If you use LinkedIn to promote your work or your organization, there is something worth understanding. Organic reach is not what it used to be. You can spend time creating a post, hit publish and still not reach the people you thought would see it.

I’ve been working on social media for years now, and algorithm changes are something I have to keep learning about because they force me to rethink how, when, where and what we post.

Bear with me as I put this into words. English is not my first language, so writing may not always come naturally to me… but social media does. Let’s take a look at what you may be experiencing, why it’s happening and what you can do to adjust your strategy.

The Algorithm

Free isn’t always free. We might use social media platforms for free, but the tradeoff is that they decide what lands in our feeds and what gets in front of other people. That can be frustrating as a regular user, and it can be even more frustrating when you are trying to help your work reach your target audience.

On social media platforms, algorithms are the systems that sort and prioritize posts based on relevance instead of publishing time. Basically, they decide which content shows up, including YOUR content. So when I talk about the algorithm, I’m really talking about the things that affect whether people find and engage with your post, such as reach, format and even whether you include a link.

The Reach

Reach is the part we all feel first. Before, brand pages ruled. If an organization shared a post, it had a much better chance of reaching people. Guess what? That’s shifted a lot. Personal profiles often get more organic visibility now, which means employees and stakeholders can play bigger roles than they may realize.

When you share a post from your workplace, especially one you are mentioned in or connected to, you help that message reach people the organization’s page may not reach on its own. So yes, please be kind and share the posts with your network. You might be helping a marketing girlie like me with her numbers.

The Format

This is where carousels come in. The famous carousel. Wasn’t it great when we could just upload a few pictures and call it a day? Now, on LinkedIn, carousels are usually created as document posts. That means you upload a multi-page PDF, and each page becomes a slide people can swipe through. This format can work well because it gives people a reason to spend more time with your message.

The key is to keep it simple with readable text and a strong first slide. At the end of the day, we want to make sure we share our message clearly. Changes in the algorithm are inevitable, and what matters most isn’t the amount of content but the quality of what you are sharing.

The Links

Last but not least, let’s talk about external links. Links are another choice that can affect how a post performs. LinkedIn wants people to stay on the platform as long as possible, and a lot of marketers believe links that send people away get penalized for it, so I use them thoughtfully.

If the whole post is just pushing people somewhere else, it might not get the same attention as a post that gives value right there in the feed. Some creators now avoid putting external links directly in the body of the post and instead focus on making the post valuable on its own.

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Have your own social tips, or see things differently? Reach out to me on LinkedIn. I’d love to keep the conversation going.