I need to say something that half of my industry will privately agree with and publicly pretend they don’t: LinkedIn has become an embarrassment. Not because the platform lacks value — it is still the most powerful professional networking tool available in most markets. But because the content flooding it has descended into a level of performative, hollow, self-congratulatory theatre that would make even the most seasoned spin doctor wince.
And the irony – the spectacular, almost poetic irony — is that the people most responsible for this content disaster are communications professionals. The very people trained to craft authentic, meaningful narratives are producing the most inauthentic, meaningless content on the planet’s largest professional platform.
You know exactly what I am talking about. The post that begins: ‘Humbled and honoured to have been featured in…’ followed by a photo of someone holding a trophy looking anything but humbled. The cryptic five-word post designed purely to bait comments: ‘She said no. Then yes.’ The manufactured vulnerability about a difficult moment that reads like it was workshopped by a team of copywriters. The ‘I almost quit last year’ story that suspiciously surfaces every time engagement drops.
Here is the brutal truth: audiences can smell manufactured authenticity from a mile away. And when a PR professional — someone whose entire professional value proposition is built on understanding how communication creates trust — produces content that is transparently performative, it does not just damage their personal brand. It undermines the credibility of the entire profession.
The LinkedIn algorithm rewards engagement, which means it rewards content designed to provoke reactions rather than content that communicates anything of genuine value. And the PR community, which should know better than anyone the difference between strategy and manipulation, has largely chosen to play the algorithm’s game instead of playing it smarter.
What genuine thought leadership on LinkedIn looks like is radically different. It is the post that shares a real mistake and a real lesson with enough specificity that another professional can actually use it. It is the insight that requires expertise to produce and courage to publish — the one where you know some people will disagree, and you publish it anyway. It is the opinion that could cost you a client but represents your honest view of the industry.
Write that. Say that. Put your actual perspective on the line instead of your trophy on the wall. The profession needs it. And frankly, your feed needs it too.
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