With over 760 million users of which 260 million are active monthly, LinkedIn is the social networking platform for a realty business to be a part of. Over the past two years, consistent updating of LinkedIn’s algorithms have lead to more than a 50% increase in viral activity. Over two million posts are now filtered, ranked, and displayed in the feeds of the website’s 760+ million users. Senior Director of LinkedIn’s product management, Pete Davies, describes the mantra of the feed as People you know, talking about the things you care about. This implies that the LinkedIn algorithm places a priority on personal connections based on interests. This article will guide you on how to use LinkedIn’s algorithm to get and improve your LinkedIn Brand Visibility and networking opportunities.
1. Be Relevant
Always remember that LinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals across various industries. Posting a picture of your lunch is not necessary unless you are a chef or in the catering industry. According to research, 80% of the users on LinkedIn prefer engaging with rich media. Rich media is content that includes advanced features such as video, audio, and other elements. This form of media encourages viewers to interact and engage with the post. On LinkedIn, posts with pictures receive twice as many comments as compared to posts with text only. While posts with videos are five times more likely to receive comments in comparison to text-only posts. Using formats that are popular with LinkedIn users will help you earn points in both the “interest relevance” and “engagement probability” categories.
2. Promote Your Posts
An effective way to increasing engagement on your post is by increasing the number of users that will come across the post. Promoting your post will contribute towards increasing the number of users that see it. However, not all promotion needs to happen on LinkedIn. Make use of other social networks by sharing the link to your posts. This will help you connect with your existing audience and contribute to consistently increasing engagement on your posts on LinkedIn. In turn, the engagement will enhance your ranking with LinkedIn’s algorithm to improve your LinkedIn Brand Visibility.
3. Encourage Engagement
LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards engagement – especially content that sparks conversation(s). A great way to start a conversation on your post is by asking a question, preferably one that opens room for a (healthy) debate to happen. Ask the audience to share their views and/or insights with you. For example, a question such as “how important is environmental friendly built property to you?” would be a great conversation starter.
4. Go Niche
This is a recommendation that comes straight from LinkedIn. Pete Davies of LinkedIn says that they’ve observed that “members are more interested in going deep into topics that they’re interested in” He also says that “consistently we see a much better conversation rate around niche ideas”. Going niche should start from the content strategy down to the hashtags that you use. By choosing a niche approach, it will also help you develop brand uniqueness and stand out from other realtors. For example, Zillow often uses niche hashtags like #realtor instead of #lifestyle. That is quite a savvy distinction since #lifestyle will connect Zillow to those who are looking for lifestyle tips and products. However, #realtor will connect Zillow to realtors and those looking for realtor services. It is therefore important to choose your niche and deep dive into the opportunities it presents to position yourself.
5. Use LinkedIn Analytics to Increase LinkedIn Brand Visibility
Observe what works well for you. If you notice that certain posts are generating great engagement, then keep on posting similar posts, consistently. LinkedIn Analytics will help you to comprehend which posts are performing the best and why that may be the case. The performance of a post could be influenced by the specific time it was posted, the types of questions that the post asked and more. As you better understand the analytics, use them to guide you better towards reaching your full potential capacity on your LinkedIn posts. In conclusion, remember that LinkedIn’s algorithms favour engagement. The more engagement you’ve got on your posts, the higher the chances of increasing your ranking on the social network. An increased ranking would create more visibility on LinkedIn to your prospective home buyers and sellers. Additionally, share your post(s) from LinkedIn to your other social media networks to increase engagement and views. Most of all don’t give up if you’re progress is slow. The market size of LinkedIn is more than enough to keep you in business for years. Be consistent, you will succeed.
