```
#### Benefits of Component Splitting
**Before** (1 file, 957 lines):
- ❌ Hard to find code
- ❌ 30+ min to understand
- ❌ Can't reuse translations
- ❌ Can't unit test logic
- ❌ Scary to modify
- ❌ Frequent merge conflicts
**After** (6 files, ~150 lines each):
- ✅ Clear file purpose
- ✅ 5 min to understand each
- ✅ Reusable modules
- ✅ Unit test logic separately
- ✅ Safe to modify
- ✅ Fewer conflicts
**Code Reuse Examples**:
```typescript
// Use translations elsewhere
import { getTexts } from '@/layouts/components/cookie-consent/cookieConsentTranslations';
const t = getTexts('en');
console.log(t.privacyPolicy); // "Privacy Policy"
// Use logic without UI
import { updateGTMConsent } from '@/layouts/components/cookie-consent/cookieConsentLogic';
await updateGTMConsent(true, false); // Analytics only
```
**Unit Testing** (now possible):
```typescript
// Test logic without DOM
import { updateGTMConsent } from './cookieConsentLogic';
test('updates GTM consent correctly', async () => {
await updateGTMConsent(true, true);
expect(window.dataLayer).toContainEqual(['consent', 'update', {
analytics_storage: 'granted',
ad_storage: 'granted'
}]);
});
```
#### Implementation Checklist
##### Phase 1: Extract Modules (Safe)
- ☐ Create `cookie-consent/` directory
- ☐ Extract translations to `.ts` file
- ☐ Export types and functions
- ☐ Test translations module independently
- ☐ Extract logic to `.ts` file
- ☐ Test logic module independently
##### Phase 2: Extract Components (Medium Risk)
- ☐ Create Banner component
- ☐ Define Props interface
- ☐ Move banner-specific styles
- ☐ Test banner renders correctly
- ☐ Create Modal component
- ☐ Move modal-specific styles
- ☐ Test modal renders correctly
##### Phase 3: Extract Styles (Safe)
- ☐ Create shared CSS file
- ☐ Move common styles
- ☐ Use CSS custom properties for theming
- ☐ Verify no style regressions
##### Phase 4: Update Orchestrator (High Risk)
- ☐ Update main CookieConsent.astro
- ☐ Import new modules
- ☐ Simplify orchestration logic
- ☐ Remove duplicated code
- ☐ Test full integration
##### Phase 5: Update Tests (Critical)
- ☐ Update import paths in tests
- ☐ Add unit tests for modules
- ☐ Run full e2e test suite
- ☐ Fix any test failures
- ☐ Verify no regressions
##### Phase 6: Documentation
- ☐ Update component README
- ☐ Document Props interfaces
- ☐ Add usage examples
- ☐ Document file structure
#### Lessons Learned
1. **Start Small, Test Often**
- Extract smallest piece first (translations)
- Run tests after each extraction
- Don't extract everything at once
- Keep git commits small
2. **TypeScript Interfaces Are Essential**
```typescript
// ✅ DO: Define Props interface
export interface BannerProps {
texts: CookieConsentTexts;
onAccept: () => void;
onReject: () => void;
}
// ❌ DON'T: Use any or implicit types
const Banner = (props: any) => { ... }
```
3. **Shared Styles Need Careful Planning**
- Use scoped classes (`.cookie-banner .btn-primary`)
- Use CSS custom properties for theming
- Keep specificity low for easier overrides
- Test in both banner and modal contexts
4. **Import Paths Must Be Updated**
- Search for all imports of old file
- Update test files too
- Use TypeScript to catch broken imports
- Verify with `npm run astro-check`
5. **Component Communication Patterns**
```typescript
// ✅ DO: Pass callbacks as props
// ❌ DON'T: Access parent directly
// Tight coupling, hard to test
```
6. **Common Mistake: Over-Splitting**
- Don't create component for every 10 lines
- Aim for 100-200 lines per file
- Group related functionality
- Balance granularity vs overhead
7. **Verify No Runtime Regressions**
- Run full e2e test suite
- Test in multiple browsers
- Check console for errors
- Verify GTM still works
#### Verification in Production
**After component splitting:**
1. **Build Without Errors**:
```bash
npm run astro-check # TypeScript check
npm run build # Production build
# Should complete with NO errors
```
2. **Test Suite Passes**:
```bash
npm run test:e2e -- cookie-consent.spec.ts
# All 43 tests should pass
```
3. **Bundle Size Analysis**:
```bash
npm run build
# Check dist/ folder size
# Should be SMALLER (code splitting)
```
4. **Runtime Verification**:
- Banner appears correctly
- Modal works as before
- GTM integration works
- Styles unchanged
- No console errors
**Success Criteria**:
- ✅ All tests pass
- ✅ Build succeeds
- ✅ No runtime errors
- ✅ Styles unchanged
- ✅ Smaller bundle size
- ✅ Easier to navigate codebase
---
### 15.5 Implementation Priority & Timeline
**Recommended Order**:
1. **Week 1: CSP Nonce** (2-3 days)
- Highest security impact
- Smallest code change
- Easy to test and verify
2. **Week 2: ARIA Labels** (2-3 days)
- Critical for accessibility
- Medium code change
- Requires screen reader testing
3. **Week 3: Edge Case Tests** (2-3 days)
- Improves confidence
- No code changes (tests only)
- Catches production issues
4. **Week 4-5: Component Splitting** (5-7 days)
- Largest refactor
- Requires careful testing
- Long-term maintainability win
**Total Estimated Time**: 3-4 weeks for all improvements
---
### 15.6 Common Pitfalls & Solutions
| Pitfall | Why It Happens | Solution | Affected Section |
|---------|---------------|----------|------------------|
| **Nonce doesn't work** | Generated at build time, not per-request | Use `crypto.randomUUID()` per request | 15.1 CSP Nonce |
| **ARIA labels in wrong language** | Hardcoded English strings | Use translation object | 15.2 ARIA Labels |
| **Edge tests fail in CI** | No real browser private mode | Use `page.addInitScript()` to mock | 15.3 Edge Tests |
| **Component split breaks tests** | Import paths changed | Update all import statements | 15.4 Component Split |
| **CSP blocks GTM after nonce** | Removed 'unsafe-inline' fallback | Keep both nonce AND 'unsafe-inline' | 15.1 CSP Nonce |
| **Screen reader doesn't announce** | Used aria-live="assertive" | Use aria-live="polite" instead | 15.2 ARIA Labels |
| **Safari private still fails** | Didn't test cookie fallback | Verify cookie storage in tests | 15.3 Edge Tests |
| **Merge conflicts after split** | Changed too many files at once | Split refactor into small PRs | 15.4 Component Split |
---
### 15.7 Performance Impact Analysis
| Improvement | Impact | Mitigation | Net Effect |
|------------|--------|------------|------------|
| **CSP Nonce** | +0ms (server-side) | None needed | ✅ No impact |
| **ARIA Labels** | +50 bytes HTML | Essential for a11y | ✅ Acceptable |
| **Edge Tests** | +2s build time | Run in parallel | ✅ No prod impact |
| **Component Split** | -5KB bundle | Code splitting | ✅ Faster load |
**Overall Performance**: ✅ **IMPROVED** (-5KB bundle, no runtime overhead)
---
### 15.8 Testing Strategy
**CSP Nonce Testing**:
```bash
# Manual test in production
1. Open DevTools → Security tab
2. Check "Content Security Policy" section
3. Verify nonce appears in script-src
4. Console should have ZERO CSP violations
```
**ARIA Testing**:
```bash
# Screen reader test
Windows: NVDA (free): https://www.nvaccess.org
macOS: VoiceOver (CMD+F5)
1. Navigate with Tab key
2. Verify announcements make sense
3. Check modal traps focus correctly
```
**Edge Case Testing**:
```bash
# Safari private browsing
1. Open Safari → File → New Private Window
2. Visit site, accept cookies
3. Reload page
4. Verify banner doesn't reappear
```
**Component Split Testing**:
```bash
# Automated tests
npm run astro-check # TypeScript
npm run build # Production build
npm run test:e2e # Full e2e suite
```
---
### 15.9 Rollback Plan
**If Issues Occur After Deployment**:
1. **CSP Nonce Issues**:
```javascript
// Quick fix: Remove nonce, keep 'unsafe-inline'
script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' https://www.googletagmanager.com
// Reverts to previous behavior
```
2. **ARIA Issues**:
```javascript
// Quick fix: Remove problematic ARIA
// Screen readers will use fallback behavior
// Better than breaking functionality
```
3. **Edge Test Failures**:
```bash
# Tests don't affect production
# Can be fixed independently
git revert
```
4. **Component Split Issues**:
```bash
# Revert to monolith file
git revert
npm run build
# Previous version restored
```
---
### 15.10 Success Metrics
**How to Measure Success**:
| Metric | Before | Target | How to Measure |
|--------|--------|--------|----------------|
| **CSP Score** | 40/100 | 90/100 | securityheaders.com |
| **Accessibility Score** | 75/100 | 95/100 | axe DevTools, Lighthouse |
| **Safari Private Success Rate** | 60% | 95% | Error logs, analytics |
| **Time to Find Code** | 30 min | 5 min | Developer survey |
| **Lines per File** | 957 | <200 | Code metrics |
| **Bundle Size** | 25KB | 20KB | Build output |
**Production Monitoring**:
- Monitor CSP violation rate (target: <0.1%)
- Track accessibility errors (target: 0)
- Monitor storage failure rate (target: <5%)
- Track developer satisfaction (target: 8/10)
---
### 15.11 Future Enhancements
**After completing these 4 improvements, consider**:
1. **TypeScript Strict Mode**
- Enable strict type checking
- Catch more errors at compile time
2. **E2E Visual Regression Tests**
- Screenshot comparison
- Catch visual bugs automatically
3. **Performance Budget**
- Set max bundle size limits
- Fail builds if exceeded
4. **A/B Testing Framework**
- Test different consent flows
- Optimize conversion rates
---
*Last Updated: March 31, 2026*
*Production Status: IMPLEMENTED — Running in production on rafalszymanski.pl*
## FAQ
### How do I add Google Tag Manager to an Astro website?
Install GTM via an inline script in your Astro layout's ``, then use Partytown to offload it to a Web Worker. Set up Consent Mode v2 defaults before the GTM snippet so tracking respects user consent from the first page load.
### What is Google Consent Mode v2 and why does it matter?
Consent Mode v2 is Google's privacy framework that lets tags adjust behavior based on user consent. It's required for EU compliance since March 2024. Without it, GA4 and Google Ads lose conversion data from users who decline cookies.
### Does Partytown work with GTM in Astro?
Yes, but with caveats. Partytown moves GTM to a Web Worker for better performance, but dataLayer pushes need special handling. This guide covers the exact configuration and common pitfalls we encountered in production.
### How do I test cookie consent with Playwright?
Use Playwright's `addCookies()` to simulate consent states, then assert that GTM fires (or doesn't fire) the correct tags. This guide includes 43 ready-to-use E2E test scenarios covering accept, reject, and partial consent flows.
---
# Mental Health Issues as a Taboo Topic in the Workplace
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/mental-health-issues-workplace/
> Mental health is the biggest taboo in the workplace. Why speaking about it requires courage and how we can break the silence.
## Mental health in the workplace in short
- According to Rafał Szymański, in his work and business there is a rule that children are not talked about, and talking about children with mental health issues is doubly forbidden; depression is still a taboo topic and creates exclusion.
- Rafał Szymański points to the NIK report, which states that Polish youth psychiatry does not exist, and notes that everyone involved remains silent about it.
- To break the taboo of silence and hiding, we need to start talking loudly about children's mental health issues, so that parents, of whom there are a huge number, put pressure on politicians.
- Rafał Szymański talked about children's mental health on the Onet Rano morning programme the day after the premiere of the book “Szramy” (Scars), which collects other parents' stories; Bartek Węglarczyk said there that children with mental health issues are not important to the government because they don't have voting rights.
If there's any taboo topic in the workplace, it's sexual orientation, but did you know there's an even bigger taboo than that? And speaking about it requires damn courage? This taboo topic is mental health issues. Ours or our child's.
„This happens because in my work and business, there's a rule that we don't talk about children. Talking about children with mental health issues is doubly forbidden. Because such illnesses don't exist, because it's impossible that my, your, his child could be sick. Depression is still a taboo topic and creates exclusion."
This is a quote from my TEDx talk, which now has over 128,000 views.
Today I talked about the need for courage in speaking about our children's mental health issues, not hiding the state of Polish youth psychiatry (it doesn't exist, as stated in the NIK report that everyone involved remains silent about) and stories of other parents, collected in the book "Szramy" (Scars), which premiered yesterday.
Thank you Bartek Węglarczyk and especially you Janusz Schwertner for addressing this topic in the morning Onet Rano program.
We need to start talking about this loudly to break the taboo of silence and hiding, so that parents, of whom there are a huge number, put pressure on politicians.
Bartek said during the interview:
Children with mental health issues are not important to the government because they don't have voting rights.
I know that young people who cross the hospital threshold lose their voting rights and often stop being treated as human beings and become just patients.
Let's change this!
PS: it's a shame we have a pandemic and I couldn't be in that car live.
---
# LinkedIn Comments as a Good Start for Action
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-comments-good-start/
> LinkedIn now shows comment view counts. Discover why commenting is the smartest way to grow your visibility and start building your presence today.
## LinkedIn Comments in short
- Only the author of a LinkedIn comment can see its view count. Page administrators will see the view counts of all comments created as the page.
- LinkedIn comment view counters are not unique: if the same user views a comment many times, each view is counted, including your own. There is no dashboard summary like “Your comments were viewed so many times” either.
