Steps To Run LinkedIn Experiment That Grows Your Account Fast- Grow LinkedIn Audience - Boldpoint

Introduction

Steps to run linkedin experiment that grows your accont fast, Have you ever wondered how some LinkedIn profiles seem to explode with engagement, attracting followers and connections at lightning speed? What’s their secret? If you’ve been struggling to build a strong LinkedIn presence or are unsure why your posts aren’t getting the traction you hoped for, you’re not alone. The truth is, there’s a science behind LinkedIn growth that involves testing, optimizing, and experimenting to discover what truly works.

In this article, we’ll reveal a proven, step-by-step process for running a LinkedIn experiment. Whether you’re aiming to boost your engagement, connect with key influencers, or establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, the right experiment can make all the difference.

The beauty of running experiments on LinkedIn is that you don’t have to rely on guesswork. Instead, you can systematically test different strategies—like content types, post timing, audience targeting, and engagement tactics—and gather your approach on actual results. It is the power of experimentation: it gives you the insights you need to create a more effective LinkedIn strategy, driving better engagement and attracting the right connections.

Why does this matter? Because LinkedIn isn’t just a networking tool—it’s an opportunity to position yourself as an authority in your field. By running these experiments, you’re not just growing your follower count; you’re also building a stronger, more influential profile that resonates with the people who matter most in your industry. So, if you’re ready to optimize your LinkedIn presence and see rapid growth, you’ve come to the right place.

Let’s dive into these six simple yet powerful steps to help you run a LinkedIn experiment that will skyrocket your account growth.

Step 1: Set Clear, Measurable Goals

Before you dive into your LinkedIn experiment, it’s crucial to know exactly what you’re trying to achieve. Setting clear, measurable goals will guide your efforts and help you track your progress. Without these goals, it’s easy to get lost in the sea of LinkedIn features and strategies, wasting time and energy on things that may not bring results.

Define What Success Looks Like

To set yourself up for success, start by identifying the specific outcome you want from your LinkedIn experiment. What does success look like for you? Are you looking to:

Grow your connections? Maybe your goal is to increase the number of people you’re connected with on LinkedIn by 20%.
Boost engagement? Perhaps you want to double the likes, comments, and shares your posts receive, aiming for a higher level of interaction with your audience.
Increase profile views? If you’re aiming to be discovered more often, setting a goal to increase profile views by 30% in the next month could be a powerful starting point.

Each objective has its own set of strategies, and your experiment should focus on achieving just one or two of these goals at a time. Trying to do too much can lead to confusion and scattered results.

Key Metrics to Track

Here are a few you can use to track progress:

Profile Views: How often is your profile viewed? This can tell you whether potential connections are noticing your content or updates.
Post Engagement: Track the likes, comments, and shares your posts receive. Engagement is one of the clearest signs that your content is resonating with your audience.
New Connections and Followers: How many new connections or followers have you gained? This is an excellent metric for gauging whether you’re attracting the right people to your network.
Message Responses: If you’re using InMail or direct messaging as part of your strategy, track the response rate to gauge how well your messages are connecting with others.

SMART Goals Framework

A great way to set actionable and clear goals is to apply the SMART goal-setting framework. Here’s what that means:

Specific: Your goal should be precise. For example, instead of saying, “I want more engagement,” say, “I want to increase my post engagement by 20%.”
Measurable: You need to track progress. “Gain 500 new connections” is measurable, while “grow my network” is not.
Achievable: Set realistic goals. It’s better to aim for steady growth rather than unrealistic jumps. For instance, increasing your connections by 50% in a week may be too ambitious, but aiming for 10-15% growth is more practical.
Relevant: If you’re focused on networking, set a goal of adding connections or engaging with industry leaders rather than increasing profile views.
Time-bound: Set a timeframe for your goals. For example, you could “increase engagement by 20% over the next 30 days” or “add 100 new connections in 3 weeks.”

Setting SMART goals not only makes your objectives more attainable but also makes it easier to measure success and adjust your strategy if things aren’t working as expected.

Step 2: Choose The Right Experiment Type

Now that you’ve set clear, measurable goals, it’s time to choose the right type of experiment that will help you achieve those goals. LinkedIn offers a variety of features and strategies that you can test to boost your visibility, engagement, and connections. The key is to focus on one or two aspects at a time and run tests that are aligned with your goals.

