LinkedIn can be a very attractive channel, especially for B2B brands with a company page. Here’s everything you need to know about recent Linkedin algorithm changes and how to create engaging content.
LinkedIn has become the number one platform for professionals and B2B brands. It was a social media platform with a consistent mission to attract millions of people and brands who want to focus on building professional relationships and attracting LinkedIn users.
Just a few months ago, Microsoft announced that LinkedIn profile engagement was at a “record high” and that sessions on the platform increased by 2 % in the first quarter. So it’s no surprise that more brands have invested time in updating their LinkedIn strategy in recent years.
A good way to understand how LinkedIn works and improve your engagement is to look at its algorithm and the latest updates. Linkedin is one of the best marketing tools available at the moment.
LinkedIn Algorithm
LinkedIn recently updated its algorithm that decides what is shown in our feeds. We can talk more about Facebook’s in Social Media Changes, but it’s still useful to understand how other platforms behave. As for LinkedIn, the information shown in our feeds is based on their “People you know tell you about things that matter”
The most obvious messages in your feed are related to people you are connected with or following. Your feed also shows messages that your contacts have liked, commented on or shared. Additionally, you’ll also see posts from groups, hashtags, and topics you follow. Your connection requests will also see a change.
Focus on LinkedIn profile engagement
LinkedIn algorithm is driven by its goal to encourage participation, and the increase in engagement on the platform is due to several changes. The amount of reach has increased substantially after these changes. As with Facebook, “meaningful interaction” is essential to ensure users are exposed to the most engaging content. Engagement also depends on the kind of content that is posted.
From a brand’s perspective, it’s very important to keep up with these changes to ensure you’re creating compelling content through LinkedIn posts etc.
It is very important to encourage discussions so that your content appears in more streams. You can start with several steps to increase and optimize engagement;
- Create posts that lead to conversations: Don’t just share an interesting link, ask a question and try to make it more interesting. Thy type of content needs to resonate.
- Get people to mention others: Be creative with your creations. content and encourage people to mention others who find your posts interesting.
- Participate in existing conversations: use your personal profiles to join existing conversations and follow your brand’s ads to respond to them
- Use employee advocacy to reach a wider network: ask your employees and their personal networks for help in sharing relevant content
- Create content people want to share: use the psychology of the social media user and create interesting content for your audience to share immediately.
Sorting your post to get leads
LinkedIn algorithm sorts your content on LinkedIn into one of three categories: Spam, Low Quality or High Quality. LinkedIn will determine the location of your post as follows:
- Spam: You may be marked as spam or an irrelevant post if you use bad grammar or add multiple links in your post. Avoid posting too often (more than one post every 3 hours) and don’t tag too many people on your post (more than five).
- Hashtags like #comment, #like, or #follow can tag the system to help you appear on the newsfeed.
- Poor quality: These messages are not spam. But they also don’t follow content best practices. If you can’t make your post interesting, LinkedIn automation will consider it low quality.
- High Quality: These are posts that follow all of LinkedIn’s content recommendations: The post is easy to read Prompts a question, Uses three or fewer hashtags, Contains strong keywords
LinkedIn tests your post to optimize lead generation
If the LinkedIn algorithm has determined that you have not submitted something, no matter how spammy, it delivers your message to a handful of your followers. This is why you need to use LinkedIn judiciously.
When there is a lot of engagement (likes! comments! shares!) at once, LinkedIn broadcasts it to more people and will help you reach hundreds. But if no one bites at the time (or worse, if your audience marks your post as spam or hides it from their feed), LinkedIn won’t bother sharing it anymore. All of this happens within the first hour of sharing a post, which means it’s make-or-break time!
Take advantage of this test to improve views and engagement:
- Post when you know your followers are online (see our LinkedIn Analytics guide to find out when this happens!)
- Respond to any comments or questions
- Keep track of likes and comments
- Set up engagement with a question or prompt
- Post consistently so superfans know when your new stuff/ideas drop.
- Get active in other places on LinkedIn by interacting with other posts. You never know if looking at your your name might inspire someone to check out your latest content, right?
Best LinkedIn practices
1. Relevance
Easier said than done, right? Content creators can see the relevance in several ways. First, the basic rule is: know your audience. Start with in-depth audience research. Use analytics and insights from your other platforms. Chart interests and get a better idea of what interests your audience. You can even use your competitor’s audience to create personas to make your LinkedIn content more visible. Use these findings as a starting point for your LinkedIn marketing strategy.
2. Post timings
A Good opportunity to engage with the people on LinkedIn during the first hour is important. It also increases organic reach. You won’t see likes or comments if your audience is fast asleep. Schedule your posts on LinkedIn when most of your followers are usually online for the best visibility amongst LinkedIn members.
3. Promote posts
One of the best ways to increase engagement with your posts is to increase the number of people who see them considerably. Creators can use several tactics to gain more exposure on LinkedIn: tag relevant companies and members use keywords judiciously and include relevant hashtags. branded hashtags have great potential here as well. If you create a hashtag following, the algorithm will likely expose followers of the hashtag to posts that use it. This helps tremendously in content marketing.
Examples include Lyft’s #LifeAtLyft, Nike’s #SwooshLife and Adobe’s #AdobeLife. Google’s #GrowWithHashtag creates a community of over 2,000 interns who can connect and share experiences on the platform.
