When your new manager is obsessed with LinkedIn

[Anonymous]

I've been in my professional services role nearly 15 years. In that time, I've reported to three different people, all of whom have been hard-working, excellent bosses. I have a new boss, who is nice and supportive, but so far has come across as extremely superficial. He doesn't really seem to read e-mails and so will ask for something that's already been provided to him, he doesn't seem to actually DO anything so much as just delegate everything, and he seems more interested in networking with people in other business lines than in running our department. The fiscal came and went with no real plan articulated, and so now people on the team are left sort of guessing at what the priorities are for the new year and creating deliverables based on that with no real direction or list of priorities.

But the weirdest thing is his obsession with LinkedIn. He LIVES on LinkedIn, posting and reposting stuff constantly. He constantly wants content created for LinkedIn - he cares about that more than other channels, which he barely knows exist. He seems to have as his most important metric how much engagement LinkedIn content gets.

I've never really cared much about LinkedIn. I believe it has its place, but it's also a pretty self-congratulatory place and I've noticed that most engagement is just an echo chamber, typically with people in your own organization. Yet, I'm feeling this pressure to increase my own engagement with the platform and engage in more self-promotion than I'm comfortable with (because my role is promoting others, not myself).

Anyone else deal with this? What do you suggest? Suck it up and spend more time on LinkedIn? Pay it lip service? What?

[Anonymous]

You always need to know what the specific professor wants to see, key to life.

It's not right or wrong, it just is.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the LAME Era.

(Look At Me, Everyone!!)

Sadly LAME is the new norm. I don't fall into these social media traps.

I have basic accounts on most of them (some are anonymous) and will keep an eye out for things but rarely post, like, or otherwise engage.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like ADHD

[Anonymous]

You can engage with it but the much bigger problem is that at some point your org will realize your department is struggling. Can you move to a different team?