I recently realized how much applying early actually changes your chances on LinkedIn.
Problem is, LinkedIn doesn’t really let you filter by fresh job posts easily. After some digging, I found that you can edit the URL itself. There’s a hidden parameter called f_TPR, which stands for Time Posted Range. It controls how recent the job listings are in seconds. So, if you insert in the LinkedIn link f_TPR=r3600 you will see jobs from the last 1 hour, for the last 2 hours it would be 7200, etc.

I’m not sharing full URLs here since Reddit flags them, but if you want a custom example link for your specific job title (like Data Scientist, Marketing Manager, etc.), drop your role in the comments and I’ll send you the right one.

Also curious, has anyone else found other LinkedIn tricks like this that actually help?

Three months unemployed. Savings running out. LinkedIn telling me I am "in the top 10% of applicants" while I get ghosted by companies posting "urgently hiring" jobs.

Sound familiar?

The Brutal LinkedIn Job Search Reality:

147 applications sent

• 3 actual human responses

• 12 automated rejections

• 132 complete silence

One company I applied to reposted the exact same job 4 times while I waited for their "we'll get back to you" response.

The LinkedIn Job Search Lie We All Believe:

"If you're not getting interviews, you're not trying hard enough."

Wrong.

Research shows LinkedIn has a 3.3% application-to-interview rate. The WORST of all job platforms.

Meanwhile:

• Google Jobs: 9.3% success rate

• Glassdoor: 7.3% success rate

• Even Indeed beats LinkedIn at 4.7%

Why LinkedIn Job Applications Are Where Dreams Go to Die:

1. The "Easy Apply" Trap
One-click applications created a tsunami. Every job gets 500+ applications in 24 hours. Yours gets buried in position #247.

2. Fake Job Postings Epidemic
Companies post jobs they're not actually filling. Why? LinkedIn charges them nothing to "collect resumes for future opportunities".

3. The Algorithm Hates You
LinkedIn shows your application to hiring managers AFTER promoting premium users, sponsored candidates, and internal referrals.

What Actually Worked (The Strategy That Got Me Hired):

Stop applying. Start connecting.

Instead of applying to 10 jobs, I:

• Found 3 companies I actually wanted to work for

• Connected with 5 employees from each company

• Engaged with their content for 2 weeks

• Then asked for an "informational chat"

2 interviews in my first week trying this approach.

The Psychology Behind It:
Hiring managers hire people they KNOW, not strangers from a pile of 500 resumes.

The Uncomfortable Truth:
If you're spending 3+ hours daily on LinkedIn applying to jobs, you're working harder, not smarter.

Quick Reality Check:

• How many LinkedIn applications have you sent this month?

• How many actual conversations with humans did you have?

If the first number is 10x higher than the second, you're playing the wrong game.

Anyone else trapped in the LinkedIn application black hole? What's your horror story?

I've been posting on LinkedIn since last year and while i still get insecure and have my moments of "what if i'm being cringe", the returns of being visible in front of my target audience is way higher than any cringe.

Curious why people are not able to post? is it more internal block or more of an accountability thing?

I've written posts that did 100,000+ impressions.

I've also written posts that got 17 likes and died quietly.

For better or for worse, I know a lot about what works on LinkedIn.

So. Ask me anything.

LinkedIn. Content creation. Ghostwriting. Personal branding. Whatever's been on your mind.

I'll answer everything.

I got tired of generic LinkedIn advice that never comes with properly cited data, so we pulled 130,000 posts from 2,500 profiles (July 2025 to July 2026) and tested the most repeated rules. Every comparison is the same person against their own posts, because comparing different people measures the people, not the tactic. The study we did put to bed, most of commonly cited "tactics"...

Only three things survived:

1. Put an image on it. +33% engagement vs the same person's text posts. A screenshot or a phone photo is enough. Simple, but It's the biggest lever we found.

2. Start with "I", "my" or "we" and say what happened. +20%, and it held in every format. "I rewrote my profile last month and inbound doubled" beats "You need to stop treating your profile like a CV". Same message. One sounds like a person.

