Humbragging is that modest or self-deprecating statement where the real purpose is to draw attention to something you are proud of. LinkedIn is full of people humblebragging. Awards. Promotions. Deals. There are two serious flaws with social media.<ul><li>People only showcase the highlights, not a balanced picture.</li><li>If these people’s careers are so impressive, why do they still craft these perfect posts to persuade everyone else about how important they are?</li></ul> There is a strategy to network professionally and get the benefits from LinkedIn the way it was designed to do.

Humblebragging on LinkedIn

Marketing blogger <a href="https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/marketing/appropriate-content-for-social-media-platforms/">Jonathan Greene</a> describes<ul><li>Facebook as a pub crawl (a few friends and some random acquaintances talking about everything)</li><li>Twitter as a speed date (you’ve got a short amount of time to grab someone’s attention)</li><li>LinkedIn as after-work office drinks (a chance to mingle strategically).</li></ul> Don't boast on LinkedIn. You wouldn't do it in real life, don't do it online. Instead, highlight other people's good work. Talk positively about projects you're involved in but don't amplify your part. People can decide for themselves.

Ditch The Boasting

Understand why you engage with LinkedIn. What are you trying to achieve? <ul><li>Do you want to open up career opportunities?</li><li>Are you trying to find new customers?</li><li>Are you trying to build a reputation in your industry?</li></ul> Once you know your "why", work out what kind of activity will move you closer to that goal. Then plan your actions. Finding people doing the same thing as you but are a bit further ahead can help you find ideas on the type of posts, regularity, tone and strategy.

Clarify, Then Work Backwards

Be true to yourself. Don't boast, but don't undersell yourself either. Be positive and professional, but be personal too. The reasons you have to be on LinkedIn boils down to you coming across well and being able to back it up in real life.

