How We’re Surfacing Knowledge On LinkedIn

Earlier this month Daniel Roth and I were able to chat with Entrepreneur Editor-In-Chief, Jason Feifer , about the LinkedIn Feed and how we think about the content that shows up to our members. You can check out the full discussion here, and listen to the podcast here.?

We’ve made some exciting updates to how we think about content in the feed. Check out how we got here, and details about the shifts below:?

Our members want more knowledge-based content

It all starts with what you (and our 900+ million members) are finding most valuable on LinkedIn. What we’ve heard is that you want to see more content that is grounded in knowledge or advice, and you want to feel connected with people you know to help you discover the right opportunities. On the flip side, we’ve heard that the posts that are the least valuable were humblebrags and personal professional updates from people you don’t know.?

Over the past few months, we’ve been making adjustments to better surface the content and conversations that will help you nurture your network and grow in your careers.?

What does this mean for people sharing content moving forward??

Here is a quick view of how the changes we’ve made will impact how content could show up in feeds:?

• Better reach to connections and followers. We’ll continue to help your network see content from you, across a variety of topics.
• More reach when the content is focused on sharing knowledge and insights: For content that can go outside of your immediate network, we’ll be focused on surfacing more of the relevant topics and knowledge that we think our members will likely be interested in based on their interests and skills.?

It’s important to acknowledge that LinkedIn is not designed for virality, and the reason for that is we’re about economic opportunity and these changes also address that. We’re focused on encouraging knowledge sharing. It's about reaching the right professionals with the right information or topics that they care about and that can help in their careers.?

Let me bring this to life – if you share a post about getting a new job, and people like that post, that doesn’t mean their entire networks will also see the post in their feed since it probably isn’t as relevant to their connections as it is to them. However, if you share a post outlining advice about tackling a workplace challenge it could be seen both by your network and people outside your network who might find it helpful to their career growth.?

The changes are working.?

We’ve been slowly iterating and rolling out these changes over the past few months and so far people have told us that they are finding more value in their feeds. For example, We’ve seen an 80% reduction in people telling us they want to see different content within our feed surveys.?

And, people are finding value in the knowledge-based posts in their feed. In fact, when we asked members about specific posts in their feed, 98% of posts related to professional knowledge were deemed valuable, even if they were from people outside their direct network.?

Continuing to help members find knowledge?

This is a journey, and we’ll always be iterating and testing to make LinkedIn a more valuable experience for you. We’re continuing to make updates across the LinkedIn experience - from the feed, to search and notification - to help you more easily find knowledge and insights to tackle your everyday work challenges and career goals. So stay tuned for more updates.?

We want to hear what is working, and what isn’t, so please do share your thoughts and feedback. We’re in this together.