Does Posting on LinkedIn Help Your Entertainment Job Search (or Career Transition)?

As LinkedIn grows in popularity with entertainment professionals, we’ve had clients and friends asking us more and more about how to better use their LinkedIn newsfeed for their job search. We certainly encourage you to be active on LinkedIn, as it’s a great way to learn about new opportunities that may bubble up and alert you to companies or contacts who are doing innovative things. At the same time, we also know that the idea of putting yourself out there on LinkedIn can induce anxiety, especially if you feel like you've got too much on your plate. Here are a few things to consider as you determine your personal LinkedIn posting strategy.

First -- and most importantly -- LinkedIn is a social media platform, and like all social media platforms, it's run by a changing algorithm. As the job market tightens across sectors, more and more people are turning to LinkedIn, and the company regularly changes it algorithm to support its growth (Just this summer, they started pushing old posts into people's feeds in extreme ways and quickly reversed course to a more balanced feed of old and new. Plus, there's ongoing evolution -- as with everything these days -- due to AI.). What this means practically is: Unless you're trying to become a "LinkedInfluencer," you don't need to worry about gaming the algorithm for massive reach, and for the everyday user, remember that the platform will show you more of what you've been looking at to keep your engagement and session-length high, which means you'll see patterns that make you think everyone is posting a certain way, even if there are plenty of other voices out there.

Instead of copying others, it's best to take an approach that feels authentic to you. It's really hard to maintain a strategy that takes you out of your comfort zone. So you'll need to figure out what types of posts feel natural, as well as a manageable posting cadence. Keep in mind that strategic LinkedIn posting only works if you do it consistently and supplement your own posts with regular comments on others' posts, so be sure you have bandwidth to maintain a consistent presence. And as you do, you'll start to widen your reach, which could lead to connections. You can set coffees with your newfound online friends, or reignite old relationships, and that can be a really effective part of your larger networking strategy.

But you can do all this without LinkedIn, too, if you're diligent about tracking your network, finding new people you want to meet, and asking for warm intros. Consider whether you really have the time to post every day or so, or even weekly. Keep in mind that it's going to take time to build up your presence and translate that into valuable networking. If you have a longer runway for your job search, are making a transition and need to get in front of new people outside your existing network, or don't have the bandwidth to do your own outreach, investing in posting could be a good use of your time. 

However, if this sounds too overwhelming or sharing this way isn't your vibe, that’s ok too! It’s a lot of work to maintain a highly visible LinkedIn presence, and no matter what, real-life connections should be prioritized above all. And if all you can manage is liking and commenting on your contacts' posts, even those little actions can help maintain relationships and keep you top of mind for opportunities. Ultimately, we recommend using LinkedIn to generate face-to-face meetings (or phone calls), and that can sometimes be done through strategic public postings, but it’s just as effective to do your own research and connect with the people you want to talk to without the world having to know about it.