Be Real

<h2 data-selectable-paragraph="">Get the platform working in the way it was meant to</h2><figure><img alt="A businessman looks smug at getting an award, while dollar notes flutter in the air around him" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/500/1*Yqe-FaPOxdYK8HopoBNNwg" width="692" height="1037"><figcaption class="le bm gp gn go lf lg bn b bo bp co" data-selectable-paragraph="" dir="ltr">Photo by RODNAE Productions: <a class="au lh" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/money-falling-on-a-man-holding-an-award-7005750/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">https://www.pexels.com/photo/money-falling-on-a-man-holding-an-award-7005750/</a></figcaption></figure>I hate social media. There, I said it.Ever since I was a small child I’ve always cheered for the underdog and constantly had a keen eye for when anyone was getting too big for their boots.And I’ve always liked the idea of privacy — most of my life is no-one else’s business (nor other people’s mine).Put these traits together and social media is starting to look pretty unattractive. But there’s context here too…I was bullied as a kid for a while (a few months maybe?) Newsflash — plenty of people were. And it leaves a lasting effect. It teaches you about power, influence, people and “the crowd mentality” in a cruel but very effective way.Everything about social media sets off my old alarm bells. That behaviour I saw in the schoolyard back in the 80s, you now see on the big online platforms.The self-appointed cool kids. The strugglers. The vast majority in the middle just trying to get on.And one platform that is badly affected is LinkedIn. Yes, the “professional” platform, where we’re all supposed to be grown-ups.It’s full of people humblebragging. Awards. Promotions. Deals. Everyone on there seems to have a severe case of look-at-me-itis. There’s no possible way everyone can be as successful as they claim to be on LinkedIn.My two major gripes with all social media come rushing to the surface every time I go on there:<UL><LI>People only present the highlights reel, not a balanced picture</LI><LI>If these people’s careers are so amazing and important why aren’t they off being amazing and important instead of hunched over a laptop trying to craft the perfect post to persuade everyone else how important and amazing they are?</LI></UL>But it doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve found a strategy that lets me tolerate (even, whisper it… enjoy?) LinkedIn and get benefits from the very thing it was designed to do — network professionally.Abide by a few simple rules and LinkedIn can be worthwhile…<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">Ditch The Boasting</h1>You can think of the main social media platforms as analagous to different settings in real life.Marketing blogger <a href="https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/marketing/appropriate-content-for-social-media-platforms/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">Jonathan Greene</a> describes Facebook as a pub crawl (a few friends and some random acquaintances talking about anything and everything), Twitter as a speed date (you’ve got a short amount of time to grab someone’s attention) and LinkedIn as after-work office drinks (a chance to mingle strategically).And if you go with this analogy, it starts to become clear how to (and how not to) behave.Have you ever walked into the bar straight after work, burst through the door so brashly that all your colleagues pause their conversations… and then shouted:<BLOCKQUOTE>“Hey everyone. Look at me! I just landed a huge deal! I’m amazing. In fact, I’m better than all of you. And you guys on the senior team, you better watch out because I’m coming for your jobs (or taking all your clients to your biggest competitor when they offer me a much better job than I have now). So, who wants to pat me on the back first?”</BLOCKQUOTE>Would you want to interact with that person? Or would you shake your head, roll your eyes and go back to your regular chat with your down-to-earth workmates?And yet. The way most people behave on LinkedIn is exactly as described above. They only post when they have something to share that, they think, makes them look good.But rather than do it in the brash way described above, they do something even worse. They do it in a way that makes it look like they don’t think it’s a big deal (even though they want you to think it is).This is called humblebragging. And it’s all over LinkedIn like a rash.Just to be clear, any time you post about the cool project you just did, or the new job you just got, or announce you’re leaving a company after x years, or the award you or your team just got nominated for… you’re humblebragging:<BLOCKQUOTE>“Humblebrag: An ostensibly modest or self-deprecating statement whose actual purpose is to draw attention to something of which one is proud.” — <a href="https://www.lexico.com/definition/humblebrag" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">lexico.com</a></BLOCKQUOTE>Don’t boast. Very simple. You wouldn’t do it in real life, so why do it online?<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">Clarify, Then Work Backwards</h1>Just like anything we devote time to in life, we need to know our “why” for engaging with LinkedIn. Just doing what everyone else seems to do is not a good way to go about things.On LinkedIn, what are you trying to achieve?Remember this is a professional network. Are you trying to open up career opportunities in the future? Are you trying to find new customers? Are you trying to build a reputation in your industry?These are all valid reasons to use the platform but they all require different approaches.So do some real thinking — what’s the goal?With this clear, just reverse engineer the kind of activity that will move you closer toward that goal.Then plan your actions, diarize them (because regularity and consistency are important for any “creator” online, which you essentially are when posting on LinkedIn).One great tip here is to find people who are trying to do the same thing as you but are a bit further ahead of you. You can gain ideas on the type of posts that work, regularity of posting, tone and strategy.And remember — like this platform — LinkedIn is relational, it’s a community. Don’t expect people to read, like, comment and share what you post if you’re not doing the same for others.