30 Times People Tried To Be Inspirational On LinkedIn And The Internet Dragged Them For It

The Best Of LinkedIn Instagram account has been sharing hilarious posts from the networking site since 2018, and it has amassed over 41k followers by doing so. But this isn’t the only platform Best Of LinkedIn has succeeded on. As any LinkedInfluencer would tell you, it’s important to have a diverse portfolio, so the creator, JR Hickey, also runs a popular X account with over 40k followers.

We’re such big fans of JR’s work here at Bored Panda that this is the third time we've featured his accounts. And lucky for us, we’ve been able to get in touch with him in the past to hear more about the background of Best Of LinkedIn.   

"Back in 2018, I was an Account Executive for a SaaS company in San Francisco,” JR previously shared. “I had a boss who was a dinosaur—his idea of a good follow-up to a meeting was mailing laminated copies of the deck we presented to the prospect after the fact. The phrase, 'Stop by Kinko's' was uttered a few times in my short tenure there (Kinko's was dropped by FedEx in 2008, ten years prior)."

The creator went on to share that a significant part of his job at the time was cold calling through LinkedIn. "I was already dissatisfied with my role, my career, and the company, so spending a few hours a day on LinkedIn just about pushed me over the edge," he noted.

"I began seeing the first inklings of these so-called 'LinkedInfluencers' and started screenshotting their posts and sharing them on my personal Twitter account,” JR continued. “Once those gained traction, I decided to create a dedicated [X] account for it, and thus, @BestOfLinkedin was born."

As far as what JR thinks of the culture on LinkedIn, he previously told Bored Panda that he wouldn’t necessarily call it “toxic,” but “downright demented” might be more accurate. “It's just a giant back-patting circle/echo chamber where people aren't even telling a version of the truth anymore," he shared.

According to JR, LinkedIn is full of “unoriginal sellouts who regurgitate corporate buzzwords and stories of incredible business acumen in an effort to game the algorithm and try to hide the fact that there isn't a single thing that's interesting about them.”

“And nobody will call them out, for fear of losing their job or it blowing back on them professionally,” he added. “The entire platform lacks accountability, which is insane because its intention initially was to be just that.”

But JR doesn’t hate everything about LinkedIn. He noted that it can be a “terrific place to read business news, as well as to find jobs, recruit talent, and network with people in your industry.”

"It's a valuable business development tool, but sadly it's been watered down by these self-proclaimed 'LinkedInfluencers' and their BS success stories,” the creator previously told Bored Panda. “LinkedIn could improve the user experience drastically by focusing on moderating these posts and suppressing them when they don't offer anything valuable.”

"If the only reason you're posting on LinkedIn is to show off a picture of yourself with a story about how you were called 'too pretty' to be in business, then your post will be taken down,” JR continued. “If you aren't sharing anything educational or valuable, and instead are attributing incredible management advice from your FIVE YEAR OLD, your account will be banned. Sadly, I wish this was an easy fix, but LinkedIn has replicated every other social media platform and become another runaway train of trash.”

JR also shared that LinkedInfluencers don’t usually take kindly to being featured on his accounts. “When you create anything for the Internet, there's going to be 50% or more people who hate it. So you have to know that criticism comes with the territory. But when a LinkedInfluencer sees me poke fun at them for @BestofLinkedin? Oftentimes they don't know what to do with themselves,” the creator says.

“Usually, they'll try to doxx me or get me fired. Good luck, I'm a freelance Creative Director and don't have a boss. I get paid to write things for social media and more. So yeah, I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to,” JR explained. “If you don't like what's being said about you on the Internet, the proper response isn't to take your ball and run home. Or worse, take your ball and run and tell your parents."

Are you feeling inspired to hop on LinkedIn and share some of your own motivational content, pandas? Feel free to do so if you feel the calling, just be sure to send us the links so we can laugh at– I mean, enjoy your posts too. Keep upvoting the pics you can’t possibly take seriously, and if you’re looking for even more cringey content from LinkedIn, check out this Bored Panda article next!