Tag Archive for: LinkedIn tips

People Are Spending More Time With LinkedIn Content Since Lockdown

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LinkedIn has seen a swell of new content creation, consumption, and engagement this year, as many work to make the most of the recent months of lockdowns and reduced business – according to the company’s Director of Brand and Consumer Marketing.

In an interview with Social Samosa, Srividya Gopani noted that while the platform was already seeing growth this year, it has received a massive surge since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic:

“We are seeing a 55% year-over-year increase in conversations among connections globally, since March 2019. Members are increasingly reacting, commenting, resharing and replying to comments as they look to reconnect with their network and share advice and tips that can help them navigate this novel working environment together.”

Srividya Gopani/Social Samosa

This has also been tied to a 60% year-over-year increase in content creation for the LinkedIn during the same time. 

Specifically, Gopani said users are working together to provide advice, spread word about jobs and internships, and connecting with other professionals to assist each other during this time. 

Similarly, the company has seen an increase in the amount of time people have spent with LinkedIn’s online learning courses. 

In March alone, Gopani says users watched more than 4 million hours of courses.

“As the world’s largest professional network, we are recognizing that we are uniquely positioned to encourage members to build the right expertise, gain relevant skills and knowledge, and make the right connections at this time.”

Srividya Gopani/Social Samosa
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Get An Inside Look At How LinkedIn Ranks Your Posts

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In recent weeks, LinkedIn has been updating its algorithm it uses to rank content with new signals like “dwell time” or how long users spend with each piece of content. 

Even more, the company has also revealed its secret ranking recipe by using a blog post to dig deep into exactly how it ranks content. 

How LinkedIn Ranks Content

Similar to other major algorithms like those used by Facebook, YouTube, and Google, LinkedIn tries to tailor users’ feeds to their specific interests and niches. To do this, LinkedIn follows a specific process.

When a user logs on, there tend to be tens of thousands of potential posts the social network could choose to show you. To filter these down, the algorithm first applies a lightweight ranking algorithm referred to as a “first-pass candidate generation layer”. This helps choose specifically which posts you might see based on a number of factors including connections and keywords. 

From here, the algorithm now has to determine what order these posts will be shown in. 

As the company describes, “If Alice’s connection Bob recently shared an interesting article, what determines where Bob’s post will appear in Alice’s feed?”

For this, LinkedIn looks at what it calls “viral actions” which include:

  • Reacts
  • Shares
  • Comments

Based on individual users’ actions, the algorithm weighs these interactions with content to determine which content is most likely to create user engagement.

How Dwell Time Fits Into This

While LinkedIn’s algorithm has largely been successful at curating a feed with content most likely to generate user actions, the company says it has noticed some downsides to this approach. 

Specifically, actions like clicks and shares are relatively rare when compared to the total number of people seeing each piece of content. In the grand scheme, focusing on some binary metrics like clicks may miss out on other more passive forms of engagement which may reflect quality content. 

In other words, LinkedIn’s old system could see simple measures like whether someone clicked a post, but it wasn’t factoring in more complex metrics like how long a person was spending with a piece of content after taking action. 

This creates problems when content simply doesn’t live up to its promise or users could potentially share misleading posts to drive clicks.

When this happens, people might click on a post and almost immediately return to their feed.

With the old system, these posts would get rewarded for the number of clicks made, despite the content being unsatisfying. 

Because of these issues, LinkedIn says accounting for dwell time provides numerous advantages for its algorithm:

LinkedIn Dwell Time Benefits

How This Affects You

Overall, this update should have very little negative impact on those already creating informative and engaging content on the professional social network. If anything, you may benefit as the new algorithm punishes those sharing clickbait.

However, it is unclear if LinkedIn’s latest system also accounts for the overall length of content. This could potentially create issues where shorter updates might be downplayed over more in-depth content simply because people spend less time with each individual post. This may be something to keep in mind as the impact of this update takes effect.

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LinkedIn Wants To Host Your Next Virtual Event

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LinkedIn is in the process of launching a new way to create and host live virtual events as group meetings and conferences move online in the wake of COVID-19. 

The new events tool combines two of LinkedIn’s existing features (LinkedIn Events and LinkedIn Live) to prioritize the virtual conference needs of today’s professionals. 

By bringing these tools together, you can now easily alert users to upcoming live streaming content and build an audience for your future streams. This creates better engagement and encourages your followers to set aside time. 

LinkedIn Events

LinkedIn says it has seen huge gains in both the number of people streaming and engagement on those streams, with live video receiving up to 23 times more comments per post and 6 times more reactions per post compared to native video. 

Why Create a Virtual Event?

In the announcement, LinkedIn highlights several ways Virtual Events can help businesses:

  • Host your event safely, in a trusted environment: Using LinkedIn Live, you can choose to live stream to your Page followers or Event attendees, so you can meet audiences where they are. Admins can leverage easy-to-use 3rd-party broadcasting partners, including Restream, Wirecast, Streamyard and Socialive, with more being added in the coming months. 
  • Attract the right professional audiences: We’ve made it easy for you to share your event to your Page followers and send direct invitations to your first-degree profile connections. 
  • Drive buzz and engagement for your event: You can build buzz for your event or live broadcast by posting an update to your Page or Event feed and by recommending key posts for attendees to check out. 
  • Get more mileage out of your events: Once your virtual event is over, you can keep the conversation going with the Video tab — a dedicated hub for a Page’s organic video content that can be accessed by all members of your community. As virtual events become the norm, the Video tab helps you extend the shelf life of your digital video content.

How To Create Your Own Virtual Event on LinkedIn

To be eligible for hosting Virtual Events, your Page must also meet the criteria for accessing LinkedIn Live – which means your page must have at least 1,000 followers. 

