Transcription
18 months ago, I had 3,000 followers on LinkedIn. Today, I have over 400,000. But I didn't get here by guessing.
Recently, I analyzed more than 200,000 LinkedIn posts using anonymize Say What user data. And what we found flips all the old advice on its head. In this video, I'll show you the eight biggest algorithm shifts and give you the exact playbook to win on LinkedIn in 2025 and 2026.
Before we get into that, let me explain why the old playbook is dead. It used to be super easy to grow on LinkedIn because there was no competition at all. Now you have competition from more creators and paid ads. This happens on every social media platform as they develop because people start to realize, okay, there's actually opportunity here. The same is just happening on LinkedIn now.
There was a period of time on LinkedIn where you could literally post anything relatable and it would just go viral. Those days are gone. People now realize that it is the only B2B social network. And so if you're trying to sell to that audience, it is a great place to be. Every creator I talk to is struggling to keep up. It just feels like so much is changing so fast.
So what we did is we dive deep into 200,000 posts and we're looking at what is working right now. So that is a good representative sample of what is going on LinkedIn. That said, doesn't cover absolutely everything and it is not perfect. We're also layering on top my experience as one of the fastest growing creators on LinkedIn and someone who's helped more than 600 people to build their brands and businesses there.
Here are the eight critical algorithm shifts to pay attention to.
First one, the content format strategy. The old advice used to be just do carousels all the time because they got crazy reach. And that's true. In Q1 2025, they were getting 11 times the reach of text posts. However, the gold rush is now over. Carousels are still the best performing asset. They get 3.2 times the reach of text post. However, with more and more AI, it is more important to mix in more personal behind-the-scenes content. So, the winning strategy now it uses carousels, infographics maybe three or four times a week, but then also has personal pictures, which we'll dive into more later.
Other important component of this strategy is case studies. And the reason this works is that people are bored of purely abstract educational content. AI is everywhere, which means that people are looking for your humanity and they're also looking for reasons to listen to you versus listening to someone else. More on that later.
So, the second algorithm shift is thinking about your posts length. The conventional wisdom on LinkedIn was keep your post super short and choppy cuz that was better for engagement cuz it was easier to read. Whilst it is still good to make your post very easy to read, what we're finding is that longer and more conversational storytelling posts are getting up to 45% more reach than very, very short posts.
So, what is actually going on here? Consumers want to hear from real people rather than just quick scrolling. Someone who does this really well is Steven Bartlett. If you look at some of these posts, they sound exactly like he talks on his podcast, The Diary of a CEO. And that's the goal. You want people to read your posts and think that sounds exactly like you in real life. so that there's complete consistency because that makes you sound more authentic, which makes people trust you more.
Algorithm shift number three, your posts last longer. So the old belief used to be that if your post didn't perform in the first 60 minutes, it was dead. That is no longer the case. What we're seeing now is posts really starting to accelerate after 90 minutes. In fact, first 90 minutes doesn't seem to be super correlated with how a post does afterwards.
So what's actually going on here? LinkedIn have introduced suggested posts. They're also showing content from a longer time ago. I don't know about you, I'm seeing posts that are 3 weeks old in my feed. They're trying to surface older content that is super relevant and targeted. So, what that means is don't worry as much about the first hour. Just make really useful content for your target audience and you'd be surprised at how much longer it can actually live.
Algorithm shift number four, video content does not get you followers. I'm sure you see this everywhere. Video is the future of LinkedIn. Video consumption is up 36% since last year. Whilst these numbers may be true and we've seen on other platforms, video perform really well and that it is great for growing followers. However, what we're seeing is that video gets terrible reach and it's actually the second worst performing asset just above text posts. So, if you're trying to get more reach, you're better off even posting pictures of you, images, and carousels and infographics.
But that doesn't mean video is useless. Personally, I still try and post one video a week because it is better for building trust. So when people see you and hear you talk, they trust you a little bit more and they're more likely to want to work with you in the future. So what is the strategy? The strategy here is use video, but know that it is not going to get a lot of views and it is just there for trust building. And if you want to stay ahead of these algorithm changes instead of constantly changing what worked last year, you get these insights real time in the Say What community into what's actually working. Click the first link in the description to try it for free.
Algorithm shift number five. Motivational quotes are no longer winning. What you see on LinkedIn is the best performing posts are typically these motivational quotes or inspirational fluff. Whilst these do get good reach, what is working better now at growing your business is photos of you doing the work. They're getting two times the reach of text post and they actually build credibility.
