09 PLATFORMS ✣
LinkedIn for Developers.
For most of LinkedIn's history, developers regarded it as a place where recruiters lurked, not a place where peer technical conversation happened. That has changed substantially since 2022, as senior engineers and DevRel professionals ha…
For most of LinkedIn’s history, developers regarded it as a place where recruiters lurked, not a place where peer technical conversation happened. That has changed substantially since 2022, as senior engineers and DevRel professionals have built audiences there partly through the displacement of activity from X.
Why LinkedIn matters more than it did
- Professional context. Posts reach colleagues, decision-makers, and peers at scale.
- Algorithm favours long-form text. LinkedIn’s feed rewards 1,200-character text posts; rewards carousel posts (image series); rewards organic engagement disproportionately to other platforms.
- No paid-tier visibility gating. All organic posts compete on the same algorithm (in contrast to X’s verified-user boost).
- LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Newsletters have emerged as additional formats.
- Stable platform. LinkedIn’s strategy has been consistent for years; not subject to the volatility of X.
What works for DevRel on LinkedIn
- Personal-narrative-driven posts. Lessons learned, anti-patterns, mistakes, career stories.
- Carousels. Multi-image posts walking through a concept; very algorithmically favoured.
- Thought-leadership essays. 800–1,500 words.
- Newsletter format (LinkedIn Newsletters) — broadcasts to subscribers separately from feed reach.
- Live video sessions (LinkedIn Live).
- Job-news posts. Hiring announcements, promotions, role changes — reach is unusually high.
What doesn’t work
- External links in the post body (algorithm penalises; better to put link in first comment).
- Pure-marketing posts from company accounts (low reach).
- Sales outreach pretending to be engagement (instant trust collapse).
Who uses it well for DevRel
Several DevRel and developer-product professionals built large LinkedIn audiences during 2022–2026 that exceed their X audiences:
- DevRel managers and directors looking to recruit and influence cross-company peers.
- AI engineering professionals (a substantial fraction of OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, NVIDIA, etc. employees post heavily).
- Engineering leaders (CTOs, VPs of Engineering) using it as a thought-leadership channel.
- DevRel hiring channels — many DevRel jobs are filled through LinkedIn networks.
Company use
Most developer-product companies maintain a LinkedIn company page, but the channel is much more effective when individual employees post under their names than when the company-account broadcasts.
A pattern that works well: a DevRel team coordinates around major launches, and each member of the team posts a personal-narrative variant of the launch from their own perspective. Reach multiplies beyond what a single company-account post achieves.
Newsletter format
LinkedIn Newsletters are a notable 2022+ addition. They function as opt-in email lists tied to LinkedIn identity. Some technical writers have grown substantial subscriber bases on LinkedIn Newsletters in addition to (or instead of) Substack / Beehiiv. The strategic question is identity portability: LinkedIn-only subscribers cannot be exported.
Caveats
- The platform’s tone is more polished than X / Bluesky. Casual humour and inside jokes underperform.
- Audience skews older and more enterprise than X/Bluesky in many domains.
- Engagement and reach are still gated by an algorithm; consistent posting matters more than any single post.