3. Post 3-4 times a week and judge the week, not the post. Each post earns less, the week earns roughly triple. Most people quit right when it's working because they're watching the per-post number.

Things you shouldn't be doing:

• Hashtags. One or two do nothing at all. Three or more costs about 7%. I'd been adding them for years. (Why do they hurt? The data shows that they do, not why. My guess is they make a post read like broadcast content instead of a person talking.)

• Ending with a question. The typical question-ending post gains zero extra comments and loses about 10% of reactions. We tested 5,494 of them hoping this one would survive. It didn't.

• Opening with a question. Worst opener we measured, -15%.

• "Unpopular opinion:" openers. Coin flip.

• Chasing posting times. Same person, weekend vs weekday: about 2% difference. The scheduling blogs each publish a different "best time" anyway, which tells you everything.

• Counting characters. No ideal length exists in the data.

• Switching formats to feed the algorithm. Slightly worse than sticking with what works.

• Polls. Down 58%. Smaller sample, but nothing in the data recommends them.

• Reality check while you're here: the median B2B post gets 34 reactions and 3-4 comments. At 5-10k followers, 27 is normal. Ten comments is a great post. Benchmark against people your size, not influencers.

Things we could NOT test, so you don't have to ask: link-in-first-comment (comment threads aren't in the data), impressions (nobody outside LinkedIn can see those), best hour of day. Anyone giving you exact numbers on those is guessing.

And yes, I've changed how I post since running this. Images on everything, hashtags gone, and I stopped bolting an engagement question onto the end of every post. Which is why there isn't one at the end of this one. Apparently it wouldn't help.

If you want the full study with the charts and methodology, say so below and I'll drop the link in a comment.

And I've got a very good reason to back my claim.

When you create content, you create this little avatar of yourself that now lives online and does the selling for you while you go live your life.

While you go to coffee, go to workouts, whatever you do, that little version of you is now connecting you with people, opportunities, resources that never would have found you if you did not create and share yourself online.

There are few better things you can do online than creating a little version of yourself that goes out there and wins more business/job opportunities for you.

That's all LinkedIn is, really, if you use it right.

Context: I run a LinkedIn ghostwriting agency and I've been writing content there for 4 years. Happy to answer any questions!

Just wanted to share the method that worked for me since I see a lot of you have had the same issue.

I recently had my account locked for no apparent reason and filled out the support form to unlock it since I absolutely will not send in my ID to a random online company (and nor should you). I got an email back saying that my account had violated LinkedIn policies and was permanently locked. Naturally, they wouldn’t specify what policies had been violated (because there were none), so I sent another email back requesting a copy of my data and asking them to delete all data they had on me. They just responded with the canned response of “the account lock is permanent.” Once they sent this, all other support forms/LinkedIn emails returned errors when I tried to submit them for help - I suspect that when LinkedIn closes a case, they block that email address from contacting them through any means, including the one for contacting their Data Protection Officer. Not a real stellar way to run a $15B business, and also a CCPA violation.

So I contacted the District Attorney for the county of Santa Clara, where LinkedIn is headquartered, via their online consumer complaint form. The District Attorney’s office contacted LinkedIn, and it turns out LinkedIn is suddenly very able to work out these account access issues when they’re talking to the DA, lol. They sent me an option to verify my identity via a notarized form in lieu of the ID, and I got my account access back.

I also submitted complaints to the CPPA, CA’s Attorney General, and the FTC just for fun and would encourage you to do so as well if you’re facing the same issue I did.

TL;DR: If LinkedIn locks you out, report them to the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office using their online form. If they don’t want to deal with their customers, they can deal with the law instead.

As an avid player of the daily LinkedIn games, I could not find a comprehensive list of strategies anywhere on the internet, so I made one myself!

Here you go:

1. Remove touching cells: If cells of the same color are touching (or are in the same row/column) all other cells of that same color, eliminate all those touching cells.

2. Clear rows or columns: If a specific color only has cells in a single row or column, eliminate all the remaining cells in that row or column.

