I was kicked off LinkedIn the same week my LinkedIn-themed podcast launched
A sudden ban from LinkedIn turned a planned Halloween podcast launch into an emergency episode, forcing me, Neal Veglio, to change the order of episodes.
We're going to confront the arbitrary nature of platform policies.
Imagine being cut off from an audience without explanation, just days before the very audience you're trying to reach is taken away from you.
I'm hoping my episode highlights the challenges creators face when relying on third-party platforms for their voice.
Follow this podcast in your favourite podcast app to get the next (proper) episode.
Transcripts
Speaker A:
Welcome to this special emergency episode of the Asylum.
Speaker A:
Yep, you heard that right.
Speaker A:
An emergency episode.
Speaker A:
Completely unplanned.
Speaker A:
This was not supposed to be the launch.
Speaker A:
I had something special planned for Halloween, a fitting date for a show called the Asylum.
Speaker A:
But Life, or rather, LinkedIn, had other ideas.
Speaker B:
Welcome to the asylum.
Speaker B:
LinkedIn will not like this podcast, but you will love it.
Speaker A:
Imagine this, if you will.
Speaker A:
The first episode was set to drop on Halloween and I was all ready to kick things off in style.
Speaker A:
But then, outta nowhere, LinkedIn decided to ban me.
Speaker A:
No warning, no reason, just gone.
Speaker A:
And here's the kicker.
Speaker A:
I was only just a resumed premium customer paying for the right to be on there.
Speaker A:
Despite that, they shut me down without a second thought.
Speaker A:
It was like a trap door opened beneath me, plunging everything I'd worked for on my channel into total darkness.
Speaker A:
One moment I was standing on the verge of something great for the users of the LinkedIn platform, and the next, silenced.
Speaker A:
Cut off from my own audience without a word.
Speaker A:
Their ridiculous policies and vague, opaque rules around content that supposedly contravenes their standards leaves creators like me and you potentially in the dark.
Speaker A:
One moment you're building a connection, and the next, you're cut off from them without any real understanding of what you did wrong.
Speaker A:
When I noticed once again I had been logged out of my account, I was left staring at the screen in disbelief, my heart pounding as if someone had ripped away the microphone just as I was about to speak.
Speaker A:
Why did it happen?
Speaker A:
Well, at this stage, I honestly have no idea.
Speaker A:
And that uncertainty is the maddening part of this.
Speaker A:
Was it a word they didn't like?
Speaker A:
An idea that seemed too controversial?
Speaker A:
Was it my honest appraisal of the lack of integrity of some big names like Stephen Bartlett and other members of the engagement pod inflated Be Kind Brigade?
Speaker A:
The silence from LinkedIn has been absolutely deafening, but it's forced my hand.
Speaker A:
Instead of the spooky, fun introduction that I had in mind, I'm here today to explain why I'm recording this urgent update.
Speaker A:
Being banned from a platform that you rely on with no good obvious reason is like being locked out of your own house by people that aren't even wearing police uniforms and they're laughing at you through the window.
Speaker A:
It's infuriating, it's unjust, and it leaves you feeling powerless.
Speaker A:
Now, as a result, this podcast and my company's company page on LinkedIn are the only methods of communication that I have with my former followers.
Speaker A:
And I don't even have direct communication because I'm banned.
Speaker A:
I can't even access my own company page.
Speaker A:
It's just as well that our recent addition to the team, Amelia, has been made full admin.
Speaker A:
She has all the admin privileges and therefore is able to communicate with the outside world from my business.
Speaker A:
But it's not the same, and it highlights just how risky it can be to rely on channels that you don't fully control.
Speaker A:
When they disappear, so does your connection to your audience.
Speaker A:
It's like someone turning off the lights just as you're about to step on a stage.
Speaker A:
Everything I planned for this podcast went out the window.
Speaker A:
I'd had some specific topics to cover regarding LinkedIn.
Speaker A:
It was going to be all about the honesty and integrity that this needs to lean on, as well as some unconventional thoughts and a place where ideas could be untamed.
Speaker A:
That's the beauty of a podcast.
Speaker A:
Yes, we'd cover the madness in the best way possible, but today I've been forced to slightly pivot the launch thanks to LinkedIn's bizarre behavior.
Speaker A:
I pontificate this until I'm blue in the face with my podcast clients.
Speaker A:
As a business, when you're approaching your marketing, you have to focus on your resilience.
Speaker A:
If you have something important to say, don't get sucked into letting the gatekeepers shut you down.
Speaker A:
Now, I can't prove that me publicly mentioning the launch of my podcast with the subtitle LinkedIn will hate this has anything to do with the decision they've taken.
Speaker A:
Frankly, I have no counter evidence that LinkedIn have tried to pull the plug on this.
Speaker A:
But here I am, defiant, still talking about LinkedIn, still sharing LinkedIn insight, and still ready to bring you along for the ride.
Speaker A:
They may have thought they could silence me, but they underestimated just how far I'll go to use my expertise in podcasting to get my voice heard.
Speaker A:
This experience has underscored the importance of building platforms and connections that you own.
Speaker A:
Relying on third party channels like LinkedIn can make your entire communication vulnerable to sudden, arbitrary, and not always human decisions.
Speaker A:
We need to create spaces where our voices can't just be switched off without warning.
Speaker A:
And this emergency podcast episode is a reminder that no algorithm or faceless decision can silence someone who's truly determined to speak up.
Speaker A:
I feel I'm benefiting from the lived experience of being silenced by a platform that has way too much control, way too little regard for its own terms and conditions, and way too little attention paid to the little people that rely on it so much in favor of continuing to flatter the egos of the players and the Gamers, thanks for joining me amidst this chaos.
Speaker A:
Together, we're going to take this setback and we're going to turn it into something good.
Speaker A:
We're going to use it as fuel, turning LinkedIn's attempt to stifle us into a reason to be louder, bolder and more unstoppable than ever.
Speaker A:
Let's turn this setback into our launchpad.
Speaker A:
LinkedIn can try and do what they want to stop us.
Speaker A:
Welcome to the Asylum.
Speaker C:
How do you compete against that?
Speaker C:
I don't know.
Speaker C:
I mean, you, you keep your moral compass where it is.
Speaker C:
You hope that you encounter people who value ethics.
Speaker D:
It's very unusual for somebody when they put a post up to have 2,000 likes and, you know, 800 comments and 300 reshares that if anyone's doing that without a pod, they're in the 1%.
Speaker D:
I would say.
Speaker E:
Growth in fees when only hides show influencer pulse supposed to get secret fans comments clicking clubs influencers post simple follow accounts but some of those numbers are mirror mouse cold tms light in T space Try to connect with the slow.
Speaker F:
Fake it twice where connections fly to you with empty likes it's LinkedIn guys the fake will throw Navigating through the endless eyes and road.
Speaker G:
Eyes I know it's hard, particularly if you're new to the platform.
Speaker G:
It's hard to see somebody who you perceive as being successful and not think well, if I just do what they did, won't I be successful too?
Speaker E:
Chasing dreams and filtered light behind the profiles what's the truth?
Speaker A:
We're all in the middle of our.
Speaker F:
Fate welcome to LinkedIn guys we're faking thrives where connections fly to you with empty lights it's flint in guise the fake will thrive Navigate through the endless eyes and roll eyes welcome the Asylum.
