How it feels to get back to social media after 5 years

it's been over a month since I decided to build a linkedin presence, and I don't know how to say it neatly: being here daily is not the best experience

the last time I posted on instagram was in 2020. the internet was different back than, but I quit social media because of unhealthy emotional attachment to the feedback I got

it took five years and over 200 sessions with a therapist, but I can finally say it's at least bearable

and now, here I am, in the epicenter of content revolution. but I'm glad I'm not alone - I've found several great people: people whose writing I genuinely enjoy; people who navigate the algorithms so smartly it's captivating to watch; and people who consistently support each other

writing and i have a long love-hate relationships history. i strive to share, but it's deeply annoying when the words feel clumsy and inauthentic

it was so tempting to rely on LLM, a trap many of us fall into. i 'wrote' over 10 posts in a month - all of them seem polished and shiny

justified it to myself the whole time: "but the idea is still mine, it's the key signal that i'm trying to pass."

it wasn't working. the output felt sterile. so i've been persistently grinding every approach: tried every model out there, built semi-automatic workflows, even tweaked a chat app to simplify my routine

all to avoid the frustration of a falling apart

and here i am now, writing this manually. dealing with it

new approach in one sentence - investing my full attention to this whole text

will see how it works out, but regardless of the outcome, it already feels more rewarding

do you also feel that linkedin's design is NOT optimized for ease of use?

so here are a couple of tweaks i made to make it a little more convenient:

1. linkedin's analytics UI is a mess: five different screens, inconsistent controls. they likely don't want The Algorithm to be reverse-engineered.
   
   anyway, you need the data to understand what's working. here are two workarounds:

• own your data - posts, comments, engagement. This makes analysis much easier. which comments are top performers? which posts are not?
• if you're a google-sheets-nerd 🙋‍♂️, build your own dashboard. track essentials: output (posts, comment count), awareness (impressions, engagements), and network growth (connections, followers).

2. over 70% of your visibility comes from comments, not posts. comment on a top voice's post - and be shown to their followers. your comments also appear in your network's feed.

• commenting within the first hour after they post improves your chance of being seen. i created a bot that sends me a telegram message when key people post - which reduces the need to open the platform every hour.
• repurpose top-performing comments. i have 7 comments with over 1000 impressions and zero posts with the same reach. this is a marker that an idea is captivating and should be turned into a post.