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Are your LinkedIn followers viewing you as a thought leader? Do numerous commenters applauding your advice on growing your business? Do recruiters making contact to explore opportunities?

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

The Test: Modifying Profile Gender for Better Visibility

Dozens of female professionals joined a collective professional network test recently following viral posts suggested that changing their gender to "male" boosted their network presence.

Other testers rewrote their professional summaries to include what they termed "bro-coded" language - inserting results-driven business buzzwords like "drive", "revolutionize" and "accelerate". Based on reports, their exposure also improved.

Systemic Preference Questions Raised

The engagement increase has caused some to wonder whether a built-in gender bias in the platform's system favors men who use professional networking terminology.

Similar to most major social media platforms, LinkedIn utilizes a computerized system to determine which content are shown to which members - boosting some while reducing others.

Platform Response

In a recent company announcement, LinkedIn acknowledged the trend but claimed it does not consider "personal characteristics" when deciding post visibility. Rather, the company mentioned that "numerous factors" affect how posts perform.

Changing gender on your profile does not affect how your content shows up in search or feed.

Personal Experiences

A social media consultant, who modified her gender identifiers to "male pronouns" and her profile name to "Simon E", described remarkable results.

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

Another professional, a communications strategist, started testing after observing her reach decline significantly.

The Process

• First, she changed her profile gender to "male"
• Subsequently, she used artificial intelligence to rewrite her professional summary using "male-coded" language
• Lastly, she recycled old posts with similar "assertive" language

The result was instantaneous: a 415% increase in reach within seven days.

The Downside

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

"Previously, my content were more personal - concise and insightful, but also friendly and human," she stated. "Currently, the bro-coded version was assertive and confident - similar to a white male being overly confident."

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

Mixed Results

Some participants experienced positive outcomes. One writer who modified both her profile gender to "man" and her ethnicity to "white" described a reduction in visibility and engagement.

"We understand there's algorithmic bias, but it's very challenging to comprehend how it operates in specific cases or why," she remarked.

Wider Consequences

These tests occur alongside ongoing conversations about LinkedIn's unique role as both a business platform and social space.

Platform modifications in the past few months have apparently caused women professionals experiencing markedly lower exposure, leading to informal experiments where the same posts by male and female users received dramatically unequal reach.

System Details

Per LinkedIn, the platform uses AI systems to categorize and distribute posts based on multiple factors, including post content and the user's professional identity.

The company claims it frequently assesses 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 additional posts on the platform.

Changing Landscape

As one participant observed, "bro-coding" appears to be growing on the platform.

"People often view LinkedIn as more businesslike and polished," she commented. "This is evolving. It's turning into increasingly aggressive and unpredictable."