Looks like my “trust score” on LinkedIn might be abysmal.
Didn’t know LinkedIn has a trust score? Me neither. But it turns out I’ve been breaking a bunch of rules. Despite the fact that I have:
- An 80%+ connection acceptance rate
- More than half of those new connections starting conversations in my DMs
- An account that’s nearly fourteen years old
- High engagement in the comments of others’ posts
- A track record of responding quickly to comments on my own posts
- Lots of good conversations in the DMs
- A paid LinkedIn account
What’s happening with my LinkedIn reach
My reach has plummeted. Where I used to get a minimum of mid-4-digit impressions, often 5-digit, I’m now lucky to break 1,500. Sometimes I don’t break 1,000.
So my question is: is it ONLY the algorithm?
Challenged by one creator’s claim that posting daily for 30 days will prove the algorithm isn’t to blame, I spent the weekend going further down the rabbit hole. Ever since June, my reach has been really, really low. And that IS because of the algorithm.
But there’s another problem: my trust score has also taken a hit. (Probably exacerbated with the recent updates.)
Possible rules I’ve been breaking
Here are the rules I sometimes break:
- Too many hashtags. (The cap is 3–5. I usually do about 5.)
- Tagging companies that aren’t likely to comment back. (For example: LinkedIn itself.)
- Using external links in the body of a post.
- Sharing external links in the first comment without waiting 10–15 minutes.
- Sticking to one form of content. (Usually text, rarely carousels, never video. The system wants a mix.)
- Posting titillating-but-relevant headlines. (Like the one that got taken down: “Female founders are pretty enough to f*ck and too pretty to fund.” That one probably hit my trust score pretty hard.)
- Swearing in the first 100 characters of a post. (Yes, even “f*ck” counts.)
- Posting more than once a day.
My 30-day experiment
Are these rules stupid? Maybe. Do they all make sense? No. But I’m going to play the game for the next 30 days to see if they actually work.
In a couple of days, I’ll post the plan: the specific rules I’m following, the metrics I’m watching, and the timeline. Then I’ll give you updates as I go.
One thing I’m NOT doing yet? Changing my gender to “male” in the demographics LinkedIn has decided to track (regardless of whether I authorized it). At least not yet.
Follow my personal LinkedIn, or the Love Your LinkedIn Profile company page, to see what works — and what doesn’t.