I was asked recently what I thought about LinkedIn, whether spending more time on there was a good idea and whether it’s worth paying for LinkedIn training.
This isn’t the first time and so that I don’t have to repeat myself and state the obvious every 5 minutes, here’s my take.
Are You B2B?
If you sell software, consultancy, or anything to other businesses, then fine. LinkedIn MIGHT make sense. (Although even then it’s a bit of a stretch).
But if you’re a clinic treating patients with dodgy knees and bad backs, your audience is not scrolling through posts about leadership, resilience, or your latest “reflections on authenticity.”
Your patients are on Google. They’re typing “physio near me” while lying on the sofa, curled up in pain, wondering if they’ll ever sleep again. They’re not on LinkedIn reading your latest post about professional fulfilment. Unless they’re trying to find a good way of getting to sleep.
If your business is B2C, you have no business being there.
LinkedIn: The World’s Most Polite Echo Chamber
LinkedIn is a vacuum.
A beige one.
You post something, ten people like it, and they’re the same ten people every time. Other clinic owners. Other business coaches. Maybe a marketing agency or two trying to slide into your inbox. You get your dopamine hit for the day, but nothing changes.
It’s the world’s biggest circle of self-congratulation. A place where everyone is “so proud,” “humbled,” or “delighted to announce.” And everyone else is pretending to be inspired.
You won’t find a single patient there, but you’ll find every clinic owner in the country trying to out-inspire each other.
“But I Want to Build My Personal Brand!”
Of course you do. Daniel Priestley told you to. FML.
Every clinic owner who’s read Key Person of Influence suddenly believes they’re one LinkedIn post away from becoming the Simon Sinek of hamstring rehab.
Here’s the problem: you don’t actually have anything to say that’s relevant to your business goals. You’re not posting to attract patients. You’re posting to look clever in front of other clinic owners.
LinkedIn for clinic owners has become a performance. A digital peacocking contest to show who’s the most “values-driven,” “people-first,” or “committed to empowering others.”
The Course Epidemic
Let’s be honest: most clinic owners posting on LinkedIn aren’t there to attract patients.
They’re there to sell to other clinic owners or at least they’re a few steps away from announcing their latest course of pyramid scheme because quite frankly, their physio business doesn’t actually make any money. This is usually the route failed Hines’s owners take. Can’t do it? Teach others how to do it.
Every week, there’s another post from a “healthcare entrepreneur” or “leadership coach for clinicians” launching a new mastermind, mentoring programme, or course on how to “scale your practice.”
It’s a pyramid of clinic owners teaching clinic owners how to be clinic owners.
It’s become its own ecosystem:
* Course creator posts humblebrag.
* Other clinic owners like and comment in hopes of being featured next time.
* Repeat.
LinkedIn has become the conference bar, but with fewer laughs and worse lighting and unfortunately a lack of booze so you can at least tolerate it.
The “Thought Leadership” Delusion
At some point, someone told clinicians they needed to “add value.”
So now we’ve got a feed full of recycled advice, badly formatted infographics, and posts beginning with “I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership lately…”
It’s all the same drivel:
* “Vulnerability is strength.”
* “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
* “Your patients don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
There’s always a stock image of someone on a mountain or a handshake in a boardroom or, for the ones that really are trying hard, a picture of them with a fake Rolex, a cheap business class seat or an Uber Exec to show others just how successful they really are. There’s nothing like a picture you you in Dubai to make the masses go “fuck me, he’s an entrepreneur”.
Should You Have a Profile?
Sure. It looks professional, helps for networking, and makes your LLM results a bit neater.
Should you have a company page?
Fine. It’s good for Google visibility and adds a touch of credibility.
But should you spend hours posting content?
No.
There are 50 better things you could be doing. Like running your business and making more run a 15% profit margin or taking a nap.
“But I See Other Clinics Doing Well on LinkedIn!”
Do you? Or do you just see them posting more than you?
Likes don’t pay the rent. Engagement doesn’t fill appointment slots. You can’t pay staff with “reach.”
There’s this idea that if you’re “top of mind” you’ll somehow grow. But being top of mind among other physiotherapists doesn’t help. It just makes you feel validated.
It’s vanity disguised as strategy.
And every time someone comments “great insight” under a post about clinic culture you might get hard but most sensible people sigh and your business is once again being ignored.
What About LinkedIn Training?
If you’re even considering LinkedIn training, stop. You don’t need training to be on a platform that gives you nothing in return.
You don’t need to “optimise your profile for reach.”
You don’t need a “posting cadence.”
You don’t need to pay someone £500 to tell you to write “I’m so proud of my team.”
You’re not Coca-Cola. You’re a local healthcare provider. Your market is five miles around your clinic, not 500 miles across the UK.
And ultimately, the person selling you LinkedIn training has absolutely no evidence of it actually working for them. This is what always surprises me. The convo goes like this:
“LinkedIn training is amazing. It’ll make you rich/better/add whatever promise you like”
“Okay great! How much”
“£500”
“Amazing. I’ll buy that!”
Except there’s a simple question missing.
“Can you show me how you used LinkedIn in your last business (that’s relevant to my business) to generate you more revenue and a higher net profit?”
The answer?
“Well, I’ve never actually run a business, but my LinkedIn training business is great, I made £20k last year”
Why the things I write works but LinkedIn Doesn’t.
Everyone reads our content because it’s authentic, blunt, and has an opinion. I spend days writing it. It’s not trying to impress anyone. It’s trying to help people.
It’s funny, it’s honest, and it’s written for you. The clinic owner actually running a business.
LinkedIn posts, on the other hand, are written for everyone except the person who pays your bills. They’re written for other clinic owners, business coaches, and the occasional person hoping to get likes from their boss.
It’s marketing masturbation. It feels good, but it doesn’t produce anything.
The Leadership Phase
Remember when every post on LinkedIn was about leadership?
Leadership isn’t about titles. It’s not about being in charge—it’s about being there.
Everyone was suddenly a philosopher. Clinic owners who hadn’t done a one-to-one with their staff in six months were talking about “servant leadership” and “creating safe spaces.”
It’s all just noise. A cycle of trends. Last year it was leadership, this year it’s “mindset,” next year it’ll be “AI in healthcare.”
The same people who haven’t checked their Google Analytics since 2020 are now experts in artificial intelligence.
What You Should Actually Do Instead
Literally anything else.
Your patients, colleagues or other clinic owners aren’t inspired by your leadership posts. They don’t care about your authenticity journey.
So stop trying to impress other clinic owners.
Stop pretending you’re building a “personal brand.”
Stop convincing yourself that a few likes from people in your network means you’re growing your brand.
You’re not. You’re just wasting time.