Let’s break down some of the most effective experiment types to help you grow your LinkedIn account fast.

1. Content-Based Experiments

One of the most powerful ways to grow your LinkedIn account is by experimenting with different types of content. LinkedIn offers a variety of post formats, each of which can generate different levels of engagement. The goal is to find out which type of content resonates most with your audience.

Test Different Post Formats: Try posting a mix of articles, videos, carousels, status updates, and infographics to see which gets the most attention. For example:
- Carousels might drive more engagement as they are interactive and visually appealing.
- Long-form posts could help position you as an expert in your field by providing in-depth insights.
- Videos often generate higher engagement rates, especially if they are authentic and offer valuable information.
Example Experiment: Test how carousels perform against long-form posts. Create similar content in both formats and measure the difference in engagement (likes, comments, and shares) over a month.
Content Variety: Vary your content’s tone, style, and length. You might find that a quick tip in a short post performs better than a detailed, formal article. Or, your audience could engage more with storytelling-style posts rather than factual, data-heavy content.

2. Timing & Frequency

If you’re posting at times when your audience is not active, your content will likely get lost in the feed. Testing different posting schedules will help you identify the best times for maximum exposure.

Experiment with Posting Times: Post at different times of the day (morning, afternoon, evening) and on other days of the week (weekdays vs. weekends). Use LinkedIn analytics to track which times generate the highest engagement.
- Best Times: Generally, LinkedIn users are more active during business hours, especially on weekdays (Tuesday to Thursday). However, experimenting with non-traditional times can help you spot hidden opportunities.
Frequency Test: Try posting once a day, three times a week, or even once a week. The key is consistency—once you identify your optimal posting frequency, stick with it. You may find that posting more frequently doesn’t necessarily mean higher engagement; it’s more about the quality of your content.
Example Experiment: Test posting once a day vs. posting three times a week. Track your post performance over 30 days and see if daily posting increases your visibility or if fewer posts generate better results.

3. Target Audience

Who you target with your content is just as important as what you post. LinkedIn provides a golden chance to contact professionals across industries, job titles, and locations, making it the perfect platform for niche content testing. By experimenting with different target audiences, you can tailor your content to attract the right people.

Test Audience Segments: Create content that targets different industries, job titles, or even specific companies. For instance, if you’re posting about marketing trends, test how this content resonates with professionals in different sectors:
- Does your content about marketing trends attract more connections in the tech industry?
- Or does it generate more engagement from professionals in the healthcare sector?
Refining Audience Personas: Pay attention to who engages with your posts and analyze their job titles, industries, and locations. Over time, you’ll get a clearer idea of which audience segments are most relevant to your LinkedIn strategy.

4. Engagement Strategies

Finally, consider experimenting with different engagement strategies. How you interact with your audience can influence their level of engagement with your posts and overall perception of your brand.

Replying to Comments Quickly: Are you engaging with your audience as soon as they comment on your posts? Fast replies can encourage more interaction, and your active presence in discussions can help build relationships.
Personalized Connection Requests: Instead of sending generic connection requests, test sending customized notes to new connections. A personalized request can increase your chances of getting accepted and start a meaningful conversation.
Using LinkedIn Stories: LinkedIn Stories are a relatively new feature that allows you to engage your audience in a more casual, behind-the-scenes way. Test how frequently you post stories and experiment with different types of content in stories—like quick tips, daily updates, or polls—to see what resonates best.

Step 3: Formulate Your Hypothesis

Now that you’ve set your goals and chosen the right experiment types, it’s time to take the next step: formulating a hypothesis. A hypothesis is essentially your educated guess about what you think will work best to achieve your LinkedIn growth goals. It’s a testable statement that you’ll be able to verify after running your experiment.

In simple terms, your hypothesis predicts how a specific action or strategy will impact your LinkedIn performance based on your understanding of your audience, LinkedIn’s algorithm, and user behavior. A well-crafted hypothesis serves as a guide to your experiment, helping you stay focused and measure success in concrete terms.

