Welcome to the 5th Technology Wordsmith newsletter

LinkedIn company “Pages” – Content Types

Last week I detailed how to post correctly on a company Page to maximise your engagement.

While important, knowing “How to Post” is but one strategy to increase your reach.

Just as important, is the type of content you publish, as LinkedIn treats content differently according to its “social index” for want of a description.

This week I am going to run through how LinkedIn categorises the various content types how the LinkedIn algorithm manages them.

Disclaimer and Credit

The findings below are based on the “4th Annual Algorithm Research” by Richard van der Blom from Just Connecting.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richardvanderblom_algorithm-report-2022-edition-4-november-activity-6995279862512914433-MrRb?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

For more information, refer to the Just Connecting report, or contact me directly.

Content Types

LinkedIn categorises content in to 7 pillars.

According to the 4th Annual Algorithm Research report, the average company Page post is c

Each content type is treated differently by the LinkedIn algorithm according to a set of business rules.

These rules dictate how many of your connections and followers see the Post and how often it is subsequently re-distributed.

Below, I discuss each content type and why it is treated by the LinkedIn algorithm in a certain way.

I also share its Reach and Engagement rating score from 1 to 10: 1 being very poor, 10 the highest.

1.      Personal Stories

Surprisingly, the best performing content type on a LinkedIn company Page are “Personal Stories”.

Personal Stories score 9 out of 10 for Reach and Engagement which puts them well ahead of any other content type on a company Page.

Personal Stories can include Posts about:

a.       Employees and clients

b.       Informal company activities (social gatherings, Christmas parties, etc)

c.       Team building exercises

d.       Training and courses your staff have completed

The fact that personal stories do so well, reflects LinkedIn’s standing as a social media platform. It would be wise to remember this whenever posting on a company Page.

Sure, companies will want to post about their products and services, but these are relegated to the bottom of the hierarchy.

2.      Employer Branding

The second-best performing content type on a company Page, revolves around Employer Branding.

This can be information about:

a.       Career opportunities for your staff

b.       Open jobs that are on the market

c.       Projects your company is working on

d.       What to expect when working with your company

This type of content is much more focussed on the individual rather than the company so is treated as social content, rather than pure company marketing material.

Given the strong focus on people, content from “Personal Stories” can be repurposed here.

Employer Branding scores 7 out of 10 for Reach and Engagement: still high, but a drop of 2 ranking places from Personal Stories.

3.      Social Responsibility

The next two types of content rank both score 6 out of 10 for Reach and Engagement.

Social Responsibility Posts can be anything about how your company deals with:

a.       Environmental sustainability

b.       The circular economy

c.       Employee equality

d.       The values and beliefs your company supports

Social Responsibility Posts do quite well as they are about what a company is doing about the greater good of society and other people, and not just about the company itself.

4.      Leadership

Posts about your company’s Leadership also do quite well in terms of Reach and Engagement scoring 6 out of 10.

These Posts are the more traditional posts produced by marketing teams and can include:

a.       White papers and other corporate research

b.       In-depth articles where you explore a particular area of your domain

c.       Content that your followers can download, (e-books, etc)

It may seem strange that this type of content, which can be quite corporate focussed, does so well.

This might be because the LinkedIn algorithm sees the content as about people (Leadership), or because it has to start to rank company content on company Pages sooner or later, so it has selected the most social type it can.

5.      Industry related content

Next on the list is industry related content, rating 5 out of 10 for of Reach and Engagement.

This is where you can talk about 3rd party content, to inform your audience about your domain.

Content can include:

a.       Industry developments that are pertinent to your customers

b.       Trends that you believe will have an impact

6.      Events

Dropping to a score of 4 out of 10 for of Reach and Engagement are Posts about company events.

These can be used to:

a.       Inform your audience which events/activities your company is organizing

b.       How people can attend these events

c.       Or which events your own employees are attending and why

It may seem odd that Events which can include a big social element (people interacting, etc) score so low when Personal Stories can include informal gatherings – which also have a large people / social element.

So, there is a fine line between events that come across organically (casual and informal) versus official events which come across as company forced.

7.      Product / Service-related content

Closing out the list are pure company-related posts about your Products and Services.

This includes Post:

a.       Product specifications

b.       New product releases

c.       Demonstrations

d.       Your service offerings

Formats can be articles, videos, or general posts.

Conclusion

It may seem strange that content types are treated differently by LinkedIn and that personal stories rank so much better that products and services on a company Page.

But remember, LinkedIn is a social media platform which relies on its members interacting with each other to keep things interesting.

And being the social creatures we are, people are much more likely to interact with a personal story than pure company-focussed Posts (Products and Services).

But don’t despair.

You can still post about your company output, but just don’t make your company Page exclusively about this.

Ensure you include a good mix of personal, branding, and social responsibility content to make your Page as attractive as possible.

TL:DR

1.       LinkedIn is a “social” media platform: company Page posts that a social do better.

2.       Frame your Posts to be as social as possible

3.       Vary your content types over the course of a week.

How can I help you?

I can write your company Page posts to maximise their Reach and Engagement.

I ensure they are as social as possible while putting your company in a positive light.

If you want to know how to leverage the LinkedIn algorithm get in touch!