LinkedIn is now a place to share
Congratulations, LinkedIn, on your work anniversary! This month, May 2025, the social network for business turns 22 years old. That makes it a year older than Facebook.
When it was created, LinkedIn was all about career and business connections. Users could connect with colleagues and business contacts, showcase their professional skills, and search for new jobs—all on one platform. It was kind of like a digital version of your resume and your Rolodex.
Over time, it added a newsfeed and new features that allowed users to share text and video posts. But most of the posts were buttoned-up announcements like career updates and highly generic industry news and workplace advice. The typical post was a person announcing a new job, posting a motivational quote, or congratulating contacts on a work anniversary—something nobody ever does in the real world.
LinkedIn has been part of Microsoft since 2016. For most of its history, before and after the acquisition, LinkedIn was simply a convenient place to find people with whom you might share a professional connection—either you’ve met before, or you might meet and talk one-on-one in the future. You could message someone on LinkedIn if you didn’t have that person’s phone number. It was also useful to connect with people who have changed jobs and, therefore, e-mail addresses.
Sure, there was a content feed in LinkedIn. But it was pretty boring.
Things started to change around the pandemic. Office workers missed the in-person interactions and connections with colleagues. So they turned to LinkedIn and began sharing more personal stories—talking more authentically about their work, and even posting about things completely unrelated to business.
Users posted about overcoming illnesses, managing stress, and balancing work and family. They also started posting business-related (or business-adjacent) content in a much more authentic voice. They talked about lessons learned starting a business, advice others had given them, and mistakes they made along the way.
A well-curated LinkedIn presence can bring a lot of benefits to a user. LinkedIn posts can be good conversation starters. If you’ll be meeting someone for the first time, you can browse his or her LinkedIn profile and use a recent post to start a conversation. If you apply for a job, a LinkedIn presence can help you put more quality content in front of a recruiter. Many recruiters use LinkedIn daily, and most people’s profiles are just “congratulations” posts. But a history of thoughtful LinkedIn posts can catch a recruiter’s eye in a way that even the best resume can’t.
A good LinkedIn history can build a user’s credibility. Some people are frequently invited to contribute to industry publications or to speak on stage at conferences. That’s great if you can get it. But for the rest of us, LinkedIn is a place where we can share expertise and build credibility—with no gatekeepers. If you’re in sales, for example, you can post about your product or your industry. That can give potential clients comfort that you really know what you’re talking about.
Some people have found another good use for LinkedIn. There are now LinkedIn influencers. It’s much easier to build an audience and a following on LinkedIn than on other crowded social networks like Instagram and TikTok. For example, there are tens of thousands of TikTok accounts with a million or more followers; on LinkedIn, there are fewer than 100.
The site has helped its users post and gather a following. For most of its history, LinkedIn showed users content from their network. But three years ago, it changed its algorithm to show users more content related to their interests. They also started to prioritize video and they created tools that let users see post analytics.
Users who post a casual mix of personal and professional content have been surprised by how easily their posts spread. And the quality of interaction is better, too. LinkedIn posts tend to get substantive comments.
Everyone on LinkedIn uses their real name, and their professional reputation is associated with their account. Unlike Instagram or X, LinkedIn doesn’t let users create anonymous duplicate accounts. So even people with followings in the tens or hundreds of thousands say that they rarely, if ever, get negative comments.
I saw several interviews with influencers who all said the same thing. They said that when they saw a negative comment on a post, they reached out personally and privately to the commenter. The most common explanation is that there was a misunderstanding. Negative commenters often apologize, and either edit or delete comments that caused offense. That’s something you don’t see on Elon Musk’s X!
Another reason for the civility is that LinkedIn is not beholden to views and time on the site in the way other networks are. YouTube, X, Instagram, Facebook—they all make the vast majority of their money from advertising. That means they prioritize content that keeps people on the site, viewing the ads. And one thing that keeps people on the site, viewing ads is controversy.
LinkedIn is different. Yes, it has ads—but it also has something the others don’t: a subscription-based revenue stream that’s not tied to advertising. LinkedIn makes money with a premium membership for job-seekers and recruiters. It also has a product called Sales Navigator, which helps professionals in sales and business development find prospects.
And the advertising LinkedIn does have tends to be business-to-business advertising. All that means that LinkedIn doesn’t win by stoking the type of viral controversies that are so common on other platforms.
Jeff’s take
Who are the people with some of the biggest LinkedIn followings?
Number one: Bill Gates. Here’s what he shared recently. “Geothermal energy is heating up—literally.” He also posted about “digital public infrastructure” and said he was inspired by a polio survivor. That’s Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft. He has a new book out; I didn’t see a single promotional post for his new book.
Next, Richard Branson. He founded the Virgin group. I remember them for their mobile phones, their radio network in the U.K., record stores—stuff like that. Here’s what he has posted recently. Two inspirational quotes, a photo of himself on a red carpet, a video of himself jumping into ice-cold water at 5:33 a.m. A bit of a different vibe.
Gary Vaynerchuck. He’s a guru in entrepreneurship. 5.7 million followers. A lot of inspirational quotes and short videos.
Adam Grant. Organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. He posted about a study on highly sensitive kids, advice for running meetings, and an idea for what to do instead of a gratitude journal.
So there you go. That’s a sample of what’s trending on LinkedIn these days.
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