By kbodnar@hubspot.com (Kipp Bodnar)

LinkedIn might be the most underrated growth channel in marketing right now. I‘ve been obsessing over this lately. While everyone’s fighting for attention on every other platform, LinkedIn remains a place where smart marketers can still build massive audiences without burning through ad budget.

I sat down with LinkedIn creator Hala Taha recently to see how marketers can meet the moment. Hala grew a following of 260,000+ on the platform. How? She has a four-step viral content formula that actually works. It‘s not just theory. She’s using it to consistently hit massive reach numbers.

During a recent conversation, Hala broke down her entire system. That includes the content buckets, the engagement hacks, and DM strategies that most people never talk about. Plus, we explored how she’s using AI to cut her content creation time in half. So, let’s get into it.

Mastering LinkedIn’s Algorithm, According to Hala Taha

To make the most of any platform, you need to know the algorithm. Luckily, Hala is an expert with seven years of experience as the founder and CEO of YAP Media. Today, the company is a top LinkedIn marketing agency, running over 20 influencer accounts.

According to Hala, marketers need to understand LinkedIn’s two different business models. The first focuses on advertising, meaning LinkedIn wants to keep people on the site as long as possible. The second is the job search element.

LinkedIn’s platform has to cater to both experiences. That culminates in a four-step algorithm that posts go through before they reach your feed, and mastering that algorithm means hitting key actions at each step.

1. Spam Filters

When you first put up a post, LinkedIn checks for spam. It’s scanning for profanity, nudity, and offensive keywords, but also things like tagging more than five people or using more than five hashtags.

There are post categories for low, medium, and high. For example, profanity will put your post in the low category, which translates to low visibility. Too much tagging or too many links will put it in the medium category.

Chunky paragraphs also get filtered at this stage. “That’s why on LinkedIn you see this line-by-line style that a lot of the influencers use,” Hala says. “People are scanning their content. They want to be entertained.”

If you can pass this stage in the high category — using tricks like breaking up your text into one-sentence paragraphs and removing hashtags — then your post is approved, and you move on to the next phase.

2. User Flagging

This is called the “golden 90 minutes of LinkedIn,” Hala tells me. It’s an opportunity to test your post to see how much engagement it’s getting. Is it getting fast engagement? Are people reporting it? Are they flagging it?

It’s essential to get a lot of engagement in the first 30-90 minutes in order for your post to be served to more users. You want to get as many of your first connections as possible to like and comment …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog