Beginner’s Guide on How to Beat LinkedIn Algorithm in 2023

Whether you like it or not, LinkedIn is considered an essential channel for any B2B marketer. And like every other social media platform, you need to know & understand the algorithm to master the platform & adopt its continuous changes. This blog is about how and why LinkedIn should be a part of your marketing strategy, how a social media management tool can help you in strengthening your marketing strategy, and how to master the LinkedIn algorithm in 2023.

LinkedIn is that inaccessible cousin of Facebook, which is entirely respectful and formal. As Instagram is all about visuals, LinkedIn is all about connections. Just like Facebook, you can run a company page for connecting with your expected customers on LinkedIn.

For advertisers, entrepreneurs, people, or business visionaries, LinkedIn is a heavenly homestead.

However, there is a thing that separates LinkedIn from other online media–its perfect organic reach. LinkedIn gives you stunning organic reach in a limited period.

What Is the LinkedIn Algorithm?

The Linkedin algorithm determines what a user’s feed may look like or what types of posts from companies, people, and topics they will be served. The algorithm operates on a large scale. It may affect billions of posts per day. It is trying to make the newsfeed more attractive and user-friendly. LinkedIn marketing isn’t as big a deal if you know the algorithm. Knowing the algorithm & how it works in 2023 can make your marketing efforts pay off.

How Does the LinkedIn Algorithm Work?

The LinkedIn algorithm is not the same as the Facebook algorithm, but some similarities. LinkedIn has implemented a four-step process for content distribution across its network to reduce the chances of spam or inappropriate content. Understanding the steps that LinkedIn takes before cutting (or amplifying) your content’s reach is an integral part of using LinkedIn as a channel for content marketing.

Recently, a visual workflow was published by LinkedIn, which shows how it works. Have a look at this:

Behind-the-Scene Sneak Peek of LinkedIn Algorithm

Whenever you post an update on LinkedIn, here’s what happens behind the scenes. There are three categories in which they can divide your content. As soon as you post an article or image, the bot puts it in any three types. The aim is to get your post in the “clear” category and to avoid spam. After checking your post’s credibility, the LinkedIn algorithm also determines its usefulness and relevance. And here’s when the fun part begins!

1. Beginning with Initial Filter

Every time you post an update to LinkedIn (even if it’s an image), a bot immediately places the content into one of three categories:

• Spam
• Low-quality
• Clear

You want to be in the “clear” category. If your content gets put in the “low-quality” category, you may still have hope. It could even move on to the next stages.

2. Testing Session

   The second part is the audience testing process. Once the robots have categorized your post, they send it to your audience to see how popular the content is. At first, they show it to a smaller group of people.

   At this phase, your post needs to avoid users “hide” your content from their feeds. Or mark the post as “Report as Spam.”

   Pro Tip: Avoid an annoying or offensive post. Don’t over-post. Stop posting irrelevant content. Try to make it focused on the audience and niche of the profile.

3. How to avoid spam filters?

Your post’s initial engagement will decide whether it is good enough to pass the spam filter. Make sure that the users don’t hide your post from their newsfeed or flag it as spam. And to avoid this, you need to consider the following question before posting:

• Are you posting too much content?
• Is this post offensive to any person or entity?
• Are the people in your circle interested in this post?
• Why is this news/update so relevant to post?
• Is it relevant to the profession of your circle?

LinkedIn is more of a professional networking circle, as compared to Facebook or Instagram. People share stuff related to their professional lives more on LinkedIn.

4. Content Scoring

   Consider this phase as the Hogwarts house points! Once placed in front of your friends’ selection, different actions have different weights in the algorithm. For example, a “like” may only have one point, whereas a comment has two points. A “share” shows that the content is popular, so three points. The score of the post will decide its future or its fate. It will either be demoted because it’s low-quality or be shown to more people because it’s high-quality.

5. Real People Assessment

   If you get engagement on your post, the last phase is passed along to “genuine people at LinkedIn.” Who then read every post and decide to send your content out to more people, or whether this is the end of the line. The editors will also send the content to people outside of your network if the content is working well. It will appear in “trending content” on the app, topical content in the news feed, etc.

How to Beat LinkedIn Algorithm in 2023

Understanding the Algorithm isn’t as hard as you think. So, trending posts (that have gained a lot of engagement) are the first thing you see on your LinkedIn feed. Then, an option lets you sort the posts by ‘Top’ or ‘Relevance.’

Now, how does LinkedIn know what’s relevant to us? The answer is simple. LinkedIn pushes the content based on our recent activities, like our comments, who we follow, etc.

Here are a few tips for mastering the LinkedIn Algorithm in 2023.

1. Choose Right-Time to Post

   

2. What Is the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn in 2023?

   Choosing perfect timing to make a post is essential. If you’re posting at 2 a.m., when most of your network is asleep (time-zone nuances aside), your post can be up for hours before receiving likes or comments, no matter how good it is. LinkedIn is a professional network, and most people work from 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

   According to another research, the best time to post will depend on the tests you perform. The location, time zones, and people’s daily habits affect when they’re on LinkedIn, which differs in any audience segment.

   In fact, 50% of LinkedIn users check their accounts through mobile devices, implying you have as much chance of reaching people after hours as you do during the workday. You can use a LinkedIn scheduling tool to be active at different time zones. Like Facebook or Pinterest, LinkedIn doesn’t offer content scheduling. But, you can use a third-party LinkedIn scheduler to make the most of your marketing efforts.

Related Article: “Why and How to Schedule LinkedIn Posts in 2023?“

3. Acknowledge the Content-Type That LinkedIn Craves

   LinkedIn sources are reasonably clear on what they want their platform’s focus to be: the professional world. Instead of animated GIFs, Ellen videos, and personal screenshots.

   The LinkedIn algorithm aims to show users news, job posts, and timely, accessible content that be of value to someone’s career (whether as a business owner or employee), be relevant to the industry in which you operate, offer a tip related to business growth, or a career. It can be images, videos, LinkedIn article posts, external webpage links, or text updates.

4. Use the LinkedIn Publisher Tool

   There’s no doubt that LinkedIn is pushing posts that originate from their Publisher tool, which end up on LinkedIn Pulse, now integrated with the homepage feed. It’s for users to publish as individual authors (not hiding behind a company name). You or your employees can write blog posts through Publisher and share them with your network.

   The Editor-in-Chief at LinkedIn explains Publisher posts show up in the feed for your connections and followers based on time. So, be sure to follow the next few tips to keep the post circling through the LinkedIn algorithm.

Featured Article: “ How to Schedule Facebook Posts Like a Genius!“

What Should I Post on LinkedIn?

While LinkedIn is essentially a B2B social media platform, both B2B and B2C brands can profit by publishing. Chiefs from Virgin (counting Richard Branson), IBM, and Microsoft all post on LinkedIn.

Publishing content on LinkedIn expands your scope and permits you to interact directly with your clients.

There are two fundamental approaches to publish on LinkedIn. The first is LinkedIn Publisher, in which you can compose a long-structure article–typically five to seven passages–and share it with your LinkedIn connections.

The second is a LinkedIn update–a Twitter-like feature ideal for short, concise updates and messages.

LinkedIn posts are mostly like Facebook status updates and tweets on Twitter. The character limit for LinkedIn posts is 1,300. However, once your update is over 210 characters, it goes with a ‘See More’ option. People will have to click on ‘See More’ to view the entire post. Shorter posts are better, yet LinkedIn’s crowd is more prepared to peruse longer updates if they’re important.

It’s essential to consider your posting practice on LinkedIn. LinkedIn users’ most shared posts are videos, picture posts, and then posts with plain text. If you want to share a blog, like Facebook, LinkedIn also generates a clickable link preview. It’s better to remove the link once it generates the preview. This will make your update look cleaner. Cross-posting (the practice of posting the same content on all social media channels) could hurt your LinkedIn presence. It is always a good practice to develop an original caption that resonates with your LinkedIn audience.

You can start writing an article or post an update right from the content composer that appears on your newsfeed.

Featured Article: 15 Social Media Analytics Tools for Instant Results in 2023

How to Use Hashtags on LinkedIn?

Hashtags are also a bigger deal on LinkedIn now. The more you use hashtags on a LinkedIn post, the better it categorizes content and highlights relevant posts to each user. Hashtags are a brilliant way to not only increase your reach but also discover similar content quickly. LinkedIn gives you the option to pin your favorite hashtags. You can pin hashtags related to your industry to see the latest updates on your newsfeed.

Building connections is an essential aspect of LinkedIn. However, who you should add to LinkedIn depends on your branding approach.

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Whom Should I Add on LinkedIn?

Remember that it’s not about just your company page. You represent yourself as a brand on LinkedIn. Your profile should look professional and complete. All the details – profile picture, a summary about yourself, work experience, qualifications, certifications, everything section should be on point. The people you add as your connections on LinkedIn are how you want yourself or your organization to be seen. It all depends on your branding approach: what types of people you want to respond to your updates.

Try to build a strong and purposeful community on LinkedIn

Projecting a wider net means getting your message before more conceivably intrigued users. However, this is where you can draw your brand guidelines. It is possible to get a sympathetic response by sharing a meme or a political debate but might not be as closely related to your overall branding and approach.

5 Things to Make the Most of LinkedIn Marketing Strategy in 2023

It is not tricky to get a successful LinkedIn marketing in 2023; all you need is newer ideas to make your content recognized professionally.

1. Optimize Your Content for Engagement

   The content you post on LinkedIn should be optimized according to engagement, and quality. It can have puns or funny jokes to make professionals laugh. Create posts with valuable and career-related tips with relevant industry or company stats. Keep it short and include a link, image, or video. Use hashtags. Your posts can become trending posts on a specific hashtag.

   A/B testing with tools and analytics on LinkedIn is essential to monitor the content performance. It is better to keep revising and experimenting until you figure out what works best for your audience (and in your industry) on LinkedIn.

   One of the best LinkedIn coaches, Andy Foote, shared his expert advice and answered some frequently asked questions about the LinkedIn algorithm, and explained which type of content performs well on LinkedIn in this blog. According to Andy’s research & study,

   “I’ve settled into a routine of mostly posting text plus a picture or text plus a document. I get decent views/engagement. And was buoyed to see that LinkedIn recently added a Documents tab in the activity section.”

