TGC #28: I break down the LinkedIn algorithm update from June (8 mind-blowing findings)

If you follow my newsletter for a while or we’re connected on LinkedIn, you know I always said that the content should be written for people, not for algorithms.

And don’t get me wrong, I still back this idea 100%.

But a couple of days ago I decided to dive into the updates from June.

I found an article from Entrepreneur where Jason Feifer , Editor in Chief, “interviewed” 2 people from LinkedIn and asked them about the algo.

I felt amazed about the way LinkedIn is trying to “train their algorithm”.

So here we are, with me breaking it down for you.

This isn’t about hacks, it’s about understanding the way LinkedIn is trying to build the platform so you can incorporate this into your strategy accordingly.

1. LinkedIn wants you to stop trying to get viral

I’ll quote Daniel Roth , Editor in Chief at LinkedIn:

“When things go viral on LinkedIn, usually that's a sign to us that we need to look into this because that's not celebrated internally.”.

It’s not celebrated because LinkedIn prefers content aimed at one person or a specific group of persons.

If a piece of content gets viral, there might be a chance the post wasn’t very specific in terms of the total addressable market.

Of course, I assume we wouldn’t get penalized for this.

But the point is to stop trying to get viral and focus more on one specific message aimed at a specific target.

2. LinkedIn wants you to stop chasing engagement with selfies

During the pandemic, people's behavior changed.

This impacted the way they were using LinkedIn too, and I’ll quote Roth here again:

“Our homes and our work lives got enmeshed”.

LinkedIn creators started sharing more “Facebook content”: selfies, family photos, etc.

Those posts worked pretty well, so people decided to get the most out of them and amplify their reach, get more likes, and new followers.

And here’s something quite strange.

“Facebook content” got a lot of traction, so people engaged with it.

But after a period of time, probably due to the hype of this content, the same people started to complain:

“They were saying, 'I don't want to see that anymore — now I want to learn how to get better at what I'm doing.”.

So people are the ones who made LinkedIn rethink their algorithm strategy.

And now they are trying to make the feed more informative, and less engaging.

3. LinkedIn wants your followers to see your content

Again, based on the feedback from the community, LinkedIn identified the following:

People are looking for content that is “grounded in knowledge and advice, and they find it most valuable when the content is from people they know and care about”, according to Alice Xiong , Director of Product Management.

This makes total sense to me.

4. LinkedIn wants you to share your knowledge and advice

This change is really interesting.

So LinkedIn is trying to make us focus more on sharing educational content that can help people grow or become better.

“For us, the most important part of the equation is: Do we believe we're helping our members be and feel more productive and more successful?”.

But how are they doing this?

Well, besides a potential higher reach in your own network, LinkedIn is saying that this is the primary way to make your content reach new audiences, out of your connections and followers.

Again, this makes total sense to me and I would love for this to happen.

5. LinkedIn wants you to build a community and talk about what you’re qualified

You can’t imagine how happy I was reading this. I think I've been saying for more than 1 year that people should build communities, not audiences.

“We are looking to see that you are building a community around content, and around knowledge-sharing that you are uniquely qualified to talk about.”.

LinkedIn is using your profile as a reference to understand if you’re qualified to talk about a certain topic, or not. That’s how they try to show the right content to the right people.

Roth is sharing an example too:

“He has zero background in geology, so what would happen if he posted on LinkedIn about how to be a great geologist?”

“LinkedIn has an obligation to be like, 'Hey, this is not the highest quality content, Dan has none of the skills in this area, and we have not seen him have success with geology content in the past’.”

So we can expect to see highly relevant content from qualified people.

6. LinkedIn wants you to understand not all your posts are equal

They are trying to identify who a particular post is relevant to.

Today it can be to a specific group, and tomorrow to a different one.

For example, if you’re sharing something about your family, that piece of content may be relevant only to your closest connections, because they have the biggest chance to have more context.

But if your next post will be about B2B marketing, then it can be valuable and of high interest to a different category.

This is pretty interesting, and I don’t think another platform considered this before. But correct me if I’m wrong.

7. LinkedIn wants you to have meaningful conversations in the comments

Finally, LinkedIn is trying to kill engagement pods. We’ll see if they manage to do this, but it is a step forward.

“Great post!”, “Awesome”, or “Interesting” are no longer considered as a positive engagement signal.

Your goal should be to try to get valuable comments from your community and transform those comments into conversations.

“Our system is like, 'This is a conversation, and people want to be part of this conversation. Show this to more people.”.

Another interesting aspect is that it’s important who engages with your content too.

If your post is about SEO, and a lot of SEO professionals engage with that piece of content, LinkedIn takes it as a positive signal.

8. LinkedIn wants you to share your perspective and insights

LinkedIn is trying to identify if a post is offering generic information, or shares the creator's perspective.

Hint: first is less awarded.

I was smiling again at this because I was always saying that if someone can find your “lesson” in a 2 minute Google search, then your post isn’t valuable.

“We really appreciate creators taking creative liberty and using their personality.”.

So don’t be afraid of sharing your own thoughts and advice about a specific topic you’re skilled at.

What’s my point on this:

Well, I don’t think this is 100% accurate at the moment. I’m active on LinkedIn and I saw things happening differently vs “the new algo”.

But, if they publicly said all those things, it is clear that’s the way they want to go.

And even if at the moment or in the next couple of months it will not be perfect, I’m pretty sure in 1 year or so we will see more and more of these on LinkedIn.

I have to admit I like the path LinkedIn is following and I can’t wait to see this “in action”.

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