Leveraging the LinkedIn Algorithm for Maximum Exposure

I've never seen LinkedIn as a job platform I've  seen it as a digital Network platform where you   can keep in contact with your network um but  you know in 2023 if you need a job you turn   to LinkedIn if you're a B2B marketer you need  to be on LinkedIn if you're a B2B sales guy   you need to be a LinkedIn to because they're  that's really where your decision makers are today I'm very excited to be joined by Richard  vanderbloom if you don't know who he is you need   to know Richard he is a social selling strategist  his agency is called just connecting and he helps   sales and marketing teams build awareness and  leads using LinkedIn he's also the author of   The LinkedIn algorithm report Richard  welcome to the show how you doing today   I'm doing fine thank you for having me Michael  I'm super excited you're here today Richard and   I are going to explore how to take advantage of  the LinkedIn algorithm to maximize your exposure   now I will tell you I've never covered the  LinkedIn algorithm in an entire episode so   I'm really excited to dig in today but before we  do uh Richard I want to hear your story how did   you get into LinkedIn start wherever you want  to start well I did I I signed up in 2005. uh   believe it or not at that time I was working  at a at a staffing agency in the Netherlands   and and it was part of my onboarding program where  we had a sales trainer from the United States   and when we had a drink at the first night  at the bar he told me like have you heard   about LinkedIn and I said no he said well that's  the new thing you need to be on LinkedIn so the   day after I remember I signed up and I started to  invite people that I know like colleagues friends   and I remember that like I think 95 responded like  don't send me this like spam because what the hell   is this you know because I mean 2005 like they  literally just started um so quietly disappointed   I canceled my account and in 2006 I moved uh to  do some volunteer work in Tanzania and at the   end of that year um I was there on my computer  and internet cafe and I went back to LinkedIn   and I signed up again and that's where I started  to like network with people in Holland actually   with the idea to find a new job buyer and getting  to send some messages like hey I'm coming back in   two months I'm looking for a job and so those who  are my two first encounters so the first thing   was 2005 I think it was January very early I was  amongst the first 2 million or 1.5 million members   um and then I signed up again uh in  in 2006. so keep going with the story   well um I did get a job uh violating not violating  in a way that we know it now but uh at least I I   made some contact and those people invited me for  chat so you know that was my next job in sales and   marketing and then um I started in 2009 I started  my own company which is still just connecting   and basically um what I saw I worked a lot with  Freelancers interim managers solo entrepreneurs   and what I saw is that actually nobody likes to  sell him or herself you know we don't like to   have this uncomfortable approach where we need  to reach out to someone and say hey do you have   a job or a project but I also noticed that if  you put an expert like if you skip that first   step and you bring them to the table to talk  about their their knowledge their expertise   everybody feels very comfortable and I I saw  a big chance for LinkedIn to help those people   to skip the first step so to do this first step  digitally violating then via networking and then   if somebody got interested in your services then  create the first meeting so what I did I'm talking   about November 2009 I I booked the hotel I booked  the conference room in a hotel I started like a   very Nitty Gritty website and I said okay LinkedIn  training for solo entrepreneurs Freelancers how to   get your next assignment and That was December  2009 actually my first LinkedIn training and   there were 20 people I mean LinkedIn it's it's  it cannot even be compared to the network it is   now I mean there were no there were no sales  Navigator products there were no recruiter   product it was basically a digital Rolodex where  you can put like your resume and your contact   details and start networking still it was a very  successful training and people really were very   um surprised about all the possibilities  and and that's when I realized like hey   instead of having this agency where you  do sales training or social media training   let's focus on LinkedIn because like  there was like a massive um possibility   um for those kind of services back then yeah and  you know I started social media examiner in 2009   and I remember in October of 2009 and I remember  it was pretty much Twitter LinkedIn and Facebook   that was it you know as far as the majors um okay  so somewhere along the line you started publishing   a report uh tell us a little bit about that yeah  so our company moved from being a a generic social   media training and consultancy agency in 2014  we decided to do 100 LinkedIn so instead of   being the generalist on social media we focus on  being the specialist that helps companies with   LinkedIn and that was one of the best choices  I've made in my in my business life because   um that was the moment that also like corporate  Enterprises started to contact us and say like   hey we need help and one of the things that  a lot of marketing departments needed help   with was to understand basically how the  organic reach worked on LinkedIn I mean   if you look at the the paid the advertisement it  doesn't differ very much from Facebook or all the   other platforms but to get organic reach LinkedIn  is very different from all the