How the LinkedIn algorithm works and how to leverage it for your small business

In this blogpost, I share what I know about the algorithm and how I try to tame it, together with some useful resources to help you do the same.

Using LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a powerful platform for small business owners who want to raise their profile, create connections and drive demand for their products or services. It’s a fantastic channel for generating new business and building your personal brand.

When I first started using LinkedIn (2009), it was very much a place to house my online CV! It gave me an avenue to showcase my developing experience. Now, a fair few years on, I wish I knew then what I know now – that you can proactively use it to create conversations, source opportunities and openings and build your professional network to demonstrate your value.

As a LinkedIn user and small business owner, I learn from others, enjoy participating in discussions and find fulfilment in celebrating others’ wins and successes.

As a Marketer, I use LinkedIn to augment my clients’ marketing activities and generate interest in my small business.

And that’s where the frustration lies.

The difference between using LinkedIn as an informal, professional networking platform vs broadening reach and creating impressions to drive opportunities and leads. It comes down to one thing – the LinkedIn algorithm.

How does the LinkedIn algorithm work?

Understanding LinkedIn's nuances and quirks can be challenging. To best support my clients and maximise my return on using LinkedIn, I keep up to date with the algorithm’s kinks and read research from specialists who blog about it.

LinkedIn's algorithm is designed to prioritise relevant and engaging content. Understanding how it works can help you create posts that gain more visibility.

It considers several factors. I cover each and offer tips and tricks for maximising your efforts:

User engagement

Posts with high engagement rates (likes, comments, shares) are likelier to appear in users' feeds. If you want to attract a new audience beyond your first connections, you must create engagement so that your post appears in feeds at your network's second and third levels.

Aim to generate conversation by creating comments on your posts. Comments drive the most engagement. Creating useful content attracts reposts – these are better than a quick reaction (likes, etc.), so work hard to offer something helpful for your connections.

Content type

LinkedIn favours certain types of content, such as native videos, imagery vs links and carousel posts with documents (PDFs), which increase your reach. And yet, while an external URL negatively impacts your reach (LinkedIn wants you to stay on the platform!), including a link in your post generates more engagement; it’s a quick click.

Keep your assets varied and repurpose an image, a link or a slider/carousel over the course of a few weeks. Monitor your impressions and engagement rates to see what works better than others.

Relevance

The algorithm assesses the relevance of your content based on user behaviour, such as who views your profile, your network connections and your industry. This isn’t something you can control, but it’s worth keeping a similar subject matter throughout your posts rather than mixing it up. You then maintain consistency for your audience, develop trust, and build relationships so people interact more with your content.

Go back to your marketing strategy – who is your target audience? Why are you using LinkedIn? How is it benefiting you and your business? Keep this in mind when you create content and conversations – and remember you want to generate engagement. This also gives LinkedIn a better understanding of what you’re sharing and why so it can evaluate your content and roll it out to your target audience.

Timeliness

LinkedIn prioritises fresh content. Regularly posting new updates keeps your page/profile active and more likely to be seen. That said, posting more than once in any 24-hour period will deprioritise your posts! Be strategic about when you schedule posts or hit that blue button…

There’s a lot of chatter about posting when LinkedIn is at its busiest. I find this subjective, as everybody’s connections will be different. LinkedIn doesn’t provide this data either, unlike Instagram. I recommend posting on a sliding scale – in the morning at the start of the week and then in the afternoon later in the week. This allows you to ensure you have a 24-hour period in between your posts.


How do you craft the perfect LinkedIn post for maximum value?

There is never a perfect post. I recommend trying different things each time to see what works for you, your personal brand and your business.

However, whether you’re posting to your profile or via your Company page, here are my 10 tips for crafting a best practice post:

1. Use an intriguing opening line. Use a question to grab attention or a bold statement. Your post should answer or explain this question, whether you’re posting about an event or content, using it as a conversation starter, etc.

2. Share a story! Whether it’s a blogpost, a company update or a success, create a story to attract attention. These posts often resonate well with audiences.

3. If not telling a story, entertain or educate – be helpful. Share personal posts that are entertaining but useful for your connections. If you’re posting to a Company page, offer educational and helpful information.

4. Keep in mind you’re writing for the web. Work your paragraphs with 2-3 lines and never more than five. Use emoticons to break up the text, but don’t flood the post unnecessarily. LinkedIn doesn’t favour more than 10 emojis in one post.

5. Make it informal and personal, but if you’re writing on behalf of a Company page, make sure you use the right tone of voice for the brand. Some of my clients’ brands are very informal in their communications, while others keep it strait-laced.

6. Tag people and Company pages. You are likely to generate more reach if those mentioned comment and like your post, which leads to better engagement. LinkedIn’s algorithm appreciates it when those tagged interact with the posts they’re mentioned in. Work your tags into the wording; you don’t have to include surnames if not needed – backspace to remove them.

