Does LinkedIn Really Matter in My Next Season?

How one hesitant executive’s LinkedIn launch “broke” the platform and jump-started his Next Season adventure

Marc Allen is the CEO of Electra, a next-generation aerospace company transforming the future of air travel. After announcing his retirement from The Boeing Company in 2023—and lots of nudging from his network—Marc joined LinkedIn to support his next season goals. In this article, he shares how the sky’s the limit when it comes to the power of LinkedIn, even if you encounter some turbulence along the way.

GETTING ON BOARD
From the very beginning, I thought social media was a complete time suck. I believed it was a place where people’s egos ran rampant in a produced atmosphere as opposed to what I prefer, which is face-to-face, human-to-human interaction. I saw it as a distraction from the things of real value in real life.

However, when I retired from The Boeing Company, I realized I needed to more actively market myself and give people an accessible window to learn more about me. I originally thought I’d create a personal website, but when I decided to take on the CEO role at Electra, I knew I really needed to be a champion for the company. A natural way for me to do that was… social media. The question was, which one? Did I need X/Twitter? Instagram? LinkedIn?

Ultimately, I was too exhausted with the thought of anything more than one platform. LinkedIn felt like the obvious and easiest choice from a professional perspective.

GO FOR TAKEOFF

I worked with MyNextSeason and my Electra communications team to create a comprehensive strategy for launching my LinkedIn profile and announcing my CEO position all at once. We put it out there, and right away, a whole bunch of people started to weigh in with thumbs-ups and congrats. I’ll admit, it was fun! We had a great video that we launched with it, and we got a ton of views.

MAYDAY!

Later that day, I went to my profile page, and it was gone! I went to LinkedIn’s main site and searched my name… gone. Then I tried to log back in. I couldn’t. I thought, Oh my goodness! I’ve just given all these new contacts my LinkedIn address, and it doesn’t work. It was like marketing a product and then not having it on your store’s shelves. That’s the worst possible place to be. I was dumbstruck.

After the initial crisis moment, the team and I realized LinkedIn had shut me down because the traffic to my profile had spiked so fast and so early that the platform thought I was a bot. In other words, it worked too well! The company has algorithms that look for people who are trying to take advantage, and I must have triggered one. Thankfully, I have a dear friend whose daughter works at LinkedIn, and she helped me prove I was a human and got me back online.

I then decided to post/joke about what happened and got a second impressive wave of responses that continued to accelerate my reach (this time without a hitch). I was so grateful for the help.

A PERSONAL FLIGHT PLAN

My LinkedIn advice? Be intentional and realistic. Good friends of mine write such thoughtful pieces about leadership, the industry, or technology that I really respect. I’d like to try that someday, but I don’t think I have the space to invest in that right now, and that’s ok! My strategy is more like, How do I share the journey with others in my own voice? I was never somebody who wanted to use corporate speak. I don’t want to sound like anything other than just me. So, I use it like someone would when checking in with their friends. LinkedIn is a place to do my touch-ins with the world about how the company is progressing.

EXPERIENCED CREWS CREATE SMOOTHER FLIGHTS

I still feel a little daunted by LinkedIn because there’s so much I still don’t understand—like should I be pickier about the connection requests I keep accepting? That’s why it was so important to have help and encouragement when thinking through how to build my profile and content, as well as guidance on leveraging the platform.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help, especially when trying something new. Honestly, I’m just hanging on by my fingertips and trying to be a part of it.

A NEW LINKEDIN FREQUENT FLYER

I still don’t do other social media, but this platform gives me more connectivity with people I might otherwise lose touch with. It’s a neat space to be able to lift others up, and that’s not something I really saw coming. It’s fun when I see an old colleague I really respect post a picture of themselves with another friend, and I get the
chance to say, “Oh my goodness, so great to see what you both are up to!”

After being so resistant, I now realize the positive impact LinkedIn can have on businesses, relationships, and your goals—even if I had to break it before I bought into it.