9 Ways To Win The LinkedIn Algorithm

In my last blog, I talked about the basics of the LinkedIn algorithm; the ‘what’ and the ‘whys’. But I didn’t tell you about the ‘how’.

Well, this blog is all about telling you how you can strategize your way through the strict rules of the algorithm and ultimately win it!

Professionals all over the world are more connected than ever, thanks to the advancing features of LinkedIn. It is the perfect fit for almost every professional status, be it for students, or job seekers & recruiters, or executives & employees, or marketers.

For businesses, LinkedIn is the best platform to build your brand. However, winning the algorithm is essential. You need to develop a relevant demographic, post valuable and engaging content and plan strategically. Follow your niche, use hashtags and your post will be on top of your follower’s feed.

However, does the algorithm make this task easy? Well, the truth is that the algorithm ensures a fair existence for all users, be it the most popular ones or the ones with zero connections. But here’s the downside, it’s the same rules that can bring your traffic down!

Worry not, because I will be telling you 9 surefire ways to Win the algorithm!

TABLE OF CONTENT
1/ When Are You Posting?
2/ Link Between Content And Niche
3/ Hashtags For The Win!
4/ Building Relevant Demographic
5/ Content Optimization
6/ Promotional Strategies
7/ Power of Experimentation
8/ Evaluating LinkedIn Analytics
9/ Cross-engagement

1/ When Are You Posting?

When you are on any kind of networking platform, you end up being a content creator (or curator) too whether you like it or not. And the thing about content is that timing is everything!

It is necessary that you post at a time when there is a maximum activity from your audience. However, the process of analyzing when most of your demographic is online is a time-consuming process. It requires patience, consistency, and experimentation.

Here are some key points to take into account:

• The best day of the week is usually considered the weekdays, with Tuesday and Wednesday having the highest amount of engagement.
• Since it is a professional platform, weekends have the least traffic.
• You can use time zones to your advantage by scheduling your posting times based on your key demographic.
• Most statistics show that engagement drops after working hours on weekdays, 5 pm in most cases.
• You can analyze your LinkedIn analytics by recording them in a spreadsheet to get a clear cut schedule for posting that drives the most traffic.

2/ Link Between Content And Niche

As a professional who creates content on LinkedIn, it is important that you focus on niche and relevance. ‘Niche’ is a specific segment of the market where a creator specializes.

To achieve this, there’s a single rule:
Know your audience – Analyze. Research. Strategize.

Know what interests your audience. See what they care about the most. Make sure that there’s a collision between your audience’s interests and your expertise because otherwise, you are targeting the wrong demographic.

Creators also need to remember that relevance needs to be maintained not only in content but also in the format of the content. Media is getting more important now and it is essential that you use the most relevant formats of media. Statistics show that:

• Posts with visuals such as images get twice as many comments and likes than only-text posts.
• LinkedIn videos drive more traffic due to their complex format; it drives five times the engagement than the usual text posts.
• Carousel posts fill the gaps between short video posts and single-image posts, thus delivering an equally good engagement.

3/ Hashtags For The Win!

LinkedIn, like other media platforms, has also started prioritizing hashtags. However, does it work the same way? Let’s see.

So, the creator mode allows users to put 5 hashtags on their profile on top showcasing how valuable they are. On the other hand, there are two kinds of hashtags for posts: broad hashtags and niche hashtags.

Broad hashtags like #marketing have a huge amount of followers and thus can help you get more engagement and maybe, followers. Whereas niche hashtags like #linkedincopywriting focus more on a specific topic and give you a more relevant audience for your content.

Here’s what I suggest you do:

• Decide the top 5 hashtags for your creator profile based on your research on the hashtag’s relevance, niche, number of followers, and where it stands in the industry.
• Use 3-5 hashtags on your posts ONLY. LinkedIn doesn’t believe in the usage of maximum hashtags; it needs you to be precise and relevant.
• Keep a balance between broad and niche hashtags, and use the ratio of 2:1 (more broad ones) to use this feature to its maximum benefit.

4/ Building Relevant Demographic

Your followers and your connections represent the initial audience of your content. If your demographic isn’t built based on credibility and relevance, then your content would be generating no value despite having quality.

A relevant audience will find value in your content and niche. They might be students, employees, executives, or literally anyone else. They might be following you because you belong to a similar industry or merely because your content interests them.

