digital ethnography

1. Professional ≠ phony

Members prefer that LinkedIn provides a platform for predominantly professional interactions. While LinkedIn’s infrastructure allows for any kind of post, its culture has developed a shared understanding that personal posts are taboo. However, members generally like this restriction and are mainly okay with this because they like that LinkedIn provides a platform for one specific persona (professional expression).

“Even though I see people post about personal topics, I know it’s a professionally-oriented community, so I don’t post my creative poems or writing. I like that there are rules; it’s a useful tool, not a social media. It preserves the point of the tool.”

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2. Perception
A. Awareness of the pedestal: The fact that every interaction is publicly shared greatly impacts user behavior; people are more thoughtful about which posts they engage with because they want to reinforce the persona they’re trying to project.
B. Rule of perception: Posts on LinkedIn are meant for others. Interactions and profile creation are done to create a good perception of them for others.

“There’s one creator whom I want to comment on, but I know that everyone will see what I write… I really respect {her}, so I want to be careful what I write.”

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3. Manipulating the algorithm

People choose whom to follow, what to engage with, and whom to unfollow based on the content they wish to see. They’re extremely aware that they’re engaging with AI, and they’re trying to make it easy for the software to push content actually related to their interests. Members like and share posts or follow people based on how they want to curate their feed. Some users wish to like content that they want to see more of, while others do not want to reinforce content by interacting with posts they like.

“I would devise my recommendation engine to give me this content. I try to follow people who are closely related to these interests. A few days later, I see a lot more from these recommendations. I’d like to say I have a say in what it recommends. I’ll like 5 tech accounts or PM accounts, just so the engine gives me more.”

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4. Conformity to professionalism

People made a LinkedIn profile because they thought they had to. They were advised by educators, friends, or family to join the network.

“I joined the platform because my peers and family members had it. It felt like I had to create an account if I wanted professional advancement in my career. “

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5. Journey matters

LinkedIn users wish to see more about the process of the journey, rather than the end goal. There is a level of authenticity that is lost on LinkedIn when it comes to sharing about achievements, as those are the posts that are usually liked by immediate connections.

“I wish I could see more of the process of building and creating rather than just the end of the journey.”

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6. There’s no time like the present

There’s an element of timeliness involved. People only post about an achievement the moment it happened; they don’t share old news.

“I use LinkedIn like a live resume that I update often and that is useful.”

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7. Friendship comes first

People use stronger reactions (love, celebrate) or even stronger reactions (comment, repost) when the original post was by a first-degree connection. They were self-aware of this behavior; it matched our quantitative analysis and their self-reflection.

“Insights, things that are new developments that are relevant for people in my network. I don’t comment as much as I’d like. I comment on people I know, say congratulations and stuff.”