Executive Summary: For any freelancer (and not limited to translators) not totally locked into sitting in front of their computer and hoping work arrives, LinkedIn is as useless as tits on a bull. In fact, even if you are locked into that strategy, LinkedIn is pretty much useless.
As I reported elsewhere, I have trashed my LinkedIn account. In the report of my leaving, I mentioned just a few annoyances with LinkedIn. Some others, including why it was of no value to me (and people doing businesses similar to mine) are presented here
Some uselessness of LinkedIn not directly attributable to Microsoft:
- Usage of LinkedIn by Japanese entities is tiny compared to the anglophone world, hence the small number of JA-EN translators I encountered. (One of the reasons I rejoined LinkedIn was because of the lack of online venues with active interaction between Japanese/English translators. LinkedIn did not fill need.
- Almost all of the hundreds of connection requests I received (and almost universally ignored) were from people in the Global South, some of them involved in activities not easy to understand, but many being translators, surely seeing my profile and company name and erroneously thinking that I had translation work to give them; I do not.
Uselessness of LinkedIn directly attributable to Microsoft and its business model:
- Countless ads for AI systems.
- Countless ads for jobs training AI systems by annotating data.
- Many ads for training you to achieve “AI success” by learning how to prompt AI.
- Incessant promotion by Microsoft of AI and AI promoters.
- Phoniness and bluster are everywhere and rewarded by Microsoft with reach that leads to engagement. Most annoyingly, these are often from account holders claiming to be the best things since sliced bread and also fighting against tremendous odds and never losing. I feel some of these people have serious self-confidence problems, but I digress.
- AI-generated posts clearly uploaded to farm engagement and often about topics totally unrelated to anything the poster’s profile indicates that they do when they are not posting AI slop.
Uselessness of LinkedIn attributable to general users:
- A large portion of users present themselves as consultants, coaches, and trainers, including some translators who take money from other translators to train them on how to succeed.
- Countless formulaic posts, many starting with the overworked expression of thrill, excitement, or honor about just about anything and everything. They often end with silliness such as “Hi, I’m Danny Delusion, and if you need…”
- An increasing number of posts that include images stolen and unlawfully republished, probably by people who will conveniently tell you that the image was on the Internet, so it was “public domain.” These people should be beaten about the head and shoulders with a heavy shovel, but I digress.
- Account owners who reply to every comment to a post they make using AI, easily discoverable from not only the vapid text, but also the lengths of the responses, which often don’t vary by more than one or two words.
- Incessant posts from “LinkedIn coaches,” purporting to coach you in achieving “LinkedIn success.”
Uselessness and annoyance of LinkedIn attributable to translator users:
- Many desperate and delusional translators chant the “culture mantra,” which claims that, because translation requires an understanding of cultural nuances, humans will not be replaced by AI. These people apparently don’t know or want to know that most translation that is purchased is not affected by culture. Bless their hearts, but I have given up on trying to educate these people.
- Ads by translators working the aisles of desperate translators and looking to take money from them for coaching.
Annoyance of a specific group related to business in Japan:
- Although the group has a few members who know about Japan and make sensible comments based on the real world, almost all of the many thousands of members (over 15,000 if I remember correctly) are silent, and the group appears to be generally populated by non-Japanese looking to do business in Japan or, in many cases, just get a cover story to be able to come and live in Japan.
- Because of the above demographic, there are Japanese members of the group selling services to get foreigners visas or specific residence status in Japan.
- Again, because of the above demographic, there are complaints that Japan is not fair to foreigners, including some comments about the unfairness of requiring proficiency in Japanese to gain employment. I will write about that particular silliness at another time.
For translators specifically, I can say that, with freelance translation quickly winding down as a realistic activity for most freelancers, the type of clients the few survivable translators will need to acquire are not going to be acquired by posting on LinkedIn or even having an account there. Many more—and much different—things are going to be required.