It’s not difficult to find a good LinkedIn webinar or talk — some bad ones too. Its importance in the professional world doesn’t seem to stop expanding. More people are taking to LinkedIn to share important milestones and promote their personal or company brand. As its user base and popularity grows, so does their technology and automation, with huge updates occurring these past few months.

Like most technology these days, there are ways to “win” and certain strategies to implement that will drive traffic to your profile or brand.

When Christopher Penn, Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist at trustInsights.ai published “The Unofficial LinkedIn Algorithm Guide.”

It’s a document outlining the updates to the social media platform, where they claim one of the only durable strategies is to align with the core principles of the ecosystem: “providing the highest quality textual information via your profile, creating valuable and well-reasoned content, and engaging in a way that builds a strong, coherent professional identity.” They go on to say that these “inputs” will always be valued, among all of the technological changes occurring with the platform.

Here are five different areas to enhance your LinkedIn strategy, an overview on how they’re changing the algorithms and specific ways to transform your online presence and personal brand.

Digital First Impression

Earlier this summer, Vicki Marinker held a “7 C’s for LinkedIn Success” webinar. During this informative talk, Marinker referred to your LinkedIn profile as your digital first impression. That’s quite the statement.

Customizing your LinkedIn URL is a simple yet effective way to personalize your profile. Rather than the randomized number that’s automatically provided, you can change the URL to solely include your name if it is available in their system. This will make your LinkedIn account more accessible to the public and make it easier for you to share with potential connections.

Personalization is Key

There are many other assets to add to your profile to help it stand out to the public. Updating your headline to be a catchy and creative summary of your skills and hobbies can set you apart and also add the edge of personality that is so often missing in the typical LinkedIn profile. Adding skills to your job positions will further your algorithmic preference. Trust Insight recommends putting your most important keywords, value propositions, and job titles first. They say the approach will likely earn you a spot at the top of LinkedIn’s system prompt context, where the AI organization and attention span is strongest. Extra fluff in your Headline and About section will bury your core expertise.

Finally, it’s no secret that a clear profile picture and relevant cover image will boost visibility to the public. However, if it’s applicable to you, a company-branded cover image with a matching profile background can take your profile just one step above. Canva has a free background remover tool that makes removing your headshot background as easy as one click.

As noted in Trust Insights’s report, the companies, positions, and skills you’ve listed on your profile are used by the Graph Neural Network (GNN) as an anchor for your identity.

A Feed that Works for You

Although it may seem like your profile is the most important asset of your LinkedIn, your activity within your feed is as important. LinkedIn is an ever-evolving platform so it’s crucial to engage with your feed to teach the algorithm.

This engagement can happen in a few ways, with some tips I’ll get into later. Firstly, following influencers and thought leaders in your industry will not only improve your algorithm and feed but expose you to career growth opportunities you may not otherwise know about. Our Catherine Crayon illustrates a perfect example of discovery: “I learned about Vicki Marinker’s webinar and the recent Digital Women’s MiniCon in Kansas City through my LinkedIn feed.”

Reframing the Perspective

Engaging your feed to adapt to your professional needs and personal interests can be as easy as using the search function to find certain keywords and phrases. Framing LinkedIn as a place to learn from others’ experiences can make this platform extremely beneficial to your professional development, no matter what stage you’re in. Searching for thought leaders in your industry and certain keywords will only benefit your algorithm and eventually, your algorithm will catch on to it so you don’t have to work as hard to find it. This goes the opposite way too. Trust Insights says, “Don’t be afraid to use the ‘I don’t want to see this’ option or to unfollow connections whose content is not relevant to you. Muting or hiding content is a powerful signal that helps clean up your ‘Past Interaction Data.’ This ensures the examples the system learns from are of high quality, leading to a more refined and relevant feed over time. A noisy, unfocused history will lead to noisy, unfocused recommendations.”

Post Strategy

Interacting with your Algorithm

It’s no secret that your likes and comments will automatically “build” into your connections’ feeds. Strategically think of every like and comment as a post on your profile. However, according to Trust Insight’s Report, “Your likes, comments, and shares are no longer just simple positive (+1) or negative (-1) signals. They are the examples you provide for in-context learning. When you leave a thoughtful comment on an expert’s post, you are telling the AI, ‘This is the caliber of conversation I find valuable. This is part of my professional identity.’ You are actively curating the real-time examples that the model uses to understand you, making your engagement a powerful tool for shaping your own content distribution.” The more you post, the more content the algorithm can work with to boost certain things to those in and outside of your network.

