I recently went through a “LinkedIn purge.” You've seen the movie The Purge, right? It's one of the few scary movies I've seen, and I think the lesson should be applied to LinkedIn, and here's why.

Sometimes I'll be going through my LinkedIn feed and it's messy. It's people that I don't know talking about things I don't care about. Then I get frustrated and wonder, “why am I seeing this?” Well, guess what? Like all social media platforms, the algorithm is delivering content based on who I’m connected to, what I comment on, topics that I follow, etc.

If your LinkedIn feed is messy, that's on you.

To combat this mess, I developed a litmus test for LinkedIn. Yes,this is a soapbox, a hot take, and a hill I’m willing to die on.

For every LinkedIn connection I accept, I ask myself,

“Would I be comfortable introducing them to someone else I know?”

A few weeks ago I was planning an event in a different city and I wanted to talk to a communicator in that city about hosting a tour of their company's office. In going through my LinkedIn connections, I noticed that I am connected to someone who has a connection at that exact company. So I reach out and ask for an introduction…and my connection got back to me and said, "sorry, I actually don't know them."

Beyond being 0% helpful, the interaction left me wondering why these two people were connected on LinkedIn? What is the purpose of LinkedIn if not to make meaningful connections with other people in your industry?

Being connected to people you don’t know doesn’t add value to your LinkedIn experience and it certainly doesn’t add value to your community. It doesn't matter how many connections you have if none of them are meaningful. 

But what about if you’re in sales or recruiting and you have a deep, passionate need for thousands of LinkedIn connections? 

Let me introduce you to Creator Mode.

Turning this feature on allows you to encourage people to follow you without sending a connection request. 

Your followers will see what you’re posting but they won’t be listed as a connection. (And yes, people can still send you connection requests, it just takes an extra step or two.)  

This is a great option if you speak at a lot of industry events, meet a lot of people in your travels, or run a business. I’m happy to accept connection requests that have a personal message with a clear intention (i.e. “I enjoyed your session at the conference and would love to connect so we might be able to work together in the future.”)

If you’d like for a lot of people to have access to what you're sharing, creator mode is your friend. 

I would love to hear what other people think about this so feel free to comment below. In the meantime: purge your list, my friends. Let this be the great LinkedIn purge of 2023!

Quality over quantity and community over competition.

~ Kristin