other platforms   and I had a Canon for example a company that  reached out to us and said I'm talking about 2018   they reach out to they say like please unders  please help us understand why if we publish   this really cool white paper that addresses all  the challenges and trends that our clients need   why we get like 5 000 views and if one week  after we publish a photo of our colleagues   from the sales team doing the half marathon of  Boston that it blows up and it gets like 40 50   000 views we don't get it okay and we want it  to be like the other way around you know like 5   000 views for the more than 50 000 views for the  white paper and we had a gut feeling about the   algorithm back then because we were trying a lot  and we we kind of knew what was going on but we   didn't have the data to back it up and that's  where I started to think and also like discuss   with my team like LinkedIn is not very open about  the algorithm none of the social media platforms   is you know every now and then they release like a  little little like uh detail or if they have like   a big shift they will like publish an article or  a Blog about it but like really in-depth algorithm   information you don't find so I hooked up with  um a guy I knew from the open University who   is actually a professor both in market research  and statistics and I said I need help because I   don't have the tools I don't have the manpower to  do it but like we want to research the algorithm   and he basically made a student project out of  it so he he assembled like six seven very smart   students and he said give me the questions  and I'll come back to you with like the   answers and and and you know we invested in  some tooling and that resulted back in 2019   uh to the publication of the first LinkedIn  algorithm report and it was I think it was 12   or 13 pages uh it wasn't really cool we had like  400 000 views on LinkedIn uh it was downloaded a   lot and but this was the first time that like we  managed to give our audience but also clients it   inside and hey what is working what isn't working  and how can you adjust your content strategy to   the current rules of the algorithm I love that  uh at social media examiner we've been publishing   uh and a report called the social media marketing  industry report since 2009 I think we're on the   14th Edition maybe the 15th Edition and um  it doesn't look at the algorithms instead it   just looks at the nature of the industry and what  marketers want and I got to tell you um publishing   a really thoughtful research study is so valuable  and I think it's awesome that you're doing that   um okay so there's some people listening right  now who are loving your story but they're not   convinced that LinkedIn is where they ought to  be and the reason I know that is because of the   studies that I do Instagram Facebook Tick Tock  to a lesser extent these are kind of platforms   that a lot of people are focused on um why should  those who are not specifically active on LinkedIn   or those who have abandoned LinkedIn why should  they come back why is it important for business   well that's an interesting question and I I  also think in the question you mentioned to   Target audiences those who never went to LinkedIn  because they thought it's like boring I don't   need a new job and those who were there nothing  happened and they moved to Facebook or Instagram   or Tech talk or SnapChat or wherever they move um  first of all we're talking about almost 1 billion   members worldwide okay so like this is the only  platform you mentioned Twitter and Facebook they   all started back in 2003 like LinkedIn actually  had it made this year like the 20th anniversary   LinkedIn is the only platform that never stopped  growing okay Facebook which speak and went down   Twitter Richard speak went further down and then  never stopped growing I'm talking about members   but also about activity um one of the main reasons  that I see a lot of people now loving LinkedIn is   the potential High organic reach that  you can get in very very limited time   I've literally seen new content creators come  to LinkedIn like in the past year and gain 100   000 followers only with with Organic content in  less than 12 months okay that's almost impossible   on all the other social media platforms even  uh people like Gary vaynerchuk he was very   very surprised he turned to LinkedIn about  three years ago and he was very surprised   about the successes he had there and and  the rapid organic grow that he could make   um another thing is if you talk about thrust  and now I'm moving a bit to maybe the seller   buyer maybe into a B2B environment but if you  talk about the trustworthy of a platform like   the percentage of trust LinkedIn is still at 87 so  that means that 87 of people that look at LinkedIn   to find valuable information about suppliers  about their industry about Trends value the   information is trustworthy this percentage for  Facebook has dropped below 40 okay so if people   read something on Facebook they go like yeah but  on LinkedIn it's very like you don't see a lot of   um not you don't see a lot of content that is  not backed up by stats facts or or research   um and then again I think LinkedIn is also a  platform that you can use for various purposes   so a lot of people still refer to it as well  it's a job platform I I really disagree with   all those people that that are saying like  LinkedIn came from a bit from a job platform   and emerged into a business platform I've  never seen LinkedIn as a job platform I've   seen it as a digital Network platform where  you can keep in contact with your network   um but you know in 2023 if you did a job you turn  to LinkedIn if you're a B2B marketer you need to   be