All work and no play makes you dull and boring on LinkedIn

Set in the snowed-in Overlook Hotel, the movie The Shining features winter caretaker Jack Torrence holed up in his study, day after day, attempting to write a book.

Making a buck looking after an empty hotel while churning out a book seemed like a win-win. But, as in all decent horror movies, it wasn’t meant to be.

Fast forward to the iconic scene featuring Jack’s wife Wendy approaching Jack’s typewriter with great trepidation, wanting to see what he’s been writing. Instead of finding a well-progressed manuscript, she’s horrified to see hundreds of pages featuring the same blurb typed over and over again:

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Most certainly an horrific display of writer’s block in the movie, it’s an old proverb that means working all the time and not making space for things that bring you joy is unhealthy.

This is a great lesson for how I believe we should show up on LinkedIn.

Many people assume because LinkedIn is a professional network we should only present one dimension of ourselves: the ‘work’ self. The trouble is, being all work and no play is boring and doesn’t set us apart from the crowd.

Further, journeying through the pandemic made us appreciate the value of showing up in a genuine and transparent way. Kids, cats and dogs appeared in Zoom meetings. So too did beards and gym gear. We picked up new hobbies. We may be venturing back to the office, but people’s wellbeing still matters.

We owe it to each other to show up in a balanced way on LinkedIn instead of pretending we have nothing else going on but work.

Here’s what you can do to go beyond your ‘work’ self and show up with a life in LinkedIn:

• Tailor your background banner – The grey banner behind your head is customisable. Instead of a picture of you presenting at a conference or a company logo, pop in an image that resonates on a more personal level. It could be where you like to holiday, the city you live in, or where you like to ride your bike.

• Make your headline more than your day job – Are you a recruiter who is a life-long learner? A consultant passionate about animal welfare? A kick-boxing banker? You can go beyond your job title to reinforce the things that matter to you by extending your headline with a second sentence or additional key words.

• Tell me what you care about – In addition to covering your areas of expertise in your summary (About section), explain why you enjoy doing what you do and describe the difference you’re trying to make. This could be a work-related passion or a contribution you make in your community, such as volunteering, or participation in a professional association.

• Mention your personal interests and hobbies – I promise your IQ will not be diminished if you mention that you like to surf, sing or dance the tango. In fact, it will make you more interesting. Noting hobbies and personal interests in your LinkedIn summary is a great way to set yourself apart. It could even act as a conversation starter in a connection request.

• Don’t sound like a textbook – When you post, write the way you speak. Use informal language, rather than textbook or corporate speak. When sharing content, point out its value. Tell me a story. Ask questions to encourage a conversation. Save 10% of your bandwidth for sharing a personal achievement or milestone.  All these things will make you more interesting, interested and relatable.

Did you know our “all work and no play” proverb has a second part?

All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.

In the context of LinkedIn, I take this to mean: don’t go overboard on the personal stuff and seek balance in how you show up. After all, LinkedIn is still a professional social media network.

So, go on and open up a little more. Tell me what you like to do on the weekends. You’ll be way more interesting to me if you do.

Why liking stuff is just not enough: 10 reasons to go beyond the ‘like’ button in LinkedIn

There are a bunch of reasons we like things on social media platforms.

We put a thumbs up on content we find interesting. Laughing emoji for funny stuff. We like content posted by our friends to tick a box and let them know that we’re thinking of them. We may like content to follow a crowd. We love the dopamine hit we get when people ‘loveheart’ our content. And in dating apps? The ‘like’ operates at a whole other level (so I'm told).

Here, I want to cover hitting the ‘like’ button in the world’s largest professional social network, LinkedIn.

Too often when I look up people on LinkedIn, I see that all or almost all of their activity is liking content. There are no posts made by those individuals. Or content is shared without comment. Often this behaviour is driven by a belief that keeping our insights and perspectives to ourselves is the safest game to play.

The problem with this approach today is that our LinkedIn profiles tell our professional story in a visible way and we live in visible, connected world.

People are looking us up and forming an opinion about us based on what they find online, whether we like it or not.

Further, the pandemic has put a spotlight on online engagement as traditional means of connecting and networking were curtailed.

After years of observing and coaching executives on building their social media capability, I believe hitting the ‘like’ button in LinkedIn is just not enough today, when your online presence is being examined like never before.

Here are my thoughts on why it makes sense for professionals to step up and go beyond the ‘like’ and start sharing interesting content, insights and perspectives.

