By Tamilore Oladipo

LinkedIn’s algorithm has always been a bit of a mystery – until now. The algorithm recently underwent some key changes, and the team (through Dan Roth, editor-in-chief, and Alice Xiong, a product management director) sat down with Entrepreneur to explain them.

In this article, we’ll highlight the key points from the team’s interview about the LinkedIn algorithm and share practical tips for applying this knowledge to your content.

Understanding the LinkedIn Algorithm

Unlike YouTube and Instagram, LinkedIn feeds you content primarily from one place – your Feed. When you type in the LinkedIn URL, this is the landing page, so it’s your first impression of all the content on the platform.

With over 900 million members and the number of daily posts in the millions, if not billions, there’s no way around it: relevant content is key.

The promise of the algorithm is that if you create content relevant to a specific audience, they will see your content. The reverse is true for audiences: what they engage with is what they’ll see.

If you always engage with marketing-related content, you’ll see more of that on your Feed. If you always post about marketing, your target audience will inevitably see more of your content. And the more niche your approach is, the better the algorithm can direct your content to the top of the right Feeds.

With this context in mind, all the updates are in service of getting the right content in front of the right audience.

Virality is not a factor in the algorithm

Before, LinkedIn’s algorithm amplified the most engaging (viral) content. When work and personal lives merged a few years ago, the platform saw an influx of personal content reminiscent of what you’d see on Facebook.

With the change in posting style, membership and engagement grew, but also caused a lot of irrelevant content to float to the top of users’ Feeds. So with the algorithm updates, viral content is more likely to hurt your visibility and engagement than help it, as it might start hitting Feeds where it isn’t relevant, so not getting much engagement beyond reactions.

Your connections and followers will now see your posts first

This is a user-requested update, as most people find the content from their existing network the most valuable. This also means that the quality of your network is more important than ever – if you want engagement, the people you connect with need to see value in your content.

LinkedIn's updated algorithm rewards knowledge-rich posts by extending their reach beyond its immediate network. This indicates that even non-connected users who might find your content useful could see your posts.

LinkedIn will highlight more expert content

The platform is looking to highlight more knowledge and advice experts share. For users, the algorithm determines what expertise is relevant by identifying a user’s interests based on their profile info and activity.

For creators, it looks at the level of engagement and shares your content receives as a signal that you’re making something people want to see. Comments, …read more

Source:: Buffer Blog

Author: Aaron