Does anyone still find LinkedIn a useful space to find leads and connect with interesting people?
I'd be interested to know if designers, particularly freelance designers, find LinkedIn useful? I've seen it become increasingly full of misinformation (mainly about vaccines) and people posting for the sake of it rather than with useful insights or opportunities. Or maybe I’m just connected to the wrong people?
Replies15
- Actually still strong for the network. But for lead generation, I am using some additional 3rd part apps to capture contact data from the sales navigator.But I think the old one was better. Now it looks a bit like a white collar's Facebook :)
- 100%. My last freelance came from a friend of a friend on LinkedIn!
- Hey Jessica, I've never liked LinkedIn. There's lots on there, but I find none of it actually relevent or helpful. I applied for jobs on there over the years and nothing came of any of them. I don't find it a space where people can be people. I have it, but probably check it maybe once a week and very rarely post/use it to recruit etc.
- It might just be my experience, but the majority of clients I've found on LinkedIn have all turned out to be a bit... bonkers. They're usually quite demanding, not terribly pleasant to work with and always waaaaay more trouble than the money they're willing to pay is worth. I have had one good client from LinkedIn but sadly they have ghosted me with the pandemic!I wouldn't rely on LinkedIn alone - I'd put more time and effort into creating a banging website, with proper-good SEO and some lovely projects. Write a blog and post that stuff on LinkedIn - so you can still use it but not rely on it soley.Good luck!
- I try to avoid all of the random posts that pop up in my feed — I agree with you about there being a lot of misinformation and rubbish!I do love LinkedIn for finding insights. I use it to investigate who works at what organisation, so I'm able to approach them. It's good for detective work!Use it for the connections rather than the content. ;-)
- Hi Jessica,I find it useful for that I have lots of recruiter connects there who post freelance gigs and I simply hit them up if I'm interested in some of them.For the full truth I find absolutely nonsense Linkedin influencers and also there is no such a space where I would block that many people than there. It's mainly because they have such an opinion that I view as extreme and uneducated.So atm it's not the greatest platform but I do think it's worth to be there and see where it goes. You might don't know it's owned my Microsoft and so they are in business for business. I'm sure they will shape the platform by seeing how other social platforms chaging by time.
- Hi @Jessica Mallalieu I may loath it but I still get searched, viewed and jobs from it – although we may think it's dead or overloaded with some pretty onorous stuff, many potential clients, customers and recruiters still use it as a prime tool. I have hardly ever posted on it, but as a freelancer, with an interest in what many professionals are up to, and as a place to keep in touch, it's still proving valuable. Follow the traffic; anybody who spends any time on my website will look at my linkedIn profile.My advice: Stick with it, at least for now.
- In my view Linkedin is practically dead. it has become a more formal version of Facebook and, as you say, most of the posts are semi-conspiratorial about Covid and vaccines or there are people posting pseudo motivational stories like "At 20, dude did this, at 35 this guy and now he's a multimillionaire" who nobody cares about.Then of course there are the egoic posts whose subtext is "Me, myself and I", so building a network is very complicated also because to get in touch with most users you have to know the email address, but if I already know how to contact a person, what do I need Linkedin for?I repeat, dead and buried platform useful only for those who want to self-incensate
- I hate that place, bunch of preachy people and head hunters no clue about design. People view your profile with a feature that says “to view the people viewing your profile” “sign up today and pay nothing for the first 3 mins” etc.Then it’s connections of people that say they love their new, now they hate job quite thier job because they saw a social media influencers grandma old wisdom they quite their job and start their own business. Then their business has failed and wish they didn’t quite their job.
- I think it can have a place, personally I use it as an old fashioned rolodex, if I am trying to contact a connection it's easier to find them as Jo or Joe than try to remember their email format in my inbox.In terms of generating work I keep in touch if I see something relelvant to my contacts interest, it can start a conversation and then go places.Or when contacts change roles, I've just landed a branding project as I got back in touch with a client because I saw he had a new job, couple of messages back and forth and I was quoting for the job.So yeah, it can have a place - that said I find more can come from the-dots, it's like LikedIn, but useful! ;)
- I have to say that I do find it very helpful, if you make the right connections it does generate work, and you can find lots of interesting content to watch / read!
- I've certainly managed to generate work from it. You just have to ignore the vocal and often fairly vacuous individuals, and nuture relationships with likeminded souls.
- As any other SM platform, you have to keep it clean. Usually I just have some people who gets the self promoting mood too far. Vaccine misinformation might be an American phenomenon, never seen that.
- @Ben Ingignieri Hi Ben, yes I can totally see it becoming more like a social media platform. Maybe that's now the lifespan of a platform the more comfortable users get with using it as a (sometimes-over) sharing space?
- Hey this is actually a really good point - I am a product designer, now working in the tech space as a UX Engineer, and to an extent I do find it useful for connecting with like-minded designers and entrepreneurs. I mostly use it for networking to gain some insights into something I hope to build.However saying this, there was a survey someone put out on LinkedIn asking what people thought of LinkedIn overall and most respondents said it's starting to feel like a social media platform and less so a networking/job platform which I somewhat agree with! The main feed is beginning to feel like Facebook feed (and I don't use Facebook much!)
You must sign up or log in before you
add a comment.