The company has also suggested that it will only approve brands for LinkedIn Live who regularly engage with their community by responding to comments and facilitating a dialogue. 

Once you have been approved, the process is simple:

  • Select “Create a LinkedIn Event”
  • Select the option which says the event will be “online-only.”
  • Once you are ready to stream, open an accepted third-party streaming tool and select the event as the stream destination, instead of your organization’s Page.

The currently accepted third-party stream tools include Streamyard, Restream, Wirecast, and Socialive. The company has indicated it will soon be adding support for Wowza in the near future.

Once your stream begins, all event attendees will be notified through in-app or onsite notification. If enabled, attendees may also be notified through push notifications or browser alerts.

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LinkedIn Reveals Three New Features For Users and Brands

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LinkedIn is launching three new features for users aimed at encouraging the community to engage more and form deeper connections with followers.

The new features are part of an initiative to bring new updates to LinkedIn’s 50 million organizations using the site to reach customers, prospects, employees, and potential collaborators.

To start of 2020, the site is making it possible for users to invite others to follow their page, stream using LinkedIn Live, and post to their page in new ways.

Invite New Followers

One of the hardest parts of getting a social metwork page off the ground is gaining new followers. Now, LinkedIn is giving page managers the ability to invite users who share a first-degree level of connection to your page.

Users can also choose to entirely opt out of these invites if they prefer to not receive invitations to follow pages.

LinkedIn Live Integration

LinkedIn is also working to better integrate their streaming platform by allowing pages to broadcast live streams.

In the past, live streaming was strictly only available to personal profiles on the site.

This could prove to be a boon for pages on the site, as the company says live streams generate up to 7 times more reactions and 24 times more comments compared to typical video posts.

To get access to live streaming on your brand’s page, page managers can apply on the LinkedIn Live website.

Post as a Page or Member

When posting new content, users can now select a conveniently located switch on the homepage to choose between posting as yourself or an organization you represent.

Previously, the only way to post as your page required you to visit your organization’s page and post directly from that page. Now, users can easily post to their preferred page from one place.

You can see what the new features look like in action in the video from LinkedIn below:

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4 Ways to Start Growing Your Brand on LinkedIn Today

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When it comes to growing your business on social media, everyone automatically starts thinking about Facebook. That’s great if you have a brand which suits that platform, like a clothing brand, athletic equipment company, or content publishing website. 

For B2B companies, though, it may not be the most useful. 

In fact, you might be better served by another platform entirely: LinkedIn.

Despite its reputation as an “online resume site”, LinkedIn has proven itself as a powerful platform for connecting businesses, finding leads, and increasing sales. 

It is so powerful that one study found that 92% of B2B marketers agree that LinkedIn is the best place to win leads and 64% of corporate website visits come from the platform. 

If this has got you intrigued, I want to share a few quick tips you can use to start improving your LinkedIn presence today:

1) Your Personal Profile is as Important as Your Business Profile

This one might seem a little odd to those coming from other social networks like Twitter or Facebook. 

On those sites, you can typically keep your personal profile completely separate from your professional pages without any issue. 

On LinkedIn, you are expected to interact as a representative of your current company. As such, it is important for you to put just as much, if not more, effort into maintaining your personal profile compared to your company’s profile. 

2) Share Content

If you want to engage with the community on LinkedIn and make a name for yourself, you have to start speaking their language. Coincidentally, the language of LinkedIn is content. 

Passionate business owners and representatives use the site to talk about their experiences, share tips, and otherwise “talk shop”. 

If you want to stick out, you have to start sharing your own tips and information, commenting on theirs with your own thoughts, and start being a part of the conversation. 

3) Follow Up With Real-World Connections

How often do you meet someone who seems like a great prospect, exchange business cards, and then let that person disappear into the ether – never to be heard from again? 

Whether it’s a guest at a networking event you recently attended, a friend-of-a-friend, or a prospect you spoke to the other day, there is always a good chance you can find them on LinkedIn. 

This will not only give you the ability to touch base with a prospect you let fall away not too long ago, but it will help you constantly prove your value to potential customers until they eventually need you. 

Make a practice to connect with any professional acquaintances you make to keep in touch with them and keep your brand in their mind. 

4) Join or Start Groups

Another great way to get in on the discussion with other people interested in your industry is with LinkedIn Groups. 

This is where people have a more focused conversation, asking for help with problems or sharing the latest news in your market. There are tons of groups out there for you to join in with pre-established audiences of other professionals in your industry, or you can always choose to start your own group and really position yourself as an authority. 

LinkedIn has grown a long way from the small little resume listing site it may have started as. These days, it is a central hub for both businesses and professionals from all industries around the world to connect and establish their reputation. Most importantly, it has also shown that it can be a reliable source of leads and revenue.

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The Complete Guide To Marketing Your Brand on LinkedIn [Infographic]

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LinkedIn isn’t like most social media platforms out there. You can’t just transfer the same strategies and types of content you post on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter over to LinkedIn and expect people to be interested.

This is because people don’t use the platform the same way they use other social networks. Obviously, they approach the platform with a more professional, reserved presence that speaks more to their career goals and market knowledge than personal photos from vacations or the latest memes.

Still, LinkedIn can be an incredible tool for growing your business, whether you are in a B2B industry or primarily provide services or products to consumers. The key is knowing how to change up your typical social media strategies for the new platform.

Thankfully, Leisure Jobs has created a detailed cheat sheet which breaks down everything you could need to know about how to do LinkedIn right. It includes every area you could imagine, including personal profile construction, business listing strategies, some quick secrets to standing out from others on the platform, and much, much more.

You can see the infographic below, or check it out here for the high-resolution version.

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