- No other platform treats comments as a legitimate way to grow visibility the way LinkedIn does, which is why creators, marketers and brands build entire strategies around commenting.
- In my view, comment analytics is meant to make people comment more often and leave more valuable comments. Spend **5 minutes** on a comment, not 10 seconds, and check in the numbers whether it comes back as views.
When someone tells me they don't know where to start writing on LinkedIn, I answer that with writing comments. Now we have something extra related to this.
The platform has been strongly promoting valuable discussions for several years.
First, it introduced functionality where we can convert long comments into our own post, while stealing users from the original post.
Then it started fighting spam in posts by hiding those 2-3 word ones like "Expanding reach" while pinning those it considered valuable.
For 5 days, at least according to the documentation that I'll put in the... comment, we have comment analytics. Users will see the number of views under their comments, next to the Like and Reply buttons. The numbers refer to the number of comment views.
Before we get excited about the new data, remember that this feature started as a test and somewhat stretches reality, because:
• Only authors can see the number of views of their own comments (page administrators will be able to see the number of views of all comments created as a page).
• View counters are not unique, meaning if the same user views a comment many times, each view will be counted.
• Your own views of the comment count towards the total number of views.
• These indicators are not displayed as part of any dashboard in the style: "Your comments were viewed so many times".
[Image: Four limits of LinkedIn comment analytics: only the author sees views, views are not unique, your own views count, there is no dashboard summary]
Why do I think this matters to us?
No other platform treats comments as a legitimate way to increase visibility and development like LinkedIn. Creators, marketers and brands have built entire strategies around commenting on LinkedIn due to the exposure it can generate.
I know companies and people who have established daily commenting goals to maintain visibility, strategic commenting on posts by known users to reach their audiences, and even using AI tools for automatic commenting.
This also includes "secret business support groups" where people like and comment on each other's posts. You can probably name a few such groups, I'll start: Personal Brand Strategy and put the next number.
I believe the goal of this analytics change is to encourage users to comment more often and leave more valuable comments under posts.
If I see that spending 5 minutes and not 10 seconds writing someone a response returns to me with a large number of views, it will definitely encourage me to write such comments.
[Image: Tip: spend 5 minutes on a comment, not 10 seconds, and check in comment analytics whether it comes back as views]
That means it will encourage you, because I always write such ones anyway, because I like it 😊
---
Ready to turn LinkedIn comments into a real growth strategy? In my [LinkedIn training for companies](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/), we practice commenting, content creation, and engagement techniques with 80% hands-on exercises on your accounts.
---
# What New Features Does LinkedIn Plan for 2025?
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-new-features-2025/
> LinkedIn 2025 updates: algorithm changes, educational content push, fighting bots, engagement pods, and what the reach drops really mean for you.
## LinkedIn’s new features for 2025 in short
- LinkedIn does not have one algorithm but a set of many smaller ones: some analyze and qualify content, others fight fraud and spam, and others analyze what we write in messages.
- When announcing its plans for 2025, LinkedIn officially explained the drop in reach with two factors: the focus on educational content at the expense of other content, and a sudden increase in users. I don’t buy it: in my view LinkedIn keeps “turning the knobs” of its indicators to find a golden mean between small creators and the growing number of ads and corporate content.
- In conversations at the meeting on LinkedIn’s plans for 2025, one point came up like a mantra: companies expect magical ways but don’t have the basics covered, such as employee profiles or an idea for engaging their employees.
- For 2025 the main new Sales Navigator features were to be Lead IQ, already being rolled out to accounts at the time, and the announced AI assistant for writing sales messages in InMail. A year earlier my top two were Buyer Intent and Account IQ, which showed what a company makes money on, what problems it has and its competitive environment.
Until last week there was an embargo on talking about LinkedIn changes, so I assume they'll now publish information on the blog and there will be a flood of posts. What's important to me on LinkedIn in 2025 👇
1️⃣ Algorithm. There is MORE than one.
I already showed this as a detailed breakdown at the 2021 I Love Marketing conference. In short, it's about the fact that decisions about our publications and content or contact recommendations aren't made by one algorithm, but by a set of many smaller ones. Separate ones analyze and qualify content, separate ones are for fighting fraud and spam or analyzing what we write in messages. This year's changes have been enigmatically described as focused on fighting fake accounts, bots and "engagement pods" which are popular support groups among us, where everyone likes everyone's posts.
2️⃣ What content will be promoted. Educational
LinkedIn wants to distinguish itself from other Social Media with substantive education and such content will be promoted. There's no information about formats, but I assume it will be video, newsletters as article promotion and slide documents, i.e., educational carousels.
3️⃣ Company challenges. Lack of basics
Apparently there was some research on company needs and challenges with their LinkedIn presence. I haven't read it, but from conversations with other people at the meeting, it was repeated like a mantra that companies expect magical ways but don't have the basics covered like employee profiles or ideas for engaging them.
4️⃣ Reach drops on publications.
What are the most popular posts about recently? About falling reach. This question was on the agenda, the official answer is that the drops result from two factors:
1. Focus on educational content at the expense of others, whatever that means
2. Sudden increase in users, so our content competes with more others on the feed.
I don't buy this and my theory is as I said at I Love Marketing talking about Bonnie Barrilleaux's presentation, who manages the algorithm:
LinkedIn is constantly "turning the knobs" of indicators trying to find a golden mean between promoting small creators and their content and an increasing number of ads and corporate content.
5️⃣ Sales Navigator. More AI-based features
Anyone who knows me knows I'm a fan of LinkedIn Sales Navigator and have it well figured out to the point where I have my own reporting or custom automations.
Last year the most important 2 features for me were Buyer Intent and Account IQ, which showed what the company makes money on, what problems it has and the competitive environment.
This year such features are supposed to be Lead IQ, which is already being implemented on accounts and the announced AI assistant for writing sales messages in inMail.
I'm happy about the emphasis on developing this tool and I believe it will be a good year for LinkedIn, which has moved up to one of the more important sources of income for Microsoft, which was also mentioned.
Well, posts should end with some CTA like: what LinkedIn features are you waiting for or what would you change❓
---
Want to stay ahead of LinkedIn's 2025 changes and make Sales Navigator work for your team? Explore my [LinkedIn training for companies](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/) for hands-on profile and content exercises, or dive deep with my [Sales Navigator training](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/linkedin-sales-navigator-training/) to master lead generation and buyer intent signals.
---
# LinkedIn Forces 2FA Login on Paid Accounts
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-2fa-login-required/
> LinkedIn now requires 2FA on paid accounts starting April 2025. Learn why it matters and how to secure your account before the deadline.
## LinkedIn 2FA login in short
- If you already have two-factor verification on your LinkedIn account or your company has its own multi-factor authentication, you don't need to do anything: verification works for LinkedIn.com, Sales Navigator, Recruiter and Campaign Manager.
- As the second step of your LinkedIn login, choose an authenticator app (Microsoft Authenticator or Google Authenticator) rather than SMS, because SMS doesn't work when you're abroad. Setting it up takes **2 minutes**.
- LinkedIn asks for the verification only when you log in from a new device or browser, so it doesn't change your daily work.
- Clean up your LinkedIn account gradually: in the case described, changing email, summary, banner and company, enabling 2FA and verifying with an ID all at once ended in a preventive lock, because LinkedIn treated it as an account takeover attempt.
LinkedIn forces two-factor authentication (2FA) on paid accounts and does it for a reason.
Have you seen such a message on your LinkedIn? Ignoring it can cost you more than you think! 😬
As part of the fight against hackers and programs illegally downloading data from your accounts like blocked Apollo or Seamless LinkedIn, it was decided that from April, two-factor authentication will not be an option but will be mandatory.
Why?
Every day, hackers take over hundreds of LinkedIn accounts, gaining access to your contacts, messages and confidential business data. What's worse - they use these accounts to extract information from your network of contacts who trust that it's really you!
Unlike other social media, you have more data on LinkedIn like a real phone number or email.
Especially vulnerable are Sales Navigator users who have access to extensive contact data and analytics. LinkedIn is aware of this and from April 2025, two-step verification will be MANDATORY for everyone using this tool.
Sources in LinkedIn Help: [Turn two-factor authentication on and off](https://www.linkedin.com/help/sales-navigator/answer/a1381088) and [Two-factor authentication in Sales Navigator FAQs](https://www.linkedin.com/help/sales-navigator/answer/a7140521). 2FA is mandatory for all Sales Navigator, Recruiter and Campaign Manager users. In Sales Navigator it has applied since mid-April 2025 on the Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus plans, unless the account signs in through SSO.
What should you do?
👉 If you already have 2FA protection on your account, nothing.
👉 If you don't have a secured account, enable two-factor authentication on your account before April:
• You can use SMS verification but this is a weak idea because SMS doesn't work when you're abroad.
• Better to choose an authenticator app (Microsoft Authenticator or Google Authenticator)
• It will take you literally 2 minutes and protect you from serious problems
[Image: 2FA methods on LinkedIn: SMS is a weak idea because it does not work abroad, Microsoft Authenticator or Google Authenticator is the better choice]
Fun fact: verification will only be required when logging in from a new device or browser, so it won't affect your daily work. You do it once and forget.
Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions from participants in my training:
🔵 Is two-factor verification required for all Sales Navigator plans?
Yes, it applies to users of all plans: Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus, unless you use SSO.
🔵 What if I already have two-factor verification enabled on my LinkedIn account?
Great! You don't need to take any additional actions. Verification works for LinkedIn.com, Sales Navigator, Recruiter and Campaign Manager.
🔵 Do I need to enable verification if my company already has its own multi-factor authentication?
No, if your company already has its own multi-factor authentication enabled, you don't need to additionally configure two-factor verification.
🔵 Will I still receive email notifications from Sales Navigator if I don't enable verification?
Yes, you will still receive email alerts, even if you haven't enabled verification yet.
Last tip: when you're doing LinkedIn cleanup, do it gradually to avoid account blocking. Piotr, who in one moment changed email, description, banner, company, enabled 2FA and verified account with ID, finally got a preventive block because LinkedIn considered these actions as an account takeover attempt.
[Image: Warning: clean up your LinkedIn account gradually, because changing email, summary, banner, company, 2FA and ID verification at once can end in a preventive account lock]
Do you already have a secured account, what method did you choose?
If you have questions about LinkedIn security - I'll be happy to help!
---
# Smart Laziness - Scraping Offers from the Internet
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/smart-laziness-web-scraping/
> How I used web scraping to automate comparing 200 car wrapping offers instead of sending emails manually. Smart laziness in action.
## Scraping offers in short
- My offer-scraping automation searches Google for companies and checks their websites for a tab with a PPF wrapping service.
- From each matching website the automation downloads the email address, verifies that it is valid and sends an inquiry about price and deadlines with photos of the car attached.
- Setting up the offer-scraping automation took **20-30 minutes** in one tool for a few dollars, while by hand I would have spent several days on it.
- I also planned a second automation that collects all the replies into an Excel file, so I can easily compare prices and availability.
I'm lazy and I'm proud of it.
Although people who know me would probably be the last to say I'm lazy, but the truth is I get bored quickly and I wanted to grab your attention.
I have it that instead of doing the same thing 100 times for 5 minutes every day, I prefer to stay up all night and write a program that will do it for me.
I'm picking up a new car soon - beautiful, wonderful, another Volvo already with one big problem. It's gray.
Why? Ask my wife, she chose the car color, I was responsible for the rest of the equipment.
Seriously, this gray in Volvo is... gray.
So I decided I'll wrap it with matte, satin foil for a better effect and of course paint protection, because I'm practical and don't waste money.
The prospect of sending 200 emails to various studios in Warsaw and surrounding areas, arranging prices, deadlines and comparing offers terrified me.
No thanks, I have more interesting things to do.
Instead, I used automation. I created a process that:
Searches Google for appropriate companies
Verifies their offers for PPF wrapping service, i.e., checks if they have the appropriate tab on the website.
Downloads email and verifies if it's correct.
Sends inquiries about price and deadlines with attached photos of my car.
The whole thing took me about 20-30 minutes in one tool for a few dollars. Tomorrow I plan to create another automation that will collect all responses to an Excel file so I can easily compare prices and availability.
I used to spend several days on this, now I freed up time that I used better for myself.
So yes, I'm lazy and I'm proud of it 😊
---
# Right Social Media for Your Strengths (Love and Work)
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/book-review-love-and-work-marcus-buckingham/
> Pick the right social media for your strengths. Love and Work by Marcus Buckingham reviewed, plus a talent-based framework for LinkedIn and beyond.
## Social media for your strengths in short
- I recommend Marcus Buckingham’s “Love and Work” because the author has genuinely interesting things to say; its downside is the pile of catchy slogans and “rags to riches” success stories.
- In my training work I constantly see people choose a social media platform by what’s trendy, not by their nature: an introvert who forces themselves to record stories burns out within a month and disappears, and an analyst making viral Reels comes across as fake.
- In my framework for matching platforms to talents, based on Buckingham’s book and my LinkedIn training, LinkedIn and YouTube suit the Educator, LinkedIn and events the Connector, Twitter/X and LinkedIn the Visionary, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube the Creator, and LinkedIn and a newsletter the Analyst.
- The CliftonStrengths test (formerly StrengthsFinder) gives you your **Top 5** talents out of 34 possible themes, and over 10 million people have used it. Weave your strengths into your LinkedIn About section and show how they translate into results.
- In my view LinkedIn is the only social media platform designed around professional identity, and since the September 2025 update it prioritizes content from consistent topic experts, not viral entertainment.
I have an allergy to buzzwords and catchy slogans. So when I received the book "Love and Work" from Paweł Jarczewski, described with the tagline **"Find what you love, love what you do, and do it for the rest of your life"**, I immediately put it on my shame pile of books to read someday.
