LinkedIn Updates Algorithm to Downrank Engagement-Baiting Posts and Polls

LinkedIn continues to grow as a social media platform, and with the economy in a big moment of change, we can expect that LinkedIn will continue to see a rise in user numbers. Everyone wants a career, and LinkedIn is a great way to get one. 

Here at Pink Dog Digital, we like to look at broad digital trends in order to best understand how to create exciting and productive marketing solutions for our clients. 

LinkedIn has released a new press release informing the public how they’ve changed their algorithm. We’ve got all that information covered, so read on and let Pink Dog explain the hard stuff to you.

What is LinkedIn changing?

According to LinkedIn’s blog, written by Linda Leung, users don’t like low quality, engagement baiting posts. Leung suggests that LinkedIn has seen a recent spike in posts that encourage user engagement with likes or reactions. As the number of posts that focus on user engagement increase, more and more of these posts are delivering spam content instead of credible and authentic content. 

This means that a lot of posts designed for user engagement focus purely on number of views, instead of what content is actually being delivered. Leung says that the LinkedIn algorithm will no longer reward this type of content, and is changing the algorithm to disincentivize these posts.

This means that when the Pink Dog Digital team creates LinkedIn posts for you, we’ll make sure to tailor the content to your product, and not create generic user engagement-baiting posts.

Polling Posts Receive Less Prominent Position in New Algorithm

Leung suggests in this same post that users feel there are too many polling posts on LinkedIn feeds. A big complaint users had was that too many polls from unknown users were appearing on feeds. This new algorithm is going to reduce the number of cluttered polls from random users, and increase visibility of posts within user’s networks. 

Polls used to be the one of the go-to’s for engagement on LinkedIn. The previous algorithm loved polls, and if brands used them they would often get large amounts of engagement on their posts. However, marketers have overused polls and the LinkedIn community has had enough.

This doesn’t mean polls are dead on the platform, but rather, users should be more thoughtful and moderate with their poll usage in order to get the best amounts of feedback and brand engagement. 

Here at Pink Dog Digital, we’re happy to collaborate with you about the best ways to market your products on LinkedIn and elsewhere.

LinkedIn Does Away With “Political” Posts

Another change, according to Leung, is that LinkedIn is hoping to move away from more “political” type posts. The new update comes with an option to “turn off” political posts. 

This change suggests that LinkedIn is hoping to go back to its roots as an exclusively career oriented networking tool to separate itself from other social media platforms which focus more on social discourse. 

Reducing Number of Notifications to Streamline Experience

Lastly, LinkedIn is working to reduce its notifications. Users have begun to complain that LinkedIn offers too many notifications related to posts from outside a user’s targeted network. This new update is reducing the number and scope of notifications so that after the update, notifications will be more relevant to a user’s network. 

The move to create less static noise on its user’s phones and computers is a good one to some, but other people feel that this limiting of which content is shown to which users may restrict people’s ability to grow their career network. 

Conclusion

LinkedIn is making moves to focus on being a platform dedicated to career networking and promoting job opportunities. 

Pink Dog Digital will capitalize on these changes by focusing polling posts to our clients’ specific audience of followers, and continuing to use the platform to not only promote our own services, but also to make sure that we’re using LinkedIn’s capabilities to best support our clients.

Pink Dog Digital is committed to staying up to date on the latest trends in the social media industry so that we can best use these tools to help you grow your business. For more information about Pink Dog Digital’s social media packages, give us a call at 1 (410) 696-3305 or fill out this form.