Marketing Dopamine • October 3, 2026
The Resume Problem
When I looked closely at my LinkedIn connections, I noticed something I should have seen years ago.
Most of them are not active. They have a profile, a job title, maybe a photo from a few years back. Then nothing.
I was not judging them. I was one of them. For a long time, I used LinkedIn exactly the same way.
We built our networks the way we build a resume.
A resume is a record of where you have been. A relationship is a reason to stay in touch.
Somewhere along the way, someone told me that if you run a business, you belong on LinkedIn, because that is where the business people are. That is true, as far as it goes. The business people are there. Many of them are just not home.
A network built like a resume looks impressive and does very little. The connections were collected at a conference, after a meeting, during a job change. Each one made sense at the time. Few of them turned into an ongoing conversation, because nothing was ever designed to keep the conversation going.
That changes how I think about growth. A larger list of dormant connections is not an audience. A small group of people who actually read, respond, and return is worth far more than a thousand names who never will.
You cannot build community out of people who stopped showing up. You build it with the ones who are still here.
The work is not to wake up the whole list. It is to find the people who are already awake, and start there.
Lisa Carmichael is the author of The Marketing Dopamine Workbook: From Awareness to Action, available now, a companion to her book Marketing Dopamine: What Your Brain Is Really Doing When You Think You’re Building a Business, coming soon. Learn more at marketingdopamine.com
Nice. I have also gotten so many invites from those that I hardly know and have always wondered what the point of it was all about. Ultimately when you reach out to someone on your network they never respond…. As always quality wins over quantity.
My point exactly. We think alike!
Nice. I have also gotten so many invites from those that I hardly know and have always wondered what the point of it was all about. Ultimately when you reach out to someone on your network they never respond…. As always quality wins over quantity.
Exactly. A bigger network doesn’t mean much if there’s no real connection behind it. I’d rather have fewer people in my network who actually know why we’re connected.
I am way past the need for resumes and such. I do not understand LinkedIn connections. But I have researched interesting people through through LinkedIn profiles. It is very true what you say about community.
Well, I’m giving LinkedIn another chance. The learning curve is different.
I’m retired and have never really used LinkedIn, so I’m looking at this from the outside. But I really liked the distinction between a resume and a relationship. It’s a good reminder that having a long list of connections doesn’t necessarily mean you’re actually connected to people.
It is definitely a different way of thinking. Even in retirement, I wonder if LinkedIn will evolve and have its purpose.