7. Include an asset – video, image or slider/document. It grabs attention. Ensure you provide a title and Alt text for the image. However, you don’t have to add multimedia to your post. Sometimes, a post without anything attached performs better – “test and tweak” as you go.

8. Got a URL? If you want to include a URL, do so. I recommend including one with an additional asset attached. Not only does this trick the algorithm somewhat but LinkedIn’s recent change to how thumbnails are displayed is awful (June 2024). NB. There is a trick of hitting post, returning to it and editing to add the URL. You won’t get penalised for doing this - pre May 2024 you would have done. That said, every now and again, try a link as the only attachment. If you do this, ensure the thumbnail has a decent image with metadata behind it.

9. Include a call to action (CTA). Always include a clear call to action in your posts, whether visiting your website, signing up for a newsletter or downloading a resource. Equally, your call to action could asking the read to engage in conversation and comment to join the discussion.

10. Hashtags. There’s debate as to whether they amplify reach. Some LinkedIn specialists suggest not using them anymore as LinkedIn is deprioritising them. People follow hashtags within LinkedIn to see more posts about certain subjects in their feeds. I recommend using 3 hashtags (5 max, any more isn’t best practice) for this reason – until LinkedIn takes the feature away.

NB. You can use this URL to see the number of followers a hashtag has: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/?keywords=XXX

Remove the “XXX” at the end and replace it with the hashtag you want to search for. Be strategic with which hashtags you use to amplify your reach and hit a targeted audience in line with who you want to talk with. For example, “#Marketing” has 20m followers, “#MarketingTips has 5k, and #MarketingAdvice has a little over 1k.

How can you leverage LinkedIn’s algorithm for your small business?

Utilising LinkedIn to generate demand and create leads goes beyond the odd profile post.

Integrating it into your marketing activities supports campaigns and raises your personal brand and your company profile. Social selling is a proactive approach to business development, as is maintaining a LinkedIn Company page.

Keeping your Company page current supports potential customers on their buying journey. They’ll review your page, almost like a second website, before deciding to contact you. But relevant posts that filter into their feed mean you stay front of mind for when they are ready to request a conversation or a demo.

How can you work your personal profile with your Company page to leverage LinkedIn’s algorithm?

Your tone of voice for your profile vs. your Company page will differ. This is more so because your profile will be “I” and “me”, and your Company page will be “We” and “us”, as an entity. You can refer to yourself in the 3rd person on your Company page if you’re a one-person band.

So, there’s scope for tagging your profile in your Company page’s posts and vice versa. Remember, LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards posts where those tagged have engaged with the post, favouring Company pages that interact within 1-2 hours of the post being live. There’s real value in you working on engagement across the profiles (yours and your Company page).

The same can be said for reactions and shares. If you get to post once in 24 hours, make it count! A share counts as a post, so one day, repost your Company page to your profile, and if the content in a post from your profile is relevant to your business, repost to your Company page.

This is where a marketing content/comms schedule is handy for you to draft when you post to your profile/Company page and how the two can interact with each other, so you get more bites from the cherry… This is when your posting becomes more strategic and integrated into your marketing activities, so LinkedIn supports your marketing aims, objectives, strategies, etc.

LinkedIn: one other tip

LinkedIn is all-knowing! It recognises whether you:

  1. just post or schedule posts daily, or

  2. do that ^ AND use the platform as a community-building tool.

LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards the latter (2).

But it’s hard to keep on top of LinkedIn when you’re juggling everything else. Often, we use LinkedIn when we have a gap in our work, but that doesn’t help us maintain regular engagement with our connections and followers.

I’ve blogged before with suggestions on how you can keep on top of social media. One top tip from me when it comes to LinkedIn, over and above having a schedule of when I’m posting to my profile and my Company page, is to enjoy interacting with my network for 15-20 minutes before posting. I use my time wisely and respond to replies and messages, proactively comment and drive discussions in one hit ahead of posting.

It's a good tip to try to trick the algorithm, and I’ve seen benefits in some of my stats, particularly on my Company page. NB. You can follow other companies from your Company page – clients, potential customers, previous clients – and interact from that branded profile and your personal profile.

LinkedIn: resources and references

This blogpost is designed as a stepping stone to help you understand more about LinkedIn’s algorithm, when to post, what to post, etc.

To deepen your understanding of LinkedIn’s algorithm and how to leverage it, here are some valuable resources:

1. Podcast Episode

Kelly and I tackle LinkedIn’s algorithm in episode 6 of A Measure of Marketing, discussing our approaches to overcoming it.

2. Articles

Check out these insightful articles and blogposts from other marketing professionals:

3. Profiles to Follow

I highly recommend following John Espirian and Richard van der Blom.


Get in touch if you’d like specific support in using LinkedIn as part of your marketing activities or if you need help understanding how to use the platform to build your personal brand.