1.Tells people what you care about. Whether it’s personal or professional, sharing content that’s aligned to the things you care about will highlight shared interests and provide a reason for someone to connect with you or follow you. It’s your value proposition or ‘shop front’ on display.

2. Demonstrates how you think. Posting content with a caption expressing your perspective provides a window into how you think. When you share your perspective and experiences over time, you’ll build a strong digital footprint that demonstrates your expertise and how you go about your business.

3. It’s generous. Sharing what you know is a generous thing you can do for another human being who knows less about a topic than you do. I’m not advocating that you share sensitive or confidential information. What I am saying is that generally, sharing information rather than hoarding it, is what can help build your impact and influence.

4. Being social is about engagement. Your connections, followers–and even organisations–will appreciate it if you engage in or share their content. If it’s compelling, jump into the conversation by commenting and if you think your network of connections and followers will find it interesting, then amplify it with a share.

5. Gets your thinking ‘out there’. When you share, you’ll create an opportunity for your insights and perspectives to go beyond your network of usual suspects and be discovered by people that you don’t know, but who are interested in the way you think. Add hashtags, and you may create the chance for serendipitous knowledge accidents to happen.

When you share, you’ll create an opportunity for your insights and perspectives to go beyond your network of usual suspects.

6. Expand your network. When you participate in social media, over time you’ll make connections you otherwise wouldn’t if you were just dealing in the ‘real world’. Some of my early interactions in social media led to me forming strong friendships with people all over the world who share the same interests and are happy to help each other out.

7. Tells me who you are. When I look you up, I want to get a sense of who you are, what you stand for and how you think about your work. If I find nothing but a stream of ‘likes’ in your social media activity feed, I just won’t get a sense of what you’re all about and what it might be like to engage with you or work with you.

8. Can help you manage your reputation. If the train should crash for you one day, your reputation may remain intact if you have a sensible social media presence in your wake. The reverse is also true. A considered digital footprint could lead to that next speaking gig, opinion piece, book deal, or other interesting opportunity you otherwise may never have been considered for.

9. The future of work is online. The pandemic has permanently altered the way we behave. The future of work is one where we'll mobilise in online communities to collaborate, solve problems and get work done. Then we’ll disband, and come together in another community to do it all again another day.

Building a habit of working in a more social and visible way is now an essential life skill and not simply a ‘nice to do’.

10. Being social is fun. Like being at an awesome dinner party or other cool social event (remember those?), engaging with those around us, being genuinely interested in other people, who they are and what they have to say is a fun thing to do. Importantly, while opportunities to engage with others in person have dried up for many of us right now, being socially engaged and creating connections online may help keep your sense of belonging and wellbeing intact.

If you’re a serial ‘liker’ in social media or just plain quiet, then I hope you’ll find some inspiration here to motivate you to do more. Go and engage in interesting content. Share content you love and that will provide value to your network. Share some career lessons. I guarantee that over time, you’ll find your social media experience much more interesting and rewarding. And it’s in alignment to where the future of work is taking us – a large whack of our time spent online.

The rules of civility and decent behaviour in social media. AKA what would George Washington do?

Recently a dear friend suggested I read The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Set in the late 1930s in NYC, it’s a seductive and a mesmerising read for fans of old Big Apple glamour and the influence of chance encounters on our lives.

The book’s title is inspired by George Washington’s Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation. Towles imagined these ‘rules’ were most likely studied by Tinker, one of the book’s ambitious main characters, so he included them at the end of his work.

Washington’s rules cover everything from how you should conduct yourself in public (don’t kill fleas, lice and ticks in the sight of others) to how you should dress (in your apparel be modest), eat (drink not nor talk with your mouth full) and how you should engage with others (think before you speak).

The rules led me to think about the intense scrutiny of social media platforms right now. We’re reading about fake accounts, bots, and buying followers online. Fake YouTube views. Social media users worn out by angry, disrespectful online interactions about politics. Social media platforms hitting rock-bottom in rankings of people’s favourite brands. And recently social media executives were again in the spotlight at congressional hearings on online election interference, talking about the steps they are taking to clean up and secure their services.

Stir all this together and it’s no wonder we’re asking ourselves whether social media has had its time in the sun. Is it still useful? Should we engage? Should we close down our accounts?

There’s still plenty of value in social media engagement, but it’s up to us to behave like decent, empathetic human beings in the process.