Here are some tips to build a healthy and organic audience:

• Take part in LinkedIn Groups or host one on your own.
• Join conversations and be active on the network, show your presence.
• Give and receive recommendations.
• Promote your LinkedIn profile/company page on your website and in other appropriate spaces.
• If you have a company, encourage employees to show that they work at your company & use your corporate hashtag.
• Don’t add random connections just for the sake of numbers.

5/ Content Optimization

Content optimization in the simplest terms means utilizing your content space in the most efficient way possible. This could include anything that attracts an audience, provides value, sticks to relevance, etc. Basically, content optimization requires you to strategize smartly.

One of the biggest suggestions I can give you when it comes to content optimization is to retain originality. A piece must have a personal touch if you want it to do well with the viewers.

If you have a user-generated strategy or rely on AI, then reframe the content with your personal commentary.

Here are some other ways to optimize your content:

• Catch your reader’s attention in the first line itself.
• Try being precise with your content while also providing value.
• Include a call-to-action button to keep your audience engaged.
• Reply to everyone who comments in the first three hours. Further too if possible.
• Encourage discussions in the comment section.
• Be sure that your content has clarity and isn’t vague.
• Use a minimum of 3 hashtags strategically.

6/ Promotional Strategies

To really win the LinkedIn algorithm, you need to make sure that the maximum number of people view your content. However, you need to do that in the most organic way possible.

This is where promotion comes in. Promoting your content on or off LinkedIn gives your content a broader space to reveal itself.

Here is how you can promote your LinkedIn content:

• Building the right kind of content that is relevant and provides value is promotional itself.
• Try investing in paid LinkedIn advertisements.
• Make sure that any kind of visual you post is optimized for sharing.
• Implement SEO-oriented content strategies by using keywords.
• Make sure every content you post can be easily shared by viewers.

Off-LinkedIn promotion basically means cross-promotion on other platforms. You may be marketing on wider platforms like Twitter or Email. In this case, simply promoting it out there by newsletter or maybe by paid advertisements may do the task. This is a great way to showcase your work to inactive followers.

7/ Power of Experimentation

This can never be said enough, when it comes to content, you need to keep experimenting!

Everything you learn about the algorithm is true but not exactly solid – because the truth is that something that works for others might just not work for you. This works for both your content and your strategies.

To win the algorithm, you need to understand the algorithm, and that cannot be done by simply learning about it, you need to experiment and see for yourself.

Generally, the usual audience engages more with video content than the usual formatting. However, this doesn’t mean that you will stick to a single format. Try out other formats to mix things up, and see the statistics for everything to chalk out a plan.

The same can be said for the timing of your posting as well. As I already stated, to find out your ideal posting hours, you need to experiment with multiple time frames.

A lot of creators connect niche to monotony, but the truth is you can mix things up and add a variety of content within your niche as well. As long as you start by experimenting with content styles, there is no way your LinkedIn profile could ever get monotonous.

The process is time-consuming, but the results are always worth it.

8/ Evaluating LinkedIn Analytics

LinkedIn’s very specific set of analytics is probably my favorite feature. If you have a premium account, then you get to have the full disclosure. If not, then don’t forget to check out my blog where I reveal if the LinkedIn premium is worth investing in.

Here are some useful metrics that can be a good indicator of your performance:

• You can check the number of people who visited your profile.
• The ‘post views’ section is a good indicator of your updates’ performance.
• You can even see the categories of users who viewed your profile. For example, 20% can be salespersons while 30% can be project managers.
• The Company page shows a list of metrics like unique visitors, impressions, profile visits, new followers, and custom button clicks.
• Users in B2B sales might browse their employees in the People section for basic analysis.
• Visitor demographic shows your audience’s job functions, location, seniority level, industry, and company size.
• You can switch over to the location’s metric and check where the people who visit your page come from.

Each metric is helpful in a different way to different professionals.

9/ Cross-Engagement

LinkedIn even though is a professional platform; is also a networking community. The increase in the number of users and content creators has made it important that you engage with your connections’ posts as well.

Here’s why you need to engage with other creators:

• It brings your brand into focus by establishing your presence.
• It shows the algorithm that you are a valuable user.
• It shows your active participation as the face of a company.
• It facilitates a boost in your conversion rates.
• It provides room for dialogue and discussions.
• It convinces your connections to engage with your post as well.

Wrap Up

Winning the algorithm is tricky, but it isn’t impossible.

Luckily, today there’re thousands of resources and strategies to refer to. Keep experimenting, strategize well, and have fun! See what works for you, stick to it, and mix things up occasionally.

If you need more assistance, feel free to schedule a call with me where a team of experts will be more than happy to provide you with support.

Which of these techniques are you trying first?