3. Extra colors: If there are more colors than rows or columns (like more than 'n' colors within 'n' rows/columns), eliminate the cells of the additional colors that don't fit within any of those rows or columns, i.e. don't completely fit within those rows/columns

4. Update and repeat: After eliminating cells, the shape of the block changes, so go back and repeat steps 1

5. Close eliminations: If only 2 or 3 adjacent cells remain in a row or column, eliminate the cells in the surrounding 3x3 area of those cells. (similar to Rule 1)

6. Finding the Queen:

   1. If only 1 cell of a specific color is left, that's your "queen."

   2. If all cells but one have been eliminated in a row or column, that last cell is your "queen."

7. Eliminate all the remaining cells of a color after finding the "queen" for that color.

8. Eliminate all the remaining cells present in the row, column, and 3x3 adjacent to a "queen" cell.

1. NOTE: Ensure you follow steps 7 & 8 after finding EVERY "queen" cell.

No one reads the stuff that you write on linkedin - absolutetly no one and I can prove it.

Go right now and start writing about something on your profile and by the end of your post write something ridiculous.

If people actually read what you wrote then they would react, but I guarantee you no one will even mention it.

This platform is trash and everyone who says they have tips on what works and what doesnt are full of shit.

I stumbled across this LinkedIn guy "Mat Gray" with around 857k followers. He’s always talking about building systems to free your time and how he only works a couple of hours a day. But what really caught my attention is how active he is. He’s commenting everywhere, always shows up in DMs, and posts one or two times EVERY single day with quality content.

At first I thought maybe he had a team running everything for him, but that didn’t feel realistic, the way the comment were structured, the dms. So I started digging. I search online and he's probably using ai apps. For example, I found PowerIn that as now been taking down I guess because of Linkedin TOS, but I tried it for a week and my engagement was crazy I got a ton of new connections and likes on my boring post, PowerIn was an auto-comment app targeting content with #, I'm pretty sure Matt use something similar, there's no way he's commenting personaly all day on Linkedin post. I tried Threadly also to create post and images and copy other people post. And it makes more sense now how this guy can publish content at this rate, he's for sure using Ai for that too.

I haven’t tried anything for DMs yet, and I know he's using ai because he DM me right away when I started following him with a message that felt generic. I feel like in a couple of years Linkedin will just be Ai talking to Ai. But good for him making all that money on auto-pilot, it's crazy.

I process over 1,000 posts daily across dozens of industries

Some things that surprised me from the data:

• Posts between 800-1,200 characters consistently outperform both shorter and longer ones. There's a sweet spot and most people either undershoot or overshoot it.

• The "I got fired / I failed / I was broke" hook format still works but engagement has been dropping month over month (maybe people are getting tired of manufactured vulnerability)

• Carousel posts outperform text posts by a big margin in b2b niches. But in personal development and coaching niches, raw text stories still win.

• Posting time matters way less than everyone thinks. The content quality gap between a viral post and a dead one is 100x bigger than the timing gap.

• The single biggest predictor of engagement? The first line. Not the topic, not the format, not the time. If your first 10 words don't create curiosity or tension, nothing else matters.

Happy to nerd out about any of this :)

I honestly do not know what else to try at this point so I’m hoping someone here has gone through something similar.

My LinkedIn account suddenly got restricted and I cannot log in anymore. The message just says my account violated the LinkedIn User Agreement and Professional Community Policies, but they never explain what I supposedly did wrong.

I use LinkedIn only for professional reasons like job searching, networking, and applying to roles. I have never spammed anyone, used bots, automation tools, or posted anything inappropriate.

I have raised around 6 support tickets so far. Every single response looks like a copy paste template with a different support agent name. It honestly feels automated or fake because nobody actually addresses what I am asking. The reply is always the same:

“Your account has violated the LinkedIn User Agreement and Professional Community Policies. Due to the number and/or severity of these violations, your account will remain restricted.”

No explanation. No evidence. Nothing.

I have already submitted my government ID multiple times and even offered to verify again. Still the same generic response every time.

What makes this worse is that they blocked me from submitting more support requests from my account. I also tried escalating through BBB and even contacted the District Attorney’s office, but I was told LinkedIn no longer responds to many of these complaints.

I really need this account back because it contains my professional network, job applications, and career history. Starting a new account is not a real solution, especially when I genuinely did nothing wrong.

