Using Custom Content To Woo The LinkedIn Algorithm
Using Custom Content To Woo The LinkedIn Algorithm
Do you know the #1 reason your clients and prospects spend time on LinkedIn? Unlike other social media platforms, it’s not for a dopamine fix of likes, shares and comments. People are on LinkedIn for one reason – and that is for information. How that information is disseminated to them is dictated by – cue scary music - the LinkedIn Algorithm…
If you’re posting information to build your network or establish your expertise, it makes sense to acquire at least a basic, working knowledge of how the algorithm works. It’s not as intimidating as you might think. Once you know the algorithm’s likes and dislikes, you can begin to woo it with custom content so more of your posts are delivered to your target audience.
There is no doubt that posting firm content saves a lot of time, and it does ensure a degree of consistency across your posts, but let’s face it – it’s generic at best and boring at worst. Although firm content plays a role in every advisor’s social media strategy, it’s important to recognize that this “convenience” does very little to build your personal brand and voice because it is so generic.
The ideal social media strategy is comprised of a mix of different content types– long-form text, short-form text, video and other visual content, as well as from different sources – firm-sponsored content, custom content, and third-party content. Everyone learns differently and posting your content in different forms allows your market to learn in the way that’s most comfortable for them. By using content from different sources, you begin to establish yourself as a “go-to” resource – someone who brings the best content from the best sources to each of your posts.
Custom Content
What exactly is custom content? It is a warmer, more personalized approach to content. It allows you to sprinkle your personality and unique style into your posts. It can actually help you connect on a deeper level because your content is a more personalized reflection of your own insight and experiences. It often initiates more interaction because it’s typically more relevant and engaging. Even in our high-tech world, people still want to do business with people! Allowing potential clients to see your human side positions you and your brand as far more approachable.
Custom content can be used in many different ways to accomplish many different objectives. It is typically written for a specific audience and designed to meet their unique needs. The ultimate goal is to drive client action by building trust, authority and expertise. This is especially important in the early stages of your sales funnel and it’s also where social media can be particularly effective.
To give you an example, I have a client who loves hockey, and a lot of his clients are huge fans as well. He has season tickets to the Rangers, and enjoys his hockey clients so much, he wanted to continue to grow his business with people who share his passion. I write an ongoing series of articles for him that he posts on social media comparing the game of hockey to financial planning and investments.
Not only have these articles generated a lot of engagement, but any hockey fan on LinkedIn is going to take notice of my client’s posts for several reasons:
It shows his personality and passion and establishes common ground with whoever is reading the article.
Potential clients can see he is a real person with a passion they can relate to. This breaks down barriers and defenses more quickly and effectively.
It’s different from what people are used to seeing on LinkedIn and any investor who loves hockey is immediately drawn to the article.
He doubles his potential for engagement (which the algorithm loves) because people can engage with either the hockey or the planning/investment aspects of the article. Asking a simple hockey question when he posts the article has sparked even more engagement -allowing him to take the next step in building his online relationships.
Another client of mine is a former golf pro, and a lot of his business comes from the golf course. We’re in the process of creating a series of posts for him centered around the inner game of golf and financial planning.
In his series, he wants to highlight the similarities between golf and planning, but he also wants to take it a step further and begin to condition readers to think of him as their financial planning caddy. A caddy’s job is to always choose the right club for the shot. He wants to carry that analogy forward to his role as a financial advisor in choosing the right investments for each part of the financial plan.
I have yet another client who is a former attorney and works with women navigating high net-worth divorces. He wants his series to discuss the emotional transition he sees women endure in trying to manage their insecurities and rediscover who they are after divorce.
As you can see, the use of custom content is highly personalized and can set you apart in a crowded marketplace. Keep in mind, it’s not designed to take the place of firm content which has a definite role in your social media strategy. However, it can be a highly effective supplement to whatever you’re doing on social media.
Brand Differentiation
Nothing helps you to build your personal brand more strategically and effectively than custom content. It gives you a tool for differentiating yourself from your firm and from all of the advisors out there who rely on firm content exclusively. It allows you to highlight your expertise and inject your personality to give your posts their own unique spin.
People connect with stories. When done right, custom content can communicate your brand’s story in a way that creates a strong emotional connection with your reader. This emotional component alone can differentiate you - making your brand more memorable and relatable. The authenticity inherent in custom content easily sets you apart from brands utilizing predominantly generic or outsourced content.
