I Deleted My LinkedIn Profile With 7K+ Followers

3 lessons from my bold move & your blueprint to build on LinkedIn in 2025

I just deleted my 7k+ LinkedIn profile.

It may sound a foolish decision to you, but it’s not.

Read till the end and you’ll find why I deleted that profile, 3 lessons I learned the hard way plus tested hacks that will help you build on LinkedIn.

Mistake: The Real Cost of Vanity Metrics

• When I created my LinkedIn profile in 2020 I connected with a bunch of random people. I thought increasing the number of connections on my profile would be so cool.

• I hit the “connect” button like it’s the end of the world. Nothing drastic happened then. But…

• When I took LinkedIn seriously and posted valuable content (I knew it because people appreciated it), I noticed the damage from my past actions — my reach dropped.

• I tried to make it work, but my first-degree connections didn’t align with my content.

• I thought removing unwanted connections was the solution, so I did it! However, the LinkedIn algorithm flagged me as a bot and kept suspending my account after every session. Thankfully, I got it back after talking to their team.

• I spent a week thinking and finally decided to shut down that profile.

I didn’t give up. I decided to start everything from scratch and this time in a more planned way.

Here are the 3 lessons I learned from that failed experiment that can help you build a strong LinkedIn brand in 2025.

Lesson #1: Find a Niche and Curate Your Audience from Day One

• The first step to growing a killer brand on LinkedIn starts with finalizing the niche in which you want to build a brand.

• Identify the topics you’re most passionate about — personal branding, content creation, AI, career transitions, etc.

• Start by sending connection requests only to people in your niche, as they’ll become your first-degree connections and provide the initial boost for your content.

• Don’t narrow your profile too much. Leave room to grow and experiment in the beginning.

It’s not as complicated as it seems.

My niche went from Pinterest growth → Medium writer→ How to grow as a content creator from 9–5 → Personal branding & build in public.

Some of the LinkedIn posts I created

Lesson #2: Build a Profile That Reflects 2025, Not 2015

• Having initial connections in your niche is not enough for LinkedIn to distribute your profile to other people as a recommendation. You need an optimized profile.

• By optimized I don’t mean → “A profile that has everything figured out and has hundreds of thousands of followers”

• An optimized profile is a profile that has the following elements: a solid head-shot profile picture, a clear and concise banner to reflect what your profile is all about, a direct and thoughtful bio, a detailed about section, and a completely organized experience section.

• It sounds like a lot of work, which it is, but you don’t have to do everything on the first day. Focus on one thing at a time, just like I did!

Lesson #3: Create Content That Drives Real Engagement

• How to craft and distribute content is a whole different topic (I’ll create posts on this in the future). But to keep it simple, you can focus on these things:

• Types of content formats to use on LinkedIn in 2025:

1. Text + Media Posts: Ideal for personal stories, anecdotes, and concise content pieces.

2. Carousels: Great for long-form text content, like mini-courses, to build credibility.

3. Video Posts: It’s a new feature that’s on the rise.

• Find a split for your content pieces for each week: build connection and solidify credibility.

• Create a basic content calendar to organize everything.

• Do it consistently for at least 3–5 days a week for 4–6 months to see some solid results.

That’s all for now.

Are you planning to give a try to LinkedIn? Let me know.

Stay amazing 💌

Sweta