Professional Network Engagement Surge: Women Discover Better Results By Presenting as Men
Are your professional networking followers recognizing you as a thought leader? Are hordes of commenters applauding your advice on expanding your business? Are headhunters reaching out to discuss opportunities?
Should that not be the case, the reason could be that you're not male.
The Experiment: Modifying Gender Identity for Better Visibility
Dozens of female professionals participated in a collective professional network test recently following viral posts indicated that changing their gender to "man" boosted their platform visibility.
Other testers rewrote their profiles to incorporate what they called "bro-coded" terminology - inserting action-focused professional jargon like "propel", "transform" and "accelerate". Anecdotally, their exposure also improved.
Systemic Preference Concerns Brought Up
The engagement increase has led some to speculate whether an inherent sexism in the platform's system favors male users who employ professional networking terminology.
Like most major networking sites, LinkedIn utilizes an algorithm to decide which content appear to which users - promoting some while suppressing others.
Company Statement
In a recent company announcement, LinkedIn acknowledged the phenomenon but stated it does not consider "personal characteristics" when determining post visibility. Instead, the company mentioned that "hundreds of signals" influence how posts are received.
Modifying profile gender on your profile does not affect how your posts appears in search or feed.
Personal Experiences
A social media consultant, who modified her gender identifiers to "he/him" and her profile name to "Simon E", described remarkable outcomes.
"The statistics I'm observing show a sixteen-fold rise in visitor traffic and a 1,300% increase in impressions," she commented.
Megan Cornish, a communications strategist, started testing after noticing her audience decline substantially.
The Method
- First, she changed her profile gender to "male"
- Then, she used artificial intelligence to rephrase her profile using "male-coded" language
- Finally, she recycled previous content with comparable "agentic" style
The outcome was instantaneous: a 415% increase in visibility within one week.
The Downside
Although the positive results, Cornish voiced unhappiness with the approach.
"Before, my posts were more personal - brief and insightful, but also friendly and relatable," she explained. "Now, the bro-coded version was forceful and self-assured - like a Caucasian man swaggering around."
She abandoned the test after seven days, saying "Every day I persisted, and outcomes improved, I became more frustrated."
Mixed Results
Not all participants experienced favorable outcomes. Cass Cooper who changed both her gender to "male" and her ethnicity to "Caucasian" reported a decrease in reach and interaction.
"We understand there's systemic preference, but it's very challenging to understand how it operates in particular situations or why," she commented.
Wider Consequences
These tests coincide with continuing discussions about LinkedIn's unique role as both a business platform and community site.
Recent changes in the past few months have reportedly resulted in women professionals experiencing markedly lower exposure, leading to informal experiments where identical posts by male and female users received dramatically unequal audience engagement.
Technical Explanation
According to LinkedIn, the network uses artificial intelligence to classify and spread posts based on multiple factors, including what's shared and the member's career profile.
The company claims it regularly evaluates its algorithms, including "checks for inequalities based on gender."
A spokesperson proposed that recent declines in certain members' visibility might stem from higher volume due to more content on the platform.
Changing Landscape
According to a tester observed, "bro-coding" appears to be increasing on the platform.
"People often view LinkedIn as more businesslike and refined," she commented. "This is evolving. It's turning into increasingly aggressive and less controlled."