That was my big mistake.
## The question that changes your social media approach
Marcus Buckingham promotes an approach where what engages and motivates us should determine both our career choice and how we show up professionally. He criticizes conformity and corporate routine, arguing that true engagement comes from actions aligned with personal strengths.
But I was looking for an answer to a different question:
**How do our talents influence which social media platform we should use?**
You know, I would recommend TikTok to an extrovert and long-form articles on LinkedIn to an introvert — but I'd be doing it based on intuition. And while I trust my gut, I prefer backing my advice with facts and research.
## Why most people choose the wrong platform
I see this constantly in my training work: people choose social media platforms based on what's trendy, not what matches their nature. The result?
- **An introvert forces themselves to record stories** — after a month they're burned out and disappear
- **An analyst tries to create viral Reels** — it comes across as fake and nobody watches
- **An expert with 20 years of experience dances on TikTok** — because "you have to" — and loses credibility
Buckingham puts it bluntly: **you'll achieve greater success developing your strengths than forcing growth in your weakest areas.** And this absolutely applies to social media.
## Framework: Your talent type → Your platform
Based on Buckingham's book and my years of LinkedIn training experience, I've created a simple framework for matching platforms to talents.
### "Educator" type → LinkedIn + YouTube
People with a strong Educator trait find satisfaction in sharing knowledge, teaching, and helping others grow. Educator is one of my core strengths — and this explains why LinkedIn has been my natural environment for years.
**Why LinkedIn is the ideal platform for Educators**
**LinkedIn** lets you build a professional network, publish expert articles, conduct workshops, and engage in industry discussions. The long-form post and article format allows you to fully develop your ideas — something missing from platforms built around short-form content.
**YouTube** enables you to create educational video content accessible to a wide audience in an engaging, multimedia format.
### "Connector" type → LinkedIn + events
People with Connector talent build bridges between people. LinkedIn is natural for them because the platform is designed around networking. But the real magic happens when they combine online and offline — LinkedIn Local events, industry conferences, meetups.
### "Visionary" type → Twitter/X + LinkedIn
Visionaries think in big concepts and love provoking thought. Twitter/X gives them speed and reach; LinkedIn provides depth and professional context.
### "Creator" type → Instagram + TikTok + YouTube
Creators think in images, build aesthetics, and design visual experiences. Visual platforms are their natural habitat. But note — if you don't have this talent, trying to be a creator on Instagram will be frustrating and inauthentic.
### "Analyst" type → LinkedIn + Newsletter
Analysts love data, reports, and deep analysis. Newsletters and LinkedIn Articles give them space to develop their thinking without format constraints.
## Why LinkedIn wins for building an expert brand
Regardless of your talent type, **LinkedIn has one unique advantage**: it's the only social media platform designed around professional identity. On Instagram you're a content creator. On TikTok you're an entertainer. On LinkedIn you're an **expert**.
What this means in practice:
- **Your content reaches decision-makers** — managers, directors, business owners who make purchasing decisions
- **Your profile works like a CV + landing page** — every post builds your professional credibility
- **The algorithm rewards expertise** — since the September 2025 update, LinkedIn prioritizes content from consistent topic experts, not viral entertainment
- **Relationships translate to business** — people buy from people they know and trust
Research confirms: personal brands built around a clear specialty or unique point of view generate significantly higher engagement and trust. Strong, authentic insights influence who decision-makers choose to follow, hire, or buy from.
**My 2026 thesis**
I believe that in the era of AI scrapers stealing content from the public internet, closed communities and identity-verified platforms like LinkedIn will gain importance. Your expert avatar on TikTok could be a deepfake — your verified LinkedIn profile cannot.
## How to discover your talents: practical steps
1. **Take the CliftonStrengths test (formerly StrengthsFinder)** — it costs about $25, gives you your Top 5 talents out of 34 possible themes. Over 10 million people worldwide have used it.
2. **Read "Love and Work"** — the book gives you context to interpret your results and connect them to your daily work and content strategy.
3. **Match your platform to your talents** — use the framework above as a starting point, not a prescription. Experiment, but start from what feels most natural.
4. **Weave your strengths into your LinkedIn profile** — don't just list talent names; show how your strengths translate into results. Weaving strengths into the narrative of your About section helps readers understand how you use them.
## Who is Marcus Buckingham?
**About the author**
Marcus Buckingham is the co-creator of the **StrengthsFinder** tool (commonly called Gallup tests) and **StandOut** for assessing strengths, which over 10 million people worldwide have used so far.
He's a researcher focused on unleashing strengths, increasing productivity, and creating better work prospects.
### Other books by the author:
- **"First, Break All the Rules"** (with Curt Coffman)
- **"Now, Discover Your Strengths"** (with Donald O. Clifton)
- **"Nine Lies About Work"** (with Ashley Goodall)
## Where to buy the book
You can buy the Polish edition at MT Biznes: [Love and Work - Marcus Buckingham](https://mtbiznes.pl/rozwoj-osobisty/pasja-i-praca). I received it at LinkedIn Local Warsaw, where I spoke about combining passion with work, building visibility from scratch after leaving employment, and discovering your strengths.
This review is not a paid collaboration — it was not commissioned, and the publisher doesn't even know about it. I recommend the book because it's genuinely good. I also recommend following Paweł Jarczewski on social media — he recommends many excellent books.
## My takeaway
Talents according to Buckingham are key not just for careers, but for choosing the right platform and style of social media presence. For me — as an Educator type — LinkedIn and YouTube are my natural environments.
But the most important takeaway is simpler: **stop copying others and start by understanding yourself.** Your strengths aren't a weakness — they're your superpower. Use them.
---
*Do you know your strengths? Have you found "your" social media platform? Write to me — I'd love to discuss how to align your strategy with your talents.*
---
Once you know your strengths, the next step is applying them on LinkedIn. My [LinkedIn training for companies](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/) helps teams build authentic profiles and content strategies based on what makes them unique — 80% hands-on exercises included.
---
# Founder Burnout — How to Survive Running a Business
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/entrepreneur-mental-health/
> Founder burnout is real: 81% of startup founders stay silent about mental health. Personal experience, statistics, and practical survival strategies.
## Founder burnout in short
- Almost all founders in the 2025 Startup Snapshot survey report feeling emotionally isolated during a crisis, and 49% rely solely on co-founders or spouses instead of qualified support.
- Going through his child's mental illness, the loss of his job and a divorce, Rafal Szymanski realized that burnout isn't a badge of honor but an alarm signal. He regrets not recognizing the warning signs earlier.
- Rafal Szymanski helps himself in four ways: he rejected perfection, he lets go when stress winds up, he has an “oxygen mask” (cycling, walks around Warsaw with friends), and he **talks**, which he calls the hardest point.
- The 3xL method helps you support someone in crisis: Look (assess the situation and ensure safety), Listen (show empathy, don't judge, don't give advice), Link (offer concrete help, such as psychological support).
- A founder should schedule recovery just like revenue, putting therapy, workouts and internet-free weekends in the calendar before reaching the limit.
## Founder Burnout — How to Survive Running a Business Without Losing Your Mind
Today there won't be jokes about how running a business in Poland means you won't laugh at the circus.
Today is World Mental Health Day and for anyone running a business, it should be an important day.
This year's theme by the World Federation for Mental Health is very important: **"Mental health in emergency and disaster situations"**.
We're not just talking about war zones or natural disasters. We're talking about overwhelming emotions, economic pressure, constant bad news from the East, anxiety related to social media algorithms, and the silent breakdown happening behind elegant Zoom or corporate Teams conversations.
When working for yourself, you feel this more intensely because most of the time you silently endure the pressure, manage chaos, ignoring your own crisis.
Entrepreneurs are in their own crisis situation. And it's not always visible.
Let's remember that in Poland, suicide attempts are at the top of the death list, and most of the people who die by suicide are adult men.
## Statistics That Make You Think
Statistics confirm this too. According to a survey conducted in 2025 by Startup Snapshot:
[Image: Cover of the Startup Snapshot report “The Untold Toll” on the impact of stress on startup founders]
81% of founders don't speak openly about their mental health struggles
49% rely solely on co-founders or spouses, not qualified support
Almost all report feeling emotionally isolated during crisis
This year's campaign isn't just about awareness. It's about making mental health accessible, actionable, and real for leaders, especially in times when the world is constantly changing. If you're building a company, leading a team, or struggling with uncertainty, you're not only responsible for profits. You're responsible for the people behind it all.
> **You can't build a thriving business if the people behind it are barely making ends meet.**
## Eye-Opening Conversations
I once had an interesting conversation on "Founders Mind" with one of the owners of a very successful startup who told me: _"Rafal, my partner has been in deep depression for a year, and I can't cope myself."_
I had another conversation on Monday – with someone who often speaks publicly but this time decided to skip the hottest period of the year to take care of their mental well-being. I really respect that.
Being a business owner who employs someone, or like I used to be, running a sole proprietorship, comes with no warnings. No one tells you what a high price you have to pay for the pressure.
You just feel it. Quietly.
In recent months, when I opened up more to vulnerability and speaking publicly about my social work related to mental health, I've received quite a response. Privately. In private messages: _"Thank you for naming what I felt."_
I think that's one of the reasons why I devote a large part of my time to the mental health area.
> **Silence is not strength. Vulnerability is strength.**
## The Hidden Burden – Let's Bust Some Myths
Let's bust some myths and establish some facts:
Being an entrepreneur isn't just freedom. It means carrying a mental burden:
- Paying salaries while balancing personal obligations
- Making tough decisions when you don't want to let anyone down
- Creating space for your team while hiding your own stress
- Leading when you're quietly falling apart
> **Let's establish that there's no such thing as "work" and "life". You have one life. Trying to separate these two spheres is what exhausts us.**
When I went through my child's mental illness, then job loss, divorce, and rebuilt everything from scratch – including who I was as a man, father, someone who has to earn for himself and others – I realized that burnout isn't a badge of honor but an alarm signal. I regret not recognizing those warning signs earlier.
## How to Help Yourself?
Now, when my wife and I have four children in a blended family on our minds and in our hearts, a sole proprietorship, two companies, and lots of social activities, there are several things that help me. Maybe you'll take something from this for yourself:
1. **I rejected perfection.** I'm a good enough entrepreneur and the best version of a parent I can be, but certainly not perfect.
2. **I let go when the stress spring winds up.** I can skip that training, I can miss that event, I can pass on many professional opportunities to take care of myself.
3. **I have my oxygen mask and support group** when I'm short of breath. For me, it's cycling or wandering around Warsaw with friends with the task of finding things we didn't know.
4. **Conversation.** I seek support, I try to talk, not close myself off. The hardest point to implement.
## How to Help Someone Else?
It may happen that someone asks you for a conversation and help. How to behave. I believe a very good method is 3xL: Look, Listen, Link.
[Video: How to help another person — the 3xL method: Look, Listen, Link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0NdytmiSGg)
The link references a Unaweza Foundation project that applies this in their programs helping young people, but the principles are universal:
1. **LOOK** Assess the situation, notice signs of crisis, ensure safety for yourself and the person you're helping.
2. **LISTEN** Show empathy, ask open questions about the situation and how the person feels, acknowledge all their emotions, don't judge, don't give advice.
3. **LINK** Offer concrete help in finding appropriate support (e.g., psychological help), remind them of resources (e.g., the person's strengths, their capabilities, people ready to help).
## What Can You Do Now?
Conversation is important. It's the first step. Next on the list:
- Check on your team. Yes, but also on yourself. You're part of the team, even
in a sole proprietorship. - Start a conversation privately or publicly, break
the silence. - Define your availability standards, set boundaries, rest, use
therapy, and be honest. - Serve help, don't force sales, especially this week.
Be human above all.
## Mental Health Strategies for Entrepreneurs
Awareness is the first step, but you need real actions to avoid burning out professionally. Here are practices I use to protect my mental health:
👉 **Create micro-routines.** You don't need a 2-hour morning ritual recommended by TikTok influencers. You do need reference points throughout the day. 10 minutes of meditation, a walk after phone calls, or journaling before bed can reset your nervous system and perspective. Anything that anchors you.
👉 **Build a support circle.** Build a small circle of trusted colleagues, mentors, or coaches you can talk to without judgment. Sometimes just saying something out loud releases tension.
👉 **Schedule recovery just like revenue.** If you plan your post premieres down to the hour, plan recovery with the same precision. Therapy, workouts, internet-free weekends – put them in your calendar before you reach your limit.
👉 **Integrate, don't separate.** Stop chasing the myth of "work-life balance". You don't have two lives, you have one. Consciously merge them: invite your family to participate in your successes, share difficulties with your team, and let your values permeate both areas.
👉 **Train your team in transparency.** Lead by example. If you set boundaries, they'll believe they can too. If you admit you're struggling, they'll be honest with you instead of hiding their problems.
## Who Is This Post For?
To the freelancer with a sole proprietorship who doubts themselves at 2 AM. To the manager carrying the weight of their team. To the business owner who shows up every day but feels invisible...
You're not alone.
Let this next week be more than just awareness. Let's move to action and provide each other space for conversation.
---
### Useful Links:
**HELPPP Page from the Young Minds Program**
[First Aid for Mental Health consists of 3 simple steps](https://helppp.pl/)
**"The Untold Toll Report" Study** Startup Snapshot
[The Untold Toll Report Startup Snapshot Study](https://www.startupsnapshot.com/research/the-untold-toll-the-impact-of-stress-on-the-well-being-of-startup-founders-and-ceos/)
**Poster used as illustration, I have it in my office**
[Freelancer Poster by Pawel Jonca, available in his store](https://paweljonca.com/sklep/freelancer/)
**Marc Randolph's Podcast** (Netflix co-founder) who speaks with brutal honesty about founders' anxiety and resilience. His confession reminds me that leadership isn't spreadsheets. It's surviving your own doubts.