So, what are examples of that? The photos of you working your desk, photos of you with clients or photos of you like presenting on stage. For example, here is a picture of me working late at night with a post talking about a mistake I made in my first business. The goal here is to help people see inside how you work. The mistake that I see here is that people start then just sharing selfies. Selfies don't really convey authority, but photos of you actually doing the work do. So, I highly recommend whenever you're going on a stage, make sure you get photos and videos of that that you can later use and turn into content.
Algorithm shift number six, commenting strategy. The best approach used to be just volume. Comment on as many posts as possible to get noticed. And yes, top creators comment a lot. And what we found is the top 5% fastest growing creators will leave full comments on 165 posts per week. That's more than 20 a day. But what's winning now is meaningful engagement. People are just seeing AI slop everywhere and they're just ignoring spam.
So really focus on commenting on people who are in your niche because if you comment on people in your niche, it may be seen by their audience who might also be your target audience. And don't over comment on just anything everywhere. I mean, I get this my post sometimes where people will just spam comment and it doesn't endear you to the creator. Remember, you're trying to build real relationships to grow your business, and that comes from saying something meaningful. The other thing as well is LinkedIn has introduced limits on how much you can comment in a day. We've had reports that is around 90, but it's actually unclear, and I imagine it varies from person to person based on how high risk they think you are.
Shift number seven, links actually aren't that bad for you. The classic fear is that you can't post a link in any of your LinkedIn posts because they kill your reach. Well, the surprising finding that we found was that posts with more than three links actually get 140% better reach. And remember, this is correlation, not causation.
So, what's actually going on here? Well, it's likely that posts with a lot of links that are really relevant and helpful get saved more. It's also likely that lots of clicks tell LinkedIn this content is really valuable. So, what's the takeaway for you? Don't be scared of including a link to your newsletter in every post. Remember, you're trying to own your audience. You're not just trying to post for the sake of it. Here's an example post that I did on a set of AI courses. This performed really well and got tons of newsletter subscribers, but despite having a ton of links in it. So, the takeaway, don't be scared of using links. And don't get me wrong, links do dampen reach a bit, but the point is here that if you had actually useful, valuable links, they could perform way better than posts with no links at all.
Algorithm shift 8, the hook strategy. So, what we've seen is that people try and use slightly controversial hooks to grab attention. But the problem is that the audience on LinkedIn has become completely normalized to these mildly controversial takes. And so what you need to do here is you need to say something more controversial or more scroll stopping to get people to actually stop and read what you have to say.
The other approach I really love is when you hook with your authority. What does that actually mean? You use your expertise and credentials to tell people why they should listen to you on a certain topic. This is completely defenseful in the age of AI because people can copy what you say, but they cannot copy your proof. Here are a couple examples I really love that bring this to life.
So, first one is John. So, John was a Navy Seal team leader. He wrote his take on leadership and put it in a format where he told people why they should listen to him. If you see in the hook, he references the fact that he was a Navy Seal. And he also tells people he's going to give him 20 years of leadership experience in 60 seconds. That's a ton of experience condensed into a short amount of time for the reader. This post performed phenomenally well.
Here's another example. So, Melody spent a long time at Google. In this post, she talks about the career lessons she learned from 17 years at a really famous company. So, what she's saying here, she's condensed the best of her 17 years into just six lessons. And she's delivering extra value here by saving her readers time.
So, I've been through these eight algorithm shifts. And there's really a couple of overarching takeaways. One, create really useful content. And two, show your humanity. That means bringing in more personal stories. And it means using your experience and your authority to tell people why they should listen to you. Because remember, in content creation, you need to tell people why they should listen to you over anyone else out there. And there's a ton of competition.
So, onto your 2026 LinkedIn action plan. The most important thing with all of these principles is that you test and optimize all the time. So, what I recommend is you post every day for a month and at the end of the month, you look at okay, what perform best in terms of impressions and then you form hypotheses on why those things perform well and try to come up with how can you double down on them. For example, maybe it's a topic that performed well or maybe it's a post format like your carousels all performed well or a story where you lost $100,000 client or something like that. Then you just want to double down again and again on the work for you. And that's how you build targeted but powerful LinkedIn following. And the reality is it's only going to get harder because more people are going to post on LinkedIn over time and you're going to be competing for the same eyeballs.
And this research is just scratching the surface. There is so much changing all the time on this platform. And if you want to find those tips, they're in the Say What community. Most people are still posting short carousels, avoiding links, and hoping that their motivational quotes go viral and get them leads. But these things don't necessarily grow their business. The eight changes I just shared with you in this video aren't predictions. They're based on analyzing more than 200,000 posts, real creators getting real results.
So, if you want to stay ahead of these changes instead of getting left behind, take a look at the Say What community, where we're constantly analyzing what's working and sharing it with our members. Hit the first link in the description to join now. and I'll see you in the next video.