When Engagement Stops Being Engaging

By Long Lin

We’ve all done it. Someone you know posted something. You don’t even bother reading it, but you hit the “like” button anyways because you support them and selfishly you hope they do the same in return.

Friendly? Yes. Meaningful? Hardly.

Lately my LinkedIn feed is flooded with daily posting challenges, growth hacks, and contents that are created just to exist. Say something! Anything! Stay visible.

But what does these like and reactions it actually mean? In my opinion not a dime.

The problem is, people of often push useless or junk contents just to stay visible, over time your audience tends to just skip the reading all together. So what happens when you finally have something thoughtful to say? OPS! You’ve trained your audience to scroll past your now meaningful amazing post.

I recently came across Kagi translator, they’ve added a LinkedIn Speak Translator, and it made me laugh because it perfectly demonstrates how almost anything can now be turned into a “lesson” or a “framework” so called The LinkedIn Speak.

Check them out! I had loads of fun playing around with it, you can even reverse translate posts from LinkedIn.

I miss the day when people engaged because they genuinely enjoyed the work, creative ideas or to share something beautiful or interesting, not just because the algorithm expects participation. Heck I much rather someone posting “I’m looking for a role.” cause that’s what LinkedIn’s for.

As a marketer, this makes cutting through the noise harder than ever, metrics becoming unreliable, and the biggest take away? Engagement does not equal Interest.

Your brands is an extension of you don’t chase visibility instead of demonstrate value, create that trust and bond between you and your audience.

So here I am, making a shift moving forward:

I’m going to engage more intentionally.
Read before engaging.
Comment when something actually resonates.
Spend time on ideas that add value.