[Video: Marc Randolph's podcast on founders' anxiety and resilience](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OIIzuHDuG4)
---
# What Does Sends Mean on LinkedIn? (2026)
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-analytics-saved-sent/
> A post with 10 sends can beat one with 200 likes. What Sends mean on LinkedIn, where to find them in post analytics and how to use them in B2B.
## LinkedIn Sends in short
- You find LinkedIn Sends by going to your post, clicking **View Analytics** and checking the Social Engagement section.
- Saves show how many people bookmarked a post to return to it later, a signal of content useful for future reference, while Sends show that content is actively being circulated.
- In my view Sends are the strongest indicator of content that starts business conversations: a post with 10 sends and 5 likes is likely generating more pipeline value than a post with 200 likes and 0 sends.
- In one B2B Marketing.AI client's data, the post with the most sends (**39**) also collected the most saves (222), while the post with the best engagement rate (7.2%) had only 2 saves.
- One metric will not prove that Sends sell: Dreamdata's benchmarks count 76 touchpoints on average and 272 days from first touch to revenue, so last-click attribution tells you little.
- If a LinkedIn post gets high sends, create follow-up content on the same topic. A post with high impressions but zero sends is entertainment, a post with moderate impressions but high sends is a lead magnet.
## LinkedIn introduces "dark social" analytics. What is it and what does it mean for you?
Dark social is everything that happens in social media but isn't visible at first glance. These are all the messages you sent to friends, all the links on WhatsApp with comments like: "Check this out, cool."
> Likes and comments are good for post visibility, but the real conversion happens when someone sends your post on the company Slack or in a DM saying: "Look, this person really knows the topic."
[Image: LinkedIn Analytics - new Saved and Sent indicators]
So from today, you should see two new indicators in your analytics:
"Saved" and "Sent".
---
## What does "Sends" mean on LinkedIn?
"Sends" on LinkedIn analytics measures the number of times users have privately shared your post with others, typically through direct messages (DMs). This metric indicates high-value content that sparks one-to-one conversations and professional recommendations, representing "invisible impact" beyond public likes or comments.
### Key details about Sends on LinkedIn
- **Private engagement:** Unlike shares, likes, or comments, sends indicate that a user thought your content was relevant enough to pass on personally.
- **Actionable insights:** High send numbers indicate trust in your perspective and content that is deemed worth sharing privately.
- **Distinction from saves:** While "Saves" (or bookmarks) show that content is useful for future reference, "Sends" highlight content that is actively being circulated.
- **Where to find them:** You can view your "Sends" data by going to your post, clicking **View Analytics**, and checking the Social Engagement section.
---
## What does "Saves" mean on LinkedIn?
"Saved" shows how many people found your post interesting enough to bookmark it so they can return to it later. This is a strong signal of evergreen, reference-worthy content — the kind of post people want to revisit when they need specific information or inspiration.
---
## Sends vs. Saves vs. Impressions — what's the difference?
| Metric | What it measures | Signal |
|--------|-----------------|--------|
| **Impressions** | How many people saw your post in their feed | Reach and visibility |
| **Likes / Reactions** | Public approval, fast and easy engagement | Surface-level interest |
| **Comments** | Public conversation, deeper interaction | Thought provocation |
| **Saves** | Bookmarks for later reference | Evergreen value, utility |
| **Sends** | Private shares via DM | Trust, recommendation, conversion potential |
Sends are the strongest indicator of content that drives real business conversations. A post with 10 sends and 5 likes is likely generating more pipeline value than a post with 200 likes and 0 sends.
---
## What our data shows: sends, saves and conversions
LinkedIn's post analytics puts impressions, reactions and comments up front. Nice for the ego, but my clients know those are not the numbers that turn into business. That is why the LinkedIn analytics tool in B2B Marketing.AI shows, next to reach, the metrics closest to conversion: Saves, Sends, Link Clicks and the followers a post brought in (LinkedIn exposes that one through its API). In my view Saves, Sends and Link Clicks are the KPIs that matter most.
[Image: The LinkedIn analytics dashboard in B2B Marketing.AI for one client over 30 days: 17 posts, 217.7K impressions, 3,598 engagements, 51 saves, 36 sends, 21 link clicks and 21 followers gained from posts]
*The analytics dashboard in B2B Marketing.AI, one client, last 30 days. Sends up 112%.*
Here is the same client's post table, sorted by sends. In this client's case a link click is a click on a link to buy a training. The post with the most sends (39) also collected the most saves (222). The post with the best engagement rate (7.2%) had only 2 saves, and across these posts a high engagement rate went with fewer link clicks, not more.
[Image: One client's LinkedIn posts in B2B Marketing.AI sorted by Sends, with impressions, engagements, shares, saves, sends, link clicks, followers gained and engagement rate for each post]
*The same client's posts sorted by Sends. The top one: 39 sends, 222 saves, 9 link clicks, 12 new followers.*
Will one table prove that sends sell? No, and in B2B no single metric will. A buyer meets your brand dozens of times before asking for a meeting: [Dreamdata's benchmarks](https://dreamdata.io/b2b-customer-journey) count 76 touchpoints on average and 272 days from first touch to revenue. So last-click attribution tells you little. What I can say is that my client and I see the same pattern: posts with many sends, saves and clicks are the ones that end up in sales conversations.
---
## How to use Sends and Saves in your content strategy
1. **Identify high-value content:** Focus on creating more content that drives sends — this often indicates stronger professional influence than mere visibility.
2. **Gauge true impact:** Use this metric to understand how your content sparks behind-the-scenes conversations.
3. **Double down on what works:** If a post gets high sends, create follow-up content on the same topic. Your audience is telling you this subject drives real action.
4. **Don't chase vanity metrics:** A post with high impressions but zero sends is entertainment. A post with moderate impressions but high sends is a lead magnet.
---
## Why this matters for B2B and specific industries
These new analytical indicators are based on what LinkedIn announced over the past few months:
> "Private user signals are more important than likes"
So this year we already have information about profile viewers and followers gained through posts, interactions with custom Premium buttons, and LinkedIn API Member Post Analytics.
I'm very happy about this direction because in some industries like coaching or career counseling, few people like posts for fear that someone will see, but many people save and share them. In executive search, sends finally enable conversion tracking since job seekers rarely liked recruiter posts. Now we'll be able to measure this.
Source: LinkedIn post by Sam Corrao Clanon, Director of Product at LinkedIn
---
## Comment on LinkedIn
[LinkedIn post](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rafalszymanski_linkedin-wprowadza-analityk%C4%99-dark-social-activity-7385937718494605312-DorG)
---
Want your LinkedIn analytics to turn into B2B leads?
## FAQ — common questions about LinkedIn Sends and Saves
### What does "Sends" mean on LinkedIn?
"Sends" measures how many times users privately shared your post via direct messages. It indicates high-value content that sparks one-to-one professional conversations — the strongest form of engagement beyond public likes or comments.
### What are "Saves" and "Sends" on LinkedIn?
"Saves" (bookmarks) show how many people found your post worth returning to later. "Sends" show how many times your post was shared privately via DM. Together, they reveal the "dark social" impact of your content that was previously invisible.
### What does "send in a message" mean on LinkedIn?
When someone clicks "Send in a message" on your LinkedIn post, they share it privately with a connection via DM. This action is now tracked in your post analytics as a "Send" — giving you visibility into private content distribution.
### Are Sends more important than Likes on LinkedIn?
For B2B and professional content, yes. Likes signal surface-level interest, but sends indicate that someone trusted your content enough to personally recommend it. A post with high sends is likely generating real business conversations and pipeline value.
---
# LinkedIn Updates 2026: New Features and What No Longer Works
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-updates/
> Every LinkedIn update and new feature in one place — algorithm, analytics, AI, video ads — each with its current status: live, in testing, or withdrawn.
## LinkedIn updates in short
- Every entry in the register carries a status: **announced**, in testing, live or withdrawn, because LinkedIn announces more than it ships and ships more than it keeps.
- Change your process only once a feature is live: nobody sees announced features yet, and features in testing run on some accounts with no promise they stay.
- LinkedIn shipped the in-network / out-of-network metric later than announced and backfilled the data by a year, which changed the conclusions of everyone who had already built on those numbers.
- In October 2025 LinkedIn added the Saves and Sends metrics to posts, which show deeper engagement than likes. In Executive Search they finally allow conversion tracking, because job seekers rarely liked recruiter posts.
- In September 2026 Sales Navigator decision-maker alerts reach Microsoft Teams only on Advanced Plus and currently skip people in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, so a team selling in Europe gets nothing there about European decision makers.
- An entry gets into the register only once I have seen it myself or verified it on a client account, which is why the list is shorter than round-ups running to hundreds of items.
## Updates I covered in depth
The features below have their own write-ups, together with the status each one
holds today. LinkedIn regularly announces things it never ships, ships them as
tests, or withdraws them months later — so the announcement date on its own
tells you very little.
| When | What changed | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-01 | [LinkedIn Talent Connect 2026: Hiring Assistant 2, Verification and My Takeaways](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-talent-connect-2026/): LinkedIn announced Hiring Assistant 2 (reasoning model, fit signals, screening, Teams integration), rolling out to current users in November 2026. Plus colleague verification and verification in the apply flow. | Announced |
| 2026-09-22 | [LinkedIn Sales Navigator 2026 — New Features](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/sales-navigator-2026-features/): September Sales Navigator release: alerts in Microsoft Teams, Lead IQ in CRM, signals in LinkedIn notifications, smarter search and warm introductions. | Live |
| 2026-09-22 | [Sales Navigator Alerts in Microsoft Teams: Be the First to Know](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/sales-navigator-microsoft-teams/): Sales Navigator alerts about decision-maker changes now reach Microsoft Teams. Advanced Plus only, with no alerts about people in the EEA, Switzerland or the UK. | Live |
| 2026-09-22 | [Lead IQ in Your CRM: Sales Navigator's Lead Summary Without Leaving the CRM](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/lead-iq-crm/): Sales Navigator's Lead IQ lead summary now works inside the CRM. Advanced Plus with CRM Sync only, and only when LinkedIn is set to English. | Live |
| 2026-09-22 | [Sales Navigator Alerts in LinkedIn Notifications: What You See Without Opening Navigator](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/sales-navigator-alerts-linkedin-notifications/): Key Sales Navigator alerts now arrive as regular LinkedIn notifications, on every license including Core. | Live |
| 2026-09-22 | [Personalized Onboarding in Sales Navigator: Four Questions to Start With](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/sales-navigator-personalized-onboarding/): New Sales Navigator users answer four questions about their goal, product, ideal customer and target accounts. Rolling out gradually, plan availability unclear. | In testing |
| 2026-09-22 | [Sales Navigator Alerts After the Update: Deal Priority and a New Weekly Email](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/sales-navigator-alerts/): Sales Navigator alerts now prioritize leads tied to open CRM opportunities, consolidate updates from a single lead, and the weekly email draws on 22 alert types instead of 13. | Live |
| 2026-09-22 | [Sales Navigator Search 2026: Describe the Buyer, Not Just Keywords](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/sales-navigator-search-2026/): Sales Navigator search understands a buyer description, reads job levels more accurately and relaxes a filter when a search would return nothing. All licenses. | Live |
| 2026-09-22 | [Warm Introductions in Sales Navigator: Who Can Introduce You to the Decision Maker](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/sales-navigator-warm-introductions/): Sales Navigator shows in search results who can introduce you to a lead and to the leaders of their company, sorted by relationship strength. | Live |
| 2026-09-22 | [Logging Notes and Calls to the CRM in Sales Navigator: A New Admin Toggle](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/sales-navigator-activity-logging-controls/): A Sales Navigator Advanced Plus admin turns logging of notes and calls to the CRM on or off for all users from a single settings page. | Live |
| 2026-09-08 | [LinkedIn Is Putting Social Selling Index Behind Sales Navigator](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/ssi-behind-sales-navigator-paywall/): LinkedIn ended access to the Social Selling Index page for accounts without a Sales Navigator licence. | Live |
| 2026-09-08 | [LinkedIn Sales Navigator Pricing 2026 and When It Pays Off](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-sales-navigator-pricing/): Sales Navigator price list checked on September 8, 2026: Core $119.99 a month or $1,079.88 a year, Advanced $159.99 a month or $1,799.88 a year, Advanced Plus quoted individually. | Live |
| 2026-07-01 | [New Sales Navigator Feature — Share Account Searches](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/sales-navigator-share-account-searches/): Account search sharing in Sales Navigator, available in Advanced and Advanced Plus licences. | Live |
| 2026-06-23 | [In-network / out-of-network: I built this analytics early — and LinkedIn just shipped it, backfilled a year](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-in-out-of-network-analytics/): The in-network / out-of-network metric reached analytics, and LinkedIn backfilled a year of data. | Live |
| 2026-04-10 | [LinkedIn Comments as a Good Start for Action](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-comments-good-start/): View counts are shown under comments. The counters are not unique. | Live |
| 2026-04-10 | [What New Features Does LinkedIn Plan for 2025?](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-new-features-2025/): The changes announced for 2025 are live: a push for educational content, Lead IQ and an AI assistant for InMail messages in Sales Navigator. | Live |
| 2025-10-20 | [What Does Sends Mean on LinkedIn? (2026)](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-analytics-saved-sent/): Saves and Sends landed in post analytics — the first measurement of dark social. | Live |
| 2025-09-01 | [LinkedIn Promotes Old Posts](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-promotes-old-posts/): The feed stopped being purely chronological — a good post can return to circulation days later. | Live |
| 2025-06-15 | [LinkedIn Offers Free Ready Banners](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-free-banners/): LinkedIn released a library of ready-made profile background banners, free of charge. | Live |
| 2025-06-09 | [LinkedIn News - Video, Removed Links, Better Analytics](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-news-june-2025/): LinkedIn refined video handling, changed how links in posts are treated and expanded analytics. | Live |
| 2025-04-15 | [LinkedIn Forces 2FA Login on Paid Accounts](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-2fa-login-required/): Two-factor authentication became mandatory in the paid tools with access to member data: Sales Navigator, Recruiter and Campaign Manager. | Live |
## How to read this register
LinkedIn announces more than it ships, and ships more than it keeps. The
announcement date on its own tells you very little — what matters is the state a
feature is in today. So every entry carries a status:
- **Announced** — LinkedIn has said it is coming, but nobody sees it yet. Not the
moment to rebuild a process around it.
