Dare I say it, but is LinkedIn becoming… fun? 

Recently, my feed has become full of wisecracking jokesters, puns and satire. Things I’ve actually LOLed at, IRL.

Of course, it could just be my current vibe, which I’ll call “healthily unhinged.” Something about turning forty and finally making art again (especially my return to an, um, provocative series I began 19 years ago) has me feeling lighter, with fewer Fs to give.

The algorithm tailors itself based on your interactions, after all, an endlessly self-reinforcing echo chamber. And these days, I guess, I want to laugh.

So despite all my research into the LinkedIn algorithm suggesting that it cannot handle human complexity, lately I’ve been sprinkling in some totally unoptimized silly posts, and that’s been working just fine.

And though I considered it, I ultimately decided I won’t be removing all traces of my art career from my LinkedIn profile any time soon.

Will this make the algo less confident about my expertise as a social media strategist, and show my posts to fewer people who might actually hire me for that? Maybe. But the faster the tech moves, the less we can afford to lose touch with what makes us human. And what we do offline is the ultimate fuel for our creativity online. 

Of course, that’s not a free pass for brands to wing it on social. It still takes real strategy to reach strangers, let alone earn their trust and their business. 

So today we’re talking about a bit of both:

The optimizations you need to attract actual customers, and the human element that wins trust like nothing else.

When clients ask me to keep their LinkedIn thought leadership posts to ~100 words, I get it. We’ve all been taught to be concise. Don’t bore people! We all have short attention spans, etc. etc. etc.

But there’s a reason LinkedIn itself now officially recommends 200-300 words.

A longer post can be rich in keywords and context, making the algorithm more confident about who to show it to. And if the hook is strong and the content is actually valuable (not just search-optimized filler), people will read to the end without even realizing — increasing ‘dwell time.’ 

But short can still work, especially for humor (which is having a bit of a heyday on the briefcase app) or saying the quiet part out loud. Think top-of-funnel posts: Great for visibility and attracting new followers… not always great for conversion and authority. And that’s fine! You need both, after all. 

I see it constantly. A brand posts genuinely good educational content for months, but gives their growing audience no reason and no clear path to actually become a customer, patient, donor, or client.

It’s true that algorithms reward top-of-funnel content, so growth requires an emphasis on that. But your profile should still be built to convert. Otherwise, how will new audiences know you’re open for business and ready to help?

In 2026, you can’t count on folks to tap a link in bio without context or incentive.

So before you queue up one more Instagram carousel or LinkedIn newsletter, here’s what to check — and fix:

INCLUDE: A crisp, clear, conversion-ready bio that instantly tells visitors who you help, how, and why they should care. For example: “Anxiety therapy for burned-out high achievers in Austin. Licensed clinicians, virtual + in-person. Book a free 15-min consult 👇”

AVOID: Big-picture mission statements like “creating healthier, happier communities.” That’s beautiful, but too vague. Lean on concrete, specific results or services that your best clients, patients or donors really want.

INCLUDE: 3-6 carousel posts (or featured posts, links or media on LinkedIn) that work like the navigation bar on a website: the essentials you want every new visitor to see first. Think: a “Start here” intro to what you do, an “About us” that builds credibility, and something that points to your core offer, lead magnet, or next step.

AVOID: Letting whatever you happened to post last function as your welcome mat. A three-month-old event recap is not the first impression you want a prospective client to have.

INCLUDE: Clear, scannable content that answers the questions a prospect is already asking. On Instagram, that’s branded highlight covers with topics like “Services,” “Results,” and “FAQ.” On both a LinkedIn company page and personal profile, that’s an About section that opens with who you help and the outcome they get, incentivizing people to click “…see more.” 

AVOID: A pile of unlabeled, outdated highlights, or a LinkedIn About that reads like boilerplate or a chronological resume (“I began my career in 2009…”). 

(BTW, we fix all 3 of these elements in just two weeks in my Instagram or LinkedIn Makeover package. Scroll to the end for details.)

Forever and ever, knowing your audience is the ultimate algorithm hack. And Rand Fishkin is living proof. 

Rand shows us you can be aggressively unoptimized, and still teach people something valuable (and have them love you for it) almost every time you post.

Take this one on audience research and positioning, which by every technical measure should have flopped. Rand didn’t load up his caption with keywords. He fired it up with humor (web 1.0 jokes for the crowd old enough to have futzed with an Angelfire site — guilty) and a very DGAF delivery. That’s what got my attention, and even made me think about trying his audience research platform again for the first time in 7 years.  

Now, I don’t know that every B2B founder can build an audience from zero with only this level of irreverence. Rand’s never hidden his personality, but he’s been posting consistently valuable content for years.

What I do know is that no matter how engineered the algorithm gets, there will always be something unexpected to throw a wrench in it. 

So while I’ll never not do the research to understand how it all works under the hood, I also know the real job of marketing on social media is simpler than all the advice on how to game the algorithm makes it look.

Whether you’re a big corporate brand, a scrappy startup or a solopreneur:

Be a human who connects with other humans about what you genuinely care about and have in common. 

Everything else is a moving target.

Here’s to being unapologetically human in an algorithmic world,

P.S. What’s the most irreverent, humorous, vulnerable, or just plain human thing you (or your brand) posted lately? I’d love to see it! Share in the comments below.