The document provides an analysis of the LinkedIn home feed and recommendations for improving content visibility. It finds that likes have a greater impact on visibility than comments. The majority of home feed content and user engagement occurs on mobile devices. It recommends focusing on generating likes, particularly within the first hour, and varying content types between video and text.

1. August 2019
The Ultimate Guide to
LinkedIn Home Feed
Denis Zekić
#DenisZ

2. INTRODUCTION
WHAT, HOW & WHY
VISIBILITY
HOME FEED
HOME FEED ANALYSIS
DEVICES
FINDINGS
VALIDATION
RECOMMENDATIONS
BEST PRACTICES
ABOUT & FINAL NOTE
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
INDEX

3. INTRODUCTION
The days when going viral on LinkedIn was relatively simple are long gone now. The amount of
content being created on the platform is growing constantly and as it increases, the creator’s
struggle for members’ attention is becoming more and more challenging.
Still, we all have our own objectives when using LinkedIn; from business networking, finding a new
job, being informed about the industry trends, creating customer value or resolving their particular
problems, sharing knowledge to delivering the best experience to other users. Different goals
maybe, but there’s one thing in common:
CONTENT
Generally speaking, there are two camps here; those who consume it and those who create it.
This study is for the latter.
So the challenge is this:Your likes, shares and views slowly trickle in but you expect a lot more.
The question is: Where are all the people and why aren't they engaging enough?
It’s time to seek the truth…

4. WHAT, HOW & WHY
At LinkedIn, they have a saying:
“PeopleYou Know,Talking AboutThingsYou Care About.”
About.”
Beside their publicly available mission statement which is rather corporate (“Connect
the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful”), the former
statement reflects their philosophy much better and holds vital clues for better
understanding of their product’s building blocks:
• Relationships
• Content
• Emotion
• Engagement
In more practical terms; every time you open LinkedIn, the algorithm checks for recent
posts from your connections; pages and hashtags you follow; relevant jobs and adverts
which might be of your interest, and so on. But most importantly, it evaluates the
engagement for all the available content to match your preference and previous activity.
Then it presents it to you in a way that can be reassembled over and over again.

5. VISIBILITY
If you ask any content provider what their main goal is, almost
certainly they’ll tell you it’s improving their VISIBILITY.
With recent changes to LinkedIn algorithms, having a better
understanding how it all works has become the ultimate quest for
most of them.
So what is ‘visibility’ and how to analyse it?
To answer that, let’s look at how users discover, consume and engage
with content.There are Seven most common ways :
• Home Feed
• Notifications
• Messages
• LinkedIn emails
• Recommendations
• Connection requests
• Search

6. HOME FEED
Considering all the ways for interacting with the content, LinkedIn Home Feed is the main
ENGAGEMENT HUB.
Dissecting its structure would be a way of understanding how the algorithm operates and what
implications it may have on your activities. Further on, based on those finds, you’ll be able to determine
the content potential, but most importantly how to influence and eventually maximise your main goal
– the visibility.
Generally, the home feed is constructed by the following 14 components:
• Likes
• Posts
• Comments
• Shares
• LinkedIn Ads / Promoted content
• Recommended by LinkedIn
• # followed
• Connections job change / anniversaries
• LinkedIn Learning
• News Mention
• Articles
• Jobs
• Groups
• Feed Suggestions
Prioritising one above the other can hugely affect your visibility. Looking into the feed construction may hold
clues to what are the best options for influencing the algorithm and promoting your content further.

7. HOME FEED ANALYSIS
Average Home Feed
36%
23%
16%
10%
7%8% • Likes = 36%
• Posts = 23%
• Comments = 16%
• Shares = 10%
• Promos = 7%
• Other = 8%Desktop
59%
15%
13%
7%6%
Mobile
• Likes = 59%
• Promoted = 15%
• Comment = 13%
• Posts = 7%
• Other = 6%
Note:Analysis based on data collected in June / July 2019 from a multiple number of users, locations, week days, times and devices

8. DEVICES
The last available data about the percentage of mobile users dates back to
February 2016. LinkedIn then reported that 57% of their traffic comes from
mobile devices.
In July 2019, I did my own snap survey asking members which device they used
to see the post. Out of 593 validated responses, 64% of users claimed to had
used a mobile device. This is by no means a definite statistic, but considering all
other Social Media channels, it’s expected for the trend to be on the up.Why this
is important, more in the next section.
64%
36%