on LinkedIn if you're a B2B sales guy you need  to be on LinkedIn to because they're that's really   where your decision makers are and if you want to  be a thought leader in your industry linked in and   it's influence on Google is the place to be so I  think there are really a lot of reasons why people   cannot underestimate or maybe not even afford not  to be present on LinkedIn and for those who left   I think they left in a period maybe pre-pandemic  so I'm talking about four or five years ago where   you could see that the content was actually a  bit dull a bit boring it was all very corporate   um LinkedIn was focusing a lot on their paid  products vote for recruiters marketeers and   sales people so people felt like I'm no longer  part of my network but actually the pandemic and   all the you know the serious stuff that happened  with the lockdowns that people starting to work   from home and people starting to share personal  stories where a lot of people would normally   refer like hey this is Facebook content and this  is not LinkedIn content but it really changed the   way how we create publish and consume content  on LinkedIn so for me it has become so much   more interesting over the last three years to be  on LinkedIn I mean I can not only see the white   paper from my clients but I can also see that  he has the same dog the same breed as I have   I can see that he goes to the same countries  as I go because people are sharing much more   um of their personal life and and there's much  more storytelling going on so it it has become   a much more interesting platform to be on  since Microsoft acquired LinkedIn I don't   remember what year it was it was a pre-covet  I'm trying to remember have you seen a lot of   changes or have they just kind of enhanced  a lot of the things that already existed   16 so it was free pandemic 2016 for  26 billion dollars so imagine you know   um yeah I've seen uh especially in the first years  I've seen a big focus on their paid products okay   so like obviously like Microsoft owns the working  population across the globe and they knew that   a lot of the working population were present  on LinkedIn so they invested in like LinkedIn   recruiter evolved into like a must-have tool sales  Navigator has so many like awesome new features   over the past three four years that you like uh  it's it's actually the the the the most requested   training for us at the moment sales navigator that  was until like 2016 2019 I think the focus was   really there like let's make money and let's like  make the paid products like more interesting for   the target audience now over the last three years  I also see that there is a lot of new changes even   also for the people who use LinkedIn for free so  I think especially the the development power that   Microsoft brought to LinkedIn has created like  this amazing platform that we uh that we can use   uh today perfect okay uh let's talk about some of  the mistakes the pitfalls that um marketers make   with their content and uh maybe you could just lay  out a couple without telling us how to solve it   yet we'll get there eventually but what are some  of the big mistakes that you see people making whoa uh well there are various um first of  all treating LinkedIn like any other social   media platform I think that's probably one of  the biggest mistakes you know um we come from   an era I think it's five six maybe four years  ago where marketeers would have these tools   like buffer HootSuite and create a post and  then send to all the social media platforms   you know and and that might work for Facebook  and you might adapt it for Twitter or Instagram   it doesn't work for LinkedIn because of the  different algorithms so you need to treat   LinkedIn on its own you need to understand  the ecosystem the algorithm like if you're   going to copy paste content that you use in  your social networks it's not going to work   um maybe also relying too much on corporate  content and and advertisements paid content   um probably the biggest reason why why some  companies still struggle to see conversion um then um also what I consider a mistake I  do have some discussions with some of our   marketing clients um some still struggle  with adapting their content strategy to   how LinkedIn has changed so they still use it  for only like the corporate messages like the   thought leadership content you need to buy your  stuff content you need to download a white paper   content so they forget about storytelling  they forget about humanizing their brand   um and then and maybe that's not specifically  falling then but also I see a lot of marketings   focusing on the wrong goals and the wrong kpis  okay so if you focus on the wrong goals if you   set the wrong kpis in the end you will see like  less views less engagement and less conversion   yeah it's funny because uh obviously the job  of marketing is to generate more eyeballs   more leads and more sales and the sales side  of it is the part that's fuzzy right because   in the olden days I remember um on all the  social platforms you could just post a link   to a blog post and get massive traffic to  your website and hopefully have a pop-up   on there that would generate leads and then  you get them on the newsletter and then you   would eventually sell to them right um that was  considered a viable option but on the other side   of things if you did have a product you were  selling it was fine to actually actively just   say hey here's our product we have a sale  but it seems that that is definitely not   viable in organic content anymore maybe even  in paid content would you find that to be true although I I disagree that online then the  goal for marketing should be to generate   leads because it's it's