Our CEO Melissa Davis discusses the initial insights emerging from Richard van der Blom’s new LinkedIn algorithm report, and considers what it means for law firms.
How do you maintain authenticity whilst working with the LinkedIn algorithm to boost visibility?
Richard van der Blom‘s latest report landed yesterday (all 251 pages of it!) and it reveals the secrets to navigating this evolving platform.
👥 If you’ve been watching Severance, you’ll be used to seeing multiple personalities. Well the same can be said for the algorithm or should I say algorithms. There are more than one.
The good news is that authenticity is the winning strategy. LinkedIn wants you to have conversations. It doesn’t love broadcasting. If you can’t get people engaging with your posts, it’s time to think about your content strategy.
❌ In our training, we are often asked about links. Richard gives us the answer: using external links, especially YouTube, results in 40% less reach. Remember that link in the comments hack? It’s no longer a hack and no longer recommended.
🐱 But what if your post about a topical and interesting debate got half the engagement of that photo of your cat in a bikini?
That’s ok, don’t panic, as you’re working your way towards owning and shaping debates – and although your cat may look hot in a bikini, it won’t win that referral unless your network can see your specialist strengths in conjunction.
No time/no interest for posting. You’ll get there. But in the meantime, consider that commenting on other posts often now outperforms your own post engagement when done right. A solid comment can earn 15x more impressions.
🩱 So that lawyer with the cat who looks great in the pink bikini? Try commenting to say how lovely the cat is. That cat looks like it’s well looked after? But maybe you could start a debate? Should that cat be wearing a bikini? You’d read in Grazia (IYKYK) that one pieces were all the rage.
The reason your feed is filled with selfies and photos and cats in bikinis? Image-based posts (now 58%) still dominate the feed and short video (69%) continues to outperform nearly all other formats. A video of you and your cat exercising while you tell us about your takeaway from that specialist conference you just attended? Yes please 💥
💾 Are people saving your content? Are you saving posts you love and want to refer back to?
If you didn’t know about this (loads of people don’t), then this should be the one single takeaway you take from this post. If your content is good enough to be saved, your writing is going for gold because someone saving your posts means it’s not just good for today – it’s good long-term. Like most great relationships. The algorithm loves long term.
More tomorrow on company pages and further snippets from this fantastic (and ginormous) report.
💡 So what are some first takeaways? What does this mean for law firms?
Encourage your people to share authentically on the platform so they’re good enough to be saved, get commenting (more and more), get saving and turn your attention to video (if you’re not there already).
If you’d like to discuss building your presence on LinkedIn, I hope you’ll get in touch.