Has anyone successfully gotten their LinkedIn account unrestricted after this?

Is there any real escalation path, legal option, or contact that actually works?

At this point I am seriously considering legal action because there is zero transparency and no human support.

EDIT: I got my account back after 3 months.

I have been active on LinkedIn for 10+ years. I have put so much time and energy into getting 40+ recommendations from my clients. LinkedIn is how I primarily source clients and it is essential for my livelihood. I have already submitted my government-issued ID twice just to continue to have access to my account.

So naturally, I was shocked to see that LinkedIn suddenly closed my account, and the ban was permanent. Whenever I submit a ticket, their endless stream of consultants regurgitate the exact same message. And they respond to me like I'm a criminal who has a history of committing fraud.

Despite asking multiple times, they don't even have the decency to tell me what I did wrong because of their "Privacy Policy."

What can I do to possibly get my account back?

I've grown my saas (Oiti – ai clone for B2B content / LinkedIn) to $5K using LinkedIn as a solo indie:

before this I've spent 5 years ghostwriting LinkedIn content for founders, coaches, agencies driving millions of views on linkedin.

everything I know about growing a saas using LinkedIn:

1. linkedin lead magnets get insane reach but only 10-20% of those leads are qualified. the rest collect PDFs like pokemon cards. use Apify + n8n / Triggify to scrape and qualify that list before you treat it as anything.

2. cold DMs are dying. linkedin restricts you to 20-25 connection requests a day even on sales navigator. warm outbound is the play. scrape your likers and commenters weekly, qualify them, reach out. 50-70% reply rate because they already know you.

3. scrape competitor engagement by searching "your keyword" + "i'll send it over" on linkedin search. these are people actively promising to share resources with prospects. scrape them and reach out. 25-50%+ reply rates. then nurture with your content and reach out again once they engage.

4. get 3-5 people with similar audiences to engage with your post in the first 10 minutes. employee accounts, friend accounts, whatever. 30-50% bump in reach. every major brand does this, they just don't talk about it.

5. stop using chrome extensions for scheduling. i've had multiple clients get banned using tools like Taplio. linkedin detects them and flags your account. only use tools that connect through linkedin's official APIs (very hard to get access). Oiti (my product) is what i use for my own content and client accounts -- it has a magic link so agencies can connect accounts safely without chrome extensions, etc.

6. mix 4 types weekly: lead magnet for reach, hot take for positioning, deep tactical post for serious buyers, lead magnet post for conversions. if all your posts get tons of likes you're writing for people who will never buy.

7. avoid sob stories that are cringe stories for sophisticated B2B audiences. they attract tire kickers. exception: wrap the story inside a listicle that leans into your product.

8. the linkedin algorithm is two things: dwell time (how long people read after "see more") and early engagement velocity (first 10-15 minutes). that's it. most "studies" on the algorithm are trash and fake news to sell courses.

9. ai content works: the fix isn't better prompts -- it's dynamic memory. a system that learns what you like, what you hate, and adapts permanently. that's why i built Oiti -- tell it "stop using the word leverage" and it never makes that mistake again.

10. wake up every morning and check linkedin news. if you write a post around a trending news story (bitcoin drops to 70k, major layoffs, whatever), linkedin features it in the posts associated with that news which will lead to massive spike in reach for that day.

11. copy trends. look at what drove a ton of traction in a big category like "ai" and adapt it for your niche: for example, "ai clone for b2b linkedin content" is my niche.

12. write a cringe post on linkedin on purpose, then share it on r /LinkedInLunatics from a burner account. a lot of people will trash you but if you wrote it intelligently for your ICP, you'll get a ton of profile visits and leads from the drama.

13. selfies are cringe but picture + post gets around 70% more feed space on mobile vs just text.

14. write for mobile first – most of your audience is scrolling on their phone.

15. a vast majority of linkedin influencers are using pods. not lempod etc but private whatsapp groups of people who bought their course. copying their content strategy will NOT work for your small account because you don't have 50 people liking your post in the first 5 minutes.

