Rick Farrell

I’ve never been big on social media. When I’ve fully engaged with LinkedIn in the past, both by consuming and contributing content, I’ve often felt either professionally inadequate, mildly annoyed / hassled, or, at my worst, like I’ve wasted my time and energy - both whilst using the service, and thinking about it afterwards / beforehand.

Like anything else, it’s hard to be motivated to contribute when you feel like the place you’re contributing to is full of sales crap and mendacious stories about how well people are doing, or fake vulnerability depending on the post trend this month. The most fun posts are actually from the likes of “The State of LinkedIn” or “Didn’t Happen of the Year Awards” who actively call out the bullshit. But can anything really be done to try and get value out of LinkedIn and its algorithms?

Hustle Swamp I’ve spoken to many people recently about LinkedIn and usage of it. I don’t know anyone who enjoys scrolling their timeline or receiving random messages / connection requests. No one’s cancelling Netflix because their LinkedIn timeline is so entertaining.

I know that you’re aware things like this are the norm. “...got a message from a random person because I once stood in a lift with someone they’re connected to, after a meeting I wish I’d never gone to, who now thinks it’s ok to now send me reams of sales cack…” said someone I recently spoke to.

When a service I use gets like this, my default response is to just delete my account. It’s been easy with many other services (goodbye FB in 2011), but because of the professional capacity of LinkedIn and the role I find myself in these days, that's sadly impossible. As a business owner, firstly, that means getting submerged in the swamp and finding a way to get some value out of it, so I'm motivated to contribute myself.

Finding Value When I reached a large number of connections, my timeline was swamped. I had to start dredging to get rid of that build up of sludge, floating crap and all those swamp dwelling critters. I’ve done this a few times over the years; unfollowed everyone, removed inactive / overactive connections etc. and I’ve recently just done it again.

I used these instructions to Mass Unfollow LinkedIn Connections , I unfollowed every person or company I followed. This process still allows me to keep all my connections, it just unfollows. Having a completely blank LinkedIn timeline for a few days really was wonderful, I recommend trying it.

I then began to slowly add people back into my following list, folks that I felt really added value, or those I really wanted to hear from. I probably now follow about 5-10% of my connections. What’s more, I actively looked for advice on wholesome contributors to follow. There’s lots out there, and sure, the same "influencer" names keep coming up, many of which I’ve also unfollowed, but if you dig a little deeper you’ll find folks like Bozoma Saint John , Marla Gottschalk , Gretchen Rubin .

By resetting my LinkedIn like this I’m hoping that the value I get will increase, and therefore I’ll become motivated to contribute myself and start adding value for others.

Please recommend me other wholesome contributors to follow below.

Rick Farrell

Greater London, England, United Kingdom

3K followers 500+ connections

View mutual connections with Rick

Welcome back

Email or phone

Password

Forgot password?

or

New to LinkedIn? Join now

or

New to LinkedIn? Join now

Contact Rick for services

User Experience Design (UED), UX Research, Visual Design, User Experience Writing, Web Development, iOS Development, Web Design, Mobile Application Development, Interaction Design, and Project Management

About

View Rick’s full profile

Explore collaborative articles

Others named Rick Farrell in United Kingdom

Rick Farrell

Richard Farrell

Richard Farrell

rick farrell

Add new skills with these courses

UX Foundations: Research

UX Design: 1 Overview

UX Research Methods: Card Sorting

Rick Farrell

Greater London, England, United Kingdom 3K followers 500+ connections

See your mutual connections View mutual connections with Rick Sign in Welcome back Email or phone Password Show Forgot password? Sign in or New to LinkedIn? Join now or New to LinkedIn? Join now

Contact Rick for services

User Experience Design (UED), UX Research, Visual Design, User Experience Writing, Web Development, iOS Development, Web Design, Mobile Application Development, Interaction Design, and Project Management

About

View Rick’s full profile

Explore collaborative articles

Others named Rick Farrell in United Kingdom

Rick Farrell

Richard Farrell

Richard Farrell

rick farrell

Add new skills with these courses

UX Foundations: Research

UX Design: 1 Overview

UX Research Methods: Card Sorting

Greater London, England, United Kingdom

3K followers 500+ connections

View mutual connections with Rick

Welcome back

Email or phone

Password

Forgot password?

or

New to LinkedIn? Join now

or

New to LinkedIn? Join now