9. FINDINGS
• 46% of the Home Feed are LIKES notifications, including reactions
• 17% of the Home Feed are POST notifications, 15% COMMENTS and 6% SHARES
• Majority of content views are made on MOBILE devices
• Only 1 in 3 views are made on Desktops
• LIKES are 4x more visible on the mobile Home Feed than comments
• LIKES have more overall impact on the number of views than comments
• Articles are almost INVISIBLE in Home Feed
• FIRST HOUR engagement (Likes, Comments and Shares combined) has an
exponential impact on the overall number of views
• HASHTAG content suggestions take only 2% of Home Feed. They are on the rise
though.
• Group updates are marely left for Notifications since they’re INVISIBLE on the
Home Feed
• Liking YOUR OWN post can reduce the number of views by up to 50%
• Posts with shared LINKS to articles on other websites have a fair visibility in the
but poor engagement

10. VALIDATION
There is a number of reports circulating on the internet about the importance of Likes, Comments
and Shares in the LinkedIn algorithm. Although not always clear how the data was collected and
what methodology was used to compare the figures, what’s most common is that they widely
suggest Comments to be more important than Likes for increasing the number of views.
My Home Feed analysis discovered that Likes have more prominence than Comments and the
most logical assumption was that Likes have more correlation to views than Comments.
It’s time to check the figures…
The best way to prove the hypothesis was to test the data and see if there is a correlation
between the three named data parameters; Likes vs.Views and Comments vs.Views. For the
task, I used the Linear Regression and CorrelationAnalysis examining all the available data,
ranging from thousands to 100’s of thousands of views. What the analysis proved is undoubted;
LIKES have more overall impact on the number of views than comments!

11.  Initial LIKES and COMMENTS will determine the content visibility.
Aim at 30+ within the first hour to reach 10,000 views. Anything over 100 may get you to 100,000 views.
 Babysit the content for at least 1 hour after publishing. Like comments and take time to reply; it will significantly boost your visibility.
your visibility.
 To increase the overall number of views, chase LIKES. They are more relevant than Comments.
RECOMMENDATIONS
 Publish the content that encourages responses. Regularly check the LIKES RATIO { likes ÷ views x 100 }.
Although the LinkedIn algorithm is not calculated it this way, you can use it to
predict your content popularity.The higher the ratio, the better people reacted.
As a rule of thumb, 1% is common, anything above 3% is rather good.
 Editing your post while live will not affect its visibility.
Feel free to amend it if required, particularly if the Likes Ratio is low at start.
 Company Page posts have started gaining visibility.
Alternate between your and the company page content to boost views.
 If you tend to like your own posts, don’t do it on the first day; it can reduce the visibility up to 50%.
Engaging with your company’s content instead will have no negative effects.

12. BEST PRACTICES
 VIDEO and TEXT are the most popular content forms. The best practise is to vary between them.
 Articles are the least popular form and will gain very little Home Feed visibility.
However, the main advantage of Articles is that they are listed in the Google index. Posts aren’t.
 When creating content – think Mobile first. Long text posts are harder to read so try to make them shorter with
between. For videos, include captions.
 Don’t waste your time with LinkedIn groups – they are dead.
 If you share article links from pages outside of LinkedIn, expect very poor engagement and low view rates.
Use only if you have no news or nothing else to post on your own.
 Genuine conversation around real experiences will generally lead to more views.
 One active connection is worth much more than 100s non active. Connect with members who regularly engage
with your content. They’ll improve the engagement and ultimately boost views.

13. I am an award winning digital specialist with years of experience in both B2C and B2B sales
and marketing sectors. My experience stretches from SME to several multimillion turnover
eCommerce and Digital marketing operations across UK, Europe and globally, including
some market leading international organisations.
Currently I spend most of my time as a Social Selling & Marketing consultant working with
clients from various industries. You can often find me presenting anywhere from local to
the international events.
My Consultancy CeeDoo.com provide expert guidance and implementation of most
effective Social Sales and Marketing solutions to significantly enhance your brand
presence, generate steady stream of high value sales leads and help build ever stronger
community of loyal customers.
DENIS ZEKIĆ
Thank you for coming this far in reading this study,
I hope you find it useful! But please remember:
FINAL NOTE
The key to Social Media success is to treasure your
relationships, not the numbers!
I am also the author of a best selling book:
SOCIAL SELLING & MARKETING
A practical Step-by-Step guide for generating
Business connections and High value Sales Leads.

14. www.CeeDoo.com
info@deniszekic.com