I told you so.

I’ve been writing about human networking for a long time. And this week, Richard van der Blom dropped a newsletter that basically confirmed everything I’ve been saying.

Richard has a great newsletter (RVDB Insights) and he’s a credible voice on LinkedIn, someone who’s been helping people drive commercial results on the platform for years. I subscribe to his newsletter and I agree with a lot of his stuff, even if I don’t always agree with the focus on LinkedIn. But this particular issue? He nailed it.

Here’s the thing I need you to hear: LinkedIn is not your friend. Facebook is not your friend. These are platforms you do not own. These are algorithms that change whenever the company decides they should. These are sites dedicated to doing one thing and one thing only: monetizing your presence online to sell ads.

Below, in bold, are three of Richard’s points from his blog and my thoughts:

Stop Optimizing for the Algorithm. Start Optimizing for the Human.

Richard’s first point is that LinkedIn’s new system is designed to surface content to people who don’t follow you yet. The algorithm got smarter, which means shortcut content got cheaper. Generic value posts won’t cut it anymore.

I agree with the principle. But here’s where I diverge: don’t just optimize for the human on LinkedIn. Do it in your real life with real people and in fact, prioritize that above everything else.

Make sure you are maintaining the fields that you own. In Can I Borrow Your Car we talk about the CPR system: Cultivate, Plant, Reap. The whole framework is built on the idea that you control your own pipeline and that of your company. The challenge with investing your hopes and dreams on platforms you do not own is exactly that. You don’t own them. They can change. They can be taken away.

I just talked to somebody the other day who lost complete access to LinkedIn because they were hacked. They have no way of getting it back. Think about that for a second.

If you’re interested in taking your business a step further, click to head over to my Substack to read the full article and subscribe to Can I Borrow Your Car.