almost impossible it has  become almost impossible I have a big slide that   I I bring into all the events I'm I'm going as  a keynote speaker about LinkedIn and LinkedIn   marketing in sales and it's like what is  the main objective what is the main goal   of marketing and it only says brand awareness  increase brand get the name and your Solutions   out to as many prospects possible but don't  try to generate leads from a corporate profile   and because it's not working like uh LinkedIn  advertisement has a very low conversion rate but   if marketing does their job on brand awareness  and they align and I'm really mean aligned with   sales and they take this content and they make it  their own so they add their own tone of voice they   do some storytelling and sales has the main  objective to create like generate leads so   marketing is there for brand awareness get out  the name a few times and then on an individual   level your sales people need to follow up need to  reach out and then people go like hey wow this is   cool social media one thing I've heard of you  already two three times I saw your post that's   what marketing needs to do so if I reach out to  you if I want to try and sell you something you   must have seen our names already two or three  times because of marketing's content that's the   game marketing and sales needs to play nowadays  because if you rely on marketing to generate leads   it will be probably paid advertisement because  organic reach for companies is almost non-existing   okay that's also non-existing it was four  years ago um if you if you look to your feed   on LinkedIn about eight to nine percent of all  posts would come from organic company content   nine percent four years ago now we're below two  percent so that means 100 posts and not even two   posts are from companies and since people do  an average Scroll online then from 16 posts   company visibility organic content is almost  non-existing so that means that market needs to   go to paid advertisements and there we have the  problem that our clients are not on LinkedIn to   be sold something they're online then to keep up  with the network to be updated on their industry   so the number of prospects that you reach by  having this lead generation advertisement is   very low so it's your sales people that need to  like build relationships follow up on the content   that that's the game they need to play very  good message okay let's talk about the algorithm   um how does the algorithm work go ahead  and just start breaking it down I know   we prepped some stuff in advance if you  want to follow that you can go for that   yeah so first of all before we  really dive into the outcome   there is some background information that's  very valuable so first of all I don't know the   numbers for the other platforms Michael maybe  you can fill me in on that but on LinkedIn   there's only one percent not even actually but  let's let's make it at one percent of the people   that publishes a post at least once a month I  mean we talk about 940 million people and not even   10 million people publish at least once a month  wow then second group five percent of the people   have published at least one Post in the last  three months this is what Langdon goals content   creators to me it doesn't make sense I mean if  I hit a repost two months ago and I haven't been   publishing anything I officially count as a  content creator okay then the next line is 16   of the people one six percent of the people  they don't publish themselves because they   don't want to they don't know how um but they do  engage with your content so those are the people   that give you a like if you come and give you  a repos we call them your content ambassadors   okay because of their engagement your post grows  and then we have above 60 of all LinkedIn members   they don't publish content they don't engage with  your content so they don't want to click like   comment or repost but they do consume your content  okay so those are the people that scroll they   screen they watch your video they click on your  link but they will not show their gratitude or   their engagement by clicking on any of the buttons  okay we call them the silent Community that's   something that every marketer needs to understand  sixty percent of all in the new Southern Community   this means not that those people are not active  they can be active every day but you don't see   what they are doing because they're just consuming  the content 95 of your clients is there in the   silent community and they will watch your video  they will click on your link and they will do   so for months until they reach the point that they  feel confident enough to reach out to you and this   is where you get an email or a connection request  from a client starting like hey Richard I've been   following your content for several months now  um I really want to have a chat about blah blah   blah and if I go back to this person we are  not connected he never engaged this is the   silent Community this is unique no other social  media platform has this huge group of people   Wellington discover this when they then discovered  that as a huge community that doesn't engage   they knew that their traditional algorithm which  was based on likes common shares like all the   social media platforms it needed an upgrade  and that's where they invented and implemented   dwell time okay dwell time is maybe one of the  most important ingredients of the algorithm it   means that LinkedIn now counts how long does your  post stay in the screen of your reader okay so if   somebody starts scrolling and your post catches  his eye and he stops if he needs one minute to   read your post and the post is one minute in the  screen it means