If I was to ask you to stop for a second and consider what your favourite social media site was, which one would it be and why?

Is it Facebook for the variety of updates?

Instagram for the amazing photos?

Snapchat for the disappearing media?

No matter how many there are, we all generally find ourselves gravitating to one in particular.

For me that’s Linkedin. And honestly, everyone I know finds it amusing.

They have good reason. I mean, how many people use Linkedin at all? And, out of those, how many people are not recruiters? Or in sales? And not job hunting? Now how many of those use it on a regular basis?

I’ve never conducted a study on it but I think once we get down to those people, myself included, we’re in the minority. In fact, I’ve actually been accused of job hunting by a colleague simply because I had a premium Linkedin account (a. I’m always job hunting, and b. it was a free trial).

I love Linkedin for a few reasons:

1. It’s mostly business focused. And that’s the kind of mindset I like to be in.

2. I don’t feel the pressure to represent myself constantly. The main part of LinkedIn is your profile, with the posts, likes, comments being secondary. Unlike other social media where the posts come first.

3. The DMs are (usually) more interesting than what you get on other social media. Though it’s mainly recruiters, you can build valuable connections through those conversations.

4. It takes the faff out of job hunting. Honestly one day I just want every company to add their jobs to LinkedIn with the option of easy apply. When your CV is your profile, applying to jobs couldn’t be simpler.

5. Most people I have on there are career focused and are in my industry.

6. Any social stalking you do on LinkedIn will be focused on a person’s career progression. And while you can bolster some roles with fancy job titles and technical jargon, for the most part you’re not going to be judging someone on their LinkedIn profile for being too photoshopped.

7. No colour palettes! It honestly took me years before I found out how particular people were on Instagram because pictures needed to fit a theme or palette.

8. Engagement is more to do with genuine interest as opposed to a popularity contest. Do people still message their friends to like their posts on social media? The closest you get to that on LinkedIn is employees within the same company liking each other’s posts to do with the company to boost exposure.

9. It’s an older crowd. LinkedIn isn’t for high school students. But not in the same way Facebook is slowly losing the interest of the younger crowd. It’s the one social media site that was aimed at a more mature crowd while the others targetted the hip young kids.

Though admittedly you do get the odd “student” job title with those who are setting up a profile because a teacher has told them it’ll be good for their career. But they generally never touch it again for a while.

10. It’s about networking. So I find that there’s less pressure to impress a whole generation and fit in.

Admittedly I do write these as a resident Linkedin lurker. I don’t think I’ve actually ever written a post on LinkedIn while some people like to use it to boost their brand or as a mini blog.

If you’re a poster, what’s your opinion on LinkedIn?

Or, if you’re not a fan of LinkedIn, what do you not like about it?