Why I Treat LinkedIn Like A Casino (And You Should Too)
Ever been to Vegas?
There's two types of people you'll find in the casinos:
The poor souls who dump their savings into slot machines, convinced the next pull will change their life (aka, the marks).
Then there are the sharps. They know the house always wins... unless you tweak the rules in your favor.
Social media platforms are like casinos.
They're designed to extract maximum attention from you, keeping you scrolling, liking, and commenting in an endless dopamine loop.
But here's the thing - you don't have to play their game.
I'll let you in on a secret: As a guy who'd rather get a root canal than "engage" on social, I've figured out how to make LinkedIn work for me without losing my sanity.
Here's my "sharp's strategy" for social media:
- Assume everything you read is cherry-picked—if not outright BS. Those viral success stories and "crushing it" posts? Take them with enough salt to give your doctor a heart attack. Instead of feeling inadequate, ask: "What can I learn from their approach?"
- Set clear goals for every time you log in: 1 post, 5 comments, 5 DMs, 10 connection requests, for example. Get in, and get out. No aimless scrolling allowed.
- Think in terms of campaigns. Every piece of content should be part of a larger strategy. For me, that's building my prospect list and email list. Everything else is just noise.
Marks think engagement is the end goal - that likes, comments, and shares magically turn into revenue. Not so, boo.
But engagement is just expensive confetti unless you convert that attention into subscribers, leads, and sales.
They're not just building a following - they're building a pipeline.
Brad