thing is don’t post unless you have something to say.