The 3 C’s of LinkedIn’s editorial team: create, curate, cultivate.

 

LinkedIn has evolved a whole lot since its launch as a site to basically post your CV and look for a job.

 

It has since then been acquired by Microsoft, has acquired multiple players to beef up its offer (Pulse being a good example on the content front) and has added products like LinkedIn learning.

 

When we work on the content strategy of a client at Toast, if there is any form of B2B commerce or employer branding, for example, LinkedIn is definitely considered.

Want to get your content team up to speed on this? Organize a team workshop or one-on-one coaching with an expert of our team. You can also book Alexandre to come and speak at your event!

 

But how and why does content work on LinkedIn?

 

Going beyond the algorithm that chooses what types of posts and news you see, there is an entire editorial team behind LinkedIn’s feed that wants to make sure you see the most relevant and important content for your field of work.

 

As a matter of fact, it had 65 journalists on staff last Fall.

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Journalists that work on the 3 C’s that Dan Roth (LinkedIn’s editor-in-chief since 2011) has established: create, curate, cultivate.

 

So, what do they mean?

 

Create means the development of original content, their podcasts and newsletters being great examples. They are created and written by LinkedIn’s dedicated editorial staff.

Struggling to get performance out of your content? If your content team is living through content chaos on a daily basis, schedule a quick call with us to discuss Content strategy and content operations. We can help you get all your ducks in a row.

 

Curate means having a deeper look into the 2 million posts that are published every day on the platform. Trying to find the needle in this haystack that is driving engagement, discussion and reactions. This C is part-machine, part-human. The objective is not to just make a post rise beyond its initial reach, but really pushing it to the right audience, manually, humanly.

 

Cultivate is really interesting. It is when LinkedIn’s editors reach out to specific audiences to see if they could comment on an issue or specific topic that is relevant to a lot of LinkedIn users that day or week. For example, they reached out to Thomas Cook employees to invite them to react and comment when the news broke that the company was shutting down.

 

This is the type of work the editorial team is doing, and it is a big signal on how your brand should also approach its LinkedIn presence.

 

It shows how the culture of content at LinkedIn is inherently human-based and not only algorithm-based.

 

And this is something you should never forget. On LinkedIn, but also on any content platform your brand is on.

 

I invite to read a great CNN article on Dan Roth’s vision and the history behind LinkedIn’s editorial strategy.