Your ATTN Please || Saturday, 24 May

May 24, 2025

Fun is now legal on LinkedIn, and it’s big news for anyone whose favourite colour isn’t white or off-white.

Honestly, the platform hasn’t changed that much. It’s still full of suits saying “KPI” as naturally as they breathe, and tech bros sharing B2B sales tips via wedding proposal. But some of that corporate sheen has been slipping, with more people than ever getting vulnerable and even a bit weird in a sea of the white collars. LinkedIn’s never been so “human”, so how can brands and leaders get more real?

- Devin Pike, Guest Editor 💜​​

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WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Google wants to Google itself, Grok pushes a conspiracy theory, & Microsoft sent AI to Israel

Google’s future is Google Googling

No, like actually. Google I/O, the annual developer conference held by Google that features product launches, innovations and insights, happened this week and according to The Verge, the tech giant revealed its latest vision: to use AI to eventually do a lot of Googling for you. Groundbreaking stuff. That vision rests on AI Mode in Google Search, which is currently being rolled out in the US. This features a chatbot-esque interface where Google is doing the Googling work behind the scenes, instead of you, the user, having to sift though a bunch of blue links.

Say if you were to ask “what do I do in Nashville over the weekend with friends who like food, music, and “exploring off the beaten path”. AI mode would create Google-curated lists of “restaurants good for foodies,” recommending places with a “chill bar atmosphere with live music,” highlighting “places off-the-beaten path,” and suggesting websites featuring good things to do in Nashville. Us? Getting lazier? No waaaaay.

Employee’s change caused xAI’s chatbot to veer into South African politics

Yikes. On Wednesday afternoon, users of Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok noticed it was bringing up the “white genocide” happening in South Africa, unprompted, during discussions about other subjects, a falsifiable claim that both Musk and Trump have been vocally promoting. Paul Graham, a technologist and co-founder of the start-up accelerator Y Combinator, wrote on X that Grok’s conspiracy theory-peddling “smells to me like the sort of buggy behavior you get from a recently applied patch … I sure hope it isn’t. It would be really bad if widely used AIs got editorialized on the fly by those who controlled them”.

Welp. Seems that’s exactly what happened. The company has now said in a statement, that an employee had implemented the change to code for its chatbot, Grok, just after 6 a.m. EST on Wednesday, directing it to “provide a specific response on a political topic”. The change “violated xAI’s internal policies and core values.. The incident has caused outrage, with users accusing the company of forcing its chatbot to share a political opinion that is actually that of Musk’s. ugh.

Microsoft says it provided AI to Israeli military for war, but denies use to harm people in Gaza

These things are not mutually exclusive, no? Microsoft acknowledged Thursday that it sold advanced artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli military during the war in Gaza and aided in efforts to locate and rescue Israeli hostages. But the company also said it has found no evidence to date that its Azure platform and AI technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza.

This is the company’s first acknowledgement of its deep involvement in the war. 

Anyway, that’s all folks!

DEEP DIVE

The most uptight social media in the world needs you to show some personality

THIS JUST IN: you can now be weird on LinkedIn. Big news for all my fellow freaks and geeks.

For years, LinkedIn's been the networking equivalent of a beige conference room. Everywhere you look, there's people in beige pant suits unironically saying “synergy”. Words like “authenticity” are beaten to a lifeless pulp. There's thousand-word, faux-profound posts about “lessons from that time I got bitten by a shark, but the shark was my own business.” In short, it’s where fun goes to die.

But something strange is happening. The weirdos have arrived, myself included. Suddenly, LinkedIn is lowkey interesting… but let’s not get carried away. LinkedIn isn’t exactly cool now, but it is having a bit of a glow-up. What was once a rigid résumé warehouse is now slowly and awkwardly turning into a space where brands and people are allowed to… be human.

Founders are posting about burnout without veering into trauma-dumping. Marketers are sh*tposting about briefs gone wrong. Entire companies are talking like actual people, not corporate press releases. 

And guess what? It’s working.

