Whether you're looking to become a LinkedIn Influencer, sway the buying habits of a whole consumer market or purely share your expertise with your network, LinkedIn has set its place as the go-to sharing platform. Understanding how LinkedIn's algorithms display content to your network, and leaning into a few golden tips can elevate your efforts to make regular and effective contact with your clients. 

With over 675 million monthly users, LinkedIn is the perfect platform to reach key people in your industry, have conversations and share your insights. However, just like other popular social networks, some basic understanding of how algorithms control who sees our content can go a long way. We've taken 3 top tips form Jay Palter, who, with 4.7K followers, knows a thing or two about optimising your visibility and engagement online...

LinkedIn Editors prefer content that is valuable and relevant to your network. 

When you're writing content to share with your network, always ensure you're offering something of value to the reader. There are a few key questions you can ask yourself:

• What do my clients and prospective clients want to read about? 
• Has there been a recent update or news story in my industry that I can give my expert advice on? 
• What information can I offer my network in this piece of content?

Writing timely, deliberate content aimed at your network can vastly improve the reception your posts receive and boost engagement from your audience. 

Post to Attract comments and respond to each comments you receive. 

"Anyone who takes the time to comment on your post deserves your attention". Responding to comments you receive on LinkedIn not only shows you're listening to your network and open to engaging with people from your industry online, but also opens the door to you reaping tangible returns on your efforts in social networking. 

Similarly, start engaging with content yourself. Like and comment on posts by your colleagues and people in your industry to start conversations and open the insights up to your network.

Engagement matters to the algorithm, so consider encouraging support from your colleagues by engaging with your posts and return the favour. Palter talks about the 'Golden Hour', whereby he has found that his posts that receive likes and comments within the first hour of publishing get better levels of engagement. 

Remember, the goal is NOT to game LinkedIn, but to have meaningful engagements online and add value to your network. 

The beauty of writing deliberate, industry specific insights for your network is that you have a niche audience you're looking to engage with. Receiving hundreds of likes or comments online may look good from the outside, but is not anywhere near as valuable as a few meaningful engagements from the people that matter. This really is where the value of social networking lies, keep an eye out for important engagements, respond to these comments to start conversations to close the loop - ultimately, see real ROI from your efforts. 

In summary, LinkedIn is an invaluable tool for professionals in today's business environment and making a conscious effort to use the platform effectively can transform the results you're seeing from your content. Combine these tips with a great profile and start engaging with your industry online.