And nothing happened. Since late March I haven’t looked at my LinkedIn. I wanted to use the time — as quietly as homeschooling allows — to work on my own projects. Social distancing became social media distancing. I didn’t retreat to a monastery for this. There are other ways to stay in touch.
You probably didn’t even notice I was gone. And that should give you pause too. Who actually notices when you stop posting? Sure, your LinkedIn SSI will drop (mine fell 15 points in six weeks). But: So what?
Maybe all that personal branding — the “I do this so they do that or buy this” strategies, the perfectly audience-targeted posts, the calculated engagement, the chasing and clinging to supposedly important people — maybe it’s just a waste of time. What’s left of it? Who reaches out to you when you’re not posting to stay “top of mind”?
That doesn’t mean social media is pointless. But often less is more (once you’ve figured out what to leave out and what you actually want from it — beyond distraction that leaves nothing behind).