Creators on LinkedIn want to better understand who sees their
content. Does it reach the correct people and resonate with their network?
The company recently rolled out two new metrics that give marketers a clear understanding of who is viewing
the content.
“You’ll see these metrics in your post analytics as a breakdown in the discovery section under impressions,” Sam Corrao Clanon, lead creator, product at
LinkedIn, wrote on the platform.
“I’m excited to hear how this helps your content creation journey, especially what it reveals about the posts that expand your audience versus
the ones that resonate more deeply with your network," Corrao Clanon added.
As the metrics roll out, marketers will begin to see these metrics broken down by percentages to determine who
viewed the content, based on whether they are in or out of the poster's network.
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In-network posts will identify the percentage of impressions from those that come from someone already in the
poster's network on LinkedIn.
Out-of-network posts will identify the percentage of impressions that come from those who did not follow or connect to the poster. In other words, did a
new audience discover the person posting through a LinkedIn feed, recommendations, reshares, search, or by another means?
The two types of measurement tools are being described as a
way to answer the "quiet panic" of when someone posts something impactful, and then wonders if anyone actually reads it.
Most marketers overwhelmingly applauded the updates, but
some wanted to know whether they really needed more data.
"The in-network vs. out-of-network split is especially useful for catching that awkward moment when a post gets lots of views but no
engagement from new people," Andryass Mamuaya, founder and CEO of branding specialist Tribeindo, wrote in a comment to Corrao Clanon's post.
"It’s like throwing a
party and realizing all the guests already live in the house," Mamuaya wrote. "The more a post is reshared by strangers, the less accurate personal branding in the original content
becomes."
Jaclyn Sergeant, founder of Sergeant Digital, a LinkedIn strategy expert for B2B, wrote in the comments that these
tools will change many "conversations" she has with clients, because they want to know if they just speak to people who already know their company.
LinkedIn has caught the attention of
creators. The platform has more than 1 billion members globally and continues to expand its tools, especially in video.
Identifying the number of people who read the post is much different
from understanding whether those people were already in an existing audience or are new.