LinkedIn™ Algorithm 2022 (2021): How does it work?

As on Facebook™ or Twitter™, the LinkedIn™ algorithm can be an advantage as well as a disadvantage.

However, it can be an extremely powerful tool if you know how to tame it and use it to your advantage!

But first, what is an algorithm? According to the Larousse it is a: “Set of operating rules whose application makes it possible to solve a problem stated by means of a finite number of operations. An algorithm can be translated, using a programming language, into a program that can be executed by a computer ”.

The algorithm filters the information and analyzes it to provide you with the most relevant information about your news feed. So, for example, the sponsored ads you see on Facebook™ have been specially tailored to suit you. The algorithm makes visible what is most likely to interest you.

Likewise, if you want to use the algorithm to achieve your business goals, ignoring how it works can significantly hinder your visibility, and therefore your bottom line.

Indeed, just like a mailbox, when you publish content , an antispam filter can decide to put you in the undesirable category. If this is the case, your content may be published, it will not be, or almost not visible. What interest, isn’t it?

An algorithm is created to make decisions, so make them work in your favor!

What can you do to use the LinkedIn ™ algorithm to your advantage?

1. To seduce the LinkedIn ™ algorithm, bet on relevant, attractive and engaging content

Being present on LinkedIn™ and publishing is good, but generating engagement is better. This implies having content that is completely adapted to your target reader. For your content to be good content, it must be relevant and meet the needs of your audience by solving its problems or providing information with high added value.

Create quality content

This is the key to:

• Retain your readers who appreciate more your shares on the social network.
• Encourage reading of your publications to the end. The good contents are consulted in full! And that pleases the LinkedIn ™ algorithm: Dwell time. The more time people spend on your posts, the more their performance increases. Some members never interact, but read the content, the dwell time allows this time factor to be taken into account (synonymous with interest in your content).
• Generate reactions: likes or comments. This proof of commitment to your content appeals to the social network, which rewards them by boosting their visibility.

How do I write a LinkedIn™ post?

In concrete terms, here’s how to write content that appeals to people and LinkedIn ™:

• Rely on a content strategy developed upstream during your communication plan Where your digital marketing strategy .
• Take into account the real needs of your targets (your buyers personas ) in order to respond to their problem by providing them with valuable advice and high added value information.
• Bet on long content such as a carousel , a native video (preferably subtitled to facilitate viewing on the move), a post comprising between 1000 and 2000 characters or a live one. It is preferable to upload a native video (in square format and less than 3 minutes) rather than linking to YouTube™ or Viméo™.
• Use surveys that have an average of 450% more reach! This format is very popular because it promotes interaction with the audience who clicks to give their opinion.

2. Boost the dissemination of your posts with interactions

The goal of LinkedIn ™ is to provide its members with content they like. Therefore, the network chooses the posts by favoring those which got a lot of interaction. It is a criterion which proves the commitment. So you have to do everything to get interactions.

On LinkedIn ™, three types of interaction are possible:

1/ Likes

Your reader can choose to click between different icons: “Like”, “Love”, “Support,“ Well done ”,“ Informative ”and“ interesting ”. All of these buttons have the same impact on the LinkedIn ™ algorithm.

Did you know that :

• 1 like brings + 2% reach to the author and + 3% for the one who clicks;
• 1 like on a company post increases reach by 3% to 4% among the company’s followers.
• From now on, the effect of the commitment within 24 hours is spread over 6 days compared to 3-4 in 2020.

2/ Comments

This is clearly the comment you should aim to get, as this is the interaction that brings the most “points” to your post. The more you have, the more your post is propelled on the feeds of your network. This is why he do not hesitate to encourage your reader to comment “My content you liked, tell me in comment” or ask him a question at the end of your message: “what do you think ? “.

Concretely, a comment generated within 24 hours of publication brings 4x more reach than a like, and 7x more if it is posted within the first 2 hours. On the other hand, if the author responds to a comment more than 24 hours after publication, there is no impact on the reach because the deadline has passed.

For a comment to bring you more visibility, it must be longer than 5 words. We are therefore talking about real and constructive comments and not just superficial content. This is also LinkedIn™’s way of “fighting” the use of pods (automatic engagement comments).

3/ Sharing

This interaction is not desired, because it does not really boost the visibility of your post (90% less than a classic post). However, if you apply the following rules, you increase the reach of your shared post:

• Add 150 words in the description;
• Place 3 hashtags not mentioned in the original post;
• Tag the original author;
• Make sure the original author comments;
• Respond to comments within the first hour.

However, if you want to increase your reach (visibility) on LinkedIn, sharing a publication is not to be preferred. Better to turn to the creation of posts!

