Aligning with the new LinkedIn Algorithm

4 Insights on how to grow your influence and make your content and personal brand visible to the right people

There’s a lot of upheaval in the LinkedIn community. Creators and marketers see their engagement plummeting, their notifications tanking, their visibility shrinking, and the need for creating relevant high-quality content rising.

While many vocalise their outrage, those who have consistently been creating knowledge-based content – cannot hide their pleasure that, finally, one social media platform is rewarding those who believe in creating meaningful content that matters.

LinkedIn is finally putting the pandemic (and people’s need for sharing personal and often not meaningful content) to rest. No longer will LinkedIn indulge those creators whose prim

ary reason for posting was to beat the algorithm and increase their vanity metrics.

With the latest algorithm change, LinkedIn is putting a stake in the ground and is redefining its image as a social media platform.

Social is re-defined as sharing in-depth knowledge and information for the advancement of others rather than creating easy engagement posts that are generic, devoid of specialised knowledge, and quickly forgotten.

Social is also re-defined as building communities and knowledge hubs where people can share and advance as experts in their area of expertise.

What doesn’t work anymore…

LinkedIn is widening the gap to other social media platforms and has come down hard on people who have tried to cut corners with engagement pods and excessive tagging in “networking parties”.

Practices like writing a headline and then hitting return a few times so that readers need to click on “see more…” to improve their metrics are not only an unpleasant reading experience but also no longer working as well.

LinkedIn’s algorithms no longer support posts going viral. In fact, LinkedIn puts relevance and learning above lazy engagement.

Selfie posts with no deeper meaning and no learning points that are aimed at everyone rather than at a specific audience, will drift into obscurity.

The mindset shift you need to make to stay relevant…

LinkedIn has moved away from being a pure “marketing platform” that encourages a one-way distribution of information. Instead, it encourages dialogues and the exchange of information as a two-way street.

It is to be hoped that LinkedIn will also change the nature and quality of LinkedIn groups. Currently, most LinkedIn groups are nothing else but a huge pitch-fest for lead magnets and offers.

In this respect, LinkedIn would do well to adopt a few features that still make Facebook groups attractive.

But I digress…

Creators need to shift from quantity to quality and from generic to personalised.

Knowledge, personalised networking, and specificity are now more important than churning out generic and templated posts as well as connecting with anyone who is commenting or tagging on a post or using bots and appointment setters to grow your network.

Now, more than ever, it is important that you have defined your brand’s messaging framework. (And I am quite delighted to see that the brand messaging framework that I have created over the years is now more relevant than ever).

With the latest algorithm change, LinkedIn is forcing its members to move from self-centered marketing to generous knowledge sharing for a specific set of people.

According to an article based on an interview with the LinkedIn team (LinkedIn Shares New Insights into its Latest Algorithm Updates | Social Media Today), “LinkedIn wants to see that you are building a community around content and around knowledge-sharing that you are uniquely qualified to talk about”.

Here are four changes that you need to consider for your content strategy going forward:

Change #1 – Speaking to a distinct audience

This change goes further than changing the content that you create. You need to review your profile and ensure that it is very clear to your target audience.

It is time that you give your banner, image, title, and about section a thorough review. In these sections, you need to make abundantly clear to whom your content and your page are relevant.

You need to understand your target audience and know what information and knowledge they want to hear and who the people are that need this information.

When you understand your target audience, then you can share the knowledge that gets you in front of the right people.

Change #2 – Speak about a distinctive core subject area

The above-linked article states that “LinkedIn is not just evaluating the value of your post – it’s evaluating you and whether you are an authority in the thing you’ve posted about”.

LinkedIn started out as a network for professionals, and it is reinforcing its roots with the new algorithm changes. But it is doing more than that. It also looks into your “history”.

AI is assessing your profile, posts, and articles/newsletters – i.e. your previous content - to see whether you qualify as an expert.

How hard that change will make it for people joining LinkedIn to gain traction, I cannot say. But I suspect that LinkedIn is paying more attention to its members showing up on LinkedIn as a long-term strategy.

Being a prolific high-quality content creator and expert has gained a lot more importance.

Change #3 – Raising the bar on your commenting strategy

As mentioned above, LinkedIn is cracking down on engagement pods where people from different areas of expertise comment for “reach” or with emojis and one-word phrases like: “agreed – 100% - well said” etc.

LinkedIn wants other subject matter experts or interested people to leave thoughtful comments that encourage conversations.

LinkedIn is considering who your commentators are – and you should see your competition as peers who support you – and is showing your content to more people who truly engage with your content.

Again – know who your target audience is and share knowledge that they need to consider your content as relevant and helpful – and worth commenting on.

This puts the ball back into your field as you now need to be diligent in responding to comments and ensuring that your peers and target audience are seen and heard and provided with extra insights in your comments.

Your responses to comments on your posts matter and are a positive signal not only to the people commenting on your post but also to LinkedIn’s algorithm.

Change #4 – Share your insights in your posts

Here’s one algorithm change that makes it harder to use AI for content generation. LinkedIn is interested in your personal perspective and insights. It wants you to dig into your knowledge and into your brain to come up with original thoughts and correlations.

And that is something that Chat GPT cannot do. AI can only combine, analyse, and regurgitate what it has been fed. It cannot dive into your brain and extract the knowledge and emotions that have been stored sometimes over decades of learning.

The sharing of generic knowledge is not rewarded but using your brain power is.

The funny thing is, that LinkedIn is using AI to classify posts into different categories and that those posts that meet its new preferences are rewarded.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you can never share a selfie again – but that you need to make a point and share some insights that are relevant to your audience. There has to be some knowledge and learning or your unique perspective that is imparted in your post.

In closing…

These changes may require you to make certain changes in your content and our mindset. LinkedIn wants you to focus on “reaching the right people instead of lots of people”.

You have to grow comfortable with lower engagement because you need to understand that with more specific conversations – not every conversation is relevant to everyone.

Your strategy needs to be focused on creating conversations that are relevant to a specific community of people.

Send me a message if you need help with that!

And if you need help with making these shifts, then send me a message. I’ve been supporting my clients with exactly this for a while.