Is Linkedin Still a Professional Networking Tool, or Just Another Ad Platform?
Years ago, LinkedIn's goal was to serve as a professional networking tool, built on relationships and personal endorsements. Those days seem to be gone.
I recently received a LinkedIn ad offering to "boost" my posts to reach a target audience—essentially, if I pay $10 a day, a recent post of mine can reach a selected group.
Look, I have nothing against advertising; it’s the lifeblood of media. But allowing those with money to bypass even the minimal control I have over what reaches my feed feels counter to what a professional networking platform should be.
Granted, I recently let my Premium account lapse, so maybe this is just another way for LinkedIn to generate revenue from me. That’s fine. Again, I’m not opposed to advertising—if it’s relevant to me and I have some control over what I see.
If LinkedIn is struggling financially, I can’t fault its attempts to increase revenue beyond what commercial advertisers already pay. But the growing dominance of political arguments in my LinkedIn feed—something I can get elsewhere—is making the platform even less valuable to me. Instead of facilitating meaningful networking, LinkedIn is increasingly becoming just another way for people to push out links to their own websites—which increasingly is how I use Linkedin, anyway.
Copyright (c) 2025 by Dennis D. McDonald