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">Be Genuine</h1>This is the most important rule of the lot. Be true to yourself. Don’t boast. But don’t undersell yourself either. Just be the truest version of “work you” that you can be.Be positive, be professional, but be personal too — do it in your way.Remember — people hire people. People connect with people. People buy from people. All the reasons you may have to be on LinkedIn in the first place boil down to you coming across well and then being able to back it up, one day, in real life.And nothing comes across worse than being false or superficial. If your amazing post creates a sales lead, but then when you take the person-to-person call or meeting you’re not able to meet expectations, what was the point?Being genuine was my way back into LinkedIn.I went on a business course just before I started my company and one bit of advice stuck with me (it’s especially valid for solopreneurs):<BLOCKQUOTE>Pick one social media platform and do it well. Don’t try to do several, you will end up spread too thin and you won’t get any traction.</BLOCKQUOTE>I remember sitting in that session and feeling a sense of dread creep over me. I knew that at some point my business would need to do a lot of B2B (business to business) activity and that meant only one platform made sense — LinkedIn (and I hated it).But then I thought about it. I like my little company and the way it does business — how can I not? It’s only me.So all I really need to do is be genuine about what my company does and its approach, and if there are people out there who want to connect with it, they will.One thing I knew was that if I didn’t interact with LinkedIn at all then there was no way I could get anything useful from it. And I could even lose out by not being on there.There is, unfortunately, an element of “it looks odd if you’re not on there”. I know, in the areas my company operate in (creativity, podcasting, tech R&amp;D) that the first thing any new person or company I approach will do is…Look up me and my company on LinkedIn.So what do I want them to see? I want them to see what me and my company are genuinely about.To follow the old screenwriter’s rule — “show, don’t tell” — I want them to sense that I am creative, make good stuff and try to make a positive difference… from my activity on the platform.So, how do I implement my own rules?<UL><LI>Don’t boast — I highlight other people’s good work and use that as a way to demonstrate that I am up-to-date with the latest trends and practice in the industry. I talk positively about projects I’m involved in, but don’t big up my own part. People can make their own judgements.</LI><LI>Clarify and work backwards — I’m on LinkedIn so that when people or companies look for me or my business they find a genuine, professional and positive presence. So I diarize two posts a week (one company, one personal) and make sure my posts are indeed genuine, professional and positive.</LI><LI>Be genuine — I try to be myself. I don’t make sycophantic comments on others posts to try to curry favour. I don’t take myself too seriously. I try to demonstrate a work-life balance by not making every post a graph and by avoiding any hint of “look-at-me-itis”.</LI></UL>My approach has yielded results. I’ve had new paid work come in from LinkedIn (often via old colleagues from further back in my career who can see what I’m doing now and reconnect with opportunities).I’ve also made good new contacts who one day may be vital business connections as my business grows.LinkedIn hasn’t revolutionized my business, but it has definitely been a positive, plus I suspect there are benefits I’m not even aware of.When I apply for innovation funding, I’m sure the awarding body will check LinkedIn to make sure that my application tallies with reality.And — much to my own surprise — I enjoy posting on there because I see it as another way to express what me and my business are about.Released from the humblebragging disease, I’ve had fun posting a mix of creative posts that demonstrate the values of myself and my little company.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">Final Thoughts</h1>LinkedIn is a necessary evil. It feels harsh to call it evil — it isn’t — but the turn of phrase fits. A lot of what goes up on LinkedIn is humblebragging nonsense, but you don’t have to play that game:<UL><LI>Ditch the boasting — show don’t tell. If you’re brilliant, it will naturally shine through via your posts on the kind of projects you are working on and your take on your industry… you don’t have to shout “Look at my promotion / deal / award!”</LI><LI>Clarify, then work backwards — what are you trying to achieve? Look at others who are trying to do similar to you and are a bit further ahead. What worked for them?</LI><LI>Be genuine — remember, it’s all about people. You wouldn’t barge into after-work drinks and boast about how amazing you are in real life, so don’t do it online. Be positive, be professional… but most of all, be you.</LI></UL>If you’d like to access all my stories on Medium (and all the other writers too) then consider <a href="https://andytaylorcardiff.medium.com/membership" rel="noopener" dir="ltr">using this link</a> to become a member. That way, part of your membership fee will go directly toward supporting my writing, and I’d really appreciate that. Thank you.