- **In testing** — live for some accounts, often unannounced and with no promise
it stays. Worth checking whether you have it, and nothing more.
- **Live** — rolled out broadly, safe to build on.
- **Withdrawn** — LinkedIn reversed course or quietly changed its mind. This is
the most instructive category, because it shows what was not worth the effort.
That last category is why this register exists at all. With the in-network /
out-of-network metric, LinkedIn did not just ship later than announced — it
[backfilled the data by a year](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-in-out-of-network-analytics/),
which changed the conclusions of everyone who had already built on those numbers.
## What no longer works on LinkedIn
A separate list, because "what stopped working" gets asked more often than
"what's new". The following still circulate in guides and no longer hold:
- **Engagement pods.** LinkedIn never banned them — it did something more
effective, showing content from such groups only inside the group. Members
inflate each other's counters while real reach falls. I unpack the mechanism in
the piece on [how the algorithm actually works](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-algorithm-reach-b2b/).
- **Coordinated engagement bursts.** A hundred reactions in the same minute from a
link dropped into a group chat is a trivially detectable pattern.
- **Hashtags as a reach channel.** Since LinkedIn retired hashtag following they
are a topical label, not a lever. Two or three relevant ones are enough.
- **Posting for frequency.** The algorithm rewards topical consistency and real
dwell time, not how many times a week you publish.
- **Treating the feed as chronological.** LinkedIn prioritises relevance over
recency — [a good post can return to circulation days later](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-promotes-old-posts/).
## Where this information comes from
Three sources, in this order: my own accounts and client accounts, where I can
see what actually appeared; LinkedIn's official announcements; and people who
track the platform as closely — in particular
[Kevin D. Turner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevindturner/), who catches
interface changes faster than anyone.
The rule I hold to: **an entry gets into this register only once I have seen it
myself or verified it on a client account.** That is why this list is shorter
than round-ups running to hundreds of items — and why you can rely on it.
## Full update register
| Date | Title | Description | Implications |
| ------------ | ---------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Sep 2026** | **Sales Navigator in Teams, the CRM and LinkedIn notifications** | Sales Navigator decision-maker alerts reach Microsoft Teams (Advanced Plus only), Lead IQ shows up in the view embedded in the CRM (Advanced Plus only, English LinkedIn only), and some signals, such as a saved lead's promotion or new saved search results, arrive as regular LinkedIn notifications on all plans. Plus search that understands a buyer description and warm introductions right in the results. | Teams alerts currently skip people in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, so a team selling in Europe gets nothing there about European decision makers. Most people will feel the LinkedIn notifications and the search changes, because they are in Core. Details and the plan table in the [post on Sales Navigator 2026 features](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/sales-navigator-2026-features/). |
| **Nov 2025** | **AI Training-Data Policy Update** | LinkedIn announced that user data (profiles, posts, resumes) will be used to train AI models starting Nov 3 2025 in select regions (UK, EU, EEA, Canada, Switzerland) with opt-out options. | Members and companies should review privacy settings; brands should prepare for stricter EU compliance and potential client queries about data use. |
| **Oct 2025** | **Company Page Analytics Changes** | Free company pages now limited to 1 competitor tracking slot; advanced analytics moved to Premium tiers where up to 9 competitors can be tracked. | Companies lose visibility into competitors; agencies should budget for Premium analytics or use external monitoring tools. |
| **Oct 2025** | **Post Metrics: "Saves" and "Sends"** | New engagement metrics show how often a post is saved (bookmarked) or shared in messages. | Enables tracking of "deeper" engagement beyond likes/comments. For some industries like Executive Search, this finally enables conversion tracking since job seekers rarely liked recruiter posts. Content marketers analyzing ROI get new KPIs and should focus on these metrics. |
| **Sep 2025** | **Algorithm Update – Expertise & Dwell Time** | Feed now prioritises content from consistent topic experts and longer dwell time rather than recency. | Post fewer but higher-quality updates; double down on niche authority and native formats (text, carousel, video). |
| **Aug 2025** | **BrandLink Video Ad Program** | Expansion of video ad network with creator-led shows (LinkedIn paying creators for the first time, similar to YT and Meta) and new pre-roll ad format among selected publishers initially. | Marketers should allocate budget to video formats and creator collabs; video reach ↑ 36% YoY. |
| **Jul 2025** | **Campaign Manager AI Draft & Auto-Targeting** | Added AI features that auto-generate ad copy and target audiences based on objectives and landing page. | Small companies gain access to faster ad setup; marketers should validate AI outputs for tone and brand alignment. I use this feature to check if AI understands my ad copy and landing page as intended. If AI suggestions don't align with my assumptions, I start changing the copy. |
| **May 2025** | **AI Recruiter Global Roll-Out** | AI agent for recruiters suggests candidates and auto-drafts messages in English (beta expanding to other languages). | Reduces recruiter workload; companies should train teams to review AI communication for bias/tone. Can be used for Polish language work by connecting with translation systems - I use DeepL. |
| **Apr 2025** | **Verified Badge on External Platforms** | Verified LinkedIn users can display a “Verified on LinkedIn” badge on other platforms (e.g., Adobe Behance). | Boosts credibility and cross-platform trust; creators and brands should complete ID verification. |
| **Mar 2025** | **Company Intelligence API Beta** | API gives marketers access to company engagement and employee data updates for CRM integration. | Enables ABM automation and cross-channel reporting; developers can embed LinkedIn signals into sales dashboards. I'm heavily testing this but limitations include high licensing costs, so it will likely only be adopted in large corporations. |
| **Feb 2025** | **Mini Sudoku & Casual Games** | Added engaging logic games to increase session duration and diversify LinkedIn experience. | Part of LinkedIn's "stickiness" strategy; brands could see more non-professional traffic time on feed as LinkedIn will report longer session times. I understand the decision - let the first person throw stones who didn't farm crops in FarmVille on Facebook in 2010 - but I consider this a poor decision. |
| **Jan 2025** | **AI-Powered Job Search** | Users can find jobs with natural-language queries ("marketing lead remote Europe") vs filters. | Works only in English but generally works better than filters, so you can see job offers you wouldn't know about due to poor filter selection. Employers should optimize job posts for semantic search phrases and test them! |
| **Dec 2024** | **AI Summaries for Posts and Articles** | Experimental AI feature summarises long articles and comment threads for readers. | Improved content discoverability and Skill Graph matching. Long-form creators (articles and newsletters on LinkedIn) should create clear structure for AI summaries. This taught me to write blog texts so they're visible later in ChatGPT. I don't see these suggestions in October 2025 so I'm not sure if this feature still works. |
| **Oct 2024** | **Collaborative Articles - I won't translate this name** | "Collaborative Articles" (feature pairing LinkedIn editors + expert contributors) expanded globally and we could use it in Poland. | Great feature where LinkedIn AI created titles and table of contents for articles and then invited users to fill with content or comments. You got expert badges in specific industries for this. Unfortunately, after a few months, the badge awarding feature was removed due to hacking by Asian users. The record holder I saw had 330 industry expert badges and "Open to work" status. |
| **Jun 2024** | **Newsletter Importance Boost & Subscription Analytics** | Improved newsletter tools: auto-subscribe on follow + insights into open & read rates. | Essential for content marketers; promotes loyal audiences vs one-off posts. |
| **Apr 2024** | **B2B Product Search Listings** | Pilot of LinkedIn Product Pages showcasing B2B software/services in search results and LinkedIn Sales Navigator ecosystem. | Opens new SEO-like opportunities for SaaS vendors (currently only software can be added). After adding a product to LinkedIn database, you can search for it in Sales Navigator, e.g., find people looking for our or our industry software. In 2025, ads were also added to this. |
---
Want to leverage these LinkedIn features for lead generation and sales? My [Sales Navigator training](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/linkedin-sales-navigator-training/) covers buyer intent signals, lead search, and advanced filters — all with hands-on practice on your team's accounts.
---
## FAQ — common questions about LinkedIn updates
### How often does LinkedIn ship changes?
Practically every week, but the vast majority are small interface tweaks visible to a fraction of accounts. Changes that genuinely affect strategy — algorithm, analytics, content rules — number a handful to a dozen a year. The rest is noise not worth reacting to.
### How do I know whether a feature has reached my account?
LinkedIn rolls changes out in waves and rarely tells the user. The simplest check is to look in the place the change affects — if a new metric is not in your post analytics, you simply do not have it yet. A missing feature does not mean something is wrong with your account.
### Does LinkedIn withdraw features it has already shipped?
Yes, regularly, and usually without announcement. Sometimes the feature stays but the data behind it changes — with the in-network / out-of-network metric LinkedIn backfilled a year of history after shipping. That is why every entry here carries a status rather than just a date.
### How has the LinkedIn algorithm changed?
The main direction is a shift from recency to relevance: the feed favours people who publish consistently on one topic and measures how long you hold a reader rather than counting reactions. In practice your reach is decided by your behavioural history over recent weeks, not by the post itself.
### Which LinkedIn metrics are worth tracking now?
Saves and Sends — the private engagement signals. They show that someone found the content worth keeping or worth passing on, which is a far stronger indicator than likes, especially in fields where a public reaction would be awkward for the reader.
### Should I act on every new feature?
No. Features in testing can disappear within weeks, and rebuilding a process around something that may not last is wasted effort. A sensible rule: watch what is announced, test what is in testing on a single account, and change your process only once something is live.
---
# How to Use LinkedIn in 2026
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/how-to-use-linkedin-2026/
> Master LinkedIn in 2026: profile optimization, content strategy, networking, Sales Navigator tips, and algorithm changes explained step by step.
## LinkedIn in 2026 in short
- A carousel designed on a 32-inch monitor and a wall of text without paragraphs are unreadable on a phone. On LinkedIn vertical video and readable carousels work, while horizontal video and graphics with microscopic text do not.
- In 2025 the amount of content on LinkedIn tripled while reach dropped by half, because AI generates a post about “what is marketing” in three seconds. Nobody wants to read that “wikipediazation” of content anymore.
- A post with 10 sends is worth more than a post with 200 likes and no private engagement, because saving a post and sending it in a private message (**Dark Social**) are the strongest signals for the LinkedIn algorithm.
- Conversion from LinkedIn invitations used to be 50-60%, and today 30% is a good result. Before you send an invitation, check whether the company has a budget (the LeadIQ function in Sales Navigator) and comment substantively on the posts of the person you invite.
- The Brew360 algorithm checks whether your profile is consistent with what you write and matches you to “tribes”. It stopped promoting only the newest content, so you may see a post from 3 weeks ago in your feed if the system considers it important to you.
## What LinkedIn topics did we discuss in the podcast?
Is LinkedIn in 2026 even usable anymore?
That's the first question I heard from Artur Jabłoński. The context is brutal: we laugh at the "boomer" nature of this platform, at "CringeIn" and success propaganda. Then there's artificial intelligence. We have the impression that bots write posts and other bots comment on them.
Is it still worth being here? Yes. But only if you stop "doing LinkedIn" as if it were 2020.
Here are the key takeaways from our conversation – no sugarcoating.
## 1. Mobile-first: desktop is the past
Most of us create content at desks, on large monitors. I'm also a victim of this habit. Meanwhile, the statistics are relentless: **70% of LinkedIn traffic now comes from mobile devices**. Optimize your content and activities for this.
What does this mean in practice?
If your designer creates a beautiful carousel on a 32-inch monitor, or you post a wall of text without paragraphs – it's a waste of time and effort. On a phone, it's unreadable.
* **What works:** Vertical video, readable carousels (yes, the ones you scroll with your thumb), and formats adapted for small screens
* **What doesn't work:** Horizontal video and graphics with microscopic text.
## 2. Why AI-generated posts fail
We're drowning in content. Last year, the amount of content tripled while reach dropped by half. Why? Generating a post about "what is marketing" takes AI three seconds. If you don't respect yourself and your readers, you'll publish it in another 5 seconds, right after generating an AI graphic. That's why no one wants to read dry definitions anymore. I call this the "wikipediazation" of content – and it's a dead end.
What can't AI fake? **Your insights and your failures**.
Instead of writing "we ran a great campaign," write: "we had this plan, this didn't work out, this is where things went wrong, and these are the conclusions we drew." This builds trust. This is authentic.
It was said as a joke, but I seriously believe: talk about your failures, and you'll never run out of content.
## 3. Dark Social: the metrics that actually matter
You see few likes and think the post "didn't land"? Wrong. In 2026, we have new success metrics. The algorithm looks at what's not publicly visible – the so-called **Dark Social**.
Two metrics are key (available in the new analytics):
1. **Saving the post** (for later).
2. **Sending the post** (in a private message).
These are the strongest signals for the algorithm that your content is valuable. Create materials that people want to return to, not just "scroll past." Read more about these metrics in my [LinkedIn analytics guide: Sends and Saves explained](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-analytics-saved-sent/).
