Not Too Long Ago… On A Social Platform Actually Pretty Close By…

LinkedIn has undergone a good deal of growth and change since it first hit the scene back in 2002. Reid Hoffman’s vision of a platform where people could leverage their connections to help establish and grow their businesses took off like a rocket. Today, it’s easy to find yourself connected with business people from around the world. The global market has become accessible to… well, the world.

LinkedIn has had to evolve as it has grown. Let’s face it… herding squirrels is tough. Keeping those squirrels active and engaged on a global level? Inconceivable. One of the evolutions LinkedIn has undergone has involved content sharing. Many power users have really dominated the market share when it comes to having their content delivered to other users. This is great… for them. But how about other users who don’t quite hit that level? What are the chances that their content will be seen by others?

The Latest And Greatest

That’s where the most recent change to the algorithm comes in. Now power users won’t get quite the leg up as LinkedIn works to level the playing field when it comes to content. Your Connections are going to be much more likely to see your content first. According to Pete Davies, LinkedIn Senior Director of Product Management, the platform is now trying to bring you “people you know, talking about things you care about.”

This sounds like an awesome upgrade to the platform. Or does it? How WILL LinkedIn determine what things you care about? In my case, I am directly connected with nearly 3k members. Several of them post regularly, but the topics vary widely. I do however closely follow folks like Richard Branson and his posts. Will the new algorithm changes start filtering out his posts from my feed? There is quite a bit remaining to be seen on how we will be fed content moving forward. What IS for sure is that the platform is trying to get away from viral posting to a degree. But… isn’t that what helped some folks really get their stuff out there?

How Will Content Be Prioritized (In Four Steps)

The first piece of the puzzle is that the algorithms will look for individuals the member has interacted with directly. This is a two part issue. Not only should you generate content with interactions in mind, you absolutely must respond in a timely manner to any comments that you get on your posts. By doing this it will help your content to show up more readily in your connections’ feeds.

The second piece actually has to do with your profile or your business’s listing. If you will concentrate on niche areas and gear your posting and commentary to those areas you’ll find it easier to show up in feeds. Posts that come from one who closely identifies with the interests of a user will be much more likely to connect with that user.

The third piece involves engaging your colleagues in the conversations. Don’t be afraid to tag key individuals and encourage them to take part in the conversation. At the same time, be very careful about overly tagging individuals. LinkedIn still looks at this as a spammy move and may block your content if you over do it.

The last piece comes down to volume – who can be loud enough to be heard on LinkedIn. While this  used to be the case with content geared toward virality, this is no longer so. Voices are given equal weight, no matter who is producing it. It also means that there’s now no benefit to using video vs text or image vs video. As long as you are keeping your organization and personal brand in line and above reproach with the content you are sharing, then you have an equal chance to be heard. That said, you have to keep yourself in line and above reproach!

If you’ll follow these four pieces, you’ll find the puzzle of the new algorithms one that’s easy enough to solve and potentially one of the best updates LinkedIn has made in quite some time.