2. Content Scheduling

   Content scheduling is one of the most important things here. Timing is everything! You need to post the right content at the right time. LinkedIn management tool like Social Champ allows you to maintain your profiles. These tools are not only time-saving but also give you the best content suggestions & analytics. To do LinkedIn marketing professionally, you need to work professionally with these tools. Social media posting tools will help you in taking the proper steps can get more engagement on posts.

3. LinkedIn Messaging

   A simple way to reconnect is by commenting on updates from people in your network. See an interesting conversation? Add a comment with your thoughts or share a great article you read on 2023 trends with your connections via LinkedIn Messaging.

4. Use Reactions and Comments Wisely

   The first 60 minutes after posting content are the most crucial part of your content marketing success. It’s the ‘Golden Hour’ for your post. If no one reacts to your posts within the 60 minutes of posting, chances are it won’t perform well. The velocity of your post’s engagement depends on the ratio between reach, relevancy, views, reactions, and shares. Try to get 20+ engagements (replies or comments) in the first half.

   How?

   Notify your employees about the post. Use your internal communication mediums, such as Slack, Trello, or Jira, to inform everyone about the post and ask them to participate.

   Comments are the king of engagement. If you want to maximize your reach, you need to react/respond to every comment on your post. Engage with new followers to keep them in a loop.

   Use mentions and hashtags. On average, you must use a minimum of 5 hashtags in every post and tag a maximum of 3 LinkedIn users. If you’re sharing someone’s quote or interview, give them credit or inform them by tagging in your post so that they can share it with their followers too.

   Focus more on quality rather than the number of your posts. Measure engagement, not views.

5. Build Your Audience Strategically

   Relevance, credibility, followers, and connections play a big part in the LinkedIn algorithm.

   It would be best to grow your personal or business audience (or both) on LinkedIn. Ensure your profile is public so more people can find you, add you, and see your posts.

   Whether you run a personal profile or a Company Page on LinkedIn, be sure to fill out your profile and Company Page as entirely as possible. And keep them updated. Add connections, encouraging employees to show they work at your company.

   Here’s what else you can try:

   • Take part in LinkedIn Groups, or host your own.
   • Give and receive recommendations.
   • Join conversations and be active on the network.
   • Promote your LinkedIn profiles and Company pages on your website and in other appropriate spaces.
   • Share other users’ posts, and they’ll probably share yours.

LinkedIn is primarily a social network, so it helps to be social. Be kind to others by sharing their posts. Or embedding their videos on your site. These actions increase your profile reach. Plus, if you strive to be a LinkedIn Influencer, making friends on LinkedIn is a good idea. However, Publisher posts get even more exposure outside the homepage feed on LinkedIn. They are shown on your profile and as highlights.

Related Article: What is the Best Time to Post on Social Media in 2023

15 LinkedIn Marketing Statistics Every Marketer Should Know in 2023

It might seem that LinkedIn is not as old and a prominent social media platform as Facebook or Twitter, but  LinkedIn will turn 18 years old in 2023. It is available in 24 different languages and has 33 offices worldwide and over 15,000 full-time employees. LinkedIn family gloats of 740 million members worldwide, helping and supporting each other, climbing the steps of accomplishment. It is considered the most trusted social media network in the U.S.

If you’re still in doubt about adding LinkedIn as a part of your social marketing plan for 2023, then these up-to-date statistics can make you change your mind.

16 New LinkedIn Features You Should Try In 2023

As discussed earlier, you can expect millions of views and great organic reach without ads on LinkedIn. The LinkedIn algorithm 2023 predicts you to try out its newly rolled out features. So, here’s your chance to game up your marketing in 2023 by using these 16 recently launched features by LinkedIn mentioned in the list below:

1. Live Videos
2. LinkedIn Polls
3. Reactions
4. Name Pronunciations
5. Carousel Images in Organic Posts
6. Video Meetings
7. Edit Messages After Sending
8. Highlight Featured Posts on Profile
9. Event Tab to Create Events
10. ‘View Page Followers’ Tab
11. Notify Employees About Your Post
12. ‘My Items’ to Save Your Collections of Posts
13. Photo Frames with #OpentoWork or #Hiring
14. Merge Accounts
15. AI Feedback to Streamline Hiring Process

In a Nutshell

Once you understand the LinkedIn algorithm & know how it works, you will understand why so many people who once had thousands of likes on their posts now complain that they are only generating a handful. It’s because the tactics and strategies that they were using are now being classified as low-quality content.

Engagement is critical to the algorithm and depends on relevancy, the reach of your network, the times they are checking LinkedIn, and your credibility with that audience. Using the LinkedIn Publisher platform is a good idea.

Sometimes, you can republish posts from your blog, but not always, and only when you know what you’re doing while reciprocity wins on any social media strategy, including LinkedIn. Use analytics and experiments to refine your marketing strategy.

Start experimenting with posts on LinkedIn! Start spending time on the LinkedIn feed!

Happy Linking! Stay Connected!