What’s Working on LinkedIn in 2026

Andréa Jones [00:00:00]:
Gather round, gather round. We're talking about one of y'alls favorite platforms today, LinkedIn. And to be honest, LinkedIn has felt like that friend where you can just reconnect with and it's like nothing ever changed or happened. Maybe minor things, but it feels like a. A familiarity there. That's how I feel about LinkedIn right now. I feel the opposite about other platforms. I swear Instagram, every time I log in, something's different.

Andréa Jones [00:00:26]:
So if you're feeling that feeling with me, let's talk about LinkedIn today and what you can expect in 2026. But first, a word from our sponsor. Riverside is the all in one podcast recording and editing tool that I use for this right here show. I use it to edit not only the audio in the video, it is like Chef's kiss. Magical. Making the entire process so, so easy. Plus, I love their Magic AI clips. Their little AI robot in the background pulls out the most impactful moments of the episodes without me having to comb through and do it myself.

Andréa Jones [00:01:02]:
Resizes them for social media. So those vertical videos you see on TikTok and Reels, those all come from Magic AI inside of Riverside. It's literally one click. It spits out 10 clips. I pick the best one and away I go. Saves me so much time. If you want to get on the Riverside train, check it out today, the links in the show notes and make sure to use my code drea D R E A at checkout to get 15% off your membership. All right, LinkedIn.

Andréa Jones [00:01:31]:
Now, this is my eighth year doing the LinkedIn challenge. It's still wild to me that it's been eight years that I've been doing this. And so it's been eight years that I've been talking about this on the podcast. And LinkedIn is still one of my favorite platforms, especially if you are a coach, a consultant, a service provider, anyone who serves other business owners or even connects with other business owners in some sort of way. LinkedIn is such a powerful tool for that. And it's not just a resume. I still hear this from people. They're like, oh, LinkedIn is stuffy.

Andréa Jones [00:02:07]:
It's a resume. It's just for job search and job hunting and all of that. But honestly, LinkedIn can be a very, very powerful tool for personal brands and businesses as well. I mentioned this last year, so I'll mention it again, that Snoop Dogg is on LinkedIn and some of the content that he's posting just makes sense for him. The evolution of his personal brand as he's like building out Multiple companies. And so I definitely see this as an opportunity for business owners to be on the platform as well. I mean, if Snoop Dogg can do it, you can do it, too. Now, a couple episodes ago, I talked about this idea of proof, like decision proof, content versus performance content.

Andréa Jones [00:02:48]:
And I think LinkedIn definitely falls into that category. As I'm noticing the shift of content on the platform. I'm not saying people aren't performing because let's be honest, the intern will continue to be the Internet forever and always. Amen. So there will be people who are performing. And honestly, in the age of AI, it's gotten way worse. It's gotten way worse. I'm just going to say it.

Andréa Jones [00:03:09]:
There are so many people out here on these LinkedIn streets posting AI gobbledygook, which is fine, good for them, good on you. But I want to talk about the power of using LinkedIn as a business owner in a quieter way, in a way that's more thoughtful and meaningful, and in a way that leans into conversations with real humans, like in the comment section, and direct messages, how to optimize your profile like a human. And I'm going to talk about the latest algorithm changes on the platform in this episode. But I want to be clear in that LinkedIn is definitely not for vanity metrics, especially like the other platforms. You know, Instagram, we're always looking at likes and comments. TikTok, we're looking at views. YouTube, we're looking at views. It's not really like that here, which is why I love this for you.

Andréa Jones [00:03:57]:
But also I want to emphasize that as we're going into talking about LinkedIn, it's not about numbers. It's not about the number of people you connect with. It's about the quality of those people. And if that really resonates with you, I'm going to invite you to join us for my LinkedIn challenge. The eighth one, you can go to onlinedrea.com LinkedIn. It's a five day free challenge and I'm going to walk you through five key, important pieces that you can shift in your LinkedIn strategy to really make it make sense for you in 2026. All right, now let's talk about what's working on LinkedIn here now. And today I want this to feel like a strategy that you can actually do, not a strategy that will burn you out.

