How LinkedIn self-promotion became your boss’s favourite waste of time

“I’d rather fail spectacularly knowing I put everything on the line than fade away into mediocrity,” declared James Watt, the controversial BrewDog founder, in a recent LinkedIn post.

It was just one in a stream of musings from Watt, who has stepped down as chief executive of the brewer but retains the title “captain”.

The Scottish entrepreneur posts on LinkedIn on an almost daily basis to gloat about his company’s success under the pretext of offering business advice or motivational platitudes.

In recent years, LinkedIn has become seemingly overrun with would-be influencers humble-bragging about their own achievements, endorsing wildly unhealthy work schedules or shoe-horning in patently fabricated anecdotes to administer pearls of wisdom to their fawning followers.

LinkedIn undoubtedly has its uses.

The social media site has gained a stranglehold over the recruitment industry, while marketers say it is a crucial tool for building a brand – both corporate and personal – in the modern business world.

But as claims on the platform become ever more outlandish, and as the site creeps further into FTSE boardrooms, has LinkedIn been taken too far?

Rise of the ‘superusers’

When Reid Hoffman founded LinkedIn in Silicon Valley in 2003, he did so with a simple mission: to connect the world’s professionals and make them more productive and successful.

There is no doubt that LinkedIn succeeded in this first goal by tapping into demand at the corporate end of social media. While other platforms have been and gone, LinkedIn has only grown in popularity.

Microsoft snapped up the company for $26bn (£20bn) in 2016, landing Hoffman a $2.8bn payday. The site has now grown to more than 1bn users, with estimated revenues of more than $16bn last year.

But while Hoffman’s early vision was to create a digital Rolodex, the venture has since mushroomed into a full-blown social media platform, making a mockery of its stated aim to make workers more productive.

Marketing and PR sites are awash with guides on how to game LinkedIn. The company says its algorithm is designed to promote the most relevant content, rather than simply rewarding virality. Like all algorithms, however, it is designed to keep users on the site for as long as possible.

As a result, a new breed of aspiring influencers – known in the lingo as “superusers” – has emerged with the sole aim of self-aggrandisement through LinkedIn fame. This has in turn spawned a number of forums, including the X profile The State of LinkedIn and r/LinkedInLunatics on Reddit, exploding the most cringe-inducing posts.

LinkedIn is perhaps most popular among a breed of entrepreneurs and founders for whom “hustle” is the name of the game.

In a lengthy post last month, Matt Moulding, the tycoon behind e-commerce firm The Hut Group, expounded on the “crushing burden of responsibility” in starting a business, which he compared to parenting. This was accompanied by pictures of Moulding with his family on a ski trip and posing next to a private jet.

BrewDog’s Watt recently claimed on LinkedIn that he and his wife, the reality TV star Georgia Toffolo, held a “state of the nation” meeting on their relationship every six months. “It’s been transformative for us as a couple,” he added.

Increasingly, blue-chip bosses are also being pulled into the fold. In 2023, just 12pc of FTSE 100 chief executives were on LinkedIn. It is now 85pc, according to figures first reported by the Financial Times.

LinkedIn says there has been a 52pc increase in posts by chief executives over the last two years, with bosses enjoying a 39pc surge in followers after they post. M&S boss Stuart Machin, Aviva’s Amanda Blanc and Emma Walmsley of GSK are among the most active FTSE bosses on the site.

Supporters of LinkedIn say a strong presence on the platform is vital in the modern business world. It is now a crucial place not just for finding new talent, but also for building a brand, especially among discerning young professionals.

This is particularly important for chief executives, who can use LinkedIn to curate a more human and authentic side of an otherwise faceless corporate brand.

“For businesses to say ‘these are our values and this our vision’ and get potential customers excited about that is one thing,” says Andrea Glenn, the chief executive of marketing agency Ledger Bennett.

“When you see leaders being able to do that within their network on platforms like LinkedIn it gives a real authenticity to it that says that vision and those values come from the leadership, they come from the top.”

Glenn adds that LinkedIn has a “huge amount of credibility” and is largely free of the more malignant material that circulates on rivals such as X and Instagram.

Dan Roth, the editor in chief at LinkedIn, says: “There’s a call for more authenticity and transparency, and people now expect to hear directly from their leaders to understand their perspective.

“Chief executives are starting really great conversations around news, about company culture and hard lessons learnt.”

Balancing act

But is there a risk that some executives are simply out to promote their personal brand at the expense of their day jobs?

Sir Martin Sorrell, the advertising guru, argues that chief executives should be allowed to express their opinions.

Others are less convinced. David Buik, the veteran City commentator, says: “I have long felt that LinkedIn and other social media outlets play far too big a role in business development and chief executive influence has diminished as a result of it.

“The strong eye-to-eye presence and strength of character that normally drives the policy of the company is, in my opinion, dissipating. Forty years ago it would have been McKinsey; today it’s social media.”

Philip Hampton, the former GSK and Sainsbury’s chairman, does not use LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or X, and describes himself as “100pc dinosaur”.

“As a generalisation, I’m not sure social media has been positive for the world,” he says. “I agree totally that some chief executives should spend more time on their businesses than grandstanding on social media or elsewhere. But most are not guilty, I’d say.”

The unstoppable rise of LinkedIn is just one facet of a growing concern that social media – and technology more broadly – has upended common courtesies in the business world.

Jamie Dimon, the boss of JP Morgan, this week ordered staff to stop checking texts and emails in meetings, branding it “disrespectful”. In his annual letter to shareholders, Dimon also took aim at nonsensical management jargon and told employees to work “smarter, not longer”.

Inevitably, the emergence of new habits and mores will rankle the traditionalists of the business world, and the rising tendency of bosses to showboat on LinkedIn is no doubt one of these.

But even the staunchest defenders of LinkedIn acknowledge that the social media site has given rise to a new genre of ego-driven corporate influencers – and urge bosses to put their business first.

“Are you personal brand-building or are you reinforcing your company’s brand values and vision?” says Glenn. “I think it’s just getting that balance right.”