The other day I saw a post about how to optimise LinkedIn posting to best exploit the algorithm. The idea is that if you follow a bunch of “best practices” you can achieve optimal reach and engagement. As I swiped through the slides, I felt deflated and overwhelmed. It would be exhausting to consider each of these many criteria every time I posted. I immediately felt in my bones “I don’t have time for this. How can anybody not working with an entire social media team have time for this?”

Some people construct their online identity to please the needs of invisible algorithms. And yes, most of them are professional marketers. But they are only one sort of social media animal. Like a species that has evolved and adapted to an unusual external environment. I’m thinking of blind cave salamanders, for instance.

Because most of us are not professional marketers. There is no way we’re going to consider all the nitty gritty details of how to post and engage the best. We’re going to, under the watchful eye of the algorithm, make myriad mistakes. We will post at the wrong time. We will include outside links. We will make countless very human decisions across any number of parameters. And our behaviour will sabotage our own reach and engagement metrics.

But then there is the other species of professional animal on the social network. The kind who simply gives no fucks whatsoever. Who doesn’t care what the algorithm likes. Who focuses on speaking truth to their audience. You’ve seen these posts before. They often elicit strong emotion or come with eye-catching visuals. Posts that tap into an authenticity of intention can succeed. Whether they flaunt the rules of the algorithm, or exploit other lesser known rules, is hard to say. Go for big ideas, big emotions, and honesty. It’s a different way of establishing a personal brand.

But I digress. WTF is personal branding anyway?

Most of us are horrible at following the algorithm’s rules. Our posting frequency is sporadic and our tone inconsistent. Sometimes our posts are visible and commented. Other times, they are completely obscure. Listen carefully. You can almost hear the digital crickets chirping into the void. The chasm generated by our all-too-human lack of posting strategy.

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For most of us, achieving anything like a consistent brand voice or tone is impossible. We have neither the time to invest to polish our output nor the audience to warrant the effort. As a result, we are not top of mind enough to be a persistent identity in the feeds of those who follow us. The reality is almost nobody thinks about us. Never mind what we posted on social media last week, or even yesterday.

So yes, attempting personal branding in the age of the algorithmic feed is exhausting. To judge yourself against a rubric set by an algorithm must be. That algorithm is not designed to help you, it’s designed to addict you to using the platform.

And yet, personal branding in our post Cambridge Analytica era is a slippery business. We have seen how inconsistency can be brand strategy. Say something controversial at a podium? Contradict yourself wholesale mere moments later?

Consequences be damned.

You end up cutting two different sound bites. Which become two different pre-roll ads. Which are targeted at two different micro niche demographics. The contradictions pass most people by thanks to the filter bubble. For most of us, each missive we toss into the stream of the internet stands on its own. Each post a fragment in time, encrusted with whatever shards of identity and point of view are salient in that moment, and that moment alone.

And this points to a deeper fear that has kept me from publishing for some years now. I’ve been afraid that without a considered personal brand position, I might flail. I’ve worried about going off-topic. I’ve felt intimidated by the tone of the room. Turns out LinkedIn can be really hard space to own your voice as an artist.

Maybe you can relate?

This essay is an attempt to reveal this to myself and begin the process of setting myself free. To give myself permission to remember that it is the quality of my point of view that counts. This blog will be an ever-changing terrain. There may be writing, music, videos, rants, fiction, confessionals, autobiography, work in progress, collaborations, heady media theory pieces and fluffy explorations of pop culture. I am not trying to become a subject matter expert. I attempted this once upon a time and I got bored after a couple years. The only consistency I will promise you is kaleidoscopic inconsistency.

Variety is the spice of life, as they say.

Cave salamander image generated using DALL·E 2.