1. Make Your Hypothesis Clear and Testable

The most important part of your hypothesis is that it should be clear and testable. A vague guess like “posting more often will increase engagement” isn’t actionable. You need to be specific about what you’re testing and how you will measure success.

2. Base Your Hypothesis on Your Goals

Your hypothesis should always align with the goals you set in Step 1. If you want to grow your connections, for example, your hypothesis could revolve around how different types of content or posting frequencies affect the number of new connection requests you get.

3. Be Realistic with Your Expectations

While it’s tempting to aim for massive results right away, it’s essential to be realistic when formulating your hypothesis. LinkedIn’s algorithm and user behavior take time to shift, and big changes rarely happen overnight.

Start with small wins, and as you collect data, gradually scale up your experiments.

4. Use Data and Insights to Guide Your Hypothesis

A successful hypothesis isn’t based purely on intuition—data and insights should also inform it. Look at your previous LinkedIn performance, industry trends, and even other LinkedIn influencers who are successful in your niche. The more informed your hypothesis is, the more likely it is to succeed.

This hypothesis is grounded in what you’ve observed about LinkedIn’s platform dynamics and your audience’s preferences.

5. Refine Your Hypothesis Based on Results

Once you’ve tested your hypothesis, it’s time to analyze the results. If your hypothesis doesn’t hold, take note of what happened and refine your approach. Maybe you learned that posting videos in the afternoon yields better results than posting them in the morning, or perhaps your audience prefers content related to technology over industry news.

The beauty of running a LinkedIn experiment is that you can adjust your hypothesis based on the data you collect. Experimentation is an iterative process—each test brings you closer to a strategy that truly works.

Step 4: Run The Experiment Consistently

Consistency is the key to any successful LinkedIn experiment. Even the best strategies can’t deliver results if you don’t stick to your plan long enough to gather meaningful data. It’s tempting to make changes after a few days or weeks, but patience and consistency are essential to seeing significant growth.

Here’s how to ensure your experiment stays on track and delivers actionable insights:

1. Set a Clear Timeframe

One of the most important aspects of running a successful LinkedIn experiment is committing to a consistent timeframe. It’s easy to get impatient and expect results after a few posts, but to really see what works, you need to give your experiment enough time to take shape.

Timeframe: Generally, aim to run your experiment for at least 2-4 weeks. It gives you enough time to test your hypothesis, measure data, and make informed decisions. Anything less than this might not provide enough insights due to the variable nature of LinkedIn’s algorithm and user engagement patterns.

2. Post Regularly & Stick to the Plan

Once you’ve established your timeframe and experiment type, it’s crucial to post regularly according to your plan. Consistency in posting helps ensure that you’re not skewing results by missing days or drastically changing your approach mid-experiment.

Follow the Experiment Schedule: If you plan to post 3 times a week, make sure you do so without fail.
Quality Over Quantity: Each post should still provide value to your audience. Whether it’s insightful articles, engaging videos, or informative carousels, make sure every post serves its purpose.

3. Track Your Progress Methodically

As you run your experiment, it’s essential to track your progress systematically. You need to keep an eye on your metrics to see if your hypothesis is holding. Without tracking, it’s impossible to understand whether your changes are having the desired effect.

LinkedIn Analytics: LinkedIn offers built-in analytics tools such as profile views, engagement rates, follower growth, and post-performance. These insights will allow you to see if your content is driving the results you anticipated.
- Profile Views: How many people are visiting your profile after you post content? Increased views indicate that your content is capturing attention.
- Engagement: Keep an eye on likes, comments, and shares for your posts. These metrics are great indicators of how well your audience is responding to your content.
- New Connections: Track the number of new connection requests or followers you gain during the experiment period. If your posts are resonating, this number should increase.
Other Tools: In addition to LinkedIn’s native analytics, you can use third-party tools like Google Sheets or Trello to keep a more detailed log of your experiment results. The Spreadsheet can track the following:
- The type of content you posted (article, video, carousel)
- The time and date of posting
- Engagement data (likes, comments, shares)
- New connections and followers gained
- Any other relevant actions (like personalized connection requests or responding to comments)

4. Document Results and Insights

Documenting your experiment’s results is not just about collecting numbers—it’s about gaining insights that will inform your future LinkedIn strategy. Take notes on what worked, what didn’t, and any patterns you notice along the way.