Prep your Post

When brainstorming what to post on LinkedIn, it’s important to tap into significant conversations happening in your industry. A timely and insightful post can leverage the system to identify and boost content. Finally, before you post it’s essential to take 10-15 minutes and “warm up” your system. Trust Insights suggests that a user should, “Engage with several high-quality posts on the same topic as the one you are about to publish. This pre-loads your ‘Past Interaction Data’ with highly relevant, recent examples.”

Curating Meaningful Content

The words you choose to post matter now, more than ever. Using the right vocabulary, that’s not overly complex, will be interpreted as expertise. Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and bolding, not only for easy readability for your network but for the language model to comprehend and assess as well.

Trust Insights asserts that posts you write should have a single, identifiable topic in mind. Muddled and overly broad topics should be avoided if your aim is increased reach. They also claim that, “The first hour after you post is still critically important. This is the window where you can trigger the velocity-based heuristics. Encourage discussion by asking questions. Be present to reply to comments immediately. This initial flurry of activity is a powerful signal that your content is resonating, which can significantly increase its initial reach.” Your first sentence is prime real estate, you must hook the reader with the core message at the top of the content.

Comments as Strategy

Leaving comments on your connections’ posts will further fuel your algorithm to work in your favor. Comments you leave will show up on your connection’s feed and vice versa. This is one of the most genuine ways to make yourself stand out on someone’s post. Essentially, you are borrowing your author’s audience so you can implement your wisdom on the topic. This will increase the amount of profile visits you will receive. Aaron Rayner, AMA Austin President and Director of Marketing at Mensor, recently spoke about hacking your LinkedIn algorithm where he said that comments under 12 words actually hurt your post’s feed positioning. So, the idea is to leave meaningful comments. It’s your best way to grow engagement and boost traffic to your page.

The Power of Connecting

Another way to improve your LinkedIn game comes from connections. You can streamline your LinkedIn algorithm to work for you by following thought leaders, like mentioned earlier. However connecting with influential voices and opening up a line of communication will deepen that connection. It’s important to know the delineation between following and connecting. Following someone on LinkedIn will give you access to their posts on your feed while connecting will give you access to a mutual connection, direct messaging, and most importantly, access to their network.

Engaging Further

Trust Insights says, “When your connections engage with your content, it signals to the GNN that your post is relevant to that specific ‘graph neighborhood,’ increasing its chances of being shown to their connections (your 2nd and 3rd-degree network).” When you meet a potential connection at a networking or work event, always message them after connecting with them on LinkedIn. Adding a note to your connection invite is the perfect way for you to re-introduce yourself, bring you to the top of their mind, and organize your connections by how you met them. Although connections should be authentic, you must be strategic with them too. Trust Insights asserts that “when you thoughtfully engage with content from others in your target audience, you are increasing the probability that the system will show your next post to them.”

Featured, Recommendations & FAQs

The Featured section of your LinkedIn is an under-utilized yet fascinating section in your profile that can give viewers and connections a snapshot insight into your achievements. This area does a great job of showcasing events you’ve attended and awards you’ve earned. While typing out an individual post for your feed when these accomplishments occur is a great habit to form, curating a section devoted to quick references and easy definitions will boost your LinkedIn profile with a more polished layout. The Featured section is also a perfect place to insert specific projects you had a hand in. Personal FAQs are a great resource to personalize your account and align your personal brand with various non-profits, causes, and even hobbies you care about.

When curating this section, don’t lose sight of the old-school power of a personal recommendation. LinkedIn has a section for just that. Just remember: recommendations are a two-way street. If you have worked with someone closely enough to ask for a recommendation, offer to give them one yourself. Recommendations have the power to bolster everything you have curated on your page until now. Former employers and employees, peers in a nonprofit organization, and mentors and mentees you’ve had throughout the years are just a few examples of recommendations to include on your profile.

How Sparkcade Can Help Your LinkedIn Game

Whether it’s through your profile and connections or your feed and your comments, there are many ways to “win over” LinkedIn. The most important tip for improving your LinkedIn game can be seen through authenticity. With a sea of people who seem to have it all together, everyone is still trying their best. And although the tips we provide help with knowing the game, inauthenticity will stick out of the screen like a sore thumb. Lean into your interests, your hobbies, and your professional ventures.

And connect it to your strategy. That’s where we can help the most.

Vicki Marinker said it best, LinkedIn is your digital first impression, and you only get one, so don’t waste it.