A lot of people just humblebrag on LinkedIn, thinking that will magically deliver new customers or being headhunted. Instead, don't boast and be genuine.

Stashed ideas

Get the platform working in the way it was meant to

I hate social media. There, I said it.

Ever since I was a small child I’ve always cheered for the underdog and constantly had a keen eye for when anyone was getting too big for their boots.

And I’ve always liked the idea of privacy — most of my life is no-one else’s business (nor other people’s mine).

Put these traits together and social media is starting to look pretty unattractive. But there’s context here too…

I was bullied as a kid for a while (a few months maybe?) Newsflash — plenty of people were. And it leaves a lasting effect. It teaches you about power, influence, people and “the crowd mentality” in a cruel but very effective way.

Everything about social media sets off my old alarm bells. That behaviour I saw in the schoolyard back in the 80s, you now see on the big online platforms.

The self-appointed cool kids. The strugglers. The vast majority in the middle just trying to get on.

And one platform that is badly affected is LinkedIn. Yes, the “professional” platform, where we’re all supposed to be grown-ups.

It’s full of people humblebragging. Awards. Promotions. Deals. Everyone on there seems to have a severe case of look-at-me-itis. There’s no possible way everyone can be as successful as they claim to be on LinkedIn.

My two major gripes with all social media come rushing to the surface every time I go on there:

<ul><li>People only present the highlights reel, not a balanced picture </li><li>If these people’s careers are so amazing and important why aren’t they off being amazing and important instead of hunched over a laptop trying to craft the perfect post to persuade everyone else how important and amazing they are? </li> </ul>

But it doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve found a strategy that lets me tolerate (even, whisper it… enjoy ?) LinkedIn and get benefits from the very thing it was designed to do — network professionally.

Abide by a few simple rules and LinkedIn can be worthwhile…

You can think of the main social media platforms as analagous to different settings in real life.

Marketing blogger <a href="https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/marketing/appropriate-content-for-social-media-platforms/">Jonathan Greene </a>describes Facebook as a pub crawl (a few friends and some random acquaintances talking about anything and everything), Twitter as a speed date (you’ve got a short amount of time to grab someone’s attention) and LinkedIn as after-work office drinks (a chance to mingle strategically).

And if you go with this analogy, it starts to become clear how to (and how not to) behave.

Have you ever walked into the bar straight after work, burst through the door so brashly that all your colleagues pause their conversations… and then shouted:

“Hey everyone. Look at me! I just landed a huge deal! I’m amazing. In fact, I’m better than all of you. And you guys on the senior team, you better watch out because I’m coming for your jobs (or taking all your clients to your biggest competitor when they offer me a much better job than I have now). So, who wants to pat me on the back first?”

Would you want to interact with that person? Or would you shake your head, roll your eyes and go back to your regular chat with your down-to-earth workmates?

And yet. The way most people behave on LinkedIn is exactly as described above. They only post when they have something to share that, they think, makes them look good.

But rather than do it in the brash way described above, they do something even worse. They do it in a way that makes it look like they don’t think it’s a big deal (even though they want you to think it is).

This is called humblebragging. And it’s all over LinkedIn like a rash.

Just to be clear, any time you post about the cool project you just did, or the new job you just got, or announce you’re leaving a company after x years, or the award you or your team just got nominated for… you’re humblebragging:

“Humblebrag: An ostensibly modest or self-deprecating statement whose actual purpose is to draw attention to something of which one is proud.” — <a href="https://www.lexico.com/definition/humblebrag">lexico.com </a>

Don’t boast. Very simple. You wouldn’t do it in real life, so why do it online?

Just like anything we devote time to in life, we need to know our “why” for engaging with LinkedIn. Just doing what everyone else seems to do is not a good way to go about things.

On LinkedIn, what are you trying to achieve?

Remember this is a professional network. Are you trying to open up career opportunities in the future? Are you trying to find new customers? Are you trying to build a reputation in your industry?

These are all valid reasons to use the platform but they all require different approaches.

So do some real thinking — what’s the goal?

With this clear, just reverse engineer the kind of activity that will move you closer toward that goal.

Then plan your actions, diarize them (because regularity and consistency are important for any “creator” online, which you essentially are when posting on LinkedIn).

One great tip here is to find people who are trying to do the same thing as you but are a bit further ahead of you. You can gain ideas on the type of posts that work, regularity of posting, tone and strategy.

And remember — like this platform — LinkedIn is relational, it’s a community. Don’t expect people to read, like, comment and share what you post if you’re not doing the same for others.

This is the most important rule of the lot. Be true to yourself. Don’t boast. But don’t undersell yourself either. Just be the truest version of “work you” that you can be.

Be positive, be professional, but be personal too — do it in your way.

Remember — people hire people. People connect with people. People buy from people. All the reasons you may have to be on LinkedIn in the first place boil down to you coming across well and then being able to back it up, one day, in real life.

And nothing comes across worse than being false or superficial. If your amazing post creates a sales lead, but then when you take the person-to-person call or meeting you’re not able to meet expectations, what was the point?

Being genuine was my way back into LinkedIn.

I went on a business course just before I started my company and one bit of advice stuck with me (it’s especially valid for solopreneurs):

Pick one social media platform and do it well. Don’t try to do several, you will end up spread too thin and you won’t get any traction.

I remember sitting in that session and feeling a sense of dread creep over me. I knew that at some point my business would need to do a lot of B2B (business to business) activity and that meant only one platform made sense — LinkedIn (and I hated it).

