LinkedIn® was founded in 2002 and launched in 2003 as a place for business professionals to connect. It has always been a place to find a job, hire someone, or learn more about a business and its people.
However, in recent years, the platform has changed massively. Two of the biggest notable changes were when Microsoft bought it in 2016, and when the pandemic hit in 2020 These situations were two of the biggest catalysts for LinkedIn becoming a more human-led, person-to-person platform.
In March 2020, the platform had 675-million members; and at the end of 2025, it had 1.3-billion. So, as you can probably note, the platform added almost as many members in the five years since the pandemic as it did in the 18 years before it.
LINKEDIN IS THE DIGITAL WATERCOOLER
These figures make LinkedIn the fourth largest social media platform in the world (after Facebook and Instagram that have 3-billion members each, and TikTok which has 1.6-billion members).
The pandemic in particular led to accelerated growth, in terms of members, because people wanted to connect to their colleagues, associates, and other professionals and have the ‘digital watercooler’ conversations with them.
Now, throughout 2025, LinkedIn went through some of its biggest changes since its inception.
WHAT CHANGED ON LINKEDIN IN 2025?
Of course, we can all point to the rapid rise (in terms of actual implementation) of artificial intelligence which LinkedIn has started embracing (most recently with its ‘Brew360’ software), but there have been a number of other changes too.
A key update is that more features have become ‘pay-to-play’, such as personalised invites (which are limited to a handful for free accounts) and access to ‘who’s viewed your profile?’ which has been removed altogether for anyone who doesn’t have a Premium account or pays for Sales Navigator.
Other 2025 updates have centred around sponsored posts. It started with the ability to boost posts from the company page. This involved a simple process of simply putting some money behind a post, boosting it for a few quid a day to reach more people. Later we saw the launch (and rapid rise) of thought leadership ads, where a company could promote a post from a personal profile.
Most recently, LinkedIn have added the ‘boost’ button to personal profiles, for individuals to pay for their content to reach a larger audience. However, don’t get me started on the issues with this, not least that it’s emulating a feature from another platform – essentially, one that ultimately transformed the Facebook feed (and not in a good way). I’m sure we all certainly hope that the LinkedIn experience doesn’t go the same way.
ARE WE GETTING LOWER REACH ON LINKEDIN?
Many people are reporting that their engagement is down and content is reaching fewer people.
The days of huge reach are gone. The LinkedIn zeitgeist was around 2018 to 2021, with algorithm changes and Microsoft’s influence having a positive effect, resulting in attracting huge audiences and our content being seen by thousands of people. However, in 2025, we are reaching a much smaller proportion of our audience (approximately 5-10%).
According to LinkedIn, the focus is now on meaningful relationships – we may be reaching fewer people, but the ones who we do reach are the ones who want to see (or should be seeing) our content.
It’s impossible for us to see every piece of content from every single one of our connections, so our feeds are based upon a variety of things such as who we engage with, who’s ‘bell’ we’ve clicked, or which of our engaged contacts engage with other people’s content (amongst many other reasons). Ultimately, our feeds are related to the ‘relevancy score’ – the more you engage with someone, the more that the algorithm thinks you are relevant to each other, and therefore more likely to distribute your content to each other.
To paraphrase an old marketing cliché – it’s better to have our content seen by 100 interested people, rather than a thousand people who scroll past quickly. LinkedIn users may be upset with only 100 views – but if I said “let’s go to a networking event with 100 people in the room”, you’d be very interested.
WHAT SHOULD WE BE DOING ON LINKEDIN IN 2026?
As with any social media platform, if we don’t keep up with the changes, we’ll get left behind. LinkedIn isn’t going anywhere, but it is going through a transitionary period, and we have to stay abreast of the updates.