Get interactions (likes or comments) is therefore the strategy to adopt since the LinkedIn ™ algorithm counts the number of interactions and highlights the most engaging content .

There are a few simple techniques to get people to engage with your content by adding a humorous twist or tagging one or more members to the topic of the post. You can mention people in your network by inserting an @. But be careful, do it sparingly and accurately so as not to be considered spam (and therefore kill your efforts). Indeed, if the tagged people react, you score points, if they do not respond or delete the tag, you are penalized by the algorithm.

3. Connect with influencers in your industry

To make sure that as many people as possible see your content, connect with the most influential people in your industry. It is important to expand your network in relation to your goals on LinkedIn ™. To help you build your professional network, read our article: develop your professional LinkedIn ™ network in 12 steps .

If you are looking to learn more about LinkedIn ™ Marketing or would like to interact with me, add me to your network by clicking here.

4. Bet on the creator mode

His goal is to get more followers. Indeed, with the LinkedIn creator mode , the “connect” button becomes “follow”. The goal is no longer to grow your network, but your audience. People who follow you see your content in their newsfeed, but you don’t see theirs.

The creator mode does not particularly increase the reach of your publications, however, your profile is better indexed by the algorithm. In addition, there is the possibility of having its own Newsletter. Subscribers receive an email notifying them when new content is posted. It is very powerful to increase the engagement rate and generate more views and interactions.

I recommend the creator mode for people whose network is approaching 30,000 connections and who want to further develop their visibility and audience.

5. Increase your social selling index (SSI)

The social selling index is the score given by LinkedIn™ to assess your level of use of the social network. According to the latest report from Just Connecting, the higher your SSI, the more your posts are pushed by the LinkedIn™ algorithm. Indeed, if your SSI is

• > 90 = + 30% reach;
• between 75 and 90 = + 20% reach;
• from 60 to 75 = + 10% reach;
• between 45 to 60 = normal;
• < 45 = – 20%.

To find out how to increase your SSI, read our article on this subject: LinkedIn Social Selling Index: here’s how to use it well

What are the mistakes to avoid in order not to be blacklisted from the LinkedIn ™ algorithm?

If you haven’t taken LinkedIn ™ training or LinkedIn ™ coaching with a Proinfluent expert, you still don’t know all the workings of the social network.

Here are some mistakes mentioned in training that can penalize you in your social selling .

1. Publish your content at the wrong time

If you want to boost the visibility of your posts on LinkedIn ™, your content must generate interaction (lots of likes and comments), and this in a short time: the first 2 hours after its publication! Which implies 2 things:

1. Create quality content that appeals to your audience to read and comment on.
2. Post when your audience is on the network and so are you so you can respond to comments.

There are many (sometimes conflicting) recommendations on the Internet about the best days and times to post on LinkedIn ™. For our part, we have found that our posts get a higher engagement, when they are published on Tuesday and Thursday morning. But this varies greatly from one professional sector to another. You may see good results at another time of the week.

The best time to post is when your target is active on the network. That is, when she is willing to read and comment on your content. This is also the time when you are available to respond to comments.

2. Publish en masse: beware, the LinkedIn ™ algorithm penalizes spamming

There is another way to be categorized in spam: posting way too often!

Posting every 5 minutes does not allow you to occupy space in your network’s news feed. On the contrary, if it is not the algorithm which qualifies you as spam, it is your audience which is unsubscribing from your profile.

You have to be able to differentiate between publishing regularly and publishing massively!

To generate opportunities, I recommend posting at least twice a week. Conversely, the maximum is once a day, beyond that is too much.

3. Adopt bad practices in your LinkedIn posts

Here is the list of the little things that casually can harm you:

• Do not use a hashtag (#) or on the contrary overdose their use is detrimental to the reach of your posts. It is advisable to place at least 3 hashtags and not to exceed 10 (which is considered spam). The ideal is between 3 and 5 hashtags per publication (less than 3 the reach of your post loses 40%, more than 5 = -20% in visibility and more than 9, -35%).
• The place of the hashtags in the post does not matter: whether they are placed at the beginning or below, it does not impact visibility. On the other hand, putting a hashtag in the comment has no effect on the reach of your publication.
• Using the same hashtag is a good idea, as it increases the reach of posts containing it by 10%.
• To create your community, bet on personal hashtags so that your posts are more visible to your followers. In addition, on the page of your hashtag, your previous posts are present which helps to generate engagement.

Find out how to use hasthag wisely in this article: LinkedIn ™ hashtag: how to use it to gain visibility?