Results Logging: After each experiment, make sure to document both the quantitative (numbers like engagement rates) and qualitative (observations like audience sentiment or feedback) results. It will help you make data-driven decisions in future experiments.
Weekly Review: Consider doing a weekly review of your experiment data. Compare the previous week’s results with the current week’s performance. It will give you a better sense of trends and help you make adjustments if needed.

Step 4: Run The Experiment Consistently

Once you’ve set your hypothesis and defined your experiment type, the next crucial step is to run the experiment consistently.

1. Set a Clear Timeframe

For any LinkedIn experiment, you need to give it enough time to collect meaningful data. A 2-4 week timeframe is generally recommended for most experiments, as this allows you to track trends and patterns effectively. This period gives the LinkedIn algorithm enough time to adjust to your posting habits and for your audience to engage with your content.

Timeframe: Stick to your test for at least 30 days to see meaningful results. Rushing or cutting the experiment short may lead to inconclusive data. The longer you stick to your plan, the more accurate your insights will be.

2. Post Regularly & Follow the Plan

Once your experiment is underway, it’s essential to post regularly according to your experiment plan. The key here is sticking to the schedule you set for the duration of the experiment. Deviating from the plan could skew your results and make it hard to determine whether changes in performance were due to the experiment or external factors.

Stick to the Posting Frequency: If your hypothesis is about posting 3 times a week, make sure you do so without fail. A consistent posting schedule helps ensure that you are gathering clean, reliable data.
Avoid Mid-Experiment Changes: Resist the temptation to change your experiment midway, even if you feel the results aren’t immediate. If you change your posting frequency or content type, you won’t be able to attribute your results to any specific factor, and your experiment will lose clarity.

3. Track Your Progress & Analyze Results

To understand whether your experiment is working, you need to track progress carefully and analyze the results. Tracking helps you evaluate whether your hypothesis is correct and identify areas for improvement.

LinkedIn Analytics: LinkedIn provides native analytics for both individual posts and your overall profile. This tool is crucial for tracking key metrics such as engagement rate, post likes, comments, shares, and profile views. LinkedIn also shows you follower demographics, which can help reach the right audience.
Metrics to Track:
- Profile Views: How often are users checking your profile after engaging with your content?
- Engagement Rates: Are your posts getting more likes, comments, and shares than before? Track these to measure how well your content resonates with your audience.
- Connection Growth: How many new connections or followers are you gaining as a result of your content?
Third-Party Tools: While LinkedIn’s native analytics is helpful, you might want to use third-party tools for a deeper analysis of your content performance. Tools like Google Sheets, Trello, or Notion can be great for organizing your experiment and documenting results. Consider logging:
- The type of content you posted (video, carousel, article)
- The day and time of posting
- The number of interactions (likes, comments, shares)
- The number of new followers or connections gained
This way, you can track your progress systematically and spot trends over time.

4. Review & Document Your Insights

Tracking data is important, but it’s also critical to document your insights. After a few weeks of running your experiment, make sure to sit down and review the data. What worked well? What didn’t? How can you improve?

Documenting Results: Use a simple spreadsheet or tool like Google Sheets to record your data on a daily or weekly basis. Keep track of key results and compare them to your original hypothesis to see if it holds.
Weekly Check-ins: Schedule a weekly check-in to evaluate how your experiment is progressing. Look at your content’s performance, see which posts performed the best, and analyze if you’re on track to meet your goals.

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Step 5: Analyze The Results

Once your LinkedIn experiment has run its course, it’s time to take a deep dive into the data. Analyzing the results will give you the insights you need to understand whether your hypothesis was correct, what worked well, and where improvements can be made. It is where the real value of your experiment lies, so let’s break down how to evaluate and learn from your results properly.

1. Evaluate Data Thoroughly

After you’ve run your experiment for the set timeframe, it’s time to gather all the data you’ve collected and evaluate it in detail. The goal here is to compare how different approaches impacted key metrics like post engagement, profile visits, and new connections. The more thorough your analysis, the better you’ll understand what’s working.