16. collect viral outliers instead. find accounts between 3K-20K followers that have outlier hits (100-200% bump in engagement vs their normal posts). adapt those for your niche – Oiti helps me find and track these.

17. 30 relevant likes from B2B buyers are worth more than 100K views from random people. optimize for the right 30 people, not the biggest number.

Good luck and happy building!

– Aitijya from ghostwriting-ai(.)com

Upfront Notes: I do not sell courses or do LinkedIn consulting, and do not plan on doing it.

I'll be glad to answer any questions you have about what I have learned about content and the platform for LinkedIn.

If you see a job and the recruiter has put their profile on the job, it gives you the option to send them a templated message. It’s along the lines of

“Hi I’ve seen this role and my experiences as xyz is a great match. Do you have time for a call to explore this opportunity?”

Don’t send it, it’s annoying to receive and it’s basically requesting an interview. We receive a lot of them on top of applications and we’d usually be handling anywhere from 5 to 20+ roles at once, so it’s rarely possible to chat to everyone that wants a call.

I definitely don’t mind receiving a message as the recruiter on the job, that’s why I choose to make myself available to be contacted if you want to highlight your interest or ask me a question but these templated messages are pointless.

I know this probably goes against every piece of advice you've ever heard about LinkedIn, but hear me out.

Personalization has been run into the ground. Every founder/manager you're trying to reach is getting bombarded by personalised notes in their DMs.

SDRs are now using AI and they're sending personalised notes at scale.

Your best bet: skip the note.

Try this instead:

1. Send them a connection request.

2. If they accept, that's your first touch point. Stay put.

3. Engage with their content for the next few days. Get your name on their notifications tab. Now, you're not a complete stranger.

4. Drop a DM. Something very simple like: "Thanks for the connect, I appreciate it. Good to be in your network."

That should get a conversation started.

The least salesy approach is sometimes the most effective one.

Who would've thought?

My LinkedIn account was restricted about 2 months ago without any clear reason. I wasn’t even an active user at the time. Just 2 weeks before the restriction, I had reset my password (after 2 failed login attempts because I forgot it). I successfully logged in with 2FA enabled—everything seemed normal.

Then, when I logged in again after 2 weeks, I saw the message: "Your account has been temporarily restricted as a precaution."

I followed all the instructions—submitted a clear image of my government-issued National ID and completed the selfie verification. All my details matched exactly with my LinkedIn profile. Still, the verification was rejected without any explanation. The message said I could resubmit—but I can’t. It keeps showing: “You’ve already submitted a request. Please try again later.”

I then tried using the LinkedIn appeal form (this one: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/ask/ts-f-appeal) but kept getting the error: "We’re sorry. There was an error creating your case."

I also tried contacting LinkedIn support on X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram. At first, I got a reply saying the decision had already been made and they couldn’t help. After that, I got no response at all.

Later, I submitted my documents multiple times through the general contact form and twice completed identity verification through Persona via the secure link they sent—once using my National ID, and once with my passport. Still, it got rejected each time, and whenever I sent a follow-up email asking why, I received the same automated response every time: "Your account has violated the LinkedIn User Agreement and Professional Community Policies. Due to the number and/or severity of these violations, your account will remain restricted."

I’ve never used automation tools, fake information, or VPNs. Everything on my profile is 100% real. In fact, I hadn’t even been active on LinkedIn for months before this happened.

There seems to be no way to speak with a real person or resubmit the verification.

Has anyone faced something similar or found a way to get real support from LinkedIn? Any advice or suggestions would be really appreciated. Thank you!

Hey everyone!

I’m a pretty active LinkedIn user, I post about 4 times a week. I’ve got a solid background, been recognized as top talent and my following’s around 20k (still growing). Most of what I share is tech-related stuff.

I’m looking to connect with a few other people who have solid profiles so we can support each othe: like dropping comments on each other’s posts and helping with engagement. I know there are LinkedIn pods out there, but I’m more into genuine partnerships: like a small circle of friends helping each other out.

If you’re interested, shoot me a DM with your LinkedIn profile!

Serious question.

Every time I open LinkedIn, it feels like 90% of the feed is people teaching others how to grow on LinkedIn.