that you get additional reads   from LinkedIn because they see hey this silent  Community is actually consuming your content   I don't know if you recall this Michael but  after the first three four sentences lines in   a post link they now put C more okay this is  something they did about four years ago okay   so this is also there because this is the only  way how LinkedIn can really measure the activities   of the silent Community because sun and Community  they want to read if they find something valuable   they want to continue reading so they have your  first three lines and they go like click on see   more this is something Indian measures the post is  there entirely in your screen and then they count   again the seconds okay so keeping people engaged  as long as possible on your post and making them   click on see more is very very important then once  you hit publish and this is both for company pages   also individual page in the first 60 maybe 90  minutes LinkedIn is going to test your post   and they do this with an inner circle of your  network okay it's more like a test panel okay   um on average on an individual profile it's  about between six and eight percent of your   connections okay so if you have let's say a  thousand connections it means in the first hour   LinkedIn shows this both to 60 to 80 people those  are the people who previously engaged with your   post okay those are your new connections so those  are the people that are the most likely to give   you engagement based on their activities it can  go either way so first they engage they like they   come and they click in the first 60 minutes and  then goes wow this pose is relevant this post is   very good so they're going to increase your reach  amongst your network but also outside meaning   your second third degree Network unfortunately  the opposite can also happen you know you lack   engagement the first 60 90 minutes LinkedIn goes  wow we showed your post you're in a circle they   don't find it very interesting and then they will  re they will start to fade out your post from the   feed you will not get notified but it can well be  that you created a post in the morning and at the   end of the day it's no longer visible in the feed  of your connection based on the lack of Engagement   in the first is 60 90 minutes um the keyword in  the algorithm is interaction okay interaction   means not alike not even a repost interaction  means the more comments you get on LinkedIn   and I'm talking valuable comments not like  a comment that says great post Michael thank   you but really like hey Michael that's an  awesome study you have shared in addition   I want to share one or two so really comments  that spark a conversation the more you get of   those and the more you as an author reply to  those the more additional reach your post gets then don't forget go ahead no go  ahead finish what you're gonna say   then we do we don't need to underestimate that  there are also a lot of negative uh engagement   signals on LinkedIn so that means that for example  people click on your video and within six seconds   they stop the video that's a negative signal  or people unfollow you because of your post or   people that you have tagged will not reply or even  worse will remove the mention okay so there are   a lot of negative like engagement signals that if  LinkedIn sees that one post gets a lot of negative   engagement signals they will lower the reach or  they will like uh stop the growth of your post   um and this is also why a lot of people now  um are trying to gamify the algorithm by using   engagement Bots you know um you have the manual  engagement pods which could be like a WhatsApp   group where you put like 50 people and you say  hey if you publish something put a link in the   WhatsApp group and everybody please engage  but there is a whole industry that came up   with LinkedIn engagement pods if you Google it  you have various and you just buy a subscription   you enter a group of like-minded people and  you just put the link there and everybody   Auto engages so it's not really it's automated  engagement likes and even comments well and my   guess is the algorithm smart enough to know that  that's a bunch of baloney right yeah there are   two things uh and I'm I'm quite honestly I'm very  happy with that there are two things first of all   engagement plots are officially forbidden so  if LinkedIn detects that this is happening and   of course they can detect it because if your first  50 likes are always from the same people like they   understand that you're using engagement report  if you get above average engagement every time   on your post in the first let's say 10 minutes  they understand that you are using an engagement   port and they can ban or even restrict access to  LinkedIn and the second one that's why I said two   minutes ago that if you provide a comment make  it a personal one make it uh like I always say   use at least 12 words because engagement Bots  since they are not able to read the post they   only comment with things like great article great  share thank you for this post so it's all short so   if LinkedIn detects that you get a lot of short  comments on your posts they might think that you   are using an engagement box okay so and and I'm  very happy with every Everything LinkedIn does to   kill the engagement part I'm very happy with that  well and these used to exist on Instagram back in   the day and Instagram made them illegal as well  and it's definitely like a scammy kind of thing   um okay couple quick questions related to the  LinkedIn algorithm let's talk about text posts   and let's talk about links and some of the other  stuff like um first of all you know links no links   should we include links can we