Look at Post Engagement: Did the content types you experimented with (e.g., videos, carousels, or articles) perform differently? For example, if you were testing video posts versus text posts, compare the number of likes, comments, shares, and engagement rates for each type of content. Did the videos garner more interaction than the text-only posts?
Example: If posts with images got 30% more engagement than text-only posts, this indicates that visual content resonates more with your audience. It is valuable information that can shape your future content strategy.
Profile Visits: Did your experiment lead to an increase in profile views? Compare the data from before and after the experiment. If you set a goal to boost your profile views by 30%, assess whether you met or exceeded that target based on the type of content and timing you tested.
New Connections: How many new connections or followers did you gain as a result of your experiment? Track the number of new connections, especially if your experiment included strategies like personalized connection requests or targeting different audience segments. If your content reached the right audience, this number should have increased over the experiment period.

2. Look for Patterns

As you analyze the data, look for patterns. It is crucial because identifying trends will help you make data-driven decisions for future experiments. Sometimes, the results are not immediately obvious, but patterns over time reveal significant insights.

Content Performance: Did certain content types perform better than others? Were videos more engaging than images or status updates? Or did posts made on specific days or times consistently outperform others? Perhaps long-form posts on Mondays get more interaction, or AI-related videos posted at 9 AM have a higher engagement rate.
Audience Insights: Did your experiment reveal a more specific target audience that engages better with your posts? For example, you might find that professionals in the tech industry respond more to marketing trend articles than those in other sectors. This information can help you refine your LinkedIn audience strategy and ensure you’re creating content that appeals to the right people.

3. Objective Reflection: Don’t Ignore Negative Results

While it’s tempting to focus only on the positive results, it’s essential to also reflect on the negative or unexpected outcomes. Negative results or areas where your experiment didn’t meet expectations are just as important as your successes. In fact, they often provide the most valuable insights for refining your strategy.

Learn from Failures: If certain types of content don’t perform as expected, don’t discard them right away. Instead, ask yourself why it didn’t work. Were the visuals not engaging enough? Was the timing wrong? Did the audience not resonate with the topic? These insights can be useful in adjusting your approach for future content.
Example: If status updates with text-only posts didn’t generate much engagement, it may be a sign that your audience prefers more visual content or interactive formats. Learning from this will help you create more engaging posts in the future.
Refining Strategies: Use negative results as a way to fine-tune your strategies. If you discover that posting at 6 PM resulted in lower engagement compared to posting in the morning, you can tweak your future posts to publish at more optimal times. By adjusting your strategies based on what didn’t work, you’re setting yourself up for continued success.

4. Document and Record Your Insights

Don’t just analyze the results in your head—document your insights. Recording your experiments and the lessons learned will allow you to track what strategies work best over time, helping you optimize your approach for faster LinkedIn growth.

Create a Results Log: Document both the positive and negative results from your experiment. Record your observations, data, and any changes in your approach that you plan to implement moving forward. This log will be an invaluable resource as you refine and adjust your LinkedIn strategy.
Compare Across Experiments: If you run multiple LinkedIn experiments over time, you’ll be able to compare the results and identify patterns that emerge across different tests. This longitudinal view will help you build a stronger LinkedIn presence by continually improving and adapting your strategies.

Step 6: Optimize & Scale Based on Findings

After running your LinkedIn experiment and analyzing the results, the next critical step is to optimize and scale based on your findings. This phase is about expanding upon the successful tactics you’ve discovered while adjusting your approach for continued growth. Here’s how to effectively optimize your LinkedIn strategy and scale your success.

1. Double Down on What Works

One of the most effective ways to accelerate your LinkedIn growth is to focus on what’s already working. If you’ve identified a tactic or content type that’s performing exceptionally well, double down on it. By increasing your focus on successful strategies, you can scale your results and reach a broader audience.

Content Optimization: If you’ve found that videos generate, commit to posting more videos moving forward. But don’t stop there—consider adjusting other factors to make these videos even more effective. It could include testing:
- Video Length: If shorter videos (1-2 minutes) perform better, adjust your future videos to fit that timeframe.
- Video Style: Experiment with different video formats, such as talking-head videos, tutorials, or animated explainers, to see which resonates most with your audience.
Content Focus: If a specific content topic, like marketing strategies for tech companies, generated more interaction than other topics, focus more on that niche. Tailor your future posts to address that interest and continue to refine your messaging to engage your audience further.