Andréa Jones [00:04:39]:
Okay? And this is something that I see happen a lot when people approach a new platform. There's a natural energy, there's a natural excitement there, which is great. I love that and also there's only so long we can keep that momentum up. And a lot of what I talk about to you may sound boring, and it's boring on purpose because the boring stuff is actually what keeps the business going. Okay, you start with a burst of excitement, but the sustainability comes in the day to day repetition of doing these tasks. So what's working right now? Text based posts. Okay, Text based posts. That means your post has no photo, it has no video, you just have text.

Andréa Jones [00:05:17]:
It's almost like a little mini blog post, especially when you infuse some storytelling or your unique perspective, your unique point of view in whatever it is you're doing. So you're pulling in client examples, you're talking about your day to day life. You're sharing things that really resonate with you. And lately I've been testing this strategy of like super short, almost like Twitter thread style posts. Those have been doing well, something like quippy and punchy. But also the longer posts do really well too. You're really engaging people and taking them on a journey with you. You know, like, here's what happened before, here's what happened during and here's what happened after this situation and here's why this matters to you, right? And so those text based posts are honestly for a lot of us, easier to create because we don't have to worry about a visual component.

Andréa Jones [00:06:04]:
We don't have to worry about designing a graphic in Canva, we don't have to worry about going to Capcut or Instagram Edits to edit a video. We don't have to worry about exporting it as a PDF so we can have that beautiful slideshow. It's just the te in the post. And I noticed this last year when I audited everyone after the LinkedIn challenge. Everyone in my membership gets a free audit. And I audited the people who submitted. And this was the number one thing that I saw was that across the board engagement was increased on these text based posts. So don't make it fancy, just show up as you are.

Andréa Jones [00:06:39]:
Another thing that's working really well is human first profiles. So I talk a lot about this with larger organizations, but even if you're an organization of one, we want to lead with the human first element of it. And I know like some of us are like, ah, do we have to be out there? And my answer is yeah, unfortunately yes. There is something in our human psychology where we like connecting with other humans. And that is even more true on LinkedIn. This is not the platform where you want to Have a mascot or where you want to be represented by a logo, your page, that's perfectly fine. You can have your page have a logo or mascot, but your personal profile should have a human first element to it if you really want to connect with the right people. I'm talking having a headline that reads like a human, having a very emotionally connective about section, and having somewhere for people to go after they kind of engage with your profile next.

Andréa Jones [00:07:34]:
Another thing that's working really well on LinkedIn right now is commenting as a strategy. And I call this commenting as if you're posting okay. And I'm not talking about like just saying congratulations or good job or nice pick or that's interesting. Like, those are fine. You can sprinkle those in. I still find myself doing that here and now and again as well. But the main thing that I want you to take away from this is that you're commenting with something that not only the poster, like the original poster can engage with, but you're commenting so that other people can engage with you as well. And you'll notice this as you're scrolling through your LinkedIn feed.

Andréa Jones [00:08:13]:
You will see posts that your connections have commented on, even if you're not connected with the original poster. Okay, so you're commenting as a strategy. You're participating in this community as a strategy. You're dropping your little IP, your little nuggets, your little wisdom across LinkedIn and people really engage with that. And I don't know about y', all, but I am like a run straight to the comments kind of person. Like when I see a post that's interesting, but before I leave a comment, I go and read the other comments. Yes, ma'. Am.

Andréa Jones [00:08:40]:
I like to see what everyone's talking about. I like to be a little nosy. I'll know this. And so when I get into the flow of networking on LinkedIn, a lot of times for me that's not posting. I still post, but I put way more effort and attention into two things. Commenting is the first one and the second one is direct messaging. Okay? And I'm gonna say thoughtful direct messaging for this because, all right, we gotta be thoughtful with it because how many times have we gotten like a cold ass pitch in our LinkedIn DMS? It feels like sometimes some people be on these LinkedIn streets just out here trying to. Popcorn, get your popcorn.

