Following the steps of Instagram and Facebook, LinkedIn allows us to share glimpses of our work life in 20-second-long videos and photos with LinkedIn Stories. The stories on LinkedIn may be longer, but they do lack most of our beloved tools for creating stories – polls, location tags, question boxes, filters, etc. So what can we post? Everything. Well, maybe not literally. 

Some things are better kept away from your LinkedIn Stories and I made a list with 3 of the most alluring deadly sins. 

I admit I was indeed going for the catchy title. To be honest, none of those “sins” will send you to LinkedIn Purgatory, but you may provoke eyebrow rise or concerns amongst your connections if you’re not careful. Especially with swipe-up links rolling out this week.

Sin 1: Sharing inappropriate content 

LinkedIn implied some very strict rules against bullying, abuse and inappropriate content, but this is not what this sin is about

One of the key things we need to understand and remember about LinkedIn Stories is not to treat them like Facebook or Instagram stories. Keeping that in mind, your LinkedIn profile is maybe not the best place to post how cute your dog is or how artsy your brunch looks. Not that people would hate it, we all love cute puppies, but you won’t score many points with a potential recruiter or а future partner.

The goal of a LinkedIn Story is to start a “lightweight conversation related to your work-life”, so unless it is a dog you have in your office or a brunch with a client or your team, maybe keep the content out of LinkedIn. 

Here are some great examples of LinkedIn Stories.

Sin 2: Oversharing – posting way too much 

Lynn Taylor, the author of “Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job”, advises users to consider LinkedIn and the content here “as a living résumé or a living business card”. You don’t just go around, passing one to everyone every time you enter a room. That would be very inappropriate. Then why would you post 10 pictures one after another on your LinkedIn Stories? 

Now there is a difference between posting seemingly random photos or videos from your day every two hours and posting 5 or more connected Stories to give value or make a point. Harvard Business Review recently did the latter with a series of Stories about the 5 questions you should ask when starting a new job and they were awesome!

Posting too much makes people think you may be a bit too greedy for attention or even worse – make them wonder when you find time to work. 

ProTip: If you genuinely love and want to share many things on LinkedIn, divide them info different formats. Be creative!

Sin 3: Promoting only yourself, your brand, your products 

To use a social platform without its values and its audience, is like wearing a three-piece suit to a garden party – “We see you just fine, but you missed the mark”. LinkedIn is a platform where professionals come together to cooperate and to share not just their brand, products and achievements, but also inspiring examples from others. 

Sharing only “Me!”-oriented content is boring for your audience and would also make you look self-absorbed.

Thank you for reading this article! Feel free to share some of the LinkedIn sins you consider “deadly”.

The Linked Blog is here to help you or your brand have the best possible LinkedIn presence, so feel free to contact us if you need help! See what else we can do for you here.

Written by

Tedy Rafailova

Tedy Rafailova is the youngest addition to the team. Before becoming one of the most recognizable Bulgarian bookstagrammers and creating the blog The Bilingual Reader, she devoted herself to her studies at the Faculty of Law at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski ”.

In addition to her passion for books, Tedy is also known for her commitment to humanitarian causes and organizations. She was a member of the Children's Council of the SACP, secretary, vice president and president of clubs in the family of Rotaract Bulgaria - District 2482, as well as a district officer. Tedy is also the creator of the first in Bulgaria #Bookstagram academy, where micro-influencers learn the intricacies of the book Instagram. She has experience in conducting seminars on business etiquette and public speaking in Bulgarian, English and Russian.