include links let's  start there and then let's talk about text posts   I think the story with the link is Maybe the  most received question over the last 10 years   because every now and then it seems that it didn't  change his policy again they don't communicate but   until two years ago I always said like  okay just put a link in the original posts   it's true that you see less reach okay all  independent studies not only our studies but all   independent studies show that both with external  links in the core body get like 50 if you're lucky   60 of your normal reach I have the same with my  own content and there are two reasons for that my   reason is that LinkedIn doesn't want us to go away  from the platform and if you put a link and people   click they lose a member okay and their marketing  value is also based on the average session time   that people spend if you kill the session time you  kill England's marketing value LinkedIn officially   says that's not true and they say there's another  reason and I do believe that reason as well   Michael they say if people are squalling their  feet they do that because they want to stay up to   date what the network is doing and at that moment  they don't want to be brought to your own website   because they leave the purpose of what they  were doing to being like updated on the network   and I do the same I I if I scroll and I think  that's an interesting post with a link I save   the post for when I have the time to come back  and to consume the post but in the moment I just   keep scrolling I don't click on external links so  that's why they say like okay you get less views   clarifying question um text post let's say I've  got a multi-paragraph text post and I've got them   see more and Below there inside the text post  I've got a link but it's not it's not like the   open graph data pulling in the link you know does  that work can you have a longer text post with a   reference link or any kind of Link any kind of  thing okay any kind of thing and the funny thing   is even internal links seems to be punished  so for example if you write a blog post a   long article you know that used to be on pulse  or you have a newsletter that is content long   form content that you publish on the LinkedIn  platform even if you create a post that refers   to that internal link you see the same 50 60 which  would make sense because that means that LinkedIn   is right and say like people don't want to click  on the link they just want to continue scrolling   um no what I'm currently advising and I do it  myself is to put the link in the first comment   okay but it depends on the goal of your post okay  for example if you if you want to use LinkedIn to   promote a webinar and you have the sign up link  then I would always include an original post okay   so I know I get less rich but my goal is to like  literally get people to sign up and hiding the   link in the first comment especially if you get  multiple comments from other people the the first   comment might not be yours because there is no pin  common feature anymore LinkedIn so you cannot have   your comment for sure as the first comment to be  seen so if you have a great pose you say like the   link is in the first comment and you get like 10  additional comments your your link might get lost   which means that people need to do two or maybe  three additional clicks and if you do that for   a webinar sign up it kills the conversion okay so  webinar sign up put the link in the original post   but if you say like I want to drive people to a  Blog that we have on the website I would literally   advise people to put it in a comment and say like  I create a post I make it very triggering I give   people one or two insights and I say like hey if  you would like to read the entire article with   three four more of these insights see the first  comment for put a link to the post and then the   algorithm doesn't recognize or they simply the  algorithm says hey this is a text post because   the algorithm does not dive into the comments  okay so that's at this moment something that   is working for us our own company but also for  a lot of our clients it's working pretty well   um on a lot of the social platforms especially  Facebook you can ask you can put a very short   compelling um declarative statement or question  inside these background Graphics right like I   just recently talked about how I'm not a fan of  Twitter changing their name to X and changing the   X on my phone and I couldn't find my Twitter app  you know what I mean and it was like it screwed me   up a little bit and I created a very short like  it's it clearly was like two lines of text and   it created an amazing engagement because it was  you know a timely thing and and but on LinkedIn   I think that you're telling me that based on  the conversations we've had previous to this   interview the longer text is kind of important is  that correct yep comes back to uh to dwell time   and as I said before the longer people stay on on  your post the more additional reach you get so if   you have this like really short exposed with three  four lines people read maybe you even don't get a   CMO button you know because that's after the first  three four lines whereas if you have a really well   crafted text post you know that gets the attention  then triggers people into into keep reading   um you see about 50 more reach compared to  if you have a smaller text post definitely   does that mean we can just use character turns  instead of a big paragraph to kind of get it or   they have to do with the total characters to  get to the C more how does that work exactly   it it has it has to do with the with the lines  that first it has to do with the with the line   so I always