LinkedIn Is The New Instagram: A Peak Into 'Corporate Influencer' Culture

These days, opening LinkedIn is like signing up for an instant inferiority complex. Scroll a little, and either someone is a billionaire CEO at 22 or has just met the president. Everyone’s achievements are louder than your group chat notifications, and somehow, you are left wondering if your résumé even counts.

The Rise of LinkedIn Theatre

LinkedIn’s purpose was clear. Make professional profiles searchable and help people get hired. The first decade was mostly résumé updates and hiring posts. Then things changed. 

Around the late 2010s, broader social media habits crept in. Storytelling, personal branding, and careers became content. The platform stopped feeling like a database and started feeling like a stage.

The numbers back this up. LinkedIn itself reports that video posts are up 36 per cent, generating five times more engagement than regular posts, while live videos pull in 24 times more engagement. Posts featuring images receive nearly twice the comments compared to text only updates.  Naturally, the louder and more emotional the format, the farther it travels. Thoughtful breakdowns and industry analysis often get left behind.

The Rise of the Corporate Influencer

Once upon a time, influencers were for fitness, travel, and skincare. Now LinkedIn has its own species, “The corporate influencers”.

These are the people posting ten-slide manifestos titled things like, “How I Negotiated a Seven-Figure Offer Using Only Eye Contact.” And somehow, it works.

Personal storytelling posts can generate three to five times more engagement than analytical ones. A detailed market report may get 12 likes, while "I failed six interviews but gained valuable experience in professional disappointment” gets 40,000. 

A study by the US-based marketing firm Refine Labs found that posts shared through personal profiles drive 2.75 times more impressions and nearly five times more engagement than company pages. In short, LinkedIn rewards people acting like creators, not companies acting like companies. 

Humblebrag Olympics

Now we come to humblebrag, the final boss of LinkedIn culture. On Instagram, people post sunsets with “blessed.” On LinkedIn, it’s promotions with “humbled to share.” Nobody has ever been humbled by a salary hike. 

Scrolling starts to feel less like professional networking and more like comparing your life to everyone else’s carefully curated highlight reel.

Daksh Bedi, a sociology honours student and a debater puts it “Nowadays, the user’s instinct has changed on LinkedIn. Rather than following copied influencers, focus on industry based analysis. That’s the only way you can navigate through LinkedIn.” 

While Sagalassis Kaur, a budding journalist says, “LinkedIn nowadays feels like an extended version of social media because people try to show more than what they actually do. When I first made an account, I felt like I had done little to nothing because I saw people curating great profiles filled with certificates. Though it is the only professional platform that still plays a key role in one’s career growth.”

Chia Jindal, an economics honours student and a content writer adds, “LinkedIn feels more performative because the platform rewards being seen and getting reactions, not just doing good work. Due to competition people share their achievements in a more polished way to stand out.”

How to Use LinkedIn Without Losing Your Mind

The trick is remembering what the app was meant to be. Connect with people you actually know, follow industries and experts instead of influencers, and share things that are genuinely useful rather than theatrical. Don’t measure your worth in likes or impressions. Engagement isn’t the same as impact.

And log off when it starts feeling fake. LinkedIn can still help you find jobs, learn new skills, and meet smart people. It just works better when you stop trying to turn every moment of your life into content.

Views expressed by the author are their own.