How to take advantage of the LinkedIn algorithm change with your B2B posts

We can thank an algorithm change for that. Whereas the platform once prioritized engagement, leading to hacking tactics to inflate time spent on a post, quality is now favored over quantity. So outrageous stories and overworked metaphors will no longer cut it. As such, we’re entering a new era where LinkedIn is far more than a networking platform.

In fact, for B2B companies, the new emphasis on high-quality content has turned LinkedIn into an even more powerful marketing tool. This is why, consequently, we’re seeing a deluge of advice on how to leverage LinkedIn influencers. But there’s so much more to building your brand on LinkedIn than influencer marketing.

These are the non-influencer levers B2B brands should be pulling on LinkedIn.

Leadership should be leading the way

In 2024, leading a company also means demonstrating social leadership – so much so that there’s been a 9% year-on-year increase of C-suite level posts on the platform. Whether you’re a massive public company or a small startup, your leadership team should be acting as brand representatives.

Non-negotiables for leadership use of LinkedIn include basics such as following and engaging with the company’s top 10 clients and sharing/reposting things such as company wins, content and employee shoutouts. More importantly, leadership should share their opinions and predictions based on industry news and changes.

It’s easy to shy away from these sorts of posts, especially considering the cringe of yore. But as a spokesperson for the brand, you’re also in a unique position to truly stand for something and have your brand stand out.

It’s worth noting that for LinkedIn to be a successful branding tool, the wider team should be involved and offer diverse opinions. Especially as things can go poorly if a CEO is the most active representative of the brand.

Employees as influencers

Because LinkedIn has been around for two decades and is one of the largest social media platforms, many businesses wrongly assume their employees know how best to use it. While employees can be great brand advocates and ambassadors, they’re often unsure what they should or shouldn’t be posting. After all, LinkedIn is the only dominant network aimed specifically at professional networking.

Start by empowering employees with easy-to-follow guidelines and best practices. Have a dedicated LinkedIn channel on Slack and motivate teammates to comment and reshare posts – again, leadership should be setting the example. This is where you will discover those employees with the strongest engagement – who are the ones you should invest in further.

A massively overlooked opportunity is to cultivate the experts on your team who can become sought-after LinkedIn influencers. Equip these power users with resources to help them build their confidence and shine brighter. Connect them with a copywriter from marketing, for example, or a graphic designer who can help make their posts stand out with visuals.

Your brand is only as successful as the people who make it a reality; when you give them the tools to share their expertise, the brand benefits in return.

Content remains king

Last year saw record job cuts across the media industry, so prioritizing owned media channels over earned channels makes a lot of sense. Suppose the CEO and a group of highly engaged employees are all posting, reposting, reacting to and commenting on quality content. In that case, you’ve got a massive targeted audience being exposed and re-exposed to your brand.

Take advantage by making use of the wide variety of mediums now supported by the platform. Whether written by someone in the C-suite or one of those employee power-users, thought leadership in the form of authentic, actionable insights for your industry could be published as an article and then shared in a post. Newsletters are also now supported, where this type of content can be reshared in roundups along with company announcements and wider industry news.

You should also create actionable content that addresses customer pain points – the new short-form video feature is a great format for this – but you can also share slides, graphics, white papers and webinars. And, of course, don’t neglect the classics: champion your employees and customers in posts, celebrate the wins of your clients with likes and promote your partners in reposts. And, when in doubt, no one is ever mad about a picture of the office dogs.

For a B2B brand, a social platform focused on professionals is so much more than a tool for networking and recruitment – it’s a content marketing powerhouse. Post accordingly.