advise people to write at least  eight lines texts but of course like a blank   line or even like like some spaces can also work  but they count characters so they count lines   what about um asking for people to  comment um is that good is that bad   yeah that's interesting um because that's  actually uh an article I think it was about   eight nine months ago that LinkedIn actually  published in one of their own blogs that   uh explicitly asking for people to engage  would result in a penalty they didn't call   it a penalty but they said will not be rewarded by  the algorithm which for me is a penalty clearly so   um having explicit call to actions like and we all  know this no from back in the days I think I mean   is that considered an explicit call to action  I would like no no no that's a very good call   to action but if you say like put um white paper  as a comment and I will contact you to send the   white paper that's gamification of the algorithm  okay so and and they said officially they said   that they were um they sorted it was on the rise  and they uh adjusted the algorithm not to be in   favor of that but in all honesty if I see both  where people explicitly ask for it like like   the example I just gave I still see a lot of  Engagement because if you get thousands people   to put like white paper in a comment obviously it  gets spread a lot and I don't think that LinkedIn   and especially on the algorithm can stop the  spread of those posts I always try to do it subtly   I always refer my classes to a call to think or  a call to feel like we all know the traditional   call to action but the problem with the call to  action is that it might be do commercial like you   have this great pose and then you really kill  your own pose by having at the end like if you   want to discuss your challenges with me uh send  me a message okay and nobody's going to do that   because they know like hey this guy just created  a post with the only goal to generate leads so I'm   not going to even like this post this is what's  happening a lot you can kill the engagement   on your post by having a a CTA that's way too  commercial so instead of that I always advise   people go for a call to think or call to feel  so make people make people feel the pain like   I just published an article about the latest for  trans women social selling and I like my call to   think was like what would happen to your digital  lead generation if your company is not able to   adapt to those Trends that's a cool thing people  go like hey we need to do that because if not we   are a problem or like call to feel like have you  experienced a less less lead generation the last   three months what would be the reason that's a  goal to like to feel you know I feel the pain   that I'm not generating leads anymore um and  that's an explicit goal for people to comment   um and another trick if you have six tips on I  don't know or six developments you just ask your   community which development did I miss with which  dip did I miss leave it in the comment and people   start like from their own expertise start like the  conversation discussion in the comments so that's   a more natural way to spark engagement and that  will seriously lead to more engagement as well   okay so um all this time does this apply to a page  versus a personal profile is this all the same I think for 80 90 yes it does there are some small  differences I mean it's one of the things that we   have seen especially with individual profiles is  that if you publish a post and you nurture it that   means like in the first 15 minutes 30 minutes you  respond to all the comments maybe you leave one or   two additional comments yourself uh you reach out  to other content on the platform you know because   LinkedIn if you before you publish your own post  and directly after engage with other people's   content as a reward link then brings more eyes to  your content as well and this is not entirely the   same on a company page there you don't need to  do the heavy engagement before and after okay   because company Pages after all are more static  but on an individual level if you want to really   see more reach and more Engagement start engaging  before and directly after you publish and nurture   your own post and nurturing your own post means  responding to all the comments but also leave   three or four tips or three or four facts  don't put them in the original post but   leave them and put them in the comments after  so you continue more or less the story which   gives more people more like hooks to like  or comment even on your comments as well   let's talk about the kinds of content we can  create and what I mean by kinds of content and   the kinds of things we ought to be talking  about right at the very top you said one of   the biggest mistakes is people talk about white  papers or whatever right so what kind of content   should we be creating in order to maximize  the algorithmic reach are you talking about these or pillars categories categories okay um   again based on our own research Michael  which we also have been doing since 2018   where we have looked into both individuals  and companies that are really seeing a   high percentage of Engagement and there are  more more or less six different pillars okay   um personal content storytelling from a personal  perspective is the best performing one people   love stories also LinkedIn so you see more likes  and comments on a personal story than on a more   um no so the first pillar personal story  storytelling the second pillar is thought   leadership content okay this means that you're  going to share your insights you're going to   share the white paper you're going to share  an article this is the content that the silent   Community