3 Alternatives to LinkedIn-(cuz they are strugglin')

I used to get genuinely excited when someone InMailed me. For over 12 years, LinkedIn brought opportunities to my door without me ever applying. Now? I wait for the sales pitch to drop. In this episode, I'm saying everything professionals have been thinking but haven't said out loud.

Transcript

0:05

Welcome back to We Lead Anyway. I'm Noelle, senior leader, career coach, and your host. And today, well, today we're going to talk about something that's been sitting on my chest for a while now. And if you have been in the professional world for more than a hot minute, I think you're going to feel every single word of this. LinkedIn, baby. What happened to you? Seriously, what happened? Because I remember when you were everything. I remember when you were the place where careers actually got built, where relationships formed, where a notification from you meant something real was about to happen. Something real. And now, now I open the app and I feel like I accidentally walked into a motivational poster convention with a site of pyramid scheme. And don't worry, I'm going to give you some good LinkedIn alternatives at the end here, but just for now, let me paint you the picture of LinkedIn circuit 2010 through 2013. I would log in and I would feel genuinely excited. Because when I got an in mail back then, it was usually a recruiter who had actually read my profile, who had a real opportunity, who wanted to talk about a role that made sense for where I was in my career. And here's the thing: for over 12 years, I've gotten jobs through LinkedIn without ever submitting an application. I mean, I have applied for jobs, but people came to me, reached out to me, because the platform actually facilitated real professional discovery. And that is the promise of LinkedIn. That is what it was built to be: a professional networking space and job board where your experience and expertise could speak for itself and open doors you didn't even know were there. I want that LinkedIn back. I miss her. Oh, she was great. She was great. But that's not what we have today. No, no, no, no, no. Now, the moment someone sends me a connection request, I don't feel excited. I wait. I count. Because 24 to 48 hours, that pitch is coming. The hi Noelle, I came across your impressive profile message. The hey, do you want to get a MBA, bachelor's, master's, CRO certificate in 48 hours for $19,000? That one. The one that was clearly sent to 400 other people with the same copy and pasted opener. One professional put it perfectly. They said LinkedIn DMs are where good intentions go to die. I may have said that. The first message is rarely about connection, it's about conversion. And that that is the problem. There are now countless automation tools that promise to supercharge LinkedIn lead generation, turning out thousands of connection requests and generic messages every single day. Which means your inbox is not a networking space anymore. It is a sales funnel that you unwittingly got trapped in. And look, I have to give a quick disclaimer before I go further, because I personally know some LinkedIn influencers and content creators who are wonderful. They are thoughtful and they are genuine people. This is not about them. This is about the environment that has made it nearly impossible for people like them and people like me who are genuinely trying to connect on a human level to cut through the noise. Because now I'm not just competing with spam. I am competing with complainers. I'm competing with political hot takes. I'm competing with influencer culture, hustle smut, and posts with someone's cat sitting on top of a computer that somehow got 47,000 likes. The feed is crowded with engagement bait and repetitive success stories and AI written posts. And yes, we can tell it's AI. Now I know some of you are thinking, Noelle, maybe it's just you. Maybe you're just a bitter curmgeon who has lost patience in your very old age. But me being a nerd, I did a little research. Here's what I found. The average LinkedIn user spends only 17 minutes per month on the platform. That is less time than most people spend picking a Netflix show. And in that tiny window, you are expected to post, engage, apply, network, and stand out. Good luck with that. LinkedIn now has over 1 billion members, which sounds impressive. But more members also means more noise, more bots, more automation, more people treating a professional network like a personal cold call list. And here's the one thing that really gets me. LinkedIn's own data says that members who use AI-assisted messaging tools are 40% more likely to get a response to a cold connection request than those using regular outreach. So the algorithm is literally rewarding the robots. And the authentic humans are losing to the bots. I need a moment. Now let's talk about my favorite open-to-work banner. Because LinkedIn has made it so that people treat that better like it's radioactive. Recruiters just scroll past it. Connections get weird about it, and nobody wants to talk about why that is. I mean, we're going to, obviously. There is a stigma attached to openly looking for work that this platform has somehow amplified instead of dismantled. A banner that was supposed to signal availability has become something that people feel like they need to hide. And that is a failure of culture and of platform design. I have actually heard hiring managers say, well, if they have a green banner, that makes them look desperate. They are desperate, homie. They need a job. And then there's a premium. Oh, the premium. Here's the logic that LinkedIn wants you to accept. Pay for premium, and you are more likely to be seen, more likely to show up in searches, more likely to get noticed. Fine. But let's think about who actually needs to be seen the most right now. The people who are actively looking for work. And who is the least able to afford a monthly subscription? Say it with me. The people who are actively looking for work. Yes, that's right. So the people who need the visibility the most are being asked to pay for it at the exact moment they can least afford it. Make that make sense. Oh wait. Since we're already here, let me just go ahead and get a few more things off my chest, okay? The ghosting. You apply to a job, post it on LinkedIn. It says 47 applicants. You tailor your resume, you write a thoughtful cover letter, and then nothing. Not even an automated rejection. The posting just quietly disappears. People post hiring, DM me if interested, and they never respond. Recruiters post open roles and then go silent. And I know that's not all LinkedIn's fault, but the platform has made it easier to perform hiring than to actually do it. And then the algorithm, I mean, that almost punishes authenticity. If you write a vulnerable, real human post that does not have a hook, a list, a call to action, it will go exactly nowhere at all. But post, I just got fired, and here is what I learned, thread below. You'll get 200,000 impressions by morning. The platform rewards performance, not presence, not connection. And the AI content flood as users migrated away from X. LinkedIn feeds become noisier, filled with AI-generated posts and engagement hacks. And some posts have even started to feel like they were written by a robot who was trained on other robots. And you can tell. You can absolutely tell. Okay. I've ranted. I said what I said. I've exhausted myself. Let's talk about what we can actually do. First, keep your LinkedIn, keep it optimized. I know I said all that. Keep it current. 77% of recruiters are still actively using the platform. And it still drives real opportunities when used intentionally. And I'm not telling you to burn it down. I am telling you it's not your only or most effective tool. Second, get more selective about your connections. Quality over quantity. A smaller, more engaged network will serve you way better than a list of 3,000 strangers who never interact with your content. And third, I'm going to give you some alternatives worth paying attention to. So the first one is Lunch Club. Lunch Club uses AI to match you one-on-one with professionals for virtual coffee chats based on actual shared goals, which is awesome. It's intentional, it's human and it's what LinkedIn used to feel like. Next one is Shaper. Shaper works because it's a networking version of a Swipe app. It focuses on building meaningful professional relationships through scheduled conversations rather than broadcasting to a large feed. It's awesome for entrepreneurs and coaches and consultants like myself. And then the last one is meetup. It's super underrated for professional connection. With over 52 million members, it connects professionals through in-person and virtual events built around shared interests and industries. So you get real rooms, real conversations, real relationships, the common thread, all three prioritize a relationship over the reach. And that is the energy we need to bring back. So, LinkedIn, I still believe in your potential. I do. But right now, you are asking professionals to shout into a very expansive, very noisy void in the name of networking. And to everyone listening, you're not imagining it. The platform has changed. Your frustration is valid. And the good news is that the skills that made you valuable before the algorithm existed, those skills still work. Relationships still open doors, and authentic communication still cuts through. You just might have to find a few new rooms. Let me know in the comments below how you feel about LinkedIn or if you have any other platforms that you use. And if you have a topic you'd like me to discuss, email me at noelleadsanyway at gmail.com. And if you're interested in personal or professional development or coaching, visit leadwithnoelle.com. Until next time, go take up space.