LinkedIn Engagement Boost: Women Find Better Results When Pretending as Male Users
Do your professional networking connections recognizing you as a industry expert? Are hordes of respondents praising your advice on growing your business? Do recruiters making contact to explore opportunities?
Should that not be the case, the reason could be your gender.
The Experiment: Modifying Profile Gender for Better Visibility
Numerous female professionals participated in a collective LinkedIn experiment recently following popular discussions suggested that changing their gender to "male" enhanced their platform visibility.
Other testers modified their professional summaries to incorporate what they called "masculine-oriented" terminology - inserting action-focused business buzzwords like "drive", "revolutionize" and "expedite". Based on reports, their visibility also improved.
Algorithmic Bias Concerns Brought Up
The engagement increase has led some to speculate whether an inherent gender bias in LinkedIn's algorithm favors men who use professional networking terminology.
Like many large social media platforms, LinkedIn utilizes a computerized system to determine which posts appear to which members - boosting some while suppressing others.
Company Statement
In a recent blog post, LinkedIn acknowledged the trend but stated it does not factor in "demographic information" when deciding post visibility. Rather, the company mentioned that "hundreds of signals" affect how posts are received.
Modifying profile gender on your profile does not influence how your content appears in results or timelines.
Individual Results
A social media consultant, who modified her gender identifiers to "male pronouns" and her profile name to "Simon E", described remarkable results.
"The numbers I'm seeing show a 1,600% increase in profile views and a thirteen-fold jump in impressions," she noted.
Megan Cornish, a communications strategist, began experimenting after observing her audience decline significantly.
The Process
- Initially, she changed her profile gender to "man"
- Subsequently, she used AI tools to rephrase her professional summary using "male-coded" language
- Finally, she recycled old posts with similar "assertive" style
The outcome was immediate: a 415% increase in visibility within one week.
The Downside
Although the success, Cornish voiced dissatisfaction with the approach.
"Previously, my content were more personal - brief and clever, but also friendly and human," she stated. "Currently, the bro-coded version was assertive and self-assured - like a white male swaggering around."
She abandoned the test after seven days, stating "Every day I persisted, and results improved, I became angrier."
Mixed Results
Not all testers encountered positive outcomes. Cass Cooper who modified both her gender to "man" and her ethnicity to "white" described a reduction in reach and interaction.
"We know there's systemic preference, but it's extremely difficult to comprehend how it operates in specific cases or why," she remarked.
Broader Implications
These tests occur alongside ongoing discussions about LinkedIn's distinctive role as both a professional network and community site.
Recent changes in recent months have reportedly resulted in female creators experiencing markedly lower exposure, resulting in informal experiments where the same posts by male and female users received dramatically unequal audience engagement.
System Details
According to LinkedIn, the network uses AI systems to classify and spread content based on various elements, including what's shared and the member's career profile.
The company claims it regularly evaluates its algorithms, including "examinations of gender-related disparities."
Company representative suggested that recent declines in certain members' visibility might originate from higher volume due to additional posts on the network.
Changing Landscape
According to a tester noted, "bro-coding" appears to be increasing on the platform.
"People often view LinkedIn as more professional and refined," she commented. "That's changing. It's turning into increasingly competitive and unpredictable."
