Not all social networks equally perform through equivalent techniques.
But why is that?
I built a successful Facebook group with thousands of members. I wouldn’t try it on LinkedIn. It’s not the same value, not the same return for your effort and time invested. LinkedIn wasn’t designed to stimulate group discussions, ever!
Recently, I realized LinkedIn is also 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 than Facebook at censorship.
𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 of professional recommendations poof! gone due to an A.I.-generated false positive report and a sophomoric automaton, who wouldn’t or couldn’t reason as a sensible human being with me to get me my account back!
It’s not that they want lily white speech. Nope. They want no meaningful disagreements between serious people. None, no matter how civil the exchange.
Tweeter, however, ran on toxic bots. Now it runs on a single toxic programmer who rules them all. King Elon.
TikTok runs on a different standard of “wholesomeness” in China than the Chinese Communist Party sponsors to the rest of the world through it.
The point is that all social networks are built for different social 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬. But each has a design end in mind.
Does it match yours?
Ultimately, What Is Your Preferred Social Network For?
Twenty years ago, when I first joined LinkedIn, meaning when it was an unknown platform, its sole purpose was to enable job hunting through an easier way of connecting your resume with someone 4 degrees apart. The main monetization goal was to charge recruiters for access to your resume.
It was an alternate model to job hunting via want ads-styled websites like Monster.
Today, LinkedIn purports to be much more and much better.
Well, it is much more. Is it much better? That’s debatable.
Who are its power-users?
Recruiters looking for resumes, sales reps looking for leads, marketers looking to spam. Believe me, in 20 years it hasn’t changed much. This is one reason I’ve had little used for it.
To get business, I’ve preferred Google Ads. To get leads, I’ve preferred building audiences inside and maturing them outside Facebook.
These companies too have inevitably changed. With monetary success came more frills and thrills. Also, more complexity and specialization. And ever changing rules.
But if you knew how to exploit them, you’d amazingly flourish.
Since 2016 in the USA, however, and especially since the 2020’s gubernatorial power grab worldwide secured via lockdowns and speech controls, one common denominator became most prominent across social networks. Their 𝐳𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫 of users.
Why is this?
The answer is so obvious it’s scary. And we’re all in denial about it.
It is that we are the product being sold. We’re not the paying customers in these platforms. And products (not customers) require 𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍. It is products, not clients, therefore, who have 𝐳𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝘀𝗮𝘆. They (us!) are under control by the platform designers.
Since you’re their information product, then if your source of information (your mind) doesn’t produce the thought quality in demand by the designer, the platform will discard you when you cannot be “fixed”.
Remember that next time you post anything anywhere you aren’t paying to publish your stuff.
And NEVER load any of these platforms with anything that you wouldn’t mind losing for ANY reason in a blink of an eye…even something that takes decades to accumulate.
Don’t live to regret this oversight.
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P.S. – As it turned out, a week later, after I recreated my profile in LinkedIn, wouldn’t you know it the algorithm picked up on it and banned me again?!
Nonetheless, this opened up a new opportunity to appeal a second time. And this time, I ended up having to deal with a “Safety and Recovery Consultant” who (blessed be!) was out of diapers already and more sensible than a 2 year-old.
So, I got my twenty year-old account back!
But, again, let me warn you NEVER put to risk on ANY of these platforms ANYTHING you’re not willing to lose for ANY reason at ANY time. Always back up whatever you cannot afford to lose, and expect to lose the rest at any time.