Transcript
Moritz Hofmann: Okay, hi Ole.
Kai Ole Hartwig: Hey, how are you today, Moritz?
Moritz Hofmann: i'm I'm fine, how are you?
Kai Ole Hartwig: I'm good.
Moritz Hofmann: you have a good weekend?
Kai Ole Hartwig: This is, yeah, it was really nice. So a new week. And now I think we would like to talk in our first episode of this podcast series about the trash on LinkedIn.
Moritz Hofmann: Correct. um What we noticed or what I noticed is that a lot of people on LinkedIn pretend like pretend they want to help you and then they they generate some big posts using ShedGPT or they just basically it just trash content in my opinion.
Moritz Hofmann: um What about you? Did you ever come across any kind of bad content on LinkedIn?
Kai Ole Hartwig: Oh, yeah, I think there's many sales content at the moment. Not so many knowledge or real company development content. And I noticed that the most content on on LinkedIn currently is absolute salesy content or bad generated content with chat GPT or any other AI system. So it's is really all the same stuff and people are talking all about the same then no so many different stations between each person that is writing currently
Moritz Hofmann: Interesting. um Okay, and how do you manage to find the good content?
Kai Ole Hartwig: oh it's difficult I don't find good content sometimes if I command or on on posts or or reading some interesting things that's just popping up in my timeline. And what about you? How do you find good content at the moment?
Moritz Hofmann: Actually, when I started out on LinkedIn, I would always hide the people who have bad content. Like like I select in LinkedIn, I don't want to see this content. I don't want to see this content.
Moritz Hofmann: Like for one hour, I would...
Kai Ole Hartwig: Like my content?
Moritz Hofmann: i would continuously select this but it seems to be a bit difficult especially when you get an influx or influx of of new contacts then you have to again weed out all the shit all the time
Kai Ole Hartwig: yeah for sure
Moritz Hofmann: so I'm not sure if I have a good strategy right now um
Kai Ole Hartwig: i think the main problem is that you if you get a contact contact request you always follow the people and then get their content and mostly this is rubbish and trash content that not that interesting. yeah That's not a field of my interest.
Kai Ole Hartwig: um It's maybe my opinion, but I like to to read technical stuff and company development stuff most.
Moritz Hofmann: Mm-hmm.
Kai Ole Hartwig: But I like to have some contacts in other fields, but I don't like their content. And mostly these people ah um that are writing many things on on LinkedIn. and so The algorithms may be pushing them, and there are other content where many people react on it.
Kai Ole Hartwig: And then I always get it pushed in my timeline. And the people that might not optimize the content for um clicks, that's the people that don't get pushed on the timeline. And then I missed out sometimes for interesting topics.
Kai Ole Hartwig: And it's a bit annoying, but I don't know. Yeah, this kind of algorithm needs clicks. And that people that play the game nicely are the most people in my timeline. So maybe I just follow the wrong people.
Moritz Hofmann: and So I think one problem is that people actually, other people still engage with bad content. I don't know why, but, uh, I see a lot of like, um, content that I wouldn't call really good, but, but maybe it somehow catches the people and the people or the people, people get triggered and they, they comment or like, or something like that. And, uh,
Moritz Hofmann: So ah I think one thing one can do is when we add a person on or send a contact request on LinkedIn, we can immediately unfollow the person, even though we have sent the contact request. But it's an additional click. And that's why i never have i have never done this before myself. But it's possible, right?
Kai Ole Hartwig: I think it's possible but I never do it yeah because I forgetful and I forgot that to do things like that because oh yeah that's a maybe colleague from one project and so I like to to have the connection yeah for later you know and then I got
Moritz Hofmann: Yeah.
Moritz Hofmann: Yeah.
Kai Ole Hartwig: years ago, I'll get content and and information from that people that I worked years ago, and now I do completely other stuff. So sometimes it's interesting, sometimes it's stress. So I think that's normal.
Kai Ole Hartwig: But um since everybody is using LMMs and AI systems for creating content,
Kai Ole Hartwig: and they're more trash in my opinion. More people are writing and more people are generating content like, oh yeah, I need some new post, trash in, trash out, and they're this bad content on on my timeline.
