How LinkedIn became a place to overshare

About three years ago, Joel Lalgee started posting on LinkedIn. He works in recruiting, so naturally, he spent a lot of time on the site, where people list their work experience and job seekers look for their next gig. But he didn’t just write about work. He wrote about his personal life: the mental health challenges he faced as a teenager, and his life since. “Being able to share my story, I saw it as a way to connect with people and show you’re not alone,” he said.

Something else happened, too. “Six months in, I started seeing a big increase in engagement, followers, inbound business leads,” said Lalgee, 35. He now has more than 140,000 followers on LinkedIn, up from the 9,000 he had before he started posting.