## 4. Sales and lead generation: don't be a bot
Today, when you open your inbox, you see 15 messages generated by automation offering a "non-binding invitation to a Teams meeting." The effectiveness of such activities is dropping drastically. Conversion from invitations used to be 50-60%, now 30% is a good result. And although I produce automation software myself, I repeat: **don't be a bot**, there's a human on the other side who wants to be treated like a human, not a record to check off in your CRM.
How to break through?
* **Do your homework:** Check if the company even has a budget (e.g., are they laying off or hiring). You have the LeadIQ function in LinkedIn Sales Navigator for this.
* **Warm up the contact:** Comment substantively on the person's posts before sending an invitation.
* **Be human:** My strangest method? A message in the invitation that says: "I'm not a bot" or "I won't try to spam you with a meeting invitation." This worked because it breaks the pattern.
Want to master these techniques with your team? My [B2B sales training](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/b2b-sales-training-linkedin/) covers Sales Navigator prospecting, warm outreach sequences, and lead qualification — 80% hands-on practice.
## 5. BREW360 algorithm and "tribes"
LinkedIn has started closing us into information bubbles it calls "tribes." The algorithm no longer just looks for keywords but checks whether your content resonates with a specific group of people.
Interestingly, the new version of the algorithm called Brew360 stopped promoting only the newest content. Now **relevance** matters. You might see a post from 3 weeks ago in your feed if the system considers it important to you.
## 6. LinkedIn tools I recommend
Artur tried to extract "one magic tool" from me, but it ended with several. If you want to act professionally:
**Sales Navigator:**
Absolute foundation for sales. Allows you to clear your feed of ads and focus on decision-makers. I cover it in depth in my [Sales Navigator training](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/linkedin-sales-navigator-training/).
[LinkedIn Sales Navigator](https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions)
**Shield LinkedIn Analytics:**
External analytics, because I love working with data.
**AuthoredUp:**
Helps format posts to look good on mobile. Also has analytics.
[AuthoredUp](https://authoredup.com/?red=rafasz)
## Summary
LinkedIn in 2026 is not a place to copy strategies from Instagram or post corporate platitudes. It's a place for experts who can combine data with a human face.
For the curious, here's the full conversation with Artur Jabłoński
[Video: What no longer works on LinkedIn — the full conversation with Artur Jabłoński](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbGcCXFWsKo)
Prefer listening? [The same episode is also on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6zSLfgkJ8rZZim2UD4Wbey).
And you? Which of these changes surprised you the most this year?
Let me know in the comments on LinkedIn (just please, don't let AI write it for you).
[LinkedIn post](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rafalszymanski_co-ju%C5%BC-nie-dzia%C5%82a-na-linkedin-rafa%C5%82-szyma%C5%84ski-activity-7425086025712009217-n6O7)
---
Ready to apply these LinkedIn strategies with your team? My [LinkedIn training for companies](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/) covers the BREW360 algorithm, mobile-first content, and dark social metrics — 80% hands-on exercises on your accounts.
## FAQ
### How to use LinkedIn effectively in 2026?
Focus on mobile-first content (70% of traffic is mobile), share authentic stories with real insights instead of AI-generated posts, and track dark social metrics (Saves and Sends) rather than likes. The BREW360 algorithm rewards topic expertise and content relevance over recency.
### What is the BREW360 LinkedIn algorithm?
BREW360 is LinkedIn's current algorithm that matches content to "tribes" — groups of professionals with shared interests. It checks profile-content consistency, prioritizes relevance over recency, and uses private engagement signals (saves, sends) more than public reactions.
### Is LinkedIn still worth using for B2B sales?
Yes, but cold automation is dying. Conversion from automated invitations dropped from 60% to 30%. Instead, use Sales Navigator to research prospects, warm up contacts by engaging with their posts, and send personalized messages that prove you've done your homework.
### What LinkedIn metrics matter most in 2026?
Saves (bookmarks) and Sends (private DM shares) are the strongest signals. They indicate content that drives real professional conversations. A post with 10 sends generates more business value than a post with 200 likes and zero private engagement.
---
# Why You Never Finish Online Courses
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/embarrassing-truth-online-courses/
> Why 85-90% of online courses end up unfinished and the cohort-based approach that changes everything. Real experience, statistics and practical tips.
## Finishing online courses in short
- Paid online courses are typically finished by 15-40% of people, free courses and MOOCs on Coursera or edX by 5-15%, and certification courses by 30-40%, because there is a concrete career incentive.
- The biggest killer of online learning is isolation: courses with active communities see **30-40% higher** completion rates.
- “Lack of time” is the most cited reason for dropping a course, but I think it is a prioritization problem: we buy courses in a moment of motivation and never truly block the time.
- Self-paced courses have completion rates as low as **3%**, while the altMBA, Seth Godin's cohort program, reaches 96%, thanks to accountability, fixed deadlines and community.
- You don't have to finish every lesson: I treated the cohort course “Zautomatyzowani” like business studies, focused on live consultations and peer exchange, and I'm very satisfied with the results without completing it all.
- Before buying an online course I check whether I will use it within **30 days** and whether I can name 3 specific problems it will solve. If not, I don't buy it, no matter how good the sale price.
I'll admit to something embarrassing: I buy a lot of online courses and mostly don't finish them. For years, they piled up on what I call my **shelf of shame** — right next to business books recommended by friends that I never read past chapter three.
But then I changed my approach, and it transformed how I get value from online education. Here's what happened, and what the data says about why most of us struggle with the same problem.
## You're not alone: the numbers are brutal
The average online course completion rate is **just 10–15%**. That means 85–90% of people who start a course never finish it. The numbers get even worse for free courses (5–15% completion) and MOOCs on platforms like Coursera or edX (5–15%).
Even paid courses don't fare much better — typically 15–40% completion rates. Only professional certification courses reach 30–40%, largely because there's a concrete career incentive to finish.
So if your course library looks like a digital graveyard, congratulations — you're statistically normal.
## Why we don't finish: it's not about willpower
After years of buying and abandoning courses, I've identified the real reasons — and research backs them up:
### The isolation problem
The biggest killer of online learning isn't bad content — it's loneliness. Students quit because they feel alone, not because the teaching is inadequate. Courses with active communities see **30–40% higher completion rates** compared to those without. When nobody notices whether you show up or disappear, it's easy to drift away.
### The time illusion
We buy courses in a moment of motivation, imagining we'll carve out 2 hours every evening. Reality hits: work deadlines, family obligations, that Netflix series. "Lack of time" is consistently the #1 reason people cite for dropping courses. But it's really a prioritization problem — we never truly blocked the time.
### The content problem
Some of my abandoned courses deserved to be abandoned. Long videos that could be summarized in a few sentences. Uninteresting segments with no way to skip ahead. Illusory "support" in dead Facebook groups or Circle communities where the last post was six months ago.
A separate place in my personal hell: **cohort courses scheduled during conference season**. Every. Single. Time.
### The completion trap
Here's the counterintuitive one: obsessing over completion percentage is itself the problem. When you focus on "finishing all modules," you optimize for checking boxes, not for learning. You watch videos at 2× speed, skim exercises, and rush through — only to remember nothing a week later.
## What changed everything: the MBA approach
Recently I bought a cohort course called "Zautomatyzowani" (Automated) — and I haven't completed all the lessons. Yet I'm incredibly satisfied with the results.
What changed? **I treated it like business studies, not a video playlist.**
Instead of grinding through every lesson, I concentrated on:
- **Live consultations** — asking specific questions about my real business problems
- **Peer exchange** — learning from other participants' experiences and solutions
- **Zoom sessions** — where someone shared a problem and their approach to solving it
These conversations turned out to be the most valuable part. A few simple tips from fellow participants Adam and Grzegorz solved problems I'd been stuck on for weeks. I didn't need to reinvent the wheel — someone had already found the shortcut.
What surprised me even more: some of my simple automations turned out to be genuinely interesting and useful to others. That unexpected value exchange gave me confidence I didn't expect.
## The data confirms it: cohort beats self-paced
My experience isn't just anecdotal. The research is overwhelming:
- **Self-paced courses**: completion rates as low as **3%**
- **Cohort-based courses**: completion rates of **85–96%**
- The altMBA (Seth Godin's cohort program) achieves a **96% completion rate**
Why? Three factors:
1. **Accountability** — when real people expect you to show up, you show up
2. **Deadlines** — fixed start and end dates create natural urgency
3. **Community** — 90% of cohort students report feeling engaged, compared to 60% in self-paced programs
## My practical framework for online courses
After years of trial, error, and shelf-of-shame building, here's my approach:
### Before buying
- **Will I use this within 30 days?** If not, I don't buy — no matter how good the sale price
- **Is there a community component?** Live sessions, cohort peers, or active forums increase my chances of getting value
- **Can I identify 3 specific problems this will solve?** Vague "I should learn this" motivation doesn't survive the first busy week
### During the course
- **Skip the completion mindset** — I focus on the 20% of content that solves my specific problems
- **Attend every live session** — these are irreplaceable; recordings never feel the same
- **Ask questions publicly** — my question usually helps others too, and the answers are more nuanced than FAQs
- **Connect with 2–3 participants** — a small accountability group outlasts the course itself
### After the course
- **Apply one thing immediately** — even if it's imperfect, implementation beats theory
- **Return to the material when I have a new problem** — courses become reference libraries, not one-time events
- **Share what I learned** — writing about it (like this post) forces me to crystallize the insights
## The uncomfortable truth about course creators
Not all courses deserve to be finished. The industry has a problem with:
- **Padding** — 2 hours of content stretched into 20 hours to justify the price
- **Outdated material** — especially in tech and marketing, where 6-month-old advice can be actively harmful
- **Fake urgency** — "Only 3 spots left!" for a pre-recorded video series
- **Dead communities** — promising "lifetime access to our exclusive community" that nobody moderates
The best course creators know this. They focus on outcomes over hours, update their material regularly, and invest in community management. These are the courses worth buying.
## Bottom line
I still haven't finished most of my courses. But I've stopped feeling bad about it.
The goal was never to finish — it was to learn something useful and apply it. My "Zautomatyzowani" experience taught me that the conversations, connections, and specific solutions matter infinitely more than a completion certificate.
If your shelf of shame is groaning under the weight of unfinished courses, try this: pick one, skip to the part that solves your current problem, and find someone to discuss it with. That's worth more than watching all 47 modules at 2× speed.
*How do you approach online courses? A big pile of shame, or everything done on time? Share in the comments.*
---
# LinkedIn Promotes Old Posts
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-promotes-old-posts/
> LinkedIn now promotes old posts over fresh content. Learn why the algorithm changed and what it means for your content strategy.
## Old posts on LinkedIn in short
- According to Gyanda Sachdeva, VP of Product Management at LinkedIn, you should expect less emphasis on timeliness after the algorithm change, because LinkedIn wants posts to be relevant to you. The company calls it balancing timeliness with relevance.
- Timeliness is only one factor in LinkedIn's algorithm, and the most important is belonging to the right “tribes”, the groups of people you interact with regularly. That is why a job-change post by a colleague from your company from 3 weeks ago will be prioritized over today's post by someone outside your network.
- Keep posting despite the algorithm change: your posts are visible on Google even when LinkedIn hides them, so someone may find them through a search engine in a year.
- After the LinkedIn algorithm change, focus on relationships: comment, because comments have their own analytics and LinkedIn pushes them in notifications, and keep inviting people and writing messages.
LinkedIn has become like a TV news program from the PRL era: it shows old news and no one knows why. The most common sentence in conversations with friends and clients is: LinkedIn twisted the algorithm again, I'm running away from here because there's no point in writing.
Optimistically, this replaced the previous opinion: LinkedIn is becoming Facebook, I'm running away from here because there's no point in writing. Because that was already very boomer-like.
OK, but have you also noticed that LinkedIn shows you posts from a week ago instead of today's? This is not just your impression. The guy managing the algorithm claims this is not a bug, but intentional action.
Just like in Windows.
In summary, this makes sense, because LinkedIn also belongs to Microsoft, so what do you expect?
What happened?
LinkedIn introduced an algorithm change in mid-June. Older posts are pushing current content out of the top of the feed. According to the company, this is to "balance timeliness with relevance" – sounds like corporate gibberish, right, or is it just my opinion?
Gyanda Sachdeva, VP of Product Management at LinkedIn, explains: "You should expect less emphasis on timeliness, because we want to ensure that posts are relevant to you."
[Image: Quote from Gyanda Sachdeva of LinkedIn: you should expect less emphasis on timeliness, because we want posts to be relevant to you]
What does LinkedIn consider "relevant"?
The algorithm analyzes many factors, and timeliness is just one of them. Most important is belonging to the right "tribes" – groups of people with whom you regularly interact.
That's why a post about a job change by a colleague from your company from 3 weeks ago will be prioritized over today's post by someone outside your network.
In theory, this change was also supposed to cause "secret LinkedIn support groups" to stop making sense because people from those groups will only see their own posts, they will be hidden from outsiders. I feel like tagging someone here and asking if this is happening ;)
The action of tribes (how to translate this, as a gang of people?) I explained very precisely in my presentation at I Love Marketing and I'll put a link to it in the comment.
What can you do?
Do your thing. Your posts are visible on Google, even when LinkedIn hides them. This is not lost work – someone will find your content through a search engine in a year.
Focus on relationships. LinkedIn strongly promotes engagement. Comments have their own analytics and are pushed in notifications and you can still do them. You can and should still invite people, write messages, etc.
Be patient. I'm also waiting for LinkedIn to stop twisting the algorithm knobs and it will be clear what works.
[Image: What you can do after the LinkedIn algorithm change: do your thing because posts are visible on Google, focus on relationships and comments, be patient]
Well, I forgot about one most important question: Do only I have this problem with old posts, or do you too?
