Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat. These are the platforms were sought out for entertainment purposes, and to communicate with friends and family. Facebook’s algorithm prioritises content from friends, family and groups that we engage with most, whilst Instagram uses interest, recency and relationship to rank the type of content that we see.

But LinkedIn takes a different standpoint when it comes to ranking what comes up on our screens. It’s altogether more complicated, but seeing as it operates to an entirely different audience to that of other social networks, there are good reasons as to why it works the way it does.

LinkedIn ultimately looks at several different aspects once your content has been chosen and created.

1. Content Quality Score – If your post appears to be spam, then the platform will filter it out so that it’s not shown to anyone. Then, the post will also be checked by a human editor, to check for any abusive/ scam contents.
2. Continued Display – If your post makes it past step one, but only gets limited engagement (such as a couple of likes), then the platform will show your post to a smaller audience. Once again, these posts will be checked by a human editor, and if engagement remains low, they will eventually be filtered out.
3. Virality, Profile, Content Quality Classifiers – Only the best types of posts get this far and normally often some form of discussion or show an opinion of thought. As likes and comments improve and people are tagged in the post, it is shown to more and more people. Eventually, the frequency of engagement will start to tail off, and will eventually be filtered out.

Conclusion

From this, we can see how important it is to:

• Offer Something Of Value – Don’t just promote, promote, promote. Instead, talk about things that will interest your connections. Offer your thoughts on new innovations in your industry.
• Get People Talking – Don’t talk at your audience, get them engaging with your content! The LinkedIn algorithm soaks up high levels of engagement.
• Keeping External Content To A Minimum – Although sending viewers to your website may seem like the best thing to do for your business, LinkedIn prefers to keep the audience on their platform, so anything that takes them away will have a decreased chance of going viral. Instead, post native content that will increase brand awareness witohut taking them away.