March 8th, 2018 @ Anne Thornley-Brown, MBA
It’s no secret. The organic distribution of social media post, especially by brands, has plummeted. It’s about to get worse.
LinkedIn Publisher posts hardly receive any distribution. Since LinkedIn removed groups from the main site navigations and turned off almost all group notifications, the majority of LinkedIn Groups have become virtual ghost towns. In some groups, announcements are no longer working so it isn’t possible for group owners to contact members and let them know about great group content.
As a result, even when group owners and managers work really hard, it’s tough to get engagement going.
LinkedIn has driven support to the Home feed. Yet, status updates also have little organic reach unless other members like and comment on them.
LinkedIn has promised to improve the prominence of groups in its user interface but, in the meantime, here are some strategies to try.
- Use text-only posts. Include photos and distribution of content will be limited.
- Don’t include links in your opening content. All platforms want to keep members on their platform. Anything that is perceived as click bait will have limited distribution.
- If you post a video, upload it using LinkedIn’s native app. The mp4 format work best. You can adjust the settings on your camera to shoot mp4s or download your YouTube videos in mp4 format and then upload them to LinkedIn (or Facebook).
- Team up. Form alliances with business colleagues. Make them aware of your status updates so that they can comment on content which interests them. It is extremely important to comment during the first hour after posting.
Facebook announced that it will be giving priority to distributing content when friends and family “like” or comment on it. Company and brand pages are going to find their reach even more constricted. So, short of annoying your relatives and friends with business content, what’s a company to do?
- Pay to play. Purchase ads or pay to boost the distribution of Facebook posts.
- Team up. Form alliances with business colleagues. Make them aware of what you are posting so that they can like and comment on content that interests them.
- Share content from your group pages to relevant groups. Use a key question or two to stimulate discussion. Caution: Make sure the content you share is non-promotional and relevant or you could be booted from the group.
- If you post videos, upload them directly to Facebook. Mp4 files work best.
If you think your re-tweets have declined, you’re not imaging it. Twitter announced wholesale changes to their algorithm on its engineering blog almost two years ago. Based on the content to which Twitter gives priority.
- Tweet regularly.
- Include images or videos.
- In your settings, enable “See Best Tweet First” and ask your connections to do this too.
- Team up with others so that they can re-tweet or reply to content that they find to be of interest.
General advice
Cross-posting can be an effective strategy if used sparingly. For example, a few days after you post a status update on LinkedIn, compose a Facebook page or a tweet and link to it. You can also link to status updates in LinkedIn and Facebook groups as long as you set the context and prepare a quote to stimulate discussion.
No social media platform remains static. It’s important to keep abreast of changes and adjust how you use each channel. One thing is certain: Never be at the mercy of any platform. Instead, as you build your network and groups, give your connections opportunities to join your e-list. E-lists have their own issues but at least you will have the opportunity to stay in touch with your network if your favorite social media channel pulls the plug or makes wholesale changes that impact your brand’s visibility.
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