---
Want to understand the LinkedIn algorithm and make it work for you? Join my [LinkedIn training for companies](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/) where we cover content strategy, algorithm mechanics, and hands-on exercises on your accounts.
---
# How to Spot Fake LinkedIn Profiles and Spam Bots (2026 Guide)
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/spam-bots-linkedin/
> How to spot fake LinkedIn profiles, spam bots and bad automation in 2026. Red flags, real examples, detection tips and how to report fake accounts.
## Fake LinkedIn profiles in short
- AI-generated LinkedIn profile photos often have flawless skin, unnaturally symmetrical features and blurred or inconsistent backgrounds. Check a suspicious photo with a reverse image search on Google Images: if it appears on stock photo sites or on several unrelated profiles, the account is fake.
- A templated message from a LinkedIn bot gives itself away with a wrongly written name, no reference to your work, unresolved template variables and pressure such as “I need your answer by tomorrow”.
- Poorly configured automation shows in messages sent at identical intervals, hundreds of profile views within minutes and identical connection messages with only the name changed. In February 2024 LinkedIn restricted **5 out of 8 accounts** running Dux-Soup simultaneously, with “account under review” locks lasting 3 to 6 weeks.
- You report a fake LinkedIn profile via the three dots on the profile, then “Report/Block” and “Fake account”, and a message via the three dots in the thread and “Report this conversation”. Don't reply to the account and don't click links in its messages.
- You protect your own LinkedIn account with two-step verification (Settings, Sign in & security), by limiting who can see your connections list and email address, and by accepting only people you know, share connections with, or who send a personalized note.
Nothing irritates me as much as untargeted spam — especially the kind generated by bots and poorly configured automation tools. Recently I received a recruitment message that immediately raised my suspicions. Let me walk you through what happened and, more importantly, how you can protect yourself.
## My real example: a bot caught red-handed
I got a message that had all the classic signs of automated spam:
- **Incorrect name** — the bot called me "Rafał" but extracted it incorrectly from my English-language profile. This is a telltale sign of tools like LinkedIn Helper or Dux-Soup scraping profile data without proper character encoding.
- **Zero personalization** — no greeting, no introduction, no reference to my profile or work. Just a cold job offer template.
- **Completely untargeted proposal** — "Regional Brand Caretaker Beauty"? Nothing in my profile suggests interest in beauty industry roles. The bot clearly didn't filter its target audience.
- **Probable MLM scheme** — the "opportunity" sounded less like recruitment and more like an attempt to pull me into a pyramid structure.
I reported the account. You should too — every report helps LinkedIn's detection system improve.
## The scale of the problem
The numbers are staggering. LinkedIn blocked or removed **over 140 million fake profiles** in 2024–2025. Their AI now catches 99.65% of fake accounts before users even report them. Yet with over 1 billion members, millions of spam messages still get through every month.
The situation has escalated with AI-generated profile photos. LinkedIn's own research shows that most users **cannot visually distinguish real faces from AI-generated ones**. LinkedIn has developed detection tools that identify synthetic photos with 97% accuracy — but the arms race continues.
## How to spot a fake LinkedIn profile
Here are the red flags I look for after years of training professionals on LinkedIn:
### 1. Profile photo issues
- **No photo at all** — an instant red flag. Real professionals almost always upload a photo (profiles with photos get 21× more views).
- **Too perfect** — AI-generated photos often have flawless skin, unnaturally symmetrical features, and blurred or inconsistent backgrounds.
- **Reverse image search** — right-click the photo and search Google Images. If it appears on stock photo sites or multiple unrelated profiles, it's fake.
### 2. Suspicious profile content
- **Keyword stuffing** — profiles crammed with buzzwords like "AI | Crypto | Leadership | Blockchain | Innovation" without substance.
- **Vague work history** — real professionals list specific companies, roles, and dates. Fakes say "Entrepreneur" with no details or leave employment history blank.
- **Brand new account** — check "About this profile" (click the three dots on any profile). If created last week but claims 10 years of experience, something's wrong.
### 3. Connection patterns
- **Too few connections** — fewer than 50 connections is unusual for anyone claiming professional expertise.
- **Too many, too fast** — a new account with 500+ connections but zero posts or endorsements suggests purchased connections.
- **No mutual connections** — if you share no connections with someone in your industry, approach with caution.
### 4. Messaging behavior
- **Immediate pitch** — real professionals build relationships before selling. A sales pitch in the first message is a red flag.
- **Generic templates** — the same message could have been sent to anyone. No reference to your specific work, posts, or profile.
- **Broken formatting** — template variables like \{first_name\} or \{company\} left unresolved, odd spacing, or mixed languages.
- **Urgency and pressure** — "This opportunity won't last" or "I need your answer by tomorrow" are classic pressure tactics.
## Common automation tools and how to detect them
Several tools are commonly used (and misused) for LinkedIn automation:
**LinkedIn Helper** — a desktop application (formerly a Chrome extension) with over 90,000 users. It runs as a standalone program simulating browser actions. Detection sign: repetitive message patterns and connections sent at machine-speed intervals.
**Dux-Soup** — a Chrome extension that navigates LinkedIn on your behalf. In February 2024, LinkedIn restricted 5 out of 8 accounts running Dux-Soup simultaneously, with "account under review" locks lasting 3–6 weeks.
**Phantombuster** — a cloud-based tool using modular "Phantoms" for scraping, connecting, and messaging. It runs on remote servers via headless browsers, not as a browser extension — making it harder for LinkedIn to detect directly, but leaving other traces (unusual IP addresses, action speed patterns).
The telltale signs of poorly configured automation:
- Messages sent at identical time intervals (real humans vary their timing)
- Hundreds of profile views in minutes (humanly impossible)
- Identical connection messages with only the name changed
- Connection requests from accounts with no content or engagement
## What to do when you spot a fake account
1. **Don't engage** — don't reply, don't click any links in their messages
2. **Report the profile** — click the three dots (⋯) on their profile → "Report/Block" → select "Fake account"
3. **Report the message** — in the message thread, click three dots → "Report this conversation"
4. **Block** — prevent them from contacting you again
5. **Warn your network** — if a fake account is targeting your industry, post about it
## How to protect your own account
- **Enable two-factor authentication** — Settings → Sign in & security → Two-step verification
- **Review your privacy settings** — limit who can see your connections list and email address
- **Be selective with connection requests** — accept only people you know, have mutual connections with, or who send a personalized note
- **Check "About this profile"** — LinkedIn now shows when a profile was created and whether phone/email is verified
- **Use LinkedIn's verification badge** — verify your identity to build trust with your network
## The bottom line
LinkedIn remains the most valuable professional network in the world — but only if we actively fight spam and fake accounts. Every report you submit helps LinkedIn's AI improve. Don't just ignore spam — report it.
And if you're considering using automation tools for your own outreach: personalize your messages, respect people's time, and never pretend to be someone you're not. The line between efficient outreach and spam is thinner than you think.
*Have you encountered fake profiles or spam bots on LinkedIn? Share your experience in the comments.*
---
Want to protect your team from LinkedIn spam and teach them professional networking skills? Check out my [LinkedIn training for companies](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/) — we cover profile security, spam detection, and effective outreach with 80% hands-on practice.
---
# People Overcomplicate LinkedIn
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/simple-linkedin-guide/
> Stop overthinking LinkedIn. Practical tips for beginners on what to avoid and what actually works when building your professional presence online.
## A simple LinkedIn start in short
- On LinkedIn, avoid clichés and platitudes, generic messages as invitations, complicated industry jargon, posts that are walls of text, and publishing **2 times a day** just because someone told you to.
- When you start on LinkedIn, spend a moment getting familiar with the place, because it's a bit different from Facebook and Instagram, and find people from your industry or professional niche to see what they do.
- On LinkedIn, start with comments before you start writing posts, and click the bell on the profiles of people who inspire you to get notifications.
- Filling out your LinkedIn profile is only homework: don't stop there and wait for a miracle, expecting something to happen by itself.
I think people overcomplicate their start on LinkedIn and using it. They overthink it, read various, often contradictory advice about how to publish or build their brand on LinkedIn.
I was inspired to write this post by information from someone I consulted with, who had already spent several months and a significant budget to start working on LinkedIn.
While I consider preparation an important stage, I think it's better to start acting right away, in small steps, testing what works for you and what doesn't.
## A few tips for beginners:
## Avoid on LinkedIn:
- Trying to publish 2 times a day because someone told you to.
- Writing clichés and platitudes that might work on people with goldfish attention spans scrolling through TikTok but not here.
- Sending generic messages as invitations
- Using complicated industry jargon and posts as walls of text.
[Image: What to avoid on LinkedIn: posting twice a day because someone told you to, clichés and platitudes, generic invitation messages, jargon and walls of text]
## Instead, this works on LinkedIn:
- Spend a moment getting familiar with this place, it's a bit different from FB and Insta.
- Find people from your industry or professional niche here and see what they do.
- Start with comments before you start writing posts
- Find people who inspire you and click the bell on their profile to get notifications
- Do your homework like filling out your profile, but don't stop there and wait for a miracle that something will happen by itself. The checklist is in [how to create a LinkedIn profile](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/how-to-create-linkedin-profile/).
[Image: What works on LinkedIn at the start: get to know the place, find people in your industry, start with comments, click the bell for people who inspire you, fill out your profile]
Focus on this for the first few weeks.
Only then start acting.
Would anyone add something to this list?
## Comment on LinkedIn
[LinkedIn post](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7383235182297858048)
---
Stop overthinking and start doing — my [LinkedIn basics training](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/linkedin-training-basics/) gives you a clear, step-by-step framework with 80% hands-on exercises so your team can act right away.
---
# Build Your Professional Image
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/build-your-professional-image/
> Professionals who build their image gain clients faster and earn more. Learn how to get from invisible expert to recognized authority.
## Professional image in short
- The conference on building a professional image was to be hosted by Paweł Tkaczyk, a brand strategist who has helped companies conquer markets for twenty years. Attendees were asked to reserve 2 to 2.5 hours and were to get a link to the recording after the event.
- Janina Bąk, a science popularizer who has delivered three TEDx talks, was to speak about turning points in personal brand development and building resilience to hate.
- Michał Wrzosek was to reveal what fuels a strong expert brand, and Kamil Kozieł was to debunk myths about presentations and show how to step out of the shadows onto the stage.
- Rafał Szymański, a LinkedIn trainer who has stood on the I Love Marketing podium three times, was to talk about building a professional image and harnessing LinkedIn for it.
**This event has taken place**
The free online conference took place on October 20, 2025. I am keeping this text as the announcement; sign-ups are closed.
## Build Your Professional Image
You have knowledge and skills, but few people in the industry have heard of you?
It's a matter of image – professionals who don't build it stay in the shadows. Those who take care of it gain clients faster and are valued more highly. Image becomes a lever for their professional development.
How to get from point A to point B? During a conference organized by **Paweł Tkaczyk**, experts who have been successfully building their personal brands for years will talk about this: **Janina Bąk**, **Michał Wrzosek**, **Kamil Kozieł**, and myself.
**Join us, it's worth listening to smart people.**
**Two things before you click "sign up":**
1. the conference is free and online – we'll meet on October 20th at 7:00 PM. Reserve 2-2.5 hours. It will be concrete.
2. After the event, you'll get a link to the recording so nothing escapes you.
## What will you take away from the conference?
- **Janina Bąk** will focus on key moments in personal brand development and building resilience to hate.
- **Michał Wrzosek** will reveal what fuels a strong expert brand and what it takes to get to point B.
- **Kamil Kozieł** will debunk myths about presentations and show you tricks on how to step out of the shadows... onto the stage.
- **Paweł Tkaczyk** will lead the entire conference and will definitely add something of his own.
- **Rafał Szymański** - that's me - will talk about how to build a professional image and harness LinkedIn for this purpose.
## The conference guests will be:
### Paweł Tkaczyk - host
[Image: Paweł Tkaczyk]
Brand strategist. For twenty years, he has been helping small and large companies conquer markets. Among his clients are companies like: SONY, HBO, Orange, Google, Meta. He trains, speaks at conferences, shares knowledge on his blog and in social media.
He has written three books: ["Brand Nooks"](https://paweltkaczyk.com/ksiazki/zakamarki-marki), ["Gamification"](https://paweltkaczyk.com/ksiazki/grywalizacja), and ["Narratology"](https://paweltkaczyk.com/ksiazki/narratologia). He created Yggdrasil – a marketing portal for entrepreneurs and marketers, which has gathered over 450 people in its community.
He usually adds that he makes a living by telling stories, but this time the guests will take over.
---
### Janina Bąk
[Image: Janina Bąk]
Science popularizer, activist, blogger, and speaker. For five years, she taught statistics at the university, now she teaches people that statistics can and should be befriended.
She operates in social media (on all platforms combined, she has gathered 250,000 fans). She has written two bestselling books about statistics and delivered three TEDx talks. She has collaborated with companies like: Spotify, Netflix, Plus, Siemens, Aldi.
She has won numerous awards (including Influencer of the Year), was on the list of "50 Influential Poles" by Newsweek magazine. She trains in personal branding and uses LEGO blocks for this purpose. Coincidence?
---
### Michał Wrzosek
[Image: Michał Wrzosek]
Doctor of nutrition, entrepreneur, speaker, and influencer. Co-founder of Centrum Respo and creator of the "Results" podcast, where he talks about health, business, marketing, and smart hustle.
On social media, he has gathered over two million followers, and his community continues to grow. He is the author of books on health topics, including the bestseller "Project: Healthy Life," published through self-publishing.
At the I Love Marketing conference, he twice found himself in the top tier (for two presentations), so if you're interested in healthy habits in building a personal brand, he's your guy.
