On a magical journey through the LinkedIn blog, the blog was discussing LinkedIn groups yesterday.  They were discussing how to engineer LinkedIn Groups, so you can accurately measure how popular a post is, and use that calculation to determine which posts to show more frequently.

It is an interesting look into how a social network ranks different posts and discussion threads. This is something that I have been interested to find out more about on other forums, such as Warrior Forum and also on Facebook’s newsfeed. Warrior Forum seems to have different calculations for different forums. Facebook bases the popular newsfeed on people that you have spoken with lately. It seems to slightly mirror my action on the site.

With that being said, let’s talk about LinkedIn Groups and how to work with their discussion boards for ultimate effect.

5 Things I Got From Reading About LinkedIn Groups

  1. I am no mathematician. In fact, I used to want to be an astronomer as a child until I found out that you needed to know math. It was a game changer as I entered 5th grade.
  2. This process while singular to LinkedIn groups has applications throughout social networking. It delves into the social proof idea that a post really isn’t measurable unless there is some type of interaction. That is what this post measures: Interaction. 
  3. From my understanding, LinkedIn does not decay old posts. For example, Google gives sites additional search strength when they have recent posts. Why? Because that means the site is not decaying and void of current information. Think of using a history textbook in school today that was written in 1935. Imagine what the students would miss. This is one of the reasons why blogging has taken off over the past few years. New content. LinkedIn is stating that they do not care if a post is one year or one month. The fact is whenever someone comments on the discussion it adds to the score and makes it more relevant.
  4. However, you can not just keep adding, because then you will never see new content and also the new content even if it is better will never have a chance to catch up. So, you have to limit that older discussion. I will be honest this is the point where the mathematical equations had my head doing loops.  Also, if a topic becomes hot really quickly and dies it will not be around forever. For example, when Osama bin Laden was killed it was a top story that died out after a few weeks. Two years from now, that is not a ground breaking story that needs to be in first place.
  5. They are only counting likes and comments to determine how popular a post is. That means if 500 people look at a post A and do nothing they will ignore the post, but if 100 people look at post B and 10 people comment on it then it will gain more traction

So, what does this mean for you? If you are out there on LinkedIn or other social networks do not just go for the views and think life is great. Encourage dialogue, because if you want a post to last longer you actually have to have it become social.

Let me give you a great recent example from Facebook. I will generally post my blog everyday there. I get a few comments and likes on different topics. However, I post one pic of my cat lying on it’s back and I had 10 comments in one hour along with 5 likes. Which post do you think Facebook is more likely to show to my friends. The picture of the cat or the blog post?

Either way, this post should help you get an understanding of the power of social networking in LinkedIn groups and throughout social networking sites.