Little did George Washington know that when he penned his rules, he was writing the guidelines for civilised behaviour in social media. Here’s my take of a selection of his rules to guide your thinking about the insights you want to share, finding your voice and nailing what you want to be known for in the social world.

Your insights 

Undertake not to teach your equal in the art himself professes; it savors of arrogance. You’ll have your insights and experiences to share in social and so will others. If you haven’t been in someone else’s shoes, then don’t try and tell them they’re wrong. Demonstrate respect for the learning and expertise of others.

Go not thither, where you know not, whether you shall be welcome or not. Give not advice without being asked and when desired do it briefly. Consider the value of the insights you share. If you don’t know anything about a subject, then avoid adding noise to the Twittersphere. If you’re asked for your opinion and have an informed view, then share your knowledge and be crisp and concise.

 Your voice

Be not forward but friendly and courteous; the first to salute hear and answer and be not pensive when it’s a time to converse. When you share your work, be prepared to have a conversation about it. Social media is not a one-way street – engage with those who are interested in your insights. There’s nothing more depressing for someone asking a question to hear nothing but crickets.

Being to advise or reprehend any one, consider whether it ought to be in public or in private; presently, or at some other time in what terms to do it and in reproving show no sign of choler but do it with all sweetness and mildness. Showing no choler is an old-school way of saying don’t be angry or irritable in your interactions. Playing the blame game and getting angry in social media doesn’t help you. If you have an issue with a post someone’s targeted at you, consider whether social is the right place to respond. If it is, then deal with the substance of the post in a calm way.

Your brand

Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation for ‘is better to be alone than in bad company. To me, men (and women) of good quality are those people with whom I can have a respectful banter about subject matter we’re interested in. Focus your energy on sharing what you know with those who may benefit from your learning and experience. Don’t sweat the trolls trying to drag you down. Leave them be.

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience. Of all the rules, when it comes to thinking about your brand and reputation in social, I think Washington nailed it with this one. Show up regularly, be open and have empathy for others. Then you’ll be well on the road to building a great reputation based on engaging in social with integrity.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading Washington’s rules, do so. They’re informative and fun. In the meantime, before you send an angry tweet or spam your network, take a deep breath and ask yourself: what would George Washington do? If we take a leaf out of his rule book, we can lift the tone of conversations and behaviour in social media, but it starts with us.

Don’t be a passenger. Get in the driver’s seat with social

My first car was a 1986 first generation Hyundai Excel. It was blue, with a clunky gear box and a 70-horsepower, 1.5-litre motor. It could go from zero to 100kph in around 13 seconds (my best guess).

Yes, it was an underdog in the motoring world, but I loved it. The first time I jumped into my car as a licensed driver, I was excited and I imagined all the road trips I'd go on with my mates in the future.

Having wheels gave me an incredible sense of independence and control. No longer a passenger at the mercy of public transport or my exceedingly chatty chauffeur (my dad), I was in the driver’s seat and in charge of the car.

Managing your social media is just like being in a car. If you stay in the passenger seat, you’re at the mercy of the driver. The only way to truly stay in control and manage your impact and influence in social is to jump in the driver’s seat.

The only way to truly stay in control and manage your impact and influence in social is to jump in the driver’s seat.

 I’ve written about the importance of being social before.  In particular, I believe women need to get over the self-talk that making themselves visible is not a ‘nice’ thing to do. Let’s park that for now (sorry – bad pun).

The key to not feeling overwhelmed by social media is to engage in it thoughtfully. Here’s a model I like to use when I’m helping clients learn how to get in the driver’s seat and take control of their social media engagement.

My insights. Think about what it is you want to share and why. What subject matter are you an expert in? What are you trying to achieve? Remember, using social in a purposeful way can be about your work agenda or something personal.

My voice. How will you share what you know and create value for your followers? Finding your voice is about identifying where your audience is and the right channels to engage in generous, open conversations about your subject matter.

My brand. Think about how you want to be perceived. Even before someone meets you, your social media footprint will tell a story about who you are and what you stand for. Consistency is key. Keep this in mind when you’re working out what you’ll share on social and how you’ll do it.

Working out what you want to share, how you’ll create value and how you want others to perceive you will give you the beginnings of a roadmap in how to navigate social.  

The most important step of all in social, however, is to stop being a passenger and jump into the driver’s seat.

Plan the trip, invite your community along for the ride and then get behind the wheel and drive. When it comes to being social, the journey is just as much fun as arriving at your destination.