Moritz Hofmann: Do do you think do you think part of the problem is that people get rewarded for attention? For example, if you get more likes, you will get shown to more people and maybe even people beyond your network. um maybe Would it maybe be better to not have this effect?
Moritz Hofmann: like not have as much as a multiplicator, for example, through links through likes or comments or i don't know.
Kai Ole Hartwig: I think that's part of the social game. yeah mean You know, or if you get three rewards for it, it's feeling good. So it's nice to have many views and many clicks.
Kai Ole Hartwig: And I think that's part of social networks to to live. But I personally would be prefer if the content...
Kai Ole Hartwig: is more from my personal selected timeline. yeah That I can create my timeline and say, okay, in the morning, I like to see my curated timeline and don't get the most viewed posts or the most engaging posts so that I can read my personal timeline.
Moritz Hofmann: Yeah. Hmm.
Kai Ole Hartwig: And maybe later on the day, I like to burn some time off and and get this other content too yeah so that i can can switch
Moritz Hofmann: why are why Why is it big corporations like LinkedIn or Microsoft not interested in a curated timeline? What do you think? They could have long done it, right? I mean, that's...
Kai Ole Hartwig: yeah they could done it i don't know maybe because then it's harder to get there at them
Kai Ole Hartwig: Yeah, because I think at the moment on my LinkedIn, I'm unsure how it's on your timeline, but on my timeline, I think each third or fourth post is some kind of ad, paid ad.
Moritz Hofmann: motion
Kai Ole Hartwig: And I think they would, um it would be harder to to get a special ad in that reach out to people if you have a more selected, curated timeline.
Moritz Hofmann: That might be true, yeah. And that's why... Because it would be much nicer if I could just select the people I want to see in my timeline ah instead of unselecting the people who I don't want to see in my timeline.
Moritz Hofmann: like ah
Kai Ole Hartwig: Yeah, but that can you more or less do with unfollow directly after you have the contact.
Moritz Hofmann: Yeah. um I mean, it would be much nicer if I start at zero and whitelist the people instead of starting at 100 and blacklist the people.
Moritz Hofmann: You know what I mean?
Kai Ole Hartwig: Yeah, to have an allow list and not to to get them blocked, yeah. Some kind of blocked, yeah. It's a soft blocking of people. kindjuly But you can't also hard block and say, oh, I don't like you any anymore.
Kai Ole Hartwig: Go away. Don't read my stuff too. That's a bit unfriendly. Maybe.
Moritz Hofmann: um Do you think, is there, are there like, is there some option for me to consume more of the interesting stuff um is there i guess there's probably not an app that filters linkedin content because for that they would have to have an official partnership with linkedin and that that probably doesn't work but uh for example i see that on the on the small discord survey
Moritz Hofmann: I started, ah yeah of course, there's like almost no people on there, but there's also no trash posts. So. ahead
Kai Ole Hartwig: Yeah, if you measure it with trash posting, you're right. Your private community is is our more nice, but also more inactive.
Kai Ole Hartwig: here Maybe trash content is is part of the game to to have an active community.
Moritz Hofmann: Yeah.
Moritz Hofmann: Okay.
Kai Ole Hartwig: And I also do trash posting sometimes, here to be honest.
Moritz Hofmann: Ready?
Kai Ole Hartwig: yeah really i'm i'm sure some people think that i only trash post and um i think that's part of the social media game to also do some kind end of trash posting yeah you could uh not reach out to everybody and some people think oh it's absolutely trash what you're doing but i've I think a good way of doing it is to have groups and read special in the groups and not so there in the main timeline.
Moritz Hofmann: Oh.
Kai Ole Hartwig: But yeah, I think a private active community would be the most empowered field for company and community development. yeah If you have a good running private community, that will be the absolute best booster for you, for your personal development, for your company development, for for your network to reach out to people.
Kai Ole Hartwig: If you have an active community, and sometimes they are a bit active, if I still remember correctly,
Moritz Hofmann: Yeah.
Kai Ole Hartwig: um it's good to have a network to reach out to those people. And now I get feedback if I do writing there some kind of content but i think my my personal content in your discord community is always some kind of trashy content like okay it's friday what do you have done this week i think that's not helpful for everybody yeah it's more some
Moritz Hofmann: Yeah.
