Thanks to LinkedIn

Some insights based on my personal experience related to print and social media

By Andreas Weber 

The new normal: The focus is on the optimal design of content in combination with Human Intelligence and Artifical Intelligence. LinkedIn gets to the point of refining its algorithms. Anyone who is well informed will be very enthusiastic. 

Why? Better content creation possibilities and a increasing quality of the contacts. All that is rewarded by the LinkedIn algorithm. 

My following statements are derived from my own experience. Here are the core topics: 

1. In May 2020, I published 35 posts on LinkedIn – everything created by my own. Effects: 39,518 views. On average, more than 1,000 views per post. There were differences in the comparison of the individual posts from 130 views (lowest value) to 6,525 views (highest value). 

2. During the same period, the contact requests I got grew by over 1,500 new contacts. As of today, June 5, 2020, my entire network closed 24,036 contacts from over 70 countries on all continents. 

3. The number of profile views increases constantly to 190 per day, an increase of 26%. 

4. In my opinion, the number of views is not related to a maximum of followers/contacts or many likes, but with the number of comments. That means that the above-mentioned post with 6,525 views had 30 likes, but 23 comments! That is a lot for my specific topics (all about print in the context of ‚digitization'). 

5. Interesting: the integration of videos that run immediately brought fewer views; even if they were objectively good videos. 

6. In contrast, pure text messages with further links (without preview function) brought a lot (a total of three posts with over 7,000 views, i.e. almost 20 percent of the above total number of views). 

7. Posts containing text messages with photos (no graphics, statistics) and further links received over 70 percent of the total number of views. 

8. Posts that included smart combinations of hashtags received the most attention. Especially with unusual, emotion-related hashtags like #Zuversicht (#confidence).

9. Posts with personal observations, reviews, comments and questions, as well as creating a context to other topics, received the greatest attention. 

10. Last but not least: The half-life of good posts is much longer than I expected. Some found new views, likes and comments even after three weeks. Which can also be due to the fact that, in my view, more and more of my LinkedIn contacts are entering hashtag terms in the search. 

Conclusion

I am very excited about how smart LinkedIn is developing. This strengthens communication success for print in the digital age. 

And for us as individuals it does beneficial things that were previously impossible in B2B communication via specialist publisher offers as well as corporate websites and blogs. For me, as a gray-haired 'non-digital native', but unbroken digital activist, this takes social media to a new level. Bravo, LinkedIn! 

Addendum 

When I wrote this analysis earlier this morning and did further research, I noticed a very interesting poll analysis via LinkedIn, which I like to share with the most revealing results for me. 

Interesting results from a current survey from Australia regarding LI’s new algorithm 

 "Poll reveals video is not the golden preference on LinkedIn“ by Sue Parker, 4. June 2020 

Results

The staggering preference was written formats at 77.8 per cent (a combination of texts/images at 47.3 per cent and articles at 30.5 per cent) vs videos at 20.1 per cent and podcasts at 2.1 per cent. 

Takeaways

1. LinkedIn have introduced a new feed ranking system Dwell time essentially this will recalibrate how content is classified and distributed. Instead of ranking content based on clicks and viral actions it will based on dwell time as an indicator of rich value and preferences to deliver similar into your newsfeed. Strong content will take centre stage to align social proof of value vs vanity metrics which often occur in the video format and similar and gaming practices. 

2. A good mix of multimedia content is always recommended. Video clearly isn’t the golden goose thought but that does not mean you should discard them, far from it. Videos are essential when used well. 

3. Apply research, critical thinking together with your instincts. There is just not a one size fits all preference within any given sector, age or gender.