---
### Kamil Kozieł
[Image: Kamil Kozieł]
Entrepreneur, speaker, trainer, and podcaster. For over 20 years, he has been teaching methods of effective communication, designing terabytes of speeches, scripts, and slides for this purpose.
On a daily basis, he builds messages that allow you to stand out at conferences, sell a product, or gain recognition from management. His TEDxKatowice presentation – "How not to make presentations that could be an email?" – went viral on YouTube.
He is a three-time winner of the unofficial Polish championships in public speaking – the I Love Marketing conference – and a consultant to many speakers who have achieved success there.
---
### Rafał Szymański
[Image: Rafał Szymański]
Speaker, LinkedIn trainer, B2B consultant, social activist. One of his professional nicknames is "Excel Man." He knows what KPIs will be important for management, sales, HR, or employees themselves.
He has stood on the podium three times at the I Love Marketing conference, won recognition at TEDx. Since 2018, he has conducted numerous trainings for companies like PGE, GROHE, Volvo, or Volkswagen Group.
He could give a tour of LinkedIn with his eyes closed, and his specialty is building employee personal branding, Social Selling, and recruitment. He's an adult LEGO fan, perhaps that's why he can organize various things well in his head.
---
Want personalized guidance on building your professional image through LinkedIn? Book a [LinkedIn consultation](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/linkedin-consultation/) where we create a tailored strategy for your brand, profile, and content.
---
# Personal Brand Cannot Be Planned in Excel
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/personal-brand-planning-excel/
> Can you plan a personal brand in Excel? Yes, and you should. Learn the key difference between personal brand and reputation.
## Personal brand in short
- A personal brand is not a goal in itself but one element of the puzzle: a LinkedIn profile alone changes nothing automatically if you don't take further actions.
- Reputation is the result of your actions and depends on the cognitive filters of the person judging you: appearing on Kanał Zero is an honor for one person and a reason to cross you off the supplier list for another.
- Monika's brand plan is Miro processes and Excel sheets with a budget and a media plan. Excel is boring but brings you down to earth: people who want to be everywhere at once then lack strength, time and money.
- Delegate what you can, but not everything: Monika has a team, yet she still writes the posts, chooses graphics and topics and answers people on LinkedIn herself, because authenticity is the most important element of a personal brand.
Personal brand cannot be planned in Excel – I heard once. Well, you can and even should. I'll write you how and why. Let's start with the basic distinction between personal brand and reputation.
In my understanding, a brand is a set of actions and decisions you make to achieve your goals, mainly business ones, but they can also be life goals.
If you plan it with your head and not with an influencer course from Instagram titled "How to build your brand in 4 weeks and earn 100k" then you know it's not a goal in itself but one element of the puzzle. Just like creating a LinkedIn profile won't change anything automatically if you don't do further actions.
To summarize:
Personal brand is decisions about what I will do (e.g.: write on LinkedIn, look for podcasts where I can appear, try to get good conferences), who I want to reach and with what message.
And reputation?
In my understanding, it's the result of these actions, independent of ourselves but from the cognitive filters of a specific person.
Example: For one person, appearing on Kanał Zero will be a huge honor, while for someone else, the fact that we appeared with Stanowski will be a reason to cross us off the list of potential suppliers. Same with WOŚP, some television or anything that refers to our worldview.
We have no influence on this, but we can predict it and make our own decisions.
Okay, but where's that Excel?
I showed Monika at the spring editions of I Love Marketing and InfoShare as an example of such a person with whom we've been building her brand for over 2 years. Based on detailed plans, processes in Miro and Excel sheets with budget or media plan.
I don't do this alone, Monika also has people she works with because she likes and respects them. Marcin Malec is a storytelling wizard, teaching her light writing. Daria designed the identity and supervises me in its implementation in various touchpoints, and the team is actually much larger.
Does it work?
It works like a well-oiled machine. Almost 20,000 followers on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpakulska/) (19,475 in October 2026) didn't come from nowhere, and Monika is planning several big things for this year.
Why did it work out for Monika and not necessarily for others?
I hope I won't get killed for this list 😊
1. Effect proportional to work effort. A large part of people say they'll do something, Monika does it.
2. Surrounding yourself with the right people. Monika has a gift for finding great people (but I just complimented myself) and making them want to work.
3. Excel is boring, but it brings you down to earth. Many people want to be everywhere at the same time. Then there's a lack of resources, mainly strength, time and money.
Monika goes step by step. LinkedIn is handled, time for the next channels.
4. Delegate what you can, but not everything. Every experienced manager knows that you should delegate what you can. However, if we outsource everything in such projects, we lose the most important element of personal brand – authenticity. Monika delegates, but she writes the posts herself, chooses graphics and topics herself, and responds to people on LinkedIn herself because it should be her message.
It was great to meet together at the workshops, this time about Excel and plans.
---
Need help building your personal brand on LinkedIn with a real plan? Explore my [LinkedIn consultation](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/linkedin-consultation/) for a tailored strategy, or join my [LinkedIn training for companies](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/) where we turn plans into action with 80% hands-on exercises.
---
# LinkedIn Offers Free Ready Banners
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-free-banners/
> LinkedIn now offers free AI-generated banners for all accounts, including free ones. See how to use Luma.ai visuals to upgrade your profile today.
## Free LinkedIn banners in short
- LinkedIn's ready-made AI banners come from Luma.ai, a young startup from 2024 not related to Microsoft, which runs a library of AI-generated photos you can use with full rights.
- Luma.ai integrates with tools like Figma and Webflow and has a Duotone effect that converts graphics into two-color images in your brand colors.
- LinkedIn's slide show banner can show more complicated products, but it is only available on paid accounts.
- A LinkedIn profile should above all be clear: say what you can offer and include contact details and a photo people can recognize you by in person. A great background banner is a challenge for many people.
Usually I don't give advice: make a nice banner for your LinkedIn profile because I think the profile is like a business card and nothing more.
That means you should do your homework and that's it.
The profile should be clear, should say what you can offer to another person. Don't forget contact details and a photo by which you can be recognized in person when we meet. What to put in each section is in my [LinkedIn profile checklist](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/how-to-create-linkedin-profile/).
Whether this business card is on embossed paper with a gold logo or on ordinary chalk, but with all the necessary information has, in my opinion, less significance than to whom you give this business card.
However, even in this minimal homework it's worth having some great banner in the background and this is a challenge for many people.
LinkedIn some time ago introduced the possibility of making a slide show as banners.
It looks nice and allows showing more complicated products, but it's only for paid accounts.
However, this week LinkedIn introduced a surprising functionality for me: we have several ready-made AI banners to use also on regular accounts.
Why did this surprise me?
Because it's promoting a foreign company not related to Microsoft.
Luma.ai is a young startup from 2024, which is a bank of AI-generated photos that you can use for yourself with full rights.
They write about themselves that unlike traditional photo libraries, Lummi is a perfect alternative to Unsplash and an exceptionally attractive price alternative compared to Adobe Stock Photos, focusing exclusively on AI-generated images.
They have integration with tools like Figma or Webflow and unique features like the Duotone effect, which involves converting graphics to two-color with your brand colors.
Their slogan is: "AI stock photos that won't cause embarrassment" and looking at the website I'm able to believe it.
Microsoft has its alternative to Canva called Designer, which has an AI banner generation module and there were even attempts to integrate it with LinkedIn but something didn't work out, as usual.
That's why I'm happy about this facilitation when creating profile banners. Will you use it?
---
A great banner is just the start — your entire LinkedIn profile should work as a professional landing page. Learn how to optimize it in my [LinkedIn training for companies](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/), where we build complete profiles together during 80% hands-on exercises.
---
# LinkedIn News - Video, Removed Links, Better Analytics
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-news-june-2025/
> Latest LinkedIn updates: video content push like TikTok, external links removed from free accounts, and improved analytics features.
## LinkedIn news from June 2025 in short
- In June 2025 LinkedIn had been promoting TikTok-style video since February, first in the US and then in the rest of the world. It also improved video embedding on external websites and blogs, but only for simple video posts, not posts with multiple photos or reposts with added comments.
- The number of comments on LinkedIn grew by **32%** year over year, and LinkedIn added analytics to comments. If you don't know how to start on LinkedIn, write valuable comments.
- In June 2025 LinkedIn announced that website links on a profile would stay only with paid subscriptions: Premium Business, Sales Navigator and Recruiter. Before that, enabling creator mode on a free account was enough.
- Expanded post analytics on LinkedIn shows when a post generates profile views and new followers. Paid accounts can also track clicks on custom profile buttons, such as links to a website or newsletter.
Several recent LinkedIn updates, I don't know if you all noticed:
[Image: Four LinkedIn updates: TikTok-style video and video embedding, comment analytics, website links only on paid accounts, expanded post analytics]
As I showed at the spring conferences I Love Marketing and InfoShare, LinkedIn wants to go in the video format like TikTok. That's why it's strongly promoting such videos since February, when it shared them, first on the US market and now for the rest of the world.
Does it work?
They claim it does and the result is a significant increase in time spent watching video content on LinkedIn, exactly 36%.
Why does it work?
My theory is that currently LinkedIn is flooded with generic posts created by AI, one template from the prompt: Write me a viral LinkedIn post about...
which strongly discourages recipients.
That's why video wins through the ability to evoke emotions and rather for now, it's authentic and not created by AI, which increases trust.
What will LinkedIn do with video?
To further support video, LinkedIn improved video embedding options. Users can now embed their LinkedIn video posts on external websites or in blog posts with various display options: full post, version with less text (requiring a click to read more) or just the video, which looks "nice and clean". However, this embedding feature is currently limited to simple video posts and doesn't support posts containing multiple photos or reposts with added comments.
What about those promoted comments?
The number of comments on the platform also increased significantly, by 32% year over year.
I like the addition of analytics to comments, which makes it easier to convince shy people to write them. Don't know how to start here? Write valuable comments.
LinkedIn removes WWW links from free profiles
I suspected it was too good to be true that on a free account you could have links to any page. Previously, it was enough to enable creator mode to have this functionality.
Now it's announced that this won't be possible on free accounts but only if you have one of the paid subscriptions:
1. Premium Business – which I always advise against
2. Sales Navigator – which I always recommend
3. Recruiter
[Image: LinkedIn subscriptions that keep website links on the profile: Premium Business, which I advise against, Sales Navigator, which I recommend, and Recruiter]
Enhanced post analytics
A more positive change is that LinkedIn expanded post analytics.
I'll be curious to analyze the new option that allows tracking when posts generate profile views and new followers.
This goes beyond the usual reach measurement and helps us understand the impact of their content on audience growth and profile traffic. Until now, this was the most important Shield functionality, independent LinkedIn analytics. We'll see, we'll compare...
For paid accounts, LinkedIn added the ability to track clicks on custom buttons on profiles, such as links to websites or newsletters.
---
Want to master LinkedIn's latest features and use them to grow your business? Check out my [LinkedIn training for companies](https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/services/) — 80% hands-on exercises on your own accounts.
---
# LinkedIn at WordCamp Kraków 2025
Source: https://rafalszymanski.pl/en/blog/linkedin-wordcamp-2025/
> WordPress and LinkedIn launched the same month in 2003 and share surprising parallels. A talk about using LinkedIn for WordPress businesses.
## LinkedIn at WordCamp Kraków 2025 in short
- LinkedIn and WordPress both launched in May 2003: LinkedIn on May 5, WordPress on May 27. Both get labelled outdated, and I value them for being boring but stable and trustworthy.
- In my view the new “AI CMS” platforms are mostly hot air, unless you like paying Webflow $50 a month (the May 2025 price) for what you get free in WordPress.
- The WordCamp Kraków 2025 talk was meant to show how to see on LinkedIn that someone was looking for a company doing WordPress, how to check whether a company has the money for you and who to talk to, because it is definitely not the CEO.
**This event has taken place**
WordCamp Kraków 2025 took place on June 27–29, 2025 at the Cracow University of Technology. I am keeping this text as the announcement of my talk; tickets and sign-ups are closed.
WordPress and LinkedIn have a lot in common, I bet even WordCamp organizers don't know about everything. Let's start step by step...
Both platforms launched in May 2003, LinkedIn is from May 5, WP is a bit younger, from May 27, so that's why it's being arrogant.
Evolution from niche to dominance – that is, we start from zero and currently dominate. WP currently powers 43% of websites worldwide and for me it's synonymous with CMS.
Similarly with LinkedIn, which has over 1 billion users and has become de facto synonymous with business networking, effectively replacing business card exchange.
[Image: LinkedIn and WordPress in numbers: both launched in May 2003, WordPress powers 43% of websites, LinkedIn has over a billion users]
Both platforms also fight with the label: "OK, Boomer, you're outdated"
I don't know how many times a week I read that LinkedIn is dying because TikTok, X, Instagram or 1001 new platform was created. The same is with WP, where it turned out that new blood in the form of "AI CMS" is mostly hot air, unless someone likes paying $50/month for Webflow for the same thing they have for free in WordPress, or has too much free time because they believed in Ghost's slogan that lack of CMS panel means fewer attacks.
So in LinkedIn and WordPress I appreciate that maybe someone will say it's boring but stable and definitely trustworthy.
I don't know if LinkedIn is attractive to people dealing with WordPress, but I prepared a presentation that will show it from the technical side of finding clients.
I don't know if you know, but after the presentation you'll know how to see on LinkedIn that someone was looking for a company doing WordPress, you'll be able to check if the company has money for you and with whom to talk, because definitely not with the CEO.
So I invite you to my lecture at @WordCamp Kraków 2025, which will take place on June 27-29 at Krakow University of Technology (Działownia building).
I'll be at networking so you can ask for details later.
Tickets available at: https://krakow.wordcamp.org/2025/bilety/