I work mainly with people who are on LinkedIn but who don’t / won’t engage. The two main reasons given are the unrelenting self-promotion of some members, and the inappropriate behaviour towards women.
Increasingly I am hearing a third answer. LinkedIn polls.
Plague of LinkedIn polls
My own observation is that they are on the increase. This is supported by LinkedIn veteran Suzanne Lucas who also confirms a spike in her own feed. Yesterday probably 50% of my feed was in poll format. I used the phrase “killing LinkedIn content” in a Twitter post. That was probably a bit dramatic brought about by frustration, but definitely suffocating content like a weed. It’s more more like stealth strangulation, than grievous bodily harm .
In the beginning after they were rolled out there seemed to be some “over enthusiasm” shall we call it. That is a British understatement btw. It’s like calling a force 10 gale, “air movement.”
I thought give it time and it will all settle down. Polls started off as the bright shiny object fad, but that doesn’t seem to have happened. At all. They are still there and reproducing in greater numbers than ever before.
Pointless Polls
I’ve noticed other commentators making the same point.
John Hadley New Jersey career coach suggests “Some polls are interesting. Unfortunately, most seem relatively pointless…”
All in favor of LinkedIn getting rid of these dumbass polls say “aye”. 🙋🏽♀️ pic.twitter.com/hvfMhLhDfl
— Madi B. l Blue Haired Unicorn 🦄 🏳️🌈(she/her) (@corprteUnicorn) August 7, 2021
I am starting to think they should be rationed like kids and sweets as they seem to be highly addictive. They are spreading and choking the life out of the platform.
LinkedIn poll categories
🙄 Shameless self-promotion
🙄 Vacuous repetition
🙄 Useless input requests (Breakfast choice… really?)
🙄Lazy click bait. I saw one about peeing in the shower but that was some time ago.
Here are a few examples
Dopamine hit
Simon Sinek famously talks about the dopamine hit we get from the use of mobile tech social media engagement and the heavily addictive consequences. He calls it digital heroin. And what’s not to like about getting attention, we all love it. LinkedIn polls tap into that.
Irina Schamaeva Recruiter and Sourcer is a big fan. “Post polls. LinkedIn loves them. I posted a poll yesterday and it got 12K+ views in less than a day. You can share your content in a poll though it is not an ideal form”
I do get it. I posted a poll a few months ago and it got 180K hits. It felt so great I had a meme made! It’s not the poll per se that are a problem. It’s the volume of them. The pollsters are literally addicted to the dopamine hits from LinkedIn polls. They are a quick and easy fix to get engagement and to cull the data of the people who vote, which is visible to the author. Few take the time to carefully construct a meaningful question which is a real skill.
How to deal with it
I asked in my network for tips on how to deal with this plague of LinkedIn polls.
Hannah Morgan and Susan Kiamba recommend scrolling by and ignoring them. That’s hard when they represent 30-50% of your feed.
Sonal Bahl mutes and then unfollows if there is anything inappropriate.
I hit the 3 dots in the top right hand corner and indicate I don’t want to see the post in the hope it will train the algorithm. I don’t seem to be winning.
So what do you think – LinkedIn polls a plague or a plus? And no I’m not going to do a poll!
And fresh in…
If you need help with engagement on LinkedIn – get in touch now.
