Six tips for optimising content to hit LinkedIn Today

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Posted 20 November 2012 17:29pm by Ryan Sommer with 3 comments

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LinkedIn Today was launched over a year and a half ago as a way to use data from 175M+ professionals to surface relevant stories in specific verticals on the LinkedIn platform. 

Currently, the content that makes it through the algorithm is selectively published by a small team of editors (or curators some might say) in New York City, and the resulting traffic – if your content is placed on the homepage – is considered a bit of a Holy Grail for content marketers.

Here are six tips to help you hit the feed!

We've been watching LinkedIn Today and LinkedIn Today EU (location default will occur based on your IP) with interest here at Econsultancy.

This is because getting the highlights of our reports into the feeds of professionals in marketing, advertising and SEO in these sort of quantities, should in theory show results in our bottom line: conversion to memberships and report purchases.

Here are some tips I've learned from my research so far into optimizing content for LinkedIn Today, and trust that since we always practice what we preach, we'll post on the specifics when we do break into that coveted homepage real estate.

Before reading the tips, it's important to understand the basics. Once content is on LinkedIn – meaning the LinkedIn Share button has been used to place your story in a feed on someone's profile – it's up to the algorithm which factors in the weight behind Like/Shares/Comments to determine which stories get promoted to the homepage.

Today then matches content to people based on the industries you follow and your connections. More than one million publishers have installed the LinkedIn Share button on their site, so you are constantly going up against a lot of competition.

Good luck and on to the pro tips!

Tips for optimising content on LinkedIn Today:

• LinkedIn Today only trends content that has been published that day.So not only does a large community of people on LinkedIn need to feel compelled to share/comment/like, it also needs to be a brand new story.
• There are three ways to share content in hopes it will create interest in your network and beyond. Updates (via LinkedIn Share Button or people manually pasting a link into status area), posting to Groups (in hopes that members will share), and sending via messages to individuals in your network.

  So if you are connected to people with a large professional network on LinkedIn – don't be afraid to message them a link to your piece should you find it relevant to them.

• Timezones do account for content displayed by LinkedIn's in-house editorial. So for example, Wall Street and finance news is prominent in morning EST time, whereas more startup/tech is displayed as the West Coast is waking up.
• Join groups that discuss relevant topics to your industry. As noted already above, the more LinkedIn members who share/like your post, the better. We know what you are going to ask next, and no, LinkedIn group search does not have a way to filter by member base. Consider this a way they keep the platform sticky for marketers!!
• Follow LinkedIn Today and LinkedIn Today EU Twitter accounts to see what type of stories are making the cut and emulate where possible.
• Use LinkedIn Signal, a way to keyword search the platform through filtered connections/companies/locations, to see which of your content is already having success on their network.