In no particular order, here’s a list of suggestions for things we should be doing on LinkedIn in 2026:
Relevancy over recency
The life of a post is much longer now, so content needs to be relevant for longevity. Whereas content used to be fleeting – lasting a couple of days – we now see content a week or two after it was first published. Post distribution is being staggered to your audience and is reaching the people who should be seeing our content. However, it depends on both parts of a post’s ‘double life’ – it will only be pushed out to your audience if it gets good early engagement, so make sure you’re posting content at times when your audience are likely to be online.
TIPS:
- Post when your audience are likely to be online. I have personally found that posts between 7am and 9am perform best, but test your own content.
- Don’t post too much ‘time-sensitive’ content, as your audience are less likely to engage after the event – try to focus on evergreen, helpful content. Even better if it’s something sharable.
Mix up your content
The video tab (remember that?) was a fleeting addition to LinkedIn, as they wanted to push more video content. Even after it was unceremoniously discarded, LinkedIn claimed that video views continued to rise. However, when I contacted in LinkedIn to complain about strangled reach, they said that carousels (document posts) perform best. This is because it encourages the ‘dwell time’ algorithmic feature – the longer someone dwells on (reads) your content, the wider the distribution.
TIPS:
- Try posting quick tips or a brief blog synopsis as a carousel (and perhaps create a template so it reinforces your brand and is easier to create next time).
- Try newsletters (if you haven’t already). This could be as easy as repurposing content from your ‘external’ newsletters, or simply an amalgamation of your LinkedIn posts.
- Create content that falls into the new analytics metrics – in particular, ‘saves’ and ‘sends’. Content that informs and teaches is more likely to be saved or sent on to connections.
Stop trying to go viral
Big numbers are great, but it’s hard to regularly go viral. There are so many dodgy tools, banned software, and cheaters on LinkedIn, often pushing people into engagement pods (groups of people and/or automation artificially engaging with others’ posts) – and this is because, for some, the lure of going viral is too strong. However, in 2026, LinkedIn will be focusing on streamlined audiences and smaller communities and networks. They have already announced that they will be clamping down on pods and anything that goes against the platform’s terms.
TIPS:
- Don’t use automation, tools, or pods to go viral – being found by the right people is better than being found by a massive (uninterested) audience.
- Create content pillars (or similar) which help you to stay consistent on the platform.
Curate the perfect audience
LinkedIn success doesn’t rely on a massive audience – it relies on having the right one. Sure, a huge audience is great, but they have to be relevant and engaged. As only a small portion of your audience ever see your content, you want the highest chance of reaching ideal clients, and therefore you should be curating that audience.
TIPS:
- Start curating your network – think about your ideal clients and start connecting to them, perhaps a few each week.
- Don’t forget to engage with your existing network, particularly those who you haven’t seen in your feed for a while.
- Cull your audience if you have to – get rid of the people who aren’t relevant to your business anymore.
Prove yourself
I can tell you until I’m blue in the face that I’m the best LinkedIn trainer, but you might not believe me. However, if I show you some testimonials and reviews where others have said this about me, it becomes more believable. This is because we thrive on social proof and the concept of ‘trust transfer’. Your audience want to see social proof and, in addition, they want to learn more about the ‘why’, not just the how. You want to be able to publish content that tells your story, shows you off as being an authority in your industry, and attracts your ideal clients.
TIPS:
- Write content that focuses on the why, not just the how.
- Ask for testimonials and make sure you share them.
- Regularly share content that shows you’re the authority in your industry.
LET’S MAKE 2026 OUR YEAR
LinkedIn is the new Facebook… and that’s a good thing. People are posting stories, sharing news, and making new friends. Ultimately, people buy from people, and we should be using LinkedIn to get to know each other.
2025 was a tough year with so many changes. In 2026, we need to go back to basics – curating a perfectly-formed audience and having conversations with them, through our content and in the comments.
After all, LinkedIn is the world’s biggest business networking platform, and we can’t know all 1.3-billion people on it. What we can do is curate the perfect audience and create content they want to read, while engaging on their content in return.
LinkedIn has always been about building professional relationships – that premise has never changed – and long may it continue.