But then I thought about it. I like my little company and the way it does business — how can I not? It’s only me.

So all I really need to do is be genuine about what my company does and its approach, and if there are people out there who want to connect with it, they will.

One thing I knew was that if I didn’t interact with LinkedIn at all then there was no way I could get anything useful from it. And I could even lose out by not being on there.

There is, unfortunately, an element of “it looks odd if you’re not on there”. I know, in the areas my company operate in (creativity, podcasting, tech R&D) that the first thing any new person or company I approach will do is…

Look up me and my company on LinkedIn.

So what do I want them to see? I want them to see what me and my company are genuinely about.

To follow the old screenwriter’s rule — “show, don’t tell” — I want them to sense that I am creative, make good stuff and try to make a positive difference… from my activity on the platform.

So, how do I implement my own rules?

<ul><li>Don’t boast — I highlight other people’s good work and use that as a way to demonstrate that I am up-to-date with the latest trends and practice in the industry. I talk positively about projects I’m involved in, but don’t big up my own part. People can make their own judgements. </li><li>Clarify and work backwards — I’m on LinkedIn so that when people or companies look for me or my business they find a genuine, professional and positive presence. So I diarize two posts a week (one company, one personal) and make sure my posts are indeed genuine, professional and positive. </li><li>Be genuine — I try to be myself. I don’t make sycophantic comments on others posts to try to curry favour. I don’t take myself too seriously. I try to demonstrate a work-life balance by not making every post a graph and by avoiding any hint of “look-at-me-itis”. </li> </ul>

My approach has yielded results. I’ve had new paid work come in from LinkedIn (often via old colleagues from further back in my career who can see what I’m doing now and reconnect with opportunities).

I’ve also made good new contacts who one day may be vital business connections as my business grows.

LinkedIn hasn’t revolutionized my business, but it has definitely been a positive, plus I suspect there are benefits I’m not even aware of.

When I apply for innovation funding, I’m sure the awarding body will check LinkedIn to make sure that my application tallies with reality.

And — much to my own surprise — I enjoy posting on there because I see it as another way to express what me and my business are about.

Released from the humblebragging disease, I’ve had fun posting a mix of creative posts that demonstrate the values of myself and my little company.

LinkedIn is a necessary evil. It feels harsh to call it evil — it isn’t — but the turn of phrase fits. A lot of what goes up on LinkedIn is humblebragging nonsense, but you don’t have to play that game:

<ul><li>Ditch the boasting — show don’t tell. If you’re brilliant, it will naturally shine through via your posts on the kind of projects you are working on and your take on your industry… you don’t have to shout “Look at my promotion / deal / award!” </li><li>Clarify, then work backwards — what are you trying to achieve? Look at others who are trying to do similar to you and are a bit further ahead. What worked for them? </li><li>Be genuine — remember, it’s all about people. You wouldn’t barge into after-work drinks and boast about how amazing you are in real life, so don’t do it online. Be positive, be professional… but most of all, be you. </li> </ul>

If you’d like to access all my stories on Medium (and all the other writers too) then consider <a href="https://andytaylorcardiff.medium.com/membership">using this link </a>to become a member. That way, part of your membership fee will go directly toward supporting my writing, and I’d really appreciate that. Thank you.

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Here’s How to Do LinkedIn without the Humblebragging

Humblebragging on LinkedIn

Ditch The Boasting

Clarify, Then Work Backwards

Be Real

IDEAS ABOUT

MORE LIKE THIS

Why LinkedIn hired the world’s top business journalists?

How to Use LinkedIn to Find Your Dream Career | Breakroom Buddha

Land Your Dream Job with Underrated LinkedIn Tools | Breakroom Buddha

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Here’s How to Do LinkedIn without the Humblebragging

Humblebragging on LinkedIn

Ditch The Boasting

Clarify, Then Work Backwards

Be Real

IDEAS ABOUT

MORE LIKE THIS

Why LinkedIn hired the world’s top business journalists?

How to Use LinkedIn to Find Your Dream Career | Breakroom Buddha

Land Your Dream Job with Underrated LinkedIn Tools | Breakroom Buddha

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career