🔗 Share this article

Are your LinkedIn followers recognizing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of commenters praising your insights on expanding your venture? Do recruiters making contact to discuss opportunities?

Should that not be the case, the reason might be that you're not male.

The Experiment: Modifying Profile Gender for Better Visibility

Dozens of female professionals joined an organized LinkedIn experiment recently after popular discussions indicated that switching their profile gender to "male" enhanced their network presence.

Some participants rewrote their profiles to include what they called "masculine-oriented" language - inserting action-focused business buzzwords like "drive", "transform" and "expedite". Anecdotally, their visibility also improved.

Algorithmic Bias Questions Raised

The engagement increase has caused some to wonder whether a built-in sexism in LinkedIn's algorithm prioritizes male users who use online business jargon.

Like many large social media platforms, LinkedIn utilizes an algorithm to determine which posts are shown to which users - promoting some while suppressing others.

Platform Response

In a recent company announcement, LinkedIn acknowledged the trend but claimed it does not factor in "demographic information" when deciding content distribution. Rather, the company mentioned that "numerous factors" influence how content are received.

Changing gender in your settings does not influence how your posts appears in search or feed.

Individual Results

A social media consultant, who modified her gender identifiers to "he/him" and her profile name to "Simon E", reported extraordinary outcomes.

"The numbers I'm observing show a 1,600% increase in visitor traffic and a 1,300% increase in content views," she commented.

Another professional, a marketing expert, started testing after observing her audience decline significantly.

The Process

• Initially, she changed her gender to "man"
• Subsequently, she used AI tools to rephrase her profile using "male-coded" language
• Lastly, she recycled previous content with similar "agentic" language

The outcome was immediate: a 415% increase in reach within one week.

The Downside

Although the positive results, Cornish voiced dissatisfaction with the method.

"Before, my content were more personal - brief and clever, but also friendly and relatable," she stated. "Now, the bro-coded version was assertive and confident - similar to a white male swaggering around."

She discontinued the experiment after seven days, saying "Each day I persisted, and outcomes improved, I became more frustrated."

Varying Outcomes

Not all testers encountered positive results. Cass Cooper who changed both her profile gender to "male" and her race to "white" reported a reduction in visibility and engagement.

"We know there's systemic preference, but it's very challenging to comprehend how it functions in specific cases or why," she commented.

Wider Consequences

These experiments occur alongside continuing conversations about LinkedIn's distinctive position as both a business platform and community site.

Recent changes in the past few months have apparently caused women professionals experiencing markedly lower visibility, resulting in informal experiments where identical posts by men and women received dramatically unequal audience engagement.

Technical Explanation

According to LinkedIn, the network uses AI systems to categorize and spread posts based on multiple factors, including post content and the user's professional identity.

The company states it frequently assesses its systems, including "checks for inequalities based on gender."

A spokesperson proposed that current reductions in some users' reach might originate from higher volume due to more content on the network.

Evolving Environment

According to a tester observed, "bro-coding" appears to be increasing on the network.

"Users typically consider LinkedIn as more professional and polished," she remarked. "This is evolving. It's becoming increasingly aggressive and unpredictable."