How To Hack The LinkedIn Algorithm to Get More Eyes on Your Content

LinkedIn is known to convert more leads in comparison to other social platforms. In today's video, I've got 5 steps to hack the LinkedIn algorithm so more people find your profile and see your posts.

5 Steps To Hack The LinkedIn Algorithm

Every social media platform is always updating its algorithms. Today, I’m going to unlock for you the LinkedIn algorithm, as it stands today in 2021, and how you can use the algorithm and knowledge of it to your benefit so that more people see your profile, and even more importantly, more people see and engage with your content. So we’re going to go through all five of the main things you need to know about the LinkedIn algorithm. And then for each one, here are the specifics for what you should do to play to the strength of that part of the algorithm.

1. Prioritizes Showing You Content From Users Whom You Have Engaged With In the Past and Who Post Consistently

So number one, the algorithm on LinkedIn prioritizes showing you content from users whom you have engaged with in the past and also those users who post most consistently. Okay, so how do you use that to your benefit?

Post At Least 5x A Week

You want to post your own content at least five times a week, so it doesn’t necessarily mean Monday through Friday. It might also be on the weekends. We may see some content performing really well on Sunday nights when people go and get planning for the week ahead, but at least five times a week you want to be posting to LinkedIn. I know this might seem Super overwhelming. It’s why it’s so important to have a social media scheduling tool like Lead Pilot or FMGs social scheduling tool so that you can go in and pre-schedule these posts out so that you can hit that five times a week part of the algorithm.

2. Shows More Content From Users Who Get Large Amounts Of Engagement, Even If You Don’t Tend To Like Or Comment On Their Posts

The other thing that’s really important point number two of the algorithm is that it’s going to show the most content or more content from users who get the most engagement, right? Even if you don’t tend to like or comment on those people’s thoughts. So, let’s say we have Anthony here and he tends to get twenty-something comments or more on his post. I’m going to see his post in my feed more often, even if I’m not one of the people commenting on them. Because what does LinkedIn want? They want us to spend as much time on LinkedIn as possible because they can show us more ads and create more revenue.

Follow The 80/20 Rule

So, what can you do to play to this part of the algorithm? Follow what I call the 80/20 rule. So, for every one thing you post, if you’re posting five times a week, you should be commenting on five other people’s posts. So on Monday, you post something, you comment on five other people’s posts. And if you can leave the comments before your post goes up, then the content that you post has a better opportunity of being shown to more people. And if I go and comment on James' post, when she sees the thing that I’ve posted come up, she’s going to be more likely to leave a comment on it herself.

3. Favors Lengthy Comments A Over High Volume Of Reactions

The third thing about the algorithm is that it favors lengthy comments over a high volume of reactions or just quick comments. So, I like to say all the time, comments are currency in social media.

Get As MANY Comments On Your Posts As QUICKLY As Possible After Posting

The more comments you get, the better and the faster you get them. So when your post goes up at noon, if you get five comments right away in that first 15 minutes, the algorithm starts to say, this is great content. It’s engaging. A lot of people in the community have something to say, and they’re gonna keep showing it to more people. It’s gonna go viral quicker. So this is really important to understand it’s not enough just to get thumbs up. So what kind of posts are going to get comments right? You want to create your content so that it lends itself to people leaving a comment in the first place. So here are some things you can do, ask a question at the end of your post, right? To get people to engage or post something and say something like, which of you do you most agree with A-B-C, or D so that people have to leave a comment below to kind of answer along with your post. So, the more comments you get and the quicker you get them, the better.

4. Prefers Native Content (Text Posts, Images With Text, Videos With Text – Anything That Does Not LINK OUT – i.e. Takes You OFF LinkedIn)

For the fourth one, LinkedIn prefers native content over content that links out. So, what I mean by this is native content. You don’t have to click off of LinkedIn to get the rest of it. So if you have a video, you can upload the video natively to LinkedIn, go into your desktop, choose the video file, upload it versus linking out to YouTube.

Why is this? LinkedIn wants to keep you on their platform as long as possible, just like we mentioned before. They can show you more ads and get more revenue. So they want to keep people there as long as possible. So the more native content you can post, the better.

Only Share Posts That Link OUT Every 3rd or 4th Post. Otherwise, Keep Content Native.

So, for about every third or fourth post, you can do a link-out post. The other one should be native. So Let’s say you did create a great video. Go ahead and upload that natively. And then maybe the next day you give a quick quote or something inspirational. Maybe on the third day, you have a graphic or infographic you want to share. And then the fourth day you link out to your blog or your website. So again, every single post should not be a link-out post if you want to play to the algorithm.

5. Doesn’t Automatically Show Video Over Other Content Types As It Did When Video Was First Introduced

And the fifth thing to know about the algorithm is that you want to think about the fact that they don’t automatically show video the way that they used to. So when the video first came on the scene, LinkedIn was really prioritizing showing people video over other kinds of content because they wanted people to create more video, and they felt like people were watching it more natively. However, that really isn’t the case anymore. So by all means, if you’re creating a video, Yes, upload it. But just know it’s not going to give you the same bang for your buck as it used to.

So, instead, what I suggest you look at is one of the things that’s performing really well with LinkedIn is a picture and then content above it like this. So you have a picture here, have text above it. There are no links out or anything like that, and that is really going to help your content perform well.

You can also see the hashtags being used. Use three hashtags per post. We have found that that is a really great number to get it seen by more people and tag people on these types of posts. So, I’m posting something and I want to start a conversation. I might say, What do you think? And then tag five other people that I know will go ahead and leave a comment quickly on my post. So there you have it, the LinkedIn algorithm in 2021, and what you can do to get your content seen by more people playing to that algorithm.

If you have any questions at all about the algorithm, let me know in the comments section below. Remember comments are currency. Which of these tips did you find most helpful for your own content strategy?