The Boost Trap: Why LinkedIn’s New Feature Might Cost You Long-Term Trust

LinkedIn’s new button sells attention … but the trust layer isn’t buying it.

For a year now, people have been lamenting impression loss.

I know the feeling … I went from thousands of impressions per post to a few hundred, seemingly overnight.

The whispers started: shadow-banning, throttling, algorithm shifts.

Everyone tried to game the ghost.

Then came the little button that answered the question nobody asked: “Boost.”

You’ve probably seen it sitting top right of every post you’ve ever written, quietly waiting for your click.

Here’s what I think is going on … and more importantly, what it means for the next era of credibility.

The “Boost” button isn’t a gift. It’s a pressure valve.

It appeared right as organic reach collapsed because that’s the business model:

First, take away the oxygen, then sell the air.

When you pay to boost a post, you’re not buying credibility … you’re renting attention.

And the difference matters.

Behind the scenes, the machines just see every 1 and 0.

There’s no mystery. Every boosted post carries metadata:

sponsored=true, campaign IDs, impression sources … all the digital breadcrumbs of paid visibility.

Even if it looks organic to the human eye, it’s flagged to the system as an ad.

And the AI trust layer … the network of crawlers and AI models now indexing the web for authenticity … knows it.

Boosted posts help your visibility graph, but not your trust graph.

To the emerging AI credibility systems, paid reach is noise.

Organic, timestamped, consistent communication is signal.

That means every time you chase the dopamine hit of impressions, you’re trading future trust for present validation.

It feels good … 

• the likes
• the views
• the bump.

But the robots can separate.

They know what’s paid and what’s proven.

So while your ego celebrates the spike, your long-term recognition capital quietly drops.

Because the new world runs on transmission, not transaction.

Transaction is the short game … 

• impressions
• clicks
• vanity metrics.

Transmission is the long game … the consistent proof of 

• thought
• tone
• truth 

Over a long period of time.

If you understand this, you start to see the map clearly.

LinkedIn, for all its flaws, still has massive domain authority.

The robots crawl it constantly.

I’ve tested it myself … I’ve seen my own words come back in LLM responses weeks later.

That means what you post there still matters … but not as a destination.

Treat it like a spoke, not the hub.

Your owned domain … 

• your blog
• your archive
• your receipts 

… that’s the hub.

That’s where trust compounds.

This is where most creators and operators will lose the plot.

They’ll chase impressions because it feels productive.

They’ll boost posts because it feels strategic.

But the machines won’t buy it … and neither will discerning humans.

The paradox?

The more you pay to be seen, the less believable you become.

If you want to win the next chapter, stop playing for reach and start transmitting resonance.

Your job isn’t to feed the algorithm.

It’s to leave a trail of proof that the algorithm can verify.

Stop boosting.

Start building.

Stay lit.

About Bob Manor 

Bob Manor is the founder of  South Ontario Auto Remarketing , Can-Am Dealer Services , and co-founder of Auto Auction Review. He’s also the creator of  Influence.vin, a branding and communication studio built for the car business. With over 30 years in the automotive world, Bob specializes in wholesale, dealer services, and identity-driven brand strategy. He’s a regular contributor to well-known automotive publications and uses his platforms to help industry pros re-align with who they are, not just what they do

Disclaimer:
These are my own observations and interpretations, based on lived experience inside this industry.
This is not financial, legal, or professional advice ... it is pattern recognition, shared for awareness and strategic consideration only