Kai Ole Hartwig: experiment to get the people more active
Moritz Hofmann: Yeah, correct, correct. But I think yeah that's such as like building such a community is kind of the opportunity because LinkedIn doesn't allow these curated spaces. Because if you have a curated space on on LinkedIn, it almost feels like your private individualized community because you filter the posts so much.
Moritz Hofmann: Right?
Kai Ole Hartwig: Yeah, right. it's I think that's because we don't have StudioFaultSet anymore.
Kai Ole Hartwig: add Too much privacy. You need this kind of, okay, I try reach out to everybody on the network and get the engagement and there needs to be a good hook and then I get the click on more and then the people might be getting my content and might engaging with it.
Kai Ole Hartwig: Yeah. But is that not the same we do every day? and in our normal social lives we social life, we we get on the street and we hope we meet nice people, especially if we go to some kind of bar camp or other social event for company founders.
Moritz Hofmann: But I think people are acting differently in person than online. that we are For example, we have the problem, which is maybe a little bit related, that nowadays there's so much online. So in a bigger company, every employee says his or her opinion because it's online. If you would have been meeting in person with the people, then the There are a lot of people who are more shy, they keep quiet, and then there's like two or three big opinions, and you and you take a vote, and then you do what one of those opinions. But but you know if if it's all online, in your newsfeed, on LinkedIn, I think that it gives everyone a voice, but I think it can also be negative because you get a lot of voices and a lot of shit.
Kai Ole Hartwig: Yeah, sure. But in my opinion, I would like to have it in my company that everybody has a voice and could speak up to present his opinion on a his or her um opinion on a topic.
Kai Ole Hartwig: What it's different than on LinkedIn or any other social network, I think um LinkedIn is at the moment most controlled it or socially controlled network so because you have your real name on it you stand with your name there and do only shitposting that will be okay if your grandmother is watching you yeah if so on other networks like blue sky or x or instagram or maybe tiktok there's
Moritz Hofmann: yeah okay
Kai Ole Hartwig: more anonymity and so you more do even more shitposting.
Kai Ole Hartwig: So it's on LinkedIn, it's mostly business-related shitposting or sometimes political-related shitposting.
Moritz Hofmann: That's the Muppetry, yeah.
Kai Ole Hartwig: And many people that don't um individualize their AI content And I think the the most annoying thing is this not individualized AI content that we have at the moment.
Moritz Hofmann: I see, I see. And it's interesting that you say that you would like that every of your employees has that voice and tells their opinion. Maybe it's different when they're it's a bigger company. For example, you're sitting with 60 people in ah in a voice call, not with six people.
Moritz Hofmann: And then everyone wants to say their opinion. um
Kai Ole Hartwig: Yeah, maybe the call is too big, in my opinion. Yeah, if you need more than two pizzas, your meeting is too big. And so I have only meetings with myself.
Moritz Hofmann: because you eat two pizzas alone. ah
Kai Ole Hartwig: Yeah, so perfect sizing.
Moritz Hofmann: yeah
Kai Ole Hartwig: And nobody has an opinion against my ideas. No, but you on understand, yeah, if your groups and your meetings are not so big, you could hear the voices and get the opinions.
Kai Ole Hartwig: And I think that's, especially in founding and scaling up a company, really important to hear the people, if you like.
Moritz Hofmann: that's very interesting.
Kai Ole Hartwig: And so right-sizing of meetings is the most important step to to have a good meeting.
Moritz Hofmann: Yeah, 60 people is a lot. That's correct.
Kai Ole Hartwig: Yeah, that's more like a tone hall and you're speaking to your people and they don't have an opinion that's more to inform about really important stuff
Moritz Hofmann: Yeah. Oh, OK. I don't want to drift too much from the topic, but um yeah.
Kai Ole Hartwig: yeah but i think there's no more to say on on this linkedin topic or do you have any more opinions
Moritz Hofmann: I don't. I don't. Actually, yeah, I think we're fine for now. It was a good test.
Kai Ole Hartwig: Fine, then we should stop the record. Stop the vote. and