2. Refine Your Approach

While scaling successful tactics, you’ll also want to refine your approach based on the insights you’ve gathered from your experiment.

Adjust Posting Times: If your analysis revealed that posts published in the morning consistently receive higher engagement, tweak your posting schedule to target those peak times. Understanding when your audience is most active is key to increasing visibility and interactions.
Tweak Content Style and Tone: Did your audience respond better to informal, conversational tones or more formal and authoritative styles? If a more personal and relatable tone generated higher engagement, adjust your future posts to reflect that style.
Engagement Strategies: Did responding to comments within 30 minutes lead to more conversations? If so, make it a priority to engage quickly with users who comment on your posts. You could even experiment with personalized replies or engage directly with specific audience segments.

3. Automate & Replicate for Efficiency

Once you’ve optimized the winning strategies, the next step is to automate and replicate your successful experiments to save time and maintain consistency. Automating tasks will allow you to focus more on strategy while ensuring your experiments run efficiently over time.

Scheduling Tools: Use scheduling apps like Buffer, Hootsuite, or LinkedIn’s native scheduling feature to plan your posts. A posting schedule will save you valuable time while keeping your LinkedIn presence active.
Replicate Successful Content: Once you’ve identified a content type that performs well (such as videos or carousel posts), set up a content calendar and consistently replicate that content style across different topics. For instance, if AI trend videos perform best, create a weekly video series focused on AI-related insights and news.
Automate Engagement: While it’s important to maintain a personal touch in your interactions, automating initial connection requests, follow-up messages, and post-scheduling can free up your time to focus on higher-level strategy and content creation.

4. Use Tools to Track & Scale Results

To continue optimizing and scaling your experiments, it’s essential to use data-tracking tools that provide insights into your posts’ performance and help you refine your strategy.

LinkedIn Analytics: Continue using LinkedIn Analytics to monitor engagement rates, follower growth, and content performance. These insights will help you evaluate which strategies are contributing most to your success.
Third-Party Tools: Utilize third-party tools like Sprout Social or Google Sheets to track your experiment results and identify long-term trends. These tools can provide more detailed analytics and help you stay organized as you scale your strategies.
Replicate Across Multiple Platforms: Once you have found success on LinkedIn, consider replicating your optimized strategy on other social platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, to increase your reach and exposure.

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Conclusion

To recap, experimentation is key to unlocking faster growth and greater visibility on LinkedIn. By running Steps To Run LinkedIn Experiment That Grows Your Account Fast, thoughtful, data-driven experiments, you can tailor your strategy based on real insights rather than guesswork. Whether you’re looking to increase engagement, grow your connections, or drive more profile views, each step you take in testing different content formats, posting schedules, and audience targeting will lead to valuable learnings.

Experimentation is an ongoing process—it’s not about instant success but about trial and error. The more you test, analyze, and refine, the clearer your path to LinkedIn success becomes. The beauty of LinkedIn is that it offers endless opportunities for growth when you approach it with a strategy rooted in experimentation and data.

Take Action Now

Now that you’ve learned the six essential steps, it’s time to apply them to your LinkedIn account. Start by setting your goals, selecting the right experiment type, and formulating your hypothesis. With consistent effort and a clear plan, you can grow your LinkedIn presence faster and smarter than ever before.

We’d love to hear about your results! Share your experiment outcomes or any questions you have in the comments section below. Start small, then scale up your efforts as you see what works. The key is consistency and learning from every test you run.

Bonus Tips for Even More Growth:

Leverage LinkedIn Groups: The best way to boost visibility and expand your network is through LinkedIn Groups related to your industry. These groups are great for sharing knowledge, learning from others, and connecting with professionals who share your interests.
Show Social Proof: Social proof is essential for building credibility on LinkedIn. Encourage your connections to leave recommendations and testimonials on your profile. This kind of social validation can help attract more connections and increase trust in your expertise.

Use a Content Calendar: This tool will help you stay consistent and aligned with your experimentation schedule so you never miss a post or deviate from your plan.

