LinkedIn’s Big Autumn Clear-Out - Have you seen the light?
LinkedIn’s Big Autumn Clear-Out - Have you seen the light?
LinkedIn has had a busy few months. New buttons. New features. Old features locked away.
And a very clear message from it all.
LinkedIn is sick of the robots. LinkedIn won’t tolerate AI Slop. And talk to each other.
Even though they at one time had an “edit with AI” and “improve with AI” button function, they have seen the light.
We’ve spoken about this before but this follows on from some official webinars and findings as well as a desperate need to put some clarity on things.
Here’s what’s changed, and what it actually means for you.
Comments Are the New Battleground
We’ve banged on about how important comments and commenting are until we’re blue in the face. However, LinkedIn is shaking up how comments appear in your feed.
Instead of showing them in whatever order they landed (i.e. latest first), it now ranks them by how relevant they are to you.
LinkedIn is using your interests, your connections, and what you usually engage with to put those comments first.
Why?
Because people are spending more time in them. Comments are becoming the gold standard lifeblood of engagement again on LinkedIn (outside of shares).
LinkedIn’s own Q2 report showed an 18% year-over-year jump in time spent in post comments, and overall content consumption up 10%.
People want conversation. Real conversation.
The issue LinkedIn has faced, though as been AI.
AI detection company Pangram Labs analysed 57,000 public LinkedIn posts and found that around 30% of comments posted between April and June were entirely AI-generated.
That’s a lot of “Great insights, thanks for sharing!” and other slop.
So LinkedIn did something about that.
The Slop Button Has Spoken
Remember the “Seems like AI slop” button LinkedIn launched at the end of July?
People have leapt on it. Over a million clicks in the first two weeks!
LinkedIn say members are now seeing around 40% fewer views of what they class as AI slop than they were just a few weeks earlier.
If your post has been flagged enough you’ll get this in your analytics:
“Some members told us this post seems like AI. We’re showing this as feedback for you to consider for future posts.”
Ouch.
One click won’t hurt you. LinkedIn uses an algorithm soup of factors that they blend together to decide what gets seen and not, with safeguards to stop people from using the button to gang up on someone.
The Social Selling Index Goes Behind the Paywall
Now for some heartbreaking news. LinkedIn is removing access to the Social Selling Index (SSI) for free and Premium users.
If you’ve never heard of it, SSI was a score out of 100 measuring how strong your profile and presence were on LinkedIn.
When it was launched it was all the rage. It was something that every salesperson and business owner wanted to be number one on.
Now it’s a Sales Navigator-only feature.
Is it a massive loss?
…
Not really.
People quickly discovered it was largely useless as a metric for most people and didn’t provide significant insight into how to improve your profile.
If you want to still use it, then quickly find it in your analytics but other than that, don’t worry yourselves too much.
Premium Perks (and Quirks)
Premium is getting some better perks now.
Private notes are back.
The private note. SO USEFUL (especially if you don’t have a fully integrated CRM).
If you’ve got the gold badge, you can now add a private note of up to 500 characters to a connection’s profile. Look for “Add a private note” just under their top card.
Only you can see it.
It’s perfect for remembering their dog’s name, the project they mentioned over coffee, or that you promised to send them that article three weeks ago (oops). These little details can make all the difference, and having this note back is so useful.
It only works for your existing connections, and there’s no single search for all your notes yet but it’s unmatched in helping build relationships.
Auto-follow invites.
If you’re on Premium All-In-One, LinkedIn may be automatically inviting people who interact with your posts to follow you. It’s switched on by default, so check your settings.
So if you’ve ever like a post or left a comment and then suddenly in a matter of seconds had a connection request…
They’re probably not stalking you.
It’s LinkedIn doing it for them.
Is it useful? Absolutely. It will help expand your network without you having to think about it and where the other person starts the process by liking or commenting or engaging with you, you know they’re active.
Adverts Are Creeping Into Your DMs
Some users are now getting a pop-up asking them to “choose your inbox layout” for sponsored messages. What this actually means? Ads. You can have ads sitting in your message stream or pinned to the top of your inbox.
What you can’t choose? No ads at all.
Coming Soon: Peekaboo Profiles
Finally, LinkedIn appears to be testing mini profile previews in People search results. Hover over a name and a snapshot of their profile pops up on the side, no clicking required.
It’s not rolled out to everyone yet, but keep an eye out. It’ll make connecting and building relationships that little bit quicker and easier.
So What Does All This Mean for You?
Every single one of these changes points in the same direction.
LinkedIn wants real people having real conversations, no bots allowed.
Everything is becoming geared towards connecting people and talking to them and engaging with them easier.
It wants comments with substance, not just “Great Post” 1001 times. Posts with personality, not copy and pasted Claude slop.
Relationships built on actual interest, not automated fluff.
AI can absolutely help you. Don’t get us wrong, we love using it. But use it to brainstorm, to plan, to tidy up your grammar.
But don’t let it be you.
Your audience can smell a robot a mile off.
And now they have a button to tell LinkedIn about it.
Need a Hand Sounding Like You Again?
Relationships are the core of LinkedIn. They are what make it work. You can’t do that with robotic responses and automation. You need to be human on the platform. LinkedIn knows this, and it's taking steps to reward you.
Struggling with that? Give Jem a buzz today, and let’s get people clicking “follow” instead of “slop”.
