Why Everyone Hates LinkedIn (And Why They're Wrong) feat. Emma Clark

I sat down with executive coach and LinkedIn strategist Emma Clark to talk about the platform everyone loves to hate.
Turns out, most of us are just using it wrong.

Look, I get it. LinkedIn feels like the social media platform equivalent of a job interview you went to even though you didn’t really want the job. Stiff. Boring. Full of people you vaguely remember from that conference in 2016 (yes, that’s 10 years ago, and realising that made me feel old).

What I've learned from talking to Emma: the reason most of us hate LinkedIn isn't because LinkedIn is terrible. It's because we haven't bothered to make it not terrible.

And that's actually good news. Because it means we can fix it.

Your feed is boring because you trained it to be boring

If every time you open LinkedIn you're greeted by posts from your old boss's wife who hasn't worked since 2004 and a motivational quote from someone you've never met - that's not LinkedIn's fault. That's your algorithm doing exactly what you told it to do.

Same as Instagram, same as Facebook, same as any other platform - the algorithm shows you more of what you engage with. If you haven't engaged with anything good, it's got nothing good to show you.

Emma's advice? Start curating. Search for people and topics you actually care about. Follow them. Connect with them. And here's a little trick I didn't know about - there's a bell icon on people's profiles. Ring it, and you'll get notified every time they post. Do that for a handful of people whose content you genuinely enjoy, and your feed starts to change. Fast.

It's not a resume. Stop treating it like one.

This was a big one. So many small business owners still treat their LinkedIn profile like a CV. Every job they've ever had is listed. Their HSC score is probably in there somewhere. And as Emma put it - nobody on LinkedIn cares that you worked at McDonald's between 1992 and 1994.

If you've had a career change - which, if you're a small business owner, you almost definitely have - your LinkedIn profile should tell the story of what you do now. Not what you did before. Keep the bits that are relevant. Lose the bits that aren't. You can always put them back later if you decide to pivot again.

The fear around this is real though. We've been conditioned to think of it as a resume, and resume gaps are terrifying. But LinkedIn isn't a resume. There are no boxes to tick. The only person checking is a potential client or referrer, and they want to know what you can do for them right now.

Personal profile vs business page: where to actually post

This one comes up constantly in my work, and Emma and I are very much on the same page here.

Your LinkedIn business page has basically one job: existing. It gives your business a bit of credibility, it gets your logo onto your personal profile, and that's about it. The organic reach on business pages is next to nothing. Nobody is seeing that content.

All your actual content should go out from your personal profile. That's where people are, that's what the algorithm pushes, and that's where trust gets built.

My one tiny add to Emma's advice: throw a post onto the business page every month or two. Doesn't matter what it is. Just something to show that the lights are on if anyone happens to Google your business name and land there. While you're at it, spend five minutes checking your details are still correct. That's it. Don't spend another second on it.

The connection request thing (just send it)

I'll be honest, I've been stuck on this one for ages. Every time I think about sending a connection request on LinkedIn, I spiral into thinking I sound like one of those "Hello dear, I saw your profile" messages. So I just... don't send them.

Emma's (not-so) radical advice? Don't write a message. Just hit connect. Send it blank.

She's been sending 10-15 connection requests a day for over two years. For a long time, no message attached. Just connect, connect, connect. And she doesn't even look to see who accepts.

That last bit is key. Because if you're anything like me - female, small business owner, possibly a bit neuro spicy - you will absolutely go down the spiral of "they didn't accept me, I'm a terrible person, I'm going to go sit in the corner and eat worms." Emma's solution is beautifully simple: don't look. Tomorrow there'll be another 15 connection requests going out to other ideal clients. Abundance mindset, not scarcity.

If writing a message is what's stopping you from sending connection requests, the message isn't worth sending. Just connect.

LinkedIn lurkers are buying from you

This was the bit that really made me sit up.

Emma gets discovery call bookings from people she's never heard of. She checks them out - nothing rings a bell. No name recognition, no prior engagement, nothing. Then she gets on the call and they say, "I've been following you on LinkedIn. I already know I want to work with you. Tell me what it looks like."

The sale was already done. Before the call even happened.

She even had someone approach her at a networking event and say, "You're Emma, aren't you? From LinkedIn? I've been following you for ages. I know I'm going to work with you one day."

This is why vanity metrics on LinkedIn are not to be trusted. The likes, the comments, the reposts - they don't tell the full story. LinkedIn is the biggest platform for lurkers. People are reading your stuff, they're forming opinions about you, and they're making buying decisions, all without ever pressing a single button.

So if your posts aren't getting huge engagement, that doesn't mean they're not working. It means the people they're working on are just quiet about it.

Stop sharing other people's stuff without saying something

If you're going to share someone else's post on LinkedIn - which is fine, by the way, as long as it's relevant to your audience - say something. Anything. "I thought this was really interesting" counts. "I think you might find this bit useful" counts. Two sentences counts.

What doesn't count is just hitting the share button and sending it out bare. The algorithm wants your opinions. Your audience wants to know what you think. If all they can see is that you like Simon Sinek, they still don't know anything about you.

No hashtags. I said what I said.

Emma confirmed what I've been yelling about for a while now: LinkedIn doesn't like hashtags anymore. Neither does Instagram. Neither does Facebook. The only platform that still cares about hashtags is YouTube Shorts.

Computers are clever enough to read your words without a hashtag in front of them now. Stop stressing about the perfect hashtag strategy. There isn't one. Put that energy into writing a better hook instead.

To pay or not to pay

LinkedIn Premium is expensive. Emma's take is pretty straightforward: if LinkedIn is your number one platform for finding clients, pay for it. If it's not your main platform, don't bother. The paid features are nice-to-haves, not must-haves. You can do a hell of a lot on LinkedIn with a free account, a good profile, and a consistent content strategy.

And Sales Navigator? Unless you really know what you're doing and it's central to your business model, leave it alone. It's complicated and very expensive. We tried it once. We don't talk about it.

The one thing to take away

Emma's parting advice was this: before you stress about LinkedIn, check if your ideal clients are actually there. Search for them. Look. Get evidence.

If they're there? Build a sustainable strategy. Even half an hour a week can work if you're intentional about it. The key word is sustainable - not posting five times a day for three weeks and then falling off a cliff.

If they're not there? Give yourself permission to let it go. Take it off the plate. One less thing to beat yourself up about.

And if you want help figuring out which camp you're in, Emma's happy to have that conversation. You can find her on LinkedIn (obviously) - Emma Clark (Malica)- or at empoweringhumans.com.au.