“Stop optimizing for engagement. Start optimizing for depth”

Most of us love connecting and writing on LinkedIn but we all can feel and judge the quiet shift in LinkedIn’s algorithm. Today let’s break down what has shifted and how we can survive after LinkedIn’s algorithm change as growth happens while keeping pace with change.

A Profound Shift:

With the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, LinkedIn’s algorithm shifted. While the core function of connecting professionals and facilitating career opportunities remained the same, the platform still evolved in a surprising manner.

Notable Shift:

Increased Sharing of Personal Journeys:

When people lost jobs, changed careers or took unconventional paths everyone shared the experience of navigating through these challenges during the pandemic, this led to an increase in empathy and resonance among people which ultimately aroused the feeling of sharing one’s personal ups and downs.

Increased Emphasis on authenticity:

Today, LinkedIn rewards authenticity; words and stories that connect with the audience work better than the well-polished one. It supports and encourages posts that show vulnerability, challenges, lessons and creative side of a person.

Clarity Over Consistency:

Gone are the days when consistency alone drove growth. Today consistency without clarity is just noise, it alone will not make a profile visible, but a proper mix of clarity and consistency together will, clarity here means knowing your service and audience.

Interaction is Important:

If you too are among the ones who post and then ghost. This habit of ghosting seems unharmful, but it does play a role in hampering your visibility. When you will interact LinkedIn will be able to establish your presence.

The Dominance of Video and Visual Content:

While text-based posts still hold value, LinkedIn now strongly supports video-based content, carousels and image-based posts

Development of Personal Brand:

Once LinkedIn was just a job search platform but today it is also a space where people are building their personal brands, promoting businesses and developing their organization which is definitely a major change.

 In order to keep pace with the change we need to draw some line as to what does and don’ts for personal growth.

What Can Be Done:

1.Tell stories that resonate with the audience as well as act as a portfolio of who we are as an individual. When point of views match, connecting with others becomes easier.

2.Finding clarity in our work when goals are clear, the algorithm will ultimately help to ensure distribution with the right audience.

3.Showing an authentic side, yes, people understand the difference and your post speaks about you. It acts as a point of contact between you and the audience.

4.Be Consistent, engage, plan your posts and keep making connections, while remembering that engagement is not just a simple ‘well said’ on a post instead, sharing your take on it is what tells the other side your point of view.

5.Experimenting with content, sometimes text-based, sometimes carousels help to understand what works for you.

What Should Be Avoided:

1.Inconsistent posting may seem okay, but it won’t give you visibility, so stay consistent and be clear about your niche.

2.Do not stay stuck with one form of content, try different things and engage with your audience. Remember post and ghost will not work now.

3.Sounding too polished people can find out the difference so instead of constantly polishing your content to the extent that no one can question it, give yourself the freedom to express yourself.

Conclusion:

The algorithm now supports the real you however, that does not mean that we need to stop being professional, it just means we need to strike a balance between the two forms of content, the best way to do it is by combining the two together.  Stop hard work without clarity and start being smart and authentic.