LinkedIn & AI marketing glossary
Clear, up-to-date definitions of the terms that show up most often in our articles — built so you can look up a concept in seconds and apply it to your strategy.
LinkedIn algorithm
The LinkedIn algorithm is the automated system that decides which posts to show each user, in what order, and to how much audience. Since 2024 it prioritizes original content with high dwell time and authentic comments over surface-level likes or external links.
Read definitionDwell time on LinkedIn
Dwell time is how long a user stays reading or interacting with a LinkedIn post before continuing to scroll. It is one of the most important algorithm metrics since 2024: the higher the average dwell time of a post, the broader its organic distribution.
Read definitionPersonal brand
A personal brand is the public, professional perception a person builds about themselves through their communication, expertise, and interactions. On LinkedIn, it shows up in the content they publish, their profile, their interactions, and the consistency of their message over time.
Read definitionEngagement rate on LinkedIn
Engagement rate on LinkedIn is the percentage of people who saw a post and interacted with it (likes, comments, shares, saves, or clicks). It is calculated by dividing total interactions by impressions and multiplying by 100. A healthy engagement rate on LinkedIn sits between 3% and 8%.
Read definitionSocial selling
Social selling is the sales strategy that uses social networks (in particular LinkedIn) to identify, connect with, educate, and influence potential customers before selling. Instead of cold messages, it relies on valuable content, authentic conversations, and building authority in a specific niche.
Read definitionLinkedIn impressions
An impression is each time your post appears on someone's screen. It counts appearances, not people: if the same user scrolls past your post twice, two impressions are recorded. This differs from «members reached», which counts unique people.
Read definitionLinkedIn reach
Reach, which LinkedIn calls «members reached», is the number of unique people who saw your post. Unlike impressions, each person counts once no matter how many times they cross paths with your post in the feed.
Read definitionLinkedIn SSI
The Social Selling Index (SSI) is a 0-100 score LinkedIn calculates across four pillars: establishing your professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships. Each pillar contributes up to 25 points.
Read definitionLinkedIn carousel
A LinkedIn carousel is a multi-page document uploaded as a PDF that readers swipe through inside the feed. It is not a native format: LinkedIn treats it as a document, which is why you build it in any design tool and export to PDF.
Read definitionLinkedIn hook
The hook is a post's first line, the only part visible before LinkedIn collapses the text behind «see more». Its job is to make someone expand: if it fails, nobody reads the rest of the post however good it is.
Read definitionLinkedIn ghostwriting
LinkedIn ghostwriting means someone else writes the posts published under your name. It is widespread among executives and founders, and Spanish agencies offering it typically charge between €250 and €950 a month.
Read definitionLinkedIn headline
The headline is the line under your name on your profile, with room for up to 220 characters. It is the most-read field on LinkedIn: it follows your name into every comment you leave, every search result and every connection request.
Read definitionLinkedIn hashtags
Hashtags are tags that group posts by topic. On LinkedIn their weight has steadily fallen: today they mainly work as a context signal for the algorithm rather than a discovery channel for users.
Read definitionEmployee advocacy
Employee advocacy is the practice of a company's employees publishing content about it from their personal profiles. It rests on a measurable fact: a personal profile reaches considerably more people than the equivalent company page.
Read definitionLinkedIn newsletter
A LinkedIn newsletter is a recurring publication people subscribe to from inside the platform. Its advantage over a normal post is that each new issue sends a notification to every subscriber.
Read definitionOpen to work
"Open to work" is the LinkedIn feature that signals you are looking for a job. It has two modes: visible to everyone, with the green frame on your photo, or visible only to recruiters, with no public sign at all.
Read definitionLinkedIn creator mode
Creator mode is a profile setting that reorders your page to prioritise content: it moves your posts section up, swaps the "Connect" button for "Follow" and lets you highlight the topics you write about.
Read definitionLinkedIn Premium
LinkedIn Premium is the platform's paid subscription. It comes in several forms — Career, Business, Sales Navigator and Recruiter — and each unlocks different features rather than a better version of the same thing.
Read definitionLinkedIn copywriting
LinkedIn copywriting means writing to the structure the format imposes: a hook that survives the "see more" cut, short sentences that read on mobile, and one idea per post instead of several stacked together.
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