“When things go viral on LinkedIn, that's not celebrated internally”, LinkedIn's editor-in-chief said earlier this year. In 2023, LinkedIn tweaked its algorithm to discourage going viral. What has changed and what does this mean for you?
LinkedIn adjusted how their feed works to take the distribution and rewarding of content on the platform in a new direction. The two biggest changes are:
According to LinkedIn, users on the platform prefer to see content from people they know. They also find knowledge-and-advice content the most valuable.
LinkedIn will not fully disclose how their AI-driven algorithm determines exactly whether or not a post contains knowledge or advice. But what they do say is that their AI can tell the difference between more general and more insightful information. General information is less rewarded than information that relies on the perspective or own insights of the person posting the content. Moreover, they also check whether that person is an authority on the topic. If so, the post is given priority. If not, the post is flagged as being “of not very high quality.”
With the increase in home working, the boundary between private and work life has blurred. LinkedIn experienced that first-hand. Suddenly, more selfies, family photos, and other private posts appeared on the platform, things that belong more on a platform like Facebook. Some users also began to manipulate the algorithm just like on Facebook so that their posts would generate more likes and followers.
How do you make sure your posts fall under the category of “knowledge and advice”? We asked social media expert Fien Saeremans of We Are Digital, part of our Propaganda Group. She gave us the following 4 tips:
For each post, think about who you want to appeal to. Who is your target audience? Who is this post relevant to? Always draft posts with these questions in mind.
Post only about areas in which you or your company are experts. Either share your opinion or provide advice on a particular topic.
Meaningful comments on posts will carry more weight. This means that LinkedIn will rank the post higher when the comments are about the content of the post and when commenters themselves are active in the domain the post is about. Furthermore, it is recommended to interact with people who respond to your post. You can do this by giving extra relevant info or asking a question in return.
LinkedIn is putting more focus on hashtag engagement. Therefore, conduct hashtag research and use relevant but also engaging hashtags for each post.
Then feel free to email fabio.gilio@propaganda-group.be.
If you are curious about what we can do for your organization, please contact Fabio via phone or email.
fabio.gilio@propaganda-group.be
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