Why Oprah disappears from your LinkedIn feed

Do you know it? You open LinkedIn and see the same faces every time. Richard Branson gets a Like from you for every post he sends. And in return the cheeky guy liked nie etwas back. And also otherwise it is difficult to get feedback on your posts. As it turns out, it doesn't just seem that way to all of us. It's the existing Linkedin algorithm. But that is about to change.

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Publication Date
10/2018
Why Oprah disappears from your LinkedIn feed

LinkedIn announced a few days ago that the algorithm for the LinkedIn feed will be revised. It is quite possible that we users will soon benefit from a new arrangement of the content. Both as users who share content and as consumers of content that others post.

What is the problem with the current LinkedIn algorithm?

According to LinkedIn, the number of interactions (i.e. likes, shares, comments, etc.) on the platform is increasing by 50% annually. Most users interact with the content displayed in their LinkedIn feed. Unfortunately, not everyone benefits from the increase in activity. Apparently, it even goes so far that only 1% of the users on LinkedIn benefit from corresponding feedback. The vast majority of those who share content go away (almost) empty-handed.

No doubt this can also be explained by the popularity of certain people. Richard Branson, for example, has several million followers and naturally gets much more response from this pool. Also on social media the rich are getting richer and richer (in followers in this case). LinkedIn has also found that the number of posts without feedback has increased.

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Source: LinkedIn

LinkedIn is also an important part of our marketing strategy for us at HeadStarterz . We invest a lot of time and thought into creating content and monitoring the content that is shared. We do this with the intention of being as interesting a source of information as possible for our followers. Of course we are happy if our content is read, geliked, shared or commented.

LinkedIn expresses it like this: Users who get more than 10 Likes for a post are 17% more likely to post again. As a content creation platform, LinkedIn has an immense interest in ensuring that we all keep posting. So the social media giant hopes to continue to motivate the masses to contribute content by redistributing reactions.

The new focus of the LinkedIn algorithm

The algorithm of the platform determines which content is displayed to us on our LinkedIn feed. The goal of the algorithm is to give preference to content where the probability of interaction is the highest. LinkedIn assumes that these contents interest us. So the sooner we link or comment on a post, the greater the likelihood that it will be displayed in the LinkedIn feed.

So far so good. From an observer's point of view, it's true. However, the calculation did not previously take into account how much the author of a post would be pleased about a reaction to his contribution. In the future, the needs of authors will be included. A new component will be added to the algorithm. This takes into account the value of the feedback on a post for the author of the post. The rule is: the first feedback is the most valuable. The platform assumes that Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and Barack Obama enjoy a single Like less than smaller users with less influence.

LinkedIn has already tested the whole thing with us users. Without us noticing anything. In concrete terms this means: Oprah and Co. will take away about 8% of the feedback and distribute it to the users from the lower 98%. For the super-users ("influencers") this is no problem. After all, the interaction on LinkedIn is growing by 50% annually. That's why Barack Obama will also get more likes in 2019 than this year.

Is it now worthwhile to increase your own LinkedIn activity?

Well, we don't know how heavily this element is weighted. It remains to be seen whether we will see more posts with fewer likes in our feed in the future. Or if we will get to our first 10 Likes for a post relatively quickly. According to LinkedIn, the test group of the new algorithm showed an increase of recurring contributors of 5%.

We'll test it. LinkedIn is of course already with today's algorithm an important network and information tool. Social media platforms have become an integral part of marketing for consulting firms, law firms and tax consultants. However, the activity on LinkedIn requires some practice, a clear strategy and a watchful eye. To effectively use the advantages of social media, however, good content is needed above all. Reactions to your own contributions are not free of charge even under the new algorithm.

Even more valuable than the technical help from LinkedIn is of course the feedback from our followers. Reactions help us to understand which contents are exciting for you and which are not. However, we hope that the new features presented here will help us to see our content more often and thus offer more users exciting content.

Even though LinkedIn does all this just to keep us users happy. We find: You take from the rich and give to the poor. Robin Hood sends his regards.

Are you a lawyer and interested in blogging and social media marketing?

We are pleased to refer to our workshop on the topic of "Digital Marketing for Law Firms". We also offer individual training courses on the topic of social media marketing. It is important that we can adapt our activity in such a way that the algorithm also treats our posts preferentially and the probability increases that our content is displayed in the LinkedIn feed by other users.

You can find our explanations on how to use LinkedIn in the acquisition process in another article on our Legal Marketing Blog. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at any time: tobias@headstarterz.com
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