🔗 Share this article

Are your LinkedIn followers recognizing you as a industry expert? Do numerous commenters praising your insights on growing your business? Do recruiters making contact to discuss collaborations?

If not, the explanation might be that you're not male.

The Test: Changing Profile Gender to achieve Increased Reach

Numerous female professionals joined an organized LinkedIn experiment recently following viral posts suggested that switching their gender to "male" enhanced their platform visibility.

Some participants rewrote their professional summaries to incorporate what they termed "bro-coded" language - inserting action-focused professional jargon like "propel", "revolutionize" and "expedite". Anecdotally, their visibility also improved.

Algorithmic Bias Concerns Brought Up

The engagement increase has led some to speculate whether a built-in sexism in the platform's system favors male users who employ professional networking terminology.

Similar to many large social media platforms, LinkedIn utilizes an algorithm to decide which posts appear to which users - promoting some while suppressing others.

Platform Response

In a recent company announcement, LinkedIn recognized the trend but claimed it does not consider "personal characteristics" when deciding post visibility. Rather, the company mentioned that "hundreds of signals" influence how content perform.

Changing gender in your settings does not affect how your content appears in search or feed.

Individual Results

A social media consultant, who modified her pronouns to "he/him" and her name to "Simon E", described extraordinary outcomes.

"The statistics I'm seeing indicate a 1,600% increase in profile views and a thirteen-fold jump in impressions," she commented.

Another professional, a communications strategist, began experimenting after noticing her reach decrease substantially.

The Process

• Initially, she changed her gender to "male"
• Subsequently, she used artificial intelligence to rewrite her professional summary using "masculine-oriented" wording
• Finally, she repurposed previous content with similar "agentic" style

The result was immediate: a 415% increase in visibility within one week.

The Downside

Although the positive results, Cornish expressed unhappiness with the method.

"Before, my posts were softer - brief and insightful, but also friendly and human," she explained. "Currently, the bro-coded version was forceful and self-assured - similar to a Caucasian man swaggering around."

She abandoned the test after seven days, saying "Each day I persisted, and outcomes got better, I became more frustrated."

Mixed Results

Not all participants experienced favorable results. One writer who modified both her gender to "man" and her ethnicity to "Caucasian" described a reduction in visibility and engagement.

"We understand there's systemic preference, but it's very challenging to understand how it functions in specific cases or the reasons behind it," she commented.

Broader Implications

These tests coincide with ongoing conversations about LinkedIn's distinctive role as both a business platform and social space.

Recent changes in recent months have apparently caused female creators experiencing markedly lower visibility, resulting in informal experiments where the same posts by men and women received vastly different audience engagement.

Technical Explanation

Per LinkedIn, the platform uses artificial intelligence to classify and distribute content based on various elements, including post content and the user's professional identity.

The company claims it frequently assesses its algorithms, including "examinations of inequalities based on gender."

A spokesperson proposed that current reductions in certain members' visibility might originate from increased competition due to more content on the network.

Changing Landscape

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

"People often view LinkedIn as more businesslike and refined," she remarked. "This is evolving. It's turning into increasingly competitive and less controlled."