Introduction

In this article, we’ll reveal a proven, step-by-step process for running a LinkedIn experiment. Whether you’re aiming to boost your engagement, connect with key influencers, or establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, the right experiment can make all the difference.

Let’s dive into these six simple yet powerful steps to help you run a LinkedIn experiment that will skyrocket your account growth.

Step 1: Set Clear, Measurable Goals

Define What Success Looks Like

To set yourself up for success, start by identifying the specific outcome you want from your LinkedIn experiment. What does success look like for you? Are you looking to:

Grow your connections? Maybe your goal is to increase the number of people you’re connected with on LinkedIn by 20%.

Boost engagement? Perhaps you want to double the likes, comments, and shares your posts receive, aiming for a higher level of interaction with your audience.

Increase profile views? If you’re aiming to be discovered more often, setting a goal to increase profile views by 30% in the next month could be a powerful starting point.

Each objective has its own set of strategies, and your experiment should focus on achieving just one or two of these goals at a time. Trying to do too much can lead to confusion and scattered results.

Key Metrics to Track

Here are a few you can use to track progress:

Profile Views: How often is your profile viewed? This can tell you whether potential connections are noticing your content or updates.

Post Engagement: Track the likes, comments, and shares your posts receive. Engagement is one of the clearest signs that your content is resonating with your audience.

New Connections and Followers: How many new connections or followers have you gained? This is an excellent metric for gauging whether you’re attracting the right people to your network.

Message Responses: If you’re using InMail or direct messaging as part of your strategy, track the response rate to gauge how well your messages are connecting with others.

SMART Goals Framework

A great way to set actionable and clear goals is to apply the SMART goal-setting framework. Here’s what that means:

Specific: Your goal should be precise. For example, instead of saying, “I want more engagement,” say, “I want to increase my post engagement by 20%.”

Measurable: You need to track progress. “Gain 500 new connections” is measurable, while “grow my network” is not.

Achievable: Set realistic goals. It’s better to aim for steady growth rather than unrealistic jumps. For instance, increasing your connections by 50% in a week may be too ambitious, but aiming for 10-15% growth is more practical.

Relevant: If you’re focused on networking, set a goal of adding connections or engaging with industry leaders rather than increasing profile views.

Time-bound: Set a timeframe for your goals. For example, you could “increase engagement by 20% over the next 30 days” or “add 100 new connections in 3 weeks.”

Setting SMART goals not only makes your objectives more attainable but also makes it easier to measure success and adjust your strategy if things aren’t working as expected.

Step 2: Choose The Right Experiment Type

Let’s break down some of the most effective experiment types to help you grow your LinkedIn account fast.

1. Content-Based Experiments

One of the most powerful ways to grow your LinkedIn account is by experimenting with different types of content. LinkedIn offers a variety of post formats, each of which can generate different levels of engagement. The goal is to find out which type of content resonates most with your audience.

Test Different Post Formats: Try posting a mix of articles, videos, carousels, status updates, and infographics to see which gets the most attention. For example:

Carousels might drive more engagement as they are interactive and visually appealing.

Long-form posts could help position you as an expert in your field by providing in-depth insights.

Videos often generate higher engagement rates, especially if they are authentic and offer valuable information.

Example Experiment: Test how carousels perform against long-form posts. Create similar content in both formats and measure the difference in engagement (likes, comments, and shares) over a month.

Content Variety: Vary your content’s tone, style, and length. You might find that a quick tip in a short post performs better than a detailed, formal article. Or, your audience could engage more with storytelling-style posts rather than factual, data-heavy content.

2. Timing & Frequency

If you’re posting at times when your audience is not active, your content will likely get lost in the feed. Testing different posting schedules will help you identify the best times for maximum exposure.

Experiment with Posting Times: Post at different times of the day (morning, afternoon, evening) and on other days of the week (weekdays vs. weekends). Use LinkedIn analytics to track which times generate the highest engagement.

Best Times: Generally, LinkedIn users are more active during business hours, especially on weekdays (Tuesday to Thursday). However, experimenting with non-traditional times can help you spot hidden opportunities.

Example Experiment: Test posting once a day vs. posting three times a week. Track your post performance over 30 days and see if daily posting increases your visibility or if fewer posts generate better results.

