Are your professional networking followers viewing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of commenters praising your insights on expanding your business? Do recruiters reaching out to discuss opportunities?
Should that not be the case, the reason might be that you're not male.
The Test: Modifying Profile Gender to achieve Increased Reach
Numerous women joined a collective professional network test recently following viral posts indicated that switching their profile gender to "man" enhanced their network presence.
Some participants rewrote their profiles to include what they called "bro-coded" terminology - inserting action-focused professional jargon like "drive", "revolutionize" and "expedite". Based on reports, their exposure also improved.
Systemic Preference Concerns Raised
The engagement increase has led some to speculate whether a built-in sexism in LinkedIn's algorithm favors male users who use professional networking terminology.
Like many large networking sites, LinkedIn employs a computerized system to decide which posts appear to which members - promoting some while reducing others.
Platform Response
Through a company announcement, LinkedIn acknowledged the trend but claimed it does not consider "demographic information" when deciding post visibility. Instead, the company mentioned that "numerous factors" affect how content perform.
Modifying profile gender on your profile does not affect how your posts appears in search or feed.
Individual Results
A social media consultant, who changed her pronouns to "he/him" and her profile name to "Simon E", reported remarkable outcomes.
"The statistics I'm observing indicate a sixteen-fold rise in visitor traffic and a 1,300% increase in content views," she commented.
Another professional, a communications strategist, began experimenting after observing her reach decrease substantially.
The Process
- First, she modified her gender to "man"
- Subsequently, she used artificial intelligence to rephrase her profile using "male-coded" wording
- Lastly, she recycled previous content with comparable "agentic" language
The outcome was instantaneous: a more than fourfold rise in reach within seven days.
The Negative Aspect
Despite the success, Cornish voiced dissatisfaction with the approach.
"Previously, my posts were softer - brief and clever, but also friendly and relatable," she explained. "Now, the bro-coded version was assertive and self-assured - like a Caucasian man being overly confident."
She discontinued the test after one week, saying "Every day I persisted, and results got better, I became angrier."
Varying Outcomes
Some participants experienced favorable results. Cass Cooper who modified both her gender to "male" and her ethnicity to "Caucasian" described a reduction in visibility and interaction.
"We know there's algorithmic bias, but it's extremely difficult to comprehend how it functions in specific cases or why," she commented.
Broader Implications
These experiments occur alongside continuing discussions about LinkedIn's distinctive role as both a professional network and social space.
Platform modifications in recent months have apparently resulted in female creators experiencing markedly lower exposure, leading to unofficial tests where the same content by male and female users received dramatically unequal audience engagement.
Technical Explanation
Per LinkedIn, the platform uses artificial intelligence to classify and spread content based on multiple factors, including what's shared and the member's career profile.
The company states it regularly evaluates its algorithms, including "examinations of inequalities based on gender."
Company representative proposed that recent declines in some users' reach might originate from increased competition due to more content on the platform.
Evolving Environment
As one participant observed, "bro-coding" appears to be growing on the network.
"Users typically consider LinkedIn as more businesslike and polished," she commented. "That's changing. It's turning into increasingly competitive and unpredictable."
