The LinkedIn Algorithm Changed — Here's How To Win

0:00All right. So we are going to talk about how the LinkedIn algorithm has changed. and here's how you can actually win. So there's actually two things here, but first we should give the reason as to why LinkedIn is constantly changing its algorithm. A, more and more people are posting and the organic reach is great. And LinkedIn's team, they specifically said this. They said they're tired, I'm paraphrasing here, but they're just tired of seeing random stuff going viral and they know that they need to tweak the algorithm to make it more interesting and more relevant for people because if it's gonna be a lot of tech bro stuff or like people kind of patting themselves on the back the whole time, there's really no point to use the platform anymore.

0:36So let's get started. Well, it's also a B2B social network. So if it's a B2B social network, they need similar content. And the two things they want to do is one, make sure that your followers are more likely to see your content. And two, if you share knowledge or advice, they're going to prioritize it in their platform because they're tired of this viral stuff that's going viral that has no need to be on LinkedIn. they want to still keep LinkedIn a B2B social network. They're not trying to go after Facebook. They're not trying to go after Twitter. They got their niche. Their niche works extremely well for them.

1:08And by sticking with their roots, I think it'll keep LinkedIn continually growing and do well. But the moment they want to go outside that vertical and just say, hey, we want to go after Facebook or Instagram or TikTok, they're going to lose. That's not the type of network they're known for. And that's not where they started from. So first things first, here's what has changed. if you post on LinkedIn, it's now more likely that your followers will see your post. And so basically it says LinkedIn has seen a 10 % increase in people viewing posts from people that they follow. I'm kind of seeing that a little more now, if I'm being honest.

1:39I kind of feel it might be a little higher than that, but time will tell. But the quote here is that people find it most valuable when the content is from people they know and care about. Yeah. You follow people for a specific reason. You want to see their content. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, a lot of them have gone away from that over the years. But that's one of the best things. If you like someone, you follow them and you keep seeing their content. If you don't, you unfollow them or you don't follow them at all in the first place. And I think it's smart that LinkedIn is pushing more on that because a lot of other social networks don't care about that factor.

2:14I think another side lesson here is that these algorithms, I mean, these companies more so, they have every right to change the algorithm whenever they want. And so your job to figure out how you can build your audience off of these platforms. And so you see a lot of people that might have a post go viral and then in the post, it'll actually share a link to their newsletter opt-in. And so building your own audience there, collecting first party data, that's going to help protect you for the longterm. So just a reminder over here. So number two, number two, it says posts that share knowledge and advice are now prioritized throughout the platform.

2:46So this is the counterbalance to the change above, and it's a primary way that your post can reach people that don't currently follow you. So basically it says for us, the most important part of the equation is do we believe that we're helping our members be and feel more productive and more successful? So whenever you think you're producing content, if you feel like it's helping people be more productive and successful, you're winning. And so LinkedIn has seen nearly a 40 % increase in people checking out and viewing content that is grounded in knowledge from people that are out of their network.

3:16So knowledge and advice. And if you look at their past acquisitions, like lynda.com, it makes sense of what they're trying to do because they're trying to go back to the roots. That's what made them successful in the first place, caused them to get acquired by Microsoft. And I think they're going to continually push down that direction. Yep. Here's where we can end it off. So how LinkedIn identifies knowledge and advice. So number one, so they didn't share every single metric, but they did identify a few. So number one says the post speaks to a distinct audience. So for example, Neil and I like to talk about marketing a lot, right?

3:48So I actually asked Bart, it's like, what does Eric Hsu talk about? It's like marketing, business, and personal growth. And I actually broke down kind of the percentage on what I talk about, whatever. Neil actually, I bet you it's like 90 % plus is like marketing and then 10 % is like business. So anyway, the post needs to speak to a distinct audience. That's one. So is this relevant? Who is it relevant to? Okay. And so the advice to give creators out there is think about what kind of knowledge you have to offer to help people. That is the kind of thing that will likely get you to reach the right audience as well.

4:14And number two, the author is writing in their core subject area. So really what they're saying here is you need to stay focused and not try to say everything under the sun because there's no way you can have knowledge and advice for everything under the sun. So go post more educational based content on LinkedIn that helps people out and you'll start doing better based on their new algorithm. Number three here too, before you stop Neil. So the post has meaningful comments. So, oh, okay, okay, okay. So these engagement groups are probably not going to work that well anymore because everyone's like, great post, well said, happy face, whatever, right?

4:47So it needs to have meaningful comments. And so it says... But that change has been around for a while, dude. Because I remember there's a lot of people that have these social rings and they would just leave comments like, yes, awesome, amazing. And what we've seen with LinkedIn is not only do they have to leave an engaging comment, their comment needs to get engagement as well. so people responding to it, liking it. And when they do that, it causes your post to go viral much quicker. Yep. So it says, as a result here, some users banded together into engagement groups, essentially agreeing to quickly like and comment on each other's posts as a way of boosting them.

5:21LinkedIn wanted to stop that. So meaningful comments. So to your point, you can't just say great, so true. There needs to be some engagement on it, ideally. And it's simple. If you're writing some rules in an algorithm, you just say, maybe these posts need to be a little longer as well. So that is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, view, subscribe, five stars, and we will see you tomorrow.