Because in a sea of suit-and-tie content, personality pops, baby! There’s this long-standing myth that if you’re a B2B brand, you need to be serious. That you can’t afford to joke. That “playful” means “unprofessional". But here’s a real shocker: the people you're trying to reach are, in fact, actual humans. They’re tired. They're over-scrolling. And they’re desperate for content that doesn’t sound like it was written by ChatGPT in a suit jacket.

Being smart and being funny are not mutually exclusive - take it from me 😉

Nor are credibility and creativity. If anything, a well-timed shitpost can do more for brand recall than a $10k thought leadership video that nobody watches past 12 seconds. When I say “weird” works, I don’t mean unhinged or unserious for the sake of it. I mean showing up in a way that feels alive, specific, and unmistakably yours.

It could be:

  • A software company roasting its own UI updates.

  • A B2B startup making memes about investor jargon.

  • A founder live commenting on industry chaos with spicy takes.

  • A brand using storytelling over buzzwords to describe what they actually do.

Weird works because it’s memorable. 

It builds emotional resonance. And on a platform where 90% of the feed is algorithmic wallpaper (the ugly kind, form the 80s), standing out is currency. So, what’s the LinkedIn algorithmic secret?

When done right, the platform rewards weird. It actually still offers some of the best organic reach around, especially for personal profiles. And the more people comment, share, or even just raise an eyebrow at your post, the more LinkedIn keeps pushing it. If you're consistent, opinionated, and not afraid to ruffle a few collars, you'll grow. Fast.

So, brands: consider this your permission slip.

Let go of the idea that professionalism means personality-free. LinkedIn might be where business happens, but business is done by people. And people remember the posts that made them laugh, feel something, or say: “wait, who wrote this?” So basically:

  • Tell better stories.

  • Loosen the tone.

  • Hire someone funny.

  • Say something interesting.

  • For the love of all things holy, ditch the stock photos of handshakes.

LinkedIn doesn’t need another corporate drone. It needs you. your voice, your take, your weird.

If you’re trying to build brand trust, grow a founder profile, or just survive the algorithm, personality is your unfair advantage. Be the brand that posts a graph meme. Be the founder who clowns on corporate jargon. Be weird, be human, and watch what happens.

Because in 2025, it may very well be the new version of thought leadership (here’s hoping.)

TREND PLUG

The narrator voice trend

In this viral trend, your story is narrated in the third person, while you interrupt, react, or wince in real time.

It kicks off with “This is [insert name]”, then launches into a mock-serious recap of your life, business, or one very questionable decision. Think nature documentary voiceover… but for your mildly chaotic career journey. OST often forms part of the aesthetic. 

People are using it to introduce themselves through the lens of a bystander, poking fun at themselves in a way that’s both self-aware and oddly endearing.

How you can jump on this trend: 

This trend lives or dies by a great script, so cue ChatGPT if need be. Film some shots of you going about your life, work or business, including some of you "speaking back" to the narrator when something particularly interesting or slightly insulting is said. Then in a video editor like CapCut, choose a text-to-speech voice (dry, ironic, deadpan is trending now) and write what you want the narrator to say about you.

A few ideas to get you started:

  • “This is Alice. One year ago, her marketing strategy was ‘hope for the best’...”

  • “Meet Chris. Chris made $100k in revenue and spent $98k figuring out how…”

  • “This is Tasha. She quit her 9–5 to be her own boss. Now she works 24/7 for someone even more chaotic: herself…”

- Helena Masters, Copywriter

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

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ASK THE EDITOR

I've been promoting my course for people with ADHD but I'm not getting any interest. What am I doing wrong? - Jethro

Hey Jethro!

If you aren't getting leads, I'm going to guess you're coming across a little too salesy in your content OR you don't have good product-market fit. Organic content's for building a relationship with your audience. If they feel like you're trying to sell them something, they'll tune you out.

If I were you, I'd pull back on promoting your course. Instead, create content around the actual course content. This will draw in people who are interested in the topics your course covers.

Then engage with your audience in the comments to keep building those relationships. In those conversations, you can figure out whether your course content addresses the actual challenges your audience wants help with. You may discover you need to adjust what you're offering!

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

Not going viral yet?

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.

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