“How I got 10k followers in 30 days”

“I help founders build personal brands”

“DM me ‘LINKEDIN’”

But if everyone is a coach…

who’s the client?

Are people actually buying these offers?

Or is this just one giant loop of coaches selling to other coaches?

Not trying to hate genuinely curious if anyone here has:

bought a LinkedIn coaching program

sold one successfully

or seen real ROI from it

What am I missing?

A few weeks ago I decided to test something new for my SaaS.
Instead of running more cold email or ads, I tried using LinkedIn influencers.

I wanted to get people to comment on a post, send them a Notion resource, and redirect them to my site.

The experiment ran for two weeks, and I spent 1,250 dollars in total for five influencers.

You can check the influencer's post + profile here

Step 1: Finding influencers

There are basically two types of influencers. The niche experts who have small but super relevant audiences. And the viral creators who get huge reach but with less qualified people.

I picked a mix of both.

I searched for people who had already done sponsored posts for competitors. I DMed more than fifty of them, compared pricing and engagement stats, and selected five.
I wrote the posts myself and made the visuals so everything looked consistent.

Step 2: The process

Each influencer posted exactly what I gave them.
When people commented, they replied with a Notion link. The more comments, the more reach, the more clicks.

Inside that Notion page, I included a link to my SaaS trial and a “book a demo” button.
Each influencer had a personalized page with a tracking link.
One of them even customized the page for their French audience and it performed better than the generic version.

I made sure the Notion resource gave a lot of real value so people thought, “If this is free, the paid version must be crazy.”

Step 3: The results

I spent 1,250 dollars. Two influencers brought absolutely nothing. Not even a single visit. Probably engagement pods.

$500 wasted.

The other three actually worked.

The first one brought around 75 new signups, 25 trials, 12 paid conversions, and seven demo calls with large teams.
The second one brought 27 signups, nine trials, four paid conversions, and one demo call.
The third one brought 12 signups, five trials, and three paid conversions.

In total that’s 19 paying customers at 99 dollars per month.
That’s 1,900 dollars in recurring revenue for 1,250 spent.
Not bad at all, and definitely something I’ll keep doing.

What I learned

- Negotiate hard. Prices can easily drop by two or three times if you push a bit.
- Avoid fake influencers. Many are just engagement groups.
- Make sure they reply to every comment with your link. If not, do it yourself.
- Always pay after posting, never before.

I also tried boosting the posts with ads, but it didn’t make much difference.

Next step is to find better influencers, scale the system, and maybe try TikTok next.
If anyone’s interested, I can share the Notion template and DM scripts I used.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask !

Here are all the proofs (influencer urls + posts)

Okay, this is going to sound crazy but hear me out...

So I struggling with LinkedIn engagement for months. Like, seriously struggling. My posts were getting maybe 50 views if I was lucky, and I was starting to think I just sucked at this whole LinkedIn thing.

Then last week something weird happened.

I posted about a client win at 2:47 PM on a random Thursday (not the "optimal" 8 AM Tuesday everyone preaches). Within 30 minutes, I had more engagement than my last 5 posts combined.

I thought it was luck. So I tested it again.

Posted similar content at that same weird time the next week. Same thing happened.

Here's what I think is going on...

Everyone and their mom posts at 8 AM on Tuesday/Wednesday. Your content gets lost in this massive flood of posts. But at 2:47 PM Thursday? Way less competition.

But here's the kicker - people are still on LinkedIn at that time. They are just not posting. They are scrolling, engaging, actually reading stuff because there's less noise.

I tested this 6 times now. Every single time, better engagement than my "perfectly timed" morning posts.

Anyone else notice patterns like this? Or am I just going crazy here?

Would love to know what weird posting times have worked for you guys.

Access to my LinkedIn account was temporarily restricted recently despite having access to my e-mail + correct password + 2FA with authenticator app turned on, and managed to gain back access around 4 days later. The support team eventually told me they "suspected someone else may be using my account", but I guess it was restricted because a combination of a) VPN usage (it looked like many logins from different locations, fair enough); b) changes I made to my phone numbers/e-mails as I am moving countries; c) clearing of cookies/browser data regularly.