Andréa Jones [00:09:24]:
You know what I mean? Like hot dogs, $2. And it's like, I didn't sign up for this, you know? And so we don't want to be confused with those people. And so when I say thoughtful dms, typically I am either starting or continuing a conversation. So how about how I start conversations when I meet someone at a networking event? This is my favorite way to do this. When I meet someone at a networking event, I use LinkedIn as a complimentary tool to keep in touch with that person. So yes, I will send them a connection request, but if we had a conversation that I want to follow up with, I will send them a voice message. Okay, you have to do this on LinkedIn, the mobile app, a voice message so I can be like, hi, this is Andrea. We met at so and so event.

Andréa Jones [00:10:06]:
We talked about such and such thing. Let's connect so that we can continue the conversation. This way they don't think I'm just copy pasting a bunch of these. Okay. I'm using specificity so that I can be like, hey, this is just for you. I'm not doing this for everybody. And I use my voice, which has much more of a warmth to it than my texting. I basically have whatever the equivalent of resting bitch face is.

Andréa Jones [00:10:32]:
But for text, like my text based messages just come off a little. I don't know, the word is they just. I lose my personality now. So I try these voice as much as possible. And this thoughtful DM strategy has gotten me so far in life. Two of my biggest like personal success stories from this are long term partner that I've had for a long time, business partner. Y' all remember social report? This was back in the day. That was a LinkedIn DM.

Andréa Jones [00:11:01]:
Okay. That's how we connected. And then one of my past clients, expert VR, we worked together for years, LinkedIn, that's how we connected. And so there's a thoughtfulness to this strategy that can work really well for you, but you can't be one of those cold pitching people. We don't want to be confused with that. All right. One other thing that's working really well on LinkedIn right now is a little bit of like a technical element, but it's making sure that your profile is in creator mode. And I'll talk more about that in the challenge.

Andréa Jones [00:11:31]:
But if you just search creator mode on LinkedIn, make sure that's turned on because you get a link in your profile and we want to give that link in the profile so that people have somewhere to go after they look at our profile. And then the last thing that I'll say is still working on LinkedIn is creating a posting rhythm that works for you. Nine times out of ten, I'm going to tell you what most of my clients fall into, but I just want to preface this by saying you have to find something that works for you. Okay? Something that works for you. And you'll notice that I don't fall into this category. If you audit my LinkedIn, you'll see that I do more than this. That's because I'm a marketer and we do the most. Okay.

Andréa Jones [00:12:12]:
And I'm always trying things out so that I can bring the best strategies to you. But for most of my clients, all you have to do on LinkedIn is post one time a week and try to comment within that week. Five comments a day. Remember, comment as if you're posting and try to connect with one new person a day. That's it. Okay? So if LinkedIn is your strategy, I want you to think about, how can I create one piece of content this week? How can I comment as if I'm posting five times in a day? And by a week, I mean Monday through Friday. Okay. And then how can I make one new connection within that day? Okay.

Andréa Jones [00:12:50]:
What we're not going to do on LinkedIn, these are the things that I've tested and that don't work for most people is posting every day. Okay? Again, I'm the exception to this because I'm a marketer. I try a lot of things. You may notice that I pretty much post every day. But you'll also notice if you look at my week, one of those five posts do well. Okay? So posting daily is not it. You don't have to do it. You don't have to do it.

Andréa Jones [00:13:12]:
And if you want to do it, go for it. But again, nine times out of 10, most of my clients feel incredibly burnt out by trying to post every day. Just try to post once a week. The second thing that I noticed that just tends to not be worth the effort is putting a link in every post. I know that as a business owner, we want to direct people to our products, our offers, and our services. However, one, the LinkedIn algorithm doesn't like links because you're taking people off of their platform when they could serve ads to those people. That's how they make money. They want to keep people in their platform.