• Mentioning too many people (@) in a post. If you tag too many people who don’t react (or worse, delete the tag), the LinkedIn™ algorithm penalizes your post.

• Put external links: LinkedIn ™ does not want its members to leave its platform to consume content elsewhere. This is quite normal! However, it would seem from the Just Connecting study that this criterion is sanctioned less than in previous years by LinkedIn™. You can therefore drag your links directly into the posts, but avoid placing them in the first comment, because the LinkedIn™ algorithm recognizes this bad practice and penalizes it.

Get trained in the use of LinkedIn™ to sell (yourself), discover personalized LinkedIn™ coaching ! It’s an investment that pays off. Look at the testimonials …

LinkedIn™ wasn’t always like this!

There was a time when the algorithm was discreet, especially in the early days of LinkedIn™.

Writing dozens of posts in an hour was not sanctioned by the algorithm, so you could take up all the feed space on your network.

At the time, it was not considered spam by LinkedIn™. However, for the members, the feeling could be different!

Today, LinkedIn™ tends to optimize its network and make the user experience more and more pleasant for members , hence the development of more efficient algorithms that can decide whether or not to highlight content. Moreover, there is not 1 but 2 algorithms depending on your device. Thus, you do not see the same content if you are on your smartphone or in front of your computer:

• On PC: LinkedIn™ shows more polls, videos and posts with documents.
• On mobile: the platform favors advertisements, the content of company pages, shared posts and job advertisements. Likes have more impact but comments and shares have less.

Thus, only the best content is displayed in the news feed. In other words, there are several members of your network who will never see your content in their news feed, because the algorithm judges that this content does not interest them.

LinkedIn ™ 2021 algorithm: how does it work? In conclusion

Explore the subject with a training or one LinkedIn coaching . Knowing this tool well will help you generate lasting customers and sell (yourself). Do like me, do not prospect as before, get bought!

LinkedIn™ 2021 algorithm: to summarize in 7 questions

C’est quoi un algorithme ?

The algorithm is an artificial intelligence that evaluates the relevance of publications in order to decide whether (or not) to show this content to other Internet users. It takes different factors into account to show what is most likely to interest people.

Comment fonctionne l’algorithme de LinkedIn™ ?

The LinkedIn ™ algorithm measures several parameters in order to judge the relevance of a post. The better it gets, the more it gets broadcast on your network feeds. Among these criteria, there is the time spent on your post (Dwell time) and the number of interactions (likes and comments). Note that time plays a big role, it is in the first two hours after your publication that it must obtain a maximum of engagement. The algorithm also assesses whether your content is spam, which is why care must be taken to create quality content and not to abuse hashtags (#) and mentions (@). In addition, external links are penalized because LinkedIn ™ does not want its members to leave the platform!

Qu’est-ce que le Dwell time ?

Dwell time is a criterion of the LinkedIn ™ algorithm. It measures the time spent by a member on each post. The more people stay and consume your content (read your post, watch your native video, or check out your carousel), the higher the score. It is therefore advisable to promote the publication of long and relevant content (that your readers want to read).

Que faire pour être visible sur LinkedIn™ ?

To be visible on LinkedIn ™, you must publish high added value content regularly (if possible at least twice a week). Your content should be relevant and appeal to your network. Also bet on content that elicits interaction to obtain as many comments as possible and thus appeal to the LinkedIn ™ algorithm.

Est-ce que LinkedIn™ utilise des algorithmes de recommandation ?

The LinkedIn ™ algorithm is based on several factors:

• Quality: Is your content spam or is it low or high quality?
• Your reliability: if your posts generally generate engagement and reactions, then you are in the good graces of the LinkedIn ™ algorithm.
• The engagement that your post generates: this is decisive in obtaining more visibility. Your post should generate reactions and receive comments.
• The choice of the team: lastly, it is the workforce of the company who can choose to highlight certain publications.

Comment avoir plus de j'aime sur LinkedIn™ ?

To get more reactions on LinkedIn ™:

• Publish relevant posts with a great catchphrase;
• Try your hand at the LinkedIn ™ carousel or the video. This kind of content more easily captures the attention of your audience;
• Place a call to action in each post to generate engagement;
• Make quality posts to get more shares;
• Interact with your community to get feedback.

Comment identifier une personne dans un post LinkedIn™ ?

To identify a relationship in a LinkedIn ™ post, simply go to the chosen publication then insert an @. Start writing the first name of the person you want to identify. Quickly it is proposed, you just have to click on it.

Source: https://www.LinkedIn™.com/pulse/newsletter-4-LinkedIn™-algorithm-research-2020-you-van-der-blom/ and eLinkedIn_Algorithm_Report_-_Edition_2021_(1).pdf