loves okay they start following  you because they want your expertise however   since they are not engaging you get lower reach  lower reach lower engagement okay never make   the mistake to stop doing that type of content  because it's the consistency that will bring the   conversion in the end they need more time and the  best example Michael if you have a new job those   are the posts that we all know know that somebody  like in front or with this guy say I'm leaving   company I am going to Company B and the world goes  mad with engagement thank you for coming ah you   know great to have you on the team so this blows  up this is personal content but if you publish a   white paper an article you get less reach because  deciding community third pillar everything that   is around events so this can be events that you  attend as an attendee events that yourself are   organizing events that your company are organizing  and the good thing about event content is you have   before during and after so if I'm going to speak  on a congress I create a post as an announcement   I create an impression during the event and maybe  one or two months uh one or two weeks after event   I create a post which is more like a summary and  a takeaway uh Ford pillar is what we call a user   generated content okay so this is other people  speaking about your services your products because   that converts so much more to New Leads than if  you talk about your own products so I'm talking   about uh case studies uh client testimonials  interviews with clients even interviews with your   employees if it's from a recruitment or employ a  branding perspective a fifth pillar third-party   content okay for example I see this really cool  article about LinkedIn on social media marketing   and I published that article and I curate the  content I just go like hey found this really cool   article about LinkedIn on social media marketing  this is my takeaway and these are my additional   insights okay this is a very important pillar and  it's more easy to do this on a personal page than   to do it on a company page because a company  page to borrow content from another company or   another source okay that's normally especially  if it comes to my competitor it's more tricky   um and then the last one has everything to do it's  more a corporate pillar it has everything to do   with employee branding employee advocacy you know  show humanize your brand humanize your company in   a in in the current labor market where it's very  very difficult especially in for example ID to   find new talent because like everybody is chasing  them we see that companies who are like opening up   their company give people an Insight this is how  uh our own boarding looks like this is the career   opportunities we have but this is an interview  with somebody who has been a developer for five   years with our company this type of content  really performs well if one of your main goals   is to attract new Talent question on the thought  leadership content can you give examples of what   this is just so we understand what you mean by  thought leadership that was one of the pillars   yeah for for my business for example it's the  algorithm report that's absolutely a piece of   content that positions myself as a thought leader  as an expert and that's the content for me that   sees the higher conversion to new followers  whenever we do that I get about 10 to 15   000 new followers and I'm not talking about um  well amongst those 10 15 000 a lot of my decision   a lot of CMOS a lot of marketing directors a lot  of marketing managers so that's an example and   another example could be like a trend paper you  know what I mean that we say like okay this is   how LinkedIn lead generation looked like in 2021  this is how it looks now and these are the things   that you really need to like get right in your  company so this type of content that positions you   as the expert to go to in your network outstanding  Richard thank you so much for Illuminating us I've   taken a lot of notes over here and I'm sure a lot  of our listeners have as well if people want to   um follow you on the socials I'm assuming LinkedIn  is your preferred platform uh but if it's not okay   how do they find you on LinkedIn and then also how  do they find your company so on my uh online then   well they just need to uh go to my name Richard  vanderblom and connect with me or follow me uh   those that are listening van space d-e-r space  b-l-o-m it's three separate um I guess words   uh Van Der Bloom on LinkedIn okay that's correct  and another way to definitely reach out to me and   also there are my socials is to go to my personal  website which is www dot richardvanderbloom.com people want to check out your agency   sorry what if they want to check out  your company your agency then yeah then   they go to justconnecting.com which is more  easily because it's like an English name so www.justconnecting.com but on my personal website  there's also a big button to go to that website as   well so so and on my LinkedIn profile I have  all the referrals to my websites as well so   um they definitely definitely  will be able to check me out   Richard thank you so much for coming on the show  and answering all my questions we're way better   because it because of it thank you Michael  thank you for having me it was my pleasure

Channel: Social Media Examiner

Views: 10,724

Keywords: social media examiner, social media marketing, social media marketing tips, social media, Richard Van Der Blom, Leveraging LinkedIn Algorithm, Maximize LinkedIn Algorithmic Reach, LinkedIn Algorithm, LinkedIn Business, LinkedIn Marketing

Id: XxAdy6YthV0

Length: 46min 52sec (2812 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 31 2023