Studies show that 94 per cent of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content. And the platform is continuing to grow, with 123 million new users in two years and 2 million posts, articles and videos posted every day. So, how do publishers ensure their posts reach the top of users’ feeds?
In a recent blog post, LinkedIn Senior Director of Product Management Pete Davies outlines how the platform ranks user posts and tips for getting the most engagement.
Davies explains that LinkedIn aims for its feed to be “people you know, talking about things you care about”.
Posts appear in a user’s feed based on their connections, groups joined, and individuals, companies or hashtags they follow. Posts within the feed may be direct posts from these connections, or a post that a connection has liked, commented or shared.
How LinkedIn posts are ranked
- Connections, based on who the user has interacted with directly (via comments or reactions), and information within your profile (co-workers, etc.)
- The ‘authenticity’ of a conversation (the number and quality of comments related to the post)
- Content that is relevant and interesting to the user, determined by the user’s groups, followed hashtags, people and pages. If these cross-over (e.g. a connection uses a hashtag the user follows), the post will appear higher in the user’s feed.
“To decide what goes at the top, we use look at who’s talking (people you know) and what they’re talking about (things you care about),” says Davies.
Davies’ tips for appearing at the top of the LinkedIn feed
- Encourage conversation within posts, and respond to comments
- Use @mentions to pull other people into a conversation if they might have something valuable to add. Davies says “Be thoughtful: only mention people that you think are likely to respond, max five is a good rule of thumb.”
- Use no more than three hashtags
- Use niche hashtags rather than broad, e.g. #audienceengagement rather than #audience
But most of all, Davies recommends being authentic.
“Genuine conversation around real experiences spark better and deeper conversation. Better conversation, in turn, leads to stronger community and connection.”