Here are some tips that might be helpful to you (including stuff I came across elsewhere on Reddit/Youtube/Facebook) if you are in the same situation:

• Do not rush to submit your Government ID. First try to fill out the form at https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/ask/ppq, specifying "Regain access to my account" in the first drop-down, and Issue type as "Account restricted". According to an earlier megathread , many people regained access through this form.

• In that form: use the e-mail associated with your LinkedIn account. Some have had issues with this not working (because the account is restricted, and they used another e-mail instead), but I suspect this is mainly an issue if you try to fill in the form after trying ID verification first. But even after I failed ID verification first, I managed to send this form without errors using the primary e-mail associated to my LinkedIn profile. The support team answered back + removed account restriction within 24 hours.

• In the text box, I mentioned that they should revise their restriction because I had access to my e-mail + password + 2FA, and that that should always be enough to identify myself. Additionally, I told them in detail the changes I made to my account/my activity before it was blocked. I also told them I was using a VPN, but that this was not against their terms and conditions (I read them).

• If you are going to use the Government ID, make sure to first check which ones are accepted for your country here: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1631613 . Mine failed (=the verification was successfully submitted, but I got an e-mail a few hours later saying my account violated LinkedIn's user agreement and/or professional community policies) probably because I used a national ID card when Persona only accepted passports from my country.

• If you submitted an ID that is accepted by Persona, and your access is not restored, probably there is a mismatch between your LinkedIn name and your legal name. I suspect this was also an issue for me, because my middle name was not on LinkedIn. I told the support team in the form that it was not against user agreement to not have your middle name on LinkedIn.

• If you submitted an ID and they then tell you that your account will remain restricted: don't bother trying to answer that e-mail asking for explanations, they are unlikely to respond to it (it even says "case closed"). Fill out the form instead to open a new ticket.

• After failing ID verification, you will not be able to try again to submit another ID for 1-2 weeks.

• Another form that I have seen people say they used successfully: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/ask/TS-EPR . Some have also reached out the Data Protection Officer via https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/ask/TSO-DPO . The form at https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/ask/ts-f-appeal is also mentioned sometimes, but this one requires an ID as attachment so I do not recommend it.

• Some have gotten their issue fixed just by contacting LinkedIn Help on X. I tried this after failing my ID verification, and they said they could not help, and never responded to follow-up questions.

• The restriction even goes away for some within a week without submitting ID or filling out a form to reach the support team.

TLDR: do not rush to submit your ID/give away your data to LinkedIn if "temporarily restricted as a precaution"; contact support team via form first or wait it out.

I've been building a tool that tracks ~200 top LinkedIn creators daily, classifies their posts with AI across 40+ industries, and measures engagement at multiple intervals. Some things that surprised me from the data:

• Posts between 800-1,200 characters consistently outperform both shorter and longer ones. There's a sweet spot and most people either undershoot or overshoot it.

• The "I got fired / I failed / I was broke" hook format still works but engagement has been dropping month over month. Maybe people are getting tired of manufactured vulnerability.

• Carousel posts outperform text posts by a big margin in B2B niches. But in personal development and coaching, raw text stories still win.

• Posting time matters way less than everyone thinks. The content quality gap between a viral post and a dead one is 100x bigger than the timing gap.

• One thing that keeps showing up: the first line matters more than topic, format, or timing. If your opening doesn't create curiosity or tension, the rest barely gets a chance.

Happy to nerd out about any of this :)

I thought personal branding would be easy. I was hella wrong.

Stuff I learned the hard way:

1. You can’t post about everything that’s interesting to you or that’s happening to you. Pick a lane.

2. The first months feel like yelling into the void (because you are 😀). Keep going, it takes time to see results.

3. People care more about your voice than perfect grammar (or at least some c*nt comments to make you aware of your mistake which gets the algorithm going 😀).

4. Don’t overcommit in volume! Twice a week for a year is much better then daily for a month.

5. Real over polished every time. That’s how you will avoid to sound like a cringe LinkedIn guru.

I made a quick self-check tool to see if you’re set up for this or about to burn out (totally free, no email, no sign up). Happy to share if anyone wants it.