Your Profile Is Now Your Audition

LinkedIn made a massive change in the last week.

Before last week, the algorithm was pretty straightforward: post something, it goes to 10% of your audience, LinkedIn tracks engagement, decides if more people should see it. Your network and follower engagement drove your reach.

Now? LinkedIn auditions you first.

Before your post goes anywhere, the algorithm scans your profile to determine if you're actually qualified to talk about the topic you're posting about.

Think of it like this: You wouldn't let a yoga teacher perform surgery. LinkedIn now applies that same logic to your content. If your profile doesn't prove you're an expert on the topic you're posting about, your reach gets crushed before anyone even sees it.

This is why you're seeing a dramatic drop in impressions over the past few weeks - even if your content quality hasn't changed.

Algorithm Insight: The 360Brew System

LinkedIn is calling this new system "360Brew scoring" (yes, that sounds like a Starbucks holiday drink - I don't make the rules).

Here's what changed: the platform is actively trying to kill off generic "influencer" content and "broetry" posts (the term for those cringey "9 lessons about leadership I learned when I proposed to my wife" posts).

The algorithm now evaluates five things before it shows your content to anyone:

1. Your About Section - Does it establish expertise on this topic?

2. Your Experience Section - Do you have relevant background?

3. Your Content History - Have you posted about this topic before? Does it include anecdotal evidence (not AI-generated)?

4. Your Network - Are you connected to other professionals in this space?

5. Your Engagement Patterns - Do you comment on posts about this topic?

If these five elements don't align with what you're posting about, your reach gets throttled. Hard.

This is a fundamental shift: you're now writing for AI first, humans second.

One Strategy: Turn Your About Section Into an AI Prompt

Your About section used to be where you dumped your resume cover letter and never thought about it again. That worked when the only people reading it were recruiters.

Now? It's the first thing LinkedIn's algorithm reads to validate whether you know what you're talking about.

Here's what needs to change:

Stop thinking about it as a bio. Start thinking about it as an AI training prompt.

Your About section should clearly communicate:

• What's your expertise? (Be specific - not "I'm a lawyer," but "I specialize in legal operations for high-tech companies")

• What impact do you create? (Not tasks you perform - the change you make)

• Who should be listening to you? (Your audience can be named directly)

The counterintuitive part: Make it longer, not shorter.

I know, I know. Everyone tells you to keep it brief. But here's the thing - only 2% of people click "see more" on your About section. Those 2% are your high-intent audience. They WANT more.

More importantly, the AI needs that depth to validate you as an expert.

Quick test: If your About section is under 3 sentences after clicking "see more," you're leaving reach on the table.

What to include:

• Write in first person (not third person speaker bio style)

• Include specific proficiencies and frameworks you use

• Add anecdotal context (this proves to AI that you wrote it, not ChatGPT)

• Talk about what you do outside your main role (mentorship, speaking, side projects)

• Make it substantial enough that if you fed it into ChatGPT and said "write a LinkedIn post from my perspective," it could actually do it

Think of your About section as the prompt that teaches the internet who you are and what you know.

One Win: 4X Reach from a Profile Overhaul

I worked with an in-house counsel at a tech company who'd been posting consistently for months. His engagement was decent, but his reach was stuck - averaging 400-600 views per post no matter what he wrote.

We rewrote his About section to include:

• His specific expertise (legal operations in the high-tech sector)

• Two key frameworks he uses when advising business teams

• The impact he creates for his organization

• His work outside the office (mentorship, adjunct professor role, pro bono work)

We also filled out his Experience section with actual impact statements - not just "managed legal operations" but "implemented X process that reduced contract turnaround time by Y%."

The result: His next post hit 2,400 views. Same quality content. Same network size. Same posting time.

The only thing that changed was his profile.

The algorithm now believed he was qualified to talk about what he was posting about - so it showed his content to 4X more people.

What This Means for You

If your reach has dropped in the past month, it's probably not your content. It's your profile.

Before you post again, audit your About section. Ask yourself: "If LinkedIn's AI read this, would it believe I'm an expert on the topics I post about?"

If the answer is no, fix that first.

The algorithm has fundamentally changed how it evaluates credibility. Your profile is no longer just a static resume - it's your audition tape for every single post you make.

Make it count.