By tailoring custom content specifically to your target market’s interests, and challenges, you begin to prove that you understand them. The more you can address your specific niche’s pain points and the more engaging and useful your content is – the more successful you will be in building a loyal following who views your brand as a valuable resource. Sharing more of the real story behind your brand – you – builds trust which is the foundation of every great relationship – online or off. Top of Form
Custom content is highly favored by social media. It tends to be more relevant, engaging, personalized and adaptable – everything social media prides itself on. It also tends to promote more interaction and sharing. What algorithm doesn’t love that? Because it feels more genuine, it’s typically not viewed as a form of advertising like many generic posts are.
Custom Content – Where Do I Get It?
If you’d like to start posting custom content as part of your social media strategy, you have a couple of different options. Of course, you can write your custom content yourself. However, most advisors rely heavily on firm content because they simply don’t have the time to sit down and write a series of articles for social media.
Another option is to hire a ghostwriter or a copyeditor to write your custom content for you. If you choose to hire a professional, here are some suggestions to keep in mind:
Make sure that the writer you hire has experience writing for the financial industry. This is non-negotiable.
Discuss your branding or potential branding with your writer to ensure that they are clear on your brand’s tone, theme and core message.
Outline your ideas and brainstorm with your writer to develop article concepts that you’re excited about.
Make sure that your writer captures your voice. This is your custom content – your message – your brand. It’s important that the writer capture your voice to effectively build your brand.
Now To That Pesky Algorithm – What You Need To Know
If you depend on social media to build your business at all, you probably have a love-hate relationship with algorithms. After all, they hold all the power in their respective social media platforms. The algorithm decides what content gets pushed out to what users and in the case of LinkedIn, it does an excellent job.
Information on the LinkedIn Algorithm could easily fill a book, so I’ll spare you the boring details. Instead, here’s my Cliff Notes version of everything you need to know.
When you post something on LinkedIn, the algorithm snaps immediately into action. The first thing it does is categorize your post:
Is your post spam?
Is your post of low-quality?
Is your post a clear, high-quality post?
Spam
To avoid having the algorithm think you’re spam, avoid the following:
Misspelled words and incorrect grammar
Using several different links in the same post
Forced engagement – asking people to like, share or comment in your post
Excessive hashtags – use no more than 3-5 hashtags in a single post
Tagging many people in a post – this is actually quite dangerous because if the people you tag fail to respond – the algorithm interprets this as you are annoying them and in the spam filter you go
Low-Quality vs High-Quality
Some low-quality vs. high-quality differences are determined by the algorithm before the post is ever sent out. These tend to be similar to those for spam above. However, many of these differences are determined based on the performance of the post after it has been directed out.
These are some of the criteria the algorithm uses to determine if your post is of high quality:
Relevance: How relevant is your post to your specific audience? It is to your benefit to “niche down” and make your posts as specific to a particular audience as possible. This makes it easier for the algorithm to index your post and send it to people in your specific market.
Recency: The newer the post and the more recent the engagements with the post, the more it will be delivered out to newsfeeds. LinkedIn also looks at time between posts. It’s best to wait at least 24 hours between posts. Otherwise, the algorithm suspects you are spamming people.
Value: LinkedIn wants to be sure that you’re sharing actual value in your post and not just alluding to value the reader will receive if they hire you.
Expertise: Make it a habit to always include a keyword or two from your profile in your posts. It shows LinkedIn you are who you say you are. It’s also important to engage with your network. LinkedIn interprets this as you actually know each other and want to see each other’s content.
SSI Score: This is LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index score which can be a value of 0-100 and measures how effectively you use LinkedIn to build your personal brand, perpetuate insightful engagement and build relationships. Ideally, you want a score>70.
Engagement: The algorithm is monitoring your post above all for engagement. It wants to see likes, comments and shares from people who have a history of being interested in your subject matter. Dwell Time is a also a big factor. This is the amount of time people spend reading and interacting with your post.
Regardless of quality, LinkedIn always sends your posts first to a subset of your connections to gauge its performance. If it sparks engagement and performs well, then the algorithm delivers it out to more of your connections. This is how LinkedIn works.
Above all else, the algorithm wants to see that you are posting relevant, high-quality information and providing value to your market. It gauges how well you’re doing based on engagement. Custom content can help you meet LinkedIn’s objectives while achieving your own and boosting your personal brand significantly in the process.
