LinkedIn Makes Major Update To 'People You May Know'

LinkedIn has recently made significant changes to the algorithm that determines who appears in the ‘people you may know’ section, helping to push your network even further.

People You May Know are recommendations in the My Network section of your LinkedIn profile on who you should be interacting with and adding to your network. 

Read on to learn how the algorithm has developed (it’s not as complicated as it sounds) and how you can use this information to benefit your content strategy.

What is the People You May Know LinkedIn Feature?

Recently, LinkedIn’s focus on making improvements to the platform has come from their collective goal to boost economic opportunities, helping to maximise business growth. 

The recommendations provided on LinkedIn were based on generic factors such as:

• Where you went to school.
• Where you were born.

Clearly, these factors aren’t going to help improve your brand – you’re probably not sharing the same interests or intentions as someone who went to the same High School 5 years before you.

What Did LinkedIn Change? 

Because of this, LinkedIn has deep-dived into these generic factors that determine who is recommended and refined what’s going on behind the scenes. Now, those who work in a similar industry to you and share content that compliments yours are likely to be shown on your People You May Know section instead of the previous more generic factors.

Another issue LinkedIn has aimed to change is that the platform was finding larger and more established brands were more likely to appear in recommendations. Users trying to improve their LinkedIn presence were falling short as they weren’t being advertised to other users within this feature. 

Therefore, with the fine-tuned updates to the People You May Know, LinkedIn has also aimed to balance recommended users, highlighting people who haven’t got as many connections. 

How Does This Benefit Businesses?

Now you know how LinkedIn has changed this feature you’re probably wondering how this will help you in the long run. 

So, as previously mentioned, the recommended users are now likely to be those with similar business interests to you. As a result, these users may be sharing content that can help you expand your knowledge to improve as a business or you might find their content interesting and thought-provoking.

Essentially, expanding your network as a business will consequently improve your company presence and boost potential work opportunities.

Remember, it only takes one important connection to expand your presence and get to the right businesses and users. This important connection could be sitting waiting for you in your People You May Know. 

Whilst this may just seem like a small change to a platform as big as LinkedIn, it’s a step in the right direction for LinkedIn’s goal of maximising economic growth and opportunities available through the platform.