3. Target Audience

Test Audience Segments: Create content that targets different industries, job titles, or even specific companies. For instance, if you’re posting about marketing trends, test how this content resonates with professionals in different sectors:

Does your content about marketing trends attract more connections in the tech industry?

Or does it generate more engagement from professionals in the healthcare sector?

Refining Audience Personas: Pay attention to who engages with your posts and analyze their job titles, industries, and locations. Over time, you’ll get a clearer idea of which audience segments are most relevant to your LinkedIn strategy.

4. Engagement Strategies

Finally, consider experimenting with different engagement strategies. How you interact with your audience can influence their level of engagement with your posts and overall perception of your brand.

Replying to Comments Quickly: Are you engaging with your audience as soon as they comment on your posts? Fast replies can encourage more interaction, and your active presence in discussions can help build relationships.

Personalized Connection Requests: Instead of sending generic connection requests, test sending customized notes to new connections. A personalized request can increase your chances of getting accepted and start a meaningful conversation.

Step 3: Formulate Your Hypothesis

1. Make Your Hypothesis Clear and Testable

The most important part of your hypothesis is that it should be clear and testable. A vague guess like “posting more often will increase engagement” isn’t actionable. You need to be specific about what you’re testing and how you will measure success.

2. Base Your Hypothesis on Your Goals

Your hypothesis should always align with the goals you set in Step 1. If you want to grow your connections, for example, your hypothesis could revolve around how different types of content or posting frequencies affect the number of new connection requests you get.

3. Be Realistic with Your Expectations

While it’s tempting to aim for massive results right away, it’s essential to be realistic when formulating your hypothesis. LinkedIn’s algorithm and user behavior take time to shift, and big changes rarely happen overnight.

Start with small wins, and as you collect data, gradually scale up your experiments.

4. Use Data and Insights to Guide Your Hypothesis

This hypothesis is grounded in what you’ve observed about LinkedIn’s platform dynamics and your audience’s preferences.

5. Refine Your Hypothesis Based on Results

The beauty of running a LinkedIn experiment is that you can adjust your hypothesis based on the data you collect. Experimentation is an iterative process—each test brings you closer to a strategy that truly works.

Step 4: Run The Experiment Consistently

Here’s how to ensure your experiment stays on track and delivers actionable insights:

1. Set a Clear Timeframe

One of the most important aspects of running a successful LinkedIn experiment is committing to a consistent timeframe. It’s easy to get impatient and expect results after a few posts, but to really see what works, you need to give your experiment enough time to take shape.

2. Post Regularly & Stick to the Plan

Once you’ve established your timeframe and experiment type, it’s crucial to post regularly according to your plan. Consistency in posting helps ensure that you’re not skewing results by missing days or drastically changing your approach mid-experiment.

Follow the Experiment Schedule: If you plan to post 3 times a week, make sure you do so without fail.

Quality Over Quantity: Each post should still provide value to your audience. Whether it’s insightful articles, engaging videos, or informative carousels, make sure every post serves its purpose.

3. Track Your Progress Methodically

As you run your experiment, it’s essential to track your progress systematically. You need to keep an eye on your metrics to see if your hypothesis is holding. Without tracking, it’s impossible to understand whether your changes are having the desired effect.

LinkedIn Analytics: LinkedIn offers built-in analytics tools such as profile views, engagement rates, follower growth, and post-performance. These insights will allow you to see if your content is driving the results you anticipated.

Profile Views: How many people are visiting your profile after you post content? Increased views indicate that your content is capturing attention.

Engagement: Keep an eye on likes, comments, and shares for your posts. These metrics are great indicators of how well your audience is responding to your content.

New Connections: Track the number of new connection requests or followers you gain during the experiment period. If your posts are resonating, this number should increase.

Other Tools: In addition to LinkedIn’s native analytics, you can use third-party tools like Google Sheets or Trello to keep a more detailed log of your experiment results. The Spreadsheet can track the following:

The type of content you posted (article, video, carousel)

The time and date of posting

Engagement data (likes, comments, shares)

New connections and followers gained

Any other relevant actions (like personalized connection requests or responding to comments)