In mid June my posts on LinkedIn started to experience a drastic decrease in engagement (we’re talking 10 likes and zero comments). Social media experts would have me to believe it was something that I was doing wrong, but I soon learned the business platform had made changes to its algorithms that I believe were set in motion to silence discussions around diversity, discrimination, and racism in the workforce.
Now as a faithful content creator with a following of over 80K+, one would think LinkedIn would have shared these updates with us. Unfortunately, I learned that my engagement was being impacted by artificial intelligence through an article that was featured in Entrepreneur by way of a podcaster named Latasha James. In the article, LinkedIn’s editor in chief, Dan Roth, shared that the changes were to curtail users from “going viral” and to make the content “more relative and informative,” and not just engaging and sticky.
Wait…I thought social media platforms thrived from engaging and sticky content. Like let’s be honest, if we are talking dollars and cents the goal is to keep people on your platform for as long as possible. This is where content that drives the engagement of users comes into play. But guess what? LinkedIn knows this and it is reflected in their steady growth since the Summer of 2020.
After reading the Entrepreneur article, I realized this “update” had more to do with the shift we are seeing in corporate spaces and the push back regarding diversity and inclusion (because let’s be honest – many of these companies are not focused on equity and the fair treatment of their employees). Sadly, LinkedIn is going down this same rabbit hole and instead of catering to their users, they are trying to appease 440 white men who lead Fortune 500 companies (there are currently 8 Blacks and 52 Women in these positions, the rest are white men).
The new goal for LinkedIn executives is to return the business platform back to its pre-summer 2020 days, when its demographics and content reflected Corporate America; white, bland men who graduated from Harvard and shared posts about how to fund a startup, and recruiters DMing users about jobs. Before the summer of 2020, individuals from marginalized backgrounds were rarely seen and seldom heard on LinkedIn. Many found the platform to be boring and lacked any relevant content that they wished to engage in.
Let’s also not forget that before the death of Geroge Floyd and a world health pandemic, we didn’t publicly talk about how toxic our jobs were, and how banks racially profiled minority business owners who were trying to get funding for their businesses. The unconscious biases, bullying, and harassment that many indigenous people experience in society and Corporate America often went unchecked back then.
But when people found themselves locked in their homes for months and the death of a Black man went viral, the paradigm shifted and a spark was ignited.
Gone were the water cooler talks and breakroom whispers about unfair treatment and pay discrimination. Instead, people turned to platforms like LinkedIn to share their awful experiences in the workplace and they began to ban together. In the beginning, LinkedIn was never okay with the shift that was taking place among its users and tried to silence the growing voices of Black women early on, which is highlighted in an article written by Ashanti M. Martin for the New York Times back in Oct, 2020. But because this new found engagement benefited them greatly, I believe at some point they eased up…just a little.
According to Jason Feifer, “LinkedIn’s activity surged in the past few years. The company saw a 42% year-over-year increase in content shared from 2021 to 2023, a 27% increase in content viewed, and it currently has three professionals joining every second.”
Now here is the quiet part; what LinkedIn isn’t sharing with the public. This surge in activity has piqued the interest of major corporations who are now wanting to partner with content creators on the platform like they do on Instagram. Those partnerships would mean creators like myself would finally be able to monetize our content; getting paid for allowing Fortune 500 companies direct access to our connections, while we promote their products and services.
The “problem” is that many of LinkedIn’s largest content creators are BLACK WOMEN.
Now I’m taking a wild guess here, but from my lived experience as a Black woman and a content creator since the days of Myspace, the big bucks are usually reserved for white faces. Yes, pay discrimination exists in the influencer space too. If Black women are the ones pushing out consistent content on LinkedIn, this would mean companies would be partnering with us.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think these companies willingly want to pay us to promote their products. So what needs to happen next – push out your strongest Black voices.
In order to pull this off, this would mean programming the algorithms to be biased and racist AF. Think about it. Suddenly everyone who talks about race, DEI, or inequality has a target on their virtual back. The algorithms have been programmed to sniff out content that appears to be offensive based on certain keywords. I talk about Black women in the workplace. Evidently my content has been flagged as offensive and not a good look for the platform and the new direction they want to move in, so my voice has been silenced.
Despite what LInkedIn is saying publicly, they are going to continue to suppress Black voices, while amplifying traditional business content, until you can no longer hear nor see us. Our ‘impressions’ and engagement numbers will tank, allowing the platform to once again be more attractive to white Corporate America. Those partnership deals that I spoke about early will now go to our bland white counterparts – just like everything else.
But what the platform isn’t factoring in are the new users and why they joined LinkedIn in the first place. For the last three years LinkedIn was the place on social media where you could find your tribe and have those water cooler conversations out loud and not feel ashamed, but instead feel seen and heard. If Black voices are silenced it is going to impact engagement across the board on the entire platform. Those same people who took the business platform to new heights will stop scrolling and engaging and that will become the demise of LinkedIn.
But Dan Roth isn’t talking about any of this in his interview with Entrepreneur magazine. No, he wants us to believe this is about people returning to the office and the end of work from home conversations, which by the way doesn’t make a damn bit of sense because people are still working from home.
Dan also didn’t mention that LinkedIn is deactivating accounts that have violated community policy rules and that are deemed inactive (no definition was given on what constitutes being inactive). I learned about this change last week in an email LinkedIn sent out warning me that my follower count may be impacted.
Here’s my advice to anyone who is an active user on LinkedIn, start engaging with your connections away from the platform NOW. Here’s how:
- If you don’t have an email list, start one ASAP. I currently use ConvertKit.
- Next, download the emails of your 1st connections on LinkedIn Click here to get started and import them to ConvertKit.
- Share with your followers on LinkedIn how they can connect with you (I suggest making a post) and if you don’t have your website URL in your profile add it TODAY!
- Dedicate more time to writing and sharing long form content on your own platform vs continuing to allow LinkedIn to use and then discard you
At the end of the day, all of these changes are about numbers, but what LinkedIn isn’t understanding is that they need us more than we need them.
And if they don’t believe me, Dan better call Elon and ask him what’s happening over there on Twitter.
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Dr. Carey Yazeed is a behavioral scientist, bestselling author, and sought-after keynote speaker who creates safe spaces for Black women to exhale. Click here to learn how you can have her speak at your next event.