Why LinkedIn Went Quiet for Government Contractors in 2025

How LinkedIn’s new AI decides who sees your posts (and why good GovCon content is still getting ignored)

By Cecilia McDonnell, (LinkedIn Visibility Expert, LinkedIn for GovCon)

This article shows busy government contractors why their posts went quiet and how to improve visibility to federal buyers and teammates without posting every day. This is written for small and mid‑sized federal contractors who already win work but feel invisible on LinkedIn.

Key Takeaways (read first)

• In 2025, LinkedIn quietly rolled out a new AI engine (often called 360Brew) that “reads” your posts and profile and matches them to people based on patterns, not just connections or hashtags.  ​

• Across LinkedIn and Reddit, people are reporting lower reach, fewer views, and the feeling that “LinkedIn is broken” because the system is more limited than ever before.  ​

• For government contractors, this means random, occasional posting will not work. You need a clear topic lane that matches how AI and buyers think about your expertise.

What Changed Inside LinkedIn’s Feed

Over the last year, more and more professionals have started saying the same thing: “My LinkedIn posts used to get good views. Now they get almost nothing. ​

On Reddit, there are long threads from people with thousands of followers getting under 100 impressions, asking if LinkedIn “killed” organic reach or if it is even worth posting anymore.  ​

This is not just “bad timing.” Something real changed on this professional platform.

This is what changed.

LinkedIn has started using a large AI model for ranking and recommendations—internally described in research as a unified foundation model (often referred to as 360Brew).  ​

This model does three big things that matter to you:

• It turns every post into a dense “embedding” (a pattern of numbers) that captures topic, context, and past engagement, not just keywords.  ​

• It turns every member into an embedding based on profile, network, and what they actually engage with.  ​

• It uses these patterns to decide which posts are even allowed to compete for space in someone’s feed before ranking them.  ​

A simple way to picture this:

In the past, LinkedIn was like a radio station where your network and some basic rules decided what songs played. Now, there is an AI “DJ” that only plays songs that look very similar to what each listener has liked before. If your “song” (your post) does not fit any known pattern for that listener, it simply does not get airtime.  ​

This is why many people feel like their content suddenly went invisible.

Why Even Good Posts from Government Contractors Got Ignored in 2025

 A growing number of users on Reddit complain that LinkedIn is broken and they “don’t see the point.”  Worse still, deeper conversations are happening on Reddit just as government buyers are finally becoming active on LinkedIn.  

Where are the speed bumps that slowed everything down?

• LinkedIn trained its new system on past engagement patterns, so it favors previously successful content.  But that was before companies started to improve how they used the platform for marketing and networking strategies. That means the system is still learning from 2021–2023 behavior, even though people are using LinkedIn differently in 2025.​

• 360Brew uses your history of interactions, then searches for posts that match that profile closely. So... if you posted more about being a dog lover, don't be surprised if you aren't being pulled into business threads. ​

Why does LinkedIn ignore posts that offer value to the industry and government buyers?

• Often GovCons post inconsistently and jump between business and personal content without creating momentum. This makes your profile hard to categorize by the AI.

• Too many busy owners outsource their LinkedIn marketing to VAs or social media coordinators who are not familiar with GovCon, the people or the terms.​

• GovCons don't repurpose their marketing content or topic themes to create a meaningful trail or recognizable footprint. 'One and done' marketing is not an effective way to educate the algorithm. 

• The best GovCon content is often specific and aimed at a narrow group of buyers. LinkedIn classifies this as “unusual” compared to generic posts that trigger wide engagement.  ​

   

What This Means for Busy GovCon Leaders

The bad news: LinkedIn is no longer a simple “post and hope” platform. From both the research and the chatter online, it is clear the new AI cares far more about patterns than one‑off posts.  ​

The good news: government contractors are actually in a strong position if they make a small shift.

You do not need to become a daily content creator. You do need to become:

• Easy to read: for humans and for AI. Clear lane. Clear buyer. Clear problems you solve.  ​

• Consistent over time: staying in the same lane enough that LinkedIn can safely show your work to the right people.  ​

• Aligned across platforms: SBS / DSBS, SAM, website, LinkedIn profile, and posts all telling the same story in plain language.  ​

In other words, you don’t have a content problem. You have a clarity problem.

How to Position Your Company for 2026

If you suspect LinkedIn’s AI cannot “read” your company, the most valuable move is a short, focused review of your public story.

1. Start your LinkedIn Visibility Quiz 

2. Book a short GovCon Visibility Checkup. In 20 minutes, we’ll look at your LinkedIn profile, your recent posts, and your off‑platform story and show you exactly what LinkedIn’s AI is seeing—so you know where to fix it. 
   Send me a LinkedIn DM and I'll send you my schedule for the coming week.

3. Discover our 2026 LinkedIn Visibility Program
   Learn to use LinkedIn as your 24/7 business development engine that attracts federal buyers, prime contractors, and teaming partners (without spending thousands on conferences). 

A Quick Self‑Audit: Can LinkedIn’s AI Understand You?

Here is a fast checklist you can run through in 5–10 minutes:

• Headline: Does your LinkedIn headline say, in simple words, who you help and what you do for federal customers?  ​

• About section: Does your summary repeat those same words and name the agencies, missions, or contract types you focus on?  ​

• Last 10 posts: Do they circle the same 1–2 core topics (for example, CMMC readiness, VA health IT delivery, DoD cyber compliance), or do they jump all over the place?  ​

• Off‑platform story: Do your SBS / DSBS profile, SAM record, and website use the same plain‑language phrases as your LinkedIn profile?  ​

If the answer is “no” on most of these, the AI may simply be confused about who should see your content. Confused systems play it safe. They show you less. ​

FAQ: Common Questions Government Contractors Are Asking

1. Did LinkedIn kill organic reach for government contractors?
No, but reach is more selective and pattern‑driven than before. LinkedIn’s AI prioritizes content that clearly matches a member’s interests and past behavior, which means fuzzy positioning and random topics tend to get filtered out.  ​

2. Why do some generic posts still go viral while niche GovCon content doesn’t?
Broad, emotional topics match a wide range of existing engagement patterns, so the AI sees them as “safe bets.” Niche GovCon insights serve a smaller slice of people, so they only spread when the system has a clear idea of who that slice is.​

3.  How can I get make connections on LinkedIn in only a few minutes a day? 

Instead of writing original posts, start by engaging content from other people.  Commenting is a faster, easier strategy and it can be just as effective in helping you build relationships with buyers and teaming partners. It also keeps your finger on the pulse of what's happening in your field.

4. Do I have to post every day to stay visible?
No. For most busy GovCon leaders, two or three focused posts per week plus meaningful comments on others’ posts is enough to start training the model—if your lane is clear.  The key is that those posts and comments stay inside a clear GovCon lane.​

5. Is LinkedIn still worth it if engagement is lower?
Yes, if you treat it as a business development and trust channel, not as a vanity metric game. Even with lower raw reach, the right profile views (COs, KOs, PMs, BD leads, teaming partners) can lead to meetings and revenue.  

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