As with any social media platform, LinkedIn uses an algorithm to recommend posts to users. To have the best chance of improving the engagement on your posts, you'll want to follow the best practices.
1. Optimize Your Profile
Your LinkedIn profile is incredibly important to your success on the platform. Focus on optimizing it even before creating content. Your profile should target potential recruiters or clients relevant to your industry or niche. That means having the correct keywords for the niche, a decent photo or header image, and filling out the Skills and Experience sections with concise descriptions of your job roles.
The official LinkedIn page on optimizing your profile puts it as "showcase who you are, what you stand for, and what you're interested in". It's the clear first line of contact between you and another member, and LinkedIn wants you to be connecting with other relevant professionals.
As SEMRush's article on LinkedIn notes, there is an SEO system to the platform that you can use to give yourself the best start in the algorithm. This means that you should be using keywords in your bio, tagline, your experience section. Take a look at other professionals in your field and get a feel for what words they use to describe themselves, and then apply it to your own profile.
See optimizing your profile as a constant process happening concurrently with your career. It's okay to tweak your entire profile every so often, even changing keywords while still telling the same story behind what you've done in your career.
2. Optimize Your Network
With the right network, you don't even have to post anything at all. Simply engaging with other people's content and inviting them to your network will put you on the radar, particularly if you apply for a job and the recruiter realizes they have mutual connections with you.
People often forget that they should be curating and optimizing their network on LinkedIn as often as possible. Building a LinkedIn network of professionals ensures the right people are reading your content, helping you to evaluate how valuable your content is proving to be.
Content from first-degree connections is prioritized in the algorithm, according to Social Media Today's post on the LinkedIn algorithm. While you can use Groups to speak with professionals outside your network, you should be looking to connect with as many relevant users as possible in order to give your profile and posts the best chance of succeeding in the algorithm.
3. Include an Image on All Posts
According to Hootsuite, LinkedIn posts with images receive twice the number of comments than posts without. While the platform's algorithm is becoming stricter around posts that game the system, it's unlikely that posts including images will drop off any time soon. Just try your best to only include images that are relevant to the text portion of your LinkedIn post.
Too many creators rely on using selfies with an extremely basic caption; these are the types of posts that are likely to be downgraded by the algorithm once it gets better at detecting professional versus personal content.
With the LinkedIn algorithm shifting towards more "professional content", it's possible that selfie posts will be pushed onto users less than posts containing images that are relevant to a professional topic. Think infographics or team images of happy employees following a project completion. Posts containing these images would seem more traditionally professional and so could see a resurgence in engagement.
4. Format Posts Correctly
The formatting of your LinkedIn posts is not something that you should overlook. The better formatted they are, the more likely they are to be engaged with. The more people engage with the post, the more people LinkedIn will push it to. Fundamentals such as using lists, white space, shorter sentences, and emojis are timeless—so make sure you're keeping that in mind when composing a post as a bare minimum.
As a StatusBrew post on the LinkedIn algorithm explains, posts with multiple links, poor grammar, more than five hashtags (with some of them being generic #like and #follow), will be marked as spam quickly. Have a look for posts by other creators in your field and get a sense of how they format their posts.
By applying the same techniques to your own posts and following best practices in terms of posting frequency, hashtags, and spelling/grammar, you'll ensure the platform doesn't rank your posts down for poor formatting.
5. Engage Daily
A common mistake LinkedIn creators make is publishing their own content but completely forgetting to interact with other people's posts. While commenting on other people's posts does not affect the reach of your own post from an algorithmic standpoint, it often has a positive effect. People tend to be reciprocal and curious. After seeing your name pop up in the comments of their post, they will often visit your profile and like one of your posts. LinkedIn is a social media platform, so you need to be social on it.
According to Tinuiti, posts in the LinkedIn algorithm are ranked on three ranking signals: personal connection, interest relevance, and engagement probability. The engagement probability ranking signal is key here, as it shows you that the platform favors posts that result in users commenting and interacting and, ultimately, spending more time on the platform.
By commenting on posts that are already performing well, you'll be putting your profile in view of many members, most of whom likely aren't even a first-degree connection. Those comments can be a beacon to users to follow you if you're providing enough value.
6. Post Genuinely Valuable Content
There's just no time for bad content anymore. If you're posting to LinkedIn, you should be making sure that each individual post is genuinely valuable.
"Genuinely valuable" can mean different things depending on which platform you're using, though, so pulling what LinkedIn themselves have said about the algorithm can clarify the best practice for posting on LinkedIn:
The Problem Solvers podcast featured LinkedIn's editor-in-chief Dan Roth and Director of Product Alice Xiong, where they walked through several changes to the algorithm in light of viral posts and a sense of an organic algorithm being abused by a portion of users. Insights gleaned from this podcast are that the algorithm considers "author authority" on every post you create as well as "audience relevance". Your post about the best golf clubs isn't likely to be super relevant or insightful if you're a truck driver—at least not in the eyes of the LinkedIn algorithm.
Roth and Xiong also mentioned LinkedIn's interest in unique posts. Logically, whether a post is unique or not would depend upon how you link a known topic or aspect of a job to a completely original anecdote or case study. When it comes to displaying your skills on LinkedIn through genuinely valuable posts, combine your professional experiences with authentically unique insights that only you can bring. The competition is harder on the platform every year, but so long as you're providing value you'll naturally pick up an audience.
7. Use Comments and CTAs
According to Hootsuite, LinkedIn doesn't love calls-to-action (CTAs) encouraging users to leave the platform, so you should avoid using these unless necessary. A better way to get followers to look at your own-channel content is to encourage them to sign up to your email newsletter, where you can then email them with CTAs for your website.
They do, however, want posts that spark conversation. When you're posting and commenting, make sure to ask questions that others can answer—but do not beg for engagement. Since the LinkedIn algorithm promotes meaningful comments, the more valuable comments you get from other creators the better.
Succeed on LinkedIn With Ease
LinkedIn is a great social platform for growing your personal brand and finding opportunities that can improve your career.
As with any other platform, there's a particular way to optimize your profile and content for maximum chances of success. Knowing how to navigate the LinkedIn algorithm will give you the best chance of getting what you want out of the platform.