LinkedIn is a convenient platform to reach the right people because it perfectly marries your expectations with reality. You, however, are supposed to understand the LinkedIn Algorithm to enhance your exposure.
In this blog, you will learn:
- Three filters of the LinkedIn Algorithm and its dos and don’ts
- How to avoid being flagged as spam
- How to enhance your exposure
- The Golden Hour
- LinkedIn’s ranking indicators
- Fatal mistakes to avoid, come what may
Candidly put, the LinkedIn algorithm analyzes several factors to determine the relevance of your content, its stretch to the target audience, and ranks it accordingly.
Similarly, it displays your post to a small group of your audience and checks if they respond. Based on the outcomes of the first test, it then decides whether to show it to more people or to remove it from their feed.
1. Your content is filtered through one of the three categories as mentioned below:
a. Spam: if your post has been flagged as spam, it will die in the bud.
b. Average: If your post is categorized as “average,” though it may reach some of the people you know, its survival will be determined later.
c. Standard: Any post that thrives as “standard,” will surely maximize your exposure and let you reap the desired fruits.
2. What factors determine which category your post will fall into?
It is not as complicated as it sounds. Passing through the SPAM filter is easy. Just do as follows:
a. Be fully grammatical
b. Avoid using too many links
c. Tag five users to the maximum
d. Always give a three-hour gap between your posts
e. Avoid hashtags, such as “follow,” “comment,” or “like.”
Passing through ‘Average’ and ‘Standard’ categories requires you to be mindful of the following:
a. Tag only those connections who respond.
b. Use the deductive method to use hashtags more effectively. If you use three hashtags, the first must be broader. The second one is a bit closer to your niche, and the third one is exactly what you are looking for. It must look like this: #marketing #b2bmarketing #illinoisb2bmarketing
c. Use easy format.
d. Post content that garners organic response (ask questions, share interesting facts, tag relevant people).
e. Use relevant keywords to reach the right audience.
f. Avoid using external links in the main post. Use them in the comments, instead.
3. Understanding the Dynamics of “the Golden Hour.”
As mentioned above, a post that has passed through the spam filter will be displayed to a small number of users. On LinkedIn, the audience’s engagement will determine the fate of your post in the very first hour.
The website’s algorithm observes whether the newly created post has the merit of displaying in wider feeds. If your post performs well and garners public response in the first hour, it will thrive throughout the website for months.
Dos and Don’ts of the Golden Hour
a. DOs
- Choose a suitable time when your connections are available online.
- Include an interesting but relevant question to grab their interest.
- Make the Golden Hour interactive by responding to your audience.
- Consistently follow your posting schedule.
b. Don’ts
- Never post aberrant, gibberish, or irrelevant content.
- Never consign your post to oblivion. Be informed and updated, always.
- Tag a person whom you know will respond within the Golden Hour.
- Avoid frequent edits. Posts edited frequently perform lower than average.
4. LinkedIn Ranking Indicators
If people are linking your post, engaging with it, and/or sharing it, it will pass through the ‘average’ class and will be displayed in more feeds. If you want your content to appear in more and more feeds, you must constantly and consistently engage with comments and interactions.
To decide what appears in feeds, LinkedIn uses three ranking indicators:
i. LinkedIn Connections
Based on the below-mentioned criteria, LinkedIn determines whether or not the post is relevant to your current and former workmates. Similarly, to find common grounds, it checks whom you interacted with recently.
ii. Relevance of interest
The LinkedIn algorithm considers the groups you belong to as well as the hashtags, people, and pages you follow. Together with the companies, people, and topics mentioned in the post, the algorithm also analyzes its language.
iii. Probability of Engagement
First, the algorithm predicts the likelihood that you will share, comment, or react to a post. The model also takes into account timely feedback to content creators. (The quicker it starts raking in interactions, the more likely LinkedIn is to include it in the feeds of others)
iv. The flow chart to move from average to standard is as under:
The more you interact with others daily -> the more people will engage back -> the more you’ll be seen in feeds.
5. Spam Your Audience—a Fatal Mistake that Can Get Your Post Killed
When you deliberately try to engage the audience through catchy but fluff material and the audience scrolls it down without interacting. This is called “bounce.” The higher the bounce rate, the likelier the algorithm will tag it as spam even if no user marks it as one. Similarly, LinkedIn will exact a penalty from your content if people mark it as spam, hide it from their feed, or simply ignore it.