LinkedIn’s Latest Change is Making Old Posts Perform

Today, I have 3 important things to share with you:

1: Relevance over recency

2: Baiting comments

3: Trying out wild cards

Let’s get into it.

Relevance Over Recency

I don’t know about you but my post from 2 weeks and 3 weeks are still actively getting reactions.

In the past, after 1 week, your post barely gets any more reactions. If it gets significantly more impressions, you are lucky. One week used to be the shelf life of a LinkedIn post.

But with the recent algorithmic changes by LinkedIn, the shelf life is now significantly longer. I would guess that the shelf life of a LinkedIn post right now is 1 month.

This should guide the kind of content you make. The spur of the moment kind of content will not work as it used to. These platforms are increasingly getting interest-based.

Always remember that follower counts don’t mean anything. If you are counting, count the number of leads you generate per day.

One mistake that is still very common on LinkedIn right now is “me” posts. This is when you make posts to talk about yourself. It is good to have that every once in a while. However, you want to always make posts that help your ideal clients (or audience) one way or the other.

I see people complaining about their reach being down. Meanwhile, they only make posts talking about themselves, where they vacationed, what they like, etc. With the tougher position on relevance by LinkedIn, such posts will become more limited.

So, focus the bulk of your LinkedIn posting to talk about what would help the average person who reads your posts. And remember that advice is overrated. Do some research and show people something useful.

If it goes viral, do it again in 3 months. The exact same post. The LinkedIn algorithm knows what to do.

Also, I still believe that posting once per weekday is the optimal schedule for content.

Baiting Comments

If you want to go viral, learn how to bait comments. It works!

Let me explain what that means…

Most people write posts on LinkedIn that are complete. They sound like an instruction. And this is not what you want to aim for, if you want to go viral.

You always want your posts to sound like the beginning of a conversation. After writing your post, read it to yourself and ask – does this sound like something a stranger who knows about this subject would want to comment on?

Having lots of comments is a big factor in going viral. You cannot decide what goes viral and what doesn’t. But you can optimize every post to give it as much chance as possible.

Baiting comments is a good thing.

You would notice in my posts, I make 2 or 3 comments on my own post immediately it goes live. One of the comments is usually my default lead magnet. Then, I have a 1 or 2 comments that go further to expand on what the post is about.

This practice is very useful, especially if you don’t have a big audience yet.

Don’t say everything you have to say in your post. Reserve some for the comment section. And then let your post end in a way that makes people want to comment.

Now, just because your post ends with “thoughts?” or “Share a comment” doesn’t mean you are doing this right.

Even when you ask people to repost, it doesn’t mean anybody will. Your post has to be worth reposting or sharing. Your post has to be worth commenting on.

This is more of an art than a science. It’s a bit different based on industry. I’d say look at the top viral posts by people in your industry who are on the same level as you.

Trying Out Wild Cards

This is a little bit personal. But I thought to share because it might help someone too.

Earlier this year, I wrapped up my consulting obligations. For some strategic reasons, I wanted a job. There are a few things I want to achieve this year and having an employer brand would make it significantly easier.

So, I chose to stop consulting and focus on getting a company where I can have a more permanent role. And this is what got me to really feel what people go through with job application processes.

Thus far, I have not seen a company whose entire process impressed me. Even remote companies have systems that sucked (at least from the perspective of the job seeker). So, I kept thinking of ways to make this process a lot better.

I want something that will be good for applicants and good for employers too. I understand tons of employers have problems with thousands of applications. And they also have to sort through a lot of messy applications.

I don’t have conclusive answers yet, but it is one of the problems that fascinates me – how to get a job with LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Easy Apply doesn’t work. Yes, I have tested it extensively. “Open to work” banner doesn’t work either. Yes, you can make your profile visible to recruiters but adding the banner doesn’t do much (if anything).

One promising path I have seen in this respect is making a post that is relevant to your niche. Someone sees that post and recommends you to someone else who is hiring. This is the most viable path I can see right now.

(If you know another path that works, feel free to message me about it)

My point here is that if you are in this condition looking for work, try out wild cards. Maybe once a week, try out a radical idea. It will probably not work, but if it does it will be a gamechanger.

Here is the radical idea I tried recently

I will share the result of that soon. But so far, I have gotten a good number of reactions on that post.

If you are seeking clients on LinkedIn, try something similar. Try out wild cards. If it doesn’t work, nothing happens. If it works, everything happens.

Try a wild card this week.

Thanks for reading. Share with someone who can use some help on LinkedIn