Andréa Jones [00:13:44]:
Okay? So the algorithm is going to decrease your reach. The second thing is people don't actually like a lot of links. We're not in the age of clicking links on the Internet. You know, scroll back 10 years. Yes, we loved a link. Give us the link. We want to click it. Now people are on LinkedIn.

Andréa Jones [00:14:01]:
Or they're on whatever platform, they're on Facebook, Instagram, whatever. They're there to enjoy the platform. Okay. A lot of times they're not really looking for a link. And so your posts serve a different purpose. Are you looking to connect or are you looking to convert? 9 times out of 10, so every 10th post we can try to convert, but most of the time we're looking to connect, we're looking to build a relationship with someone. And so we don't really need a link on every post. And here's what's also not worth the effort is treating your profile like a resume.

Andréa Jones [00:14:38]:
I, I coach a lot of business owners on this, especially those of you who have a full time job. There's a balance between posting about your business and posting as if you're looking for a job. This is not that I don't teach that strategy. There are lots of people who do go to them to figure out how to get a job from LinkedIn. My people, y' all want business from LinkedIn. The other thing is your company page, your business page is not the focus of your LinkedIn strategy. Okay? For most business owners this is not the case. It's not worth the effort to try to grow your business page.

Andréa Jones [00:15:09]:
There are some exceptions to this, like I said with all of these, but for the most part you can let that page be, just leave it be. You can post occasionally, a couple times a year, you can repost from your personal profile. But most of the time we're going to just let that company page, the business profile, exist and, and so that people can find you and you can direct them to your personal profiles. And the last thing that's just not worth the effort is trying to copy all of these like bro marketers on LinkedIn who like, I don't even know how to describe what they're doing right now because it's almost like scare tactics. It's like the, it's like those infomercials that we used to watch back in the day. We're like, oh, can you not open a cabinet? Are you fumbling around? Well, boy, do I have a solution for you. And it's like, I don't know, I need that energy. My life, if that's you go off, don't let me change your mind too much.

Andréa Jones [00:16:06]:
But not for me, not for me. So I want to talk about what actually this means for you and your business if you decide to commit to LinkedIn in 2026 and how growth kind of manifests and show ups because it's not about followers. Okay? It's not about how many people you have connected with on LinkedIn. It's about the quality of those people and the quality of those connections. Okay, so we're going to talk about what that looks like and some of the metrics you can track. But I will say this. When I. When I started teaching this last year, so I redid my framework this time last year, January of 2025.

Andréa Jones [00:16:42]:
And I really talk about metrics a lot in this framework because there are tangible metrics and intangible metrics. So on LinkedIn, your tangible metrics are things like new connections. So how many new connections do you make every single week? Conversation starter. So how many conversations have you started every week, whether in a comment or a dm? And then impressions. How many impressions did your post get within a given week? Okay, so that's typically what I recommend. Those are tangible metrics. But for intangible metrics, I want you to think about how you feel using LinkedIn. Because if you don't like being on here and some people don't.

Andréa Jones [00:17:17]:
Okay, I actually know a lot of people who are like, I tried it, it didn't work for me. I didn't like it There. There's another party for you, hon. Like, we can go to a different place that you actually like spending time, and I promise you, you can probably find your people there too. Okay, so do you even like spending time here too? Do you like creating and crafting content for LinkedIn? Because that also if you don't like writing, for instance, I'm not a huge writer, so I actually ended up using repurposed content a lot from this podcast and repurposed that over to LinkedIn. But if I just sit down and had to like write everything from scratch for LinkedIn, it would just take me a lot longer. This is not for me. So do you actually like creating content there and then do you actually like building connections this way? I was having a consult call with someone who's not who.

Andréa Jones [00:17:59]:
She was very introverted and she was like, well, you're extrovert, you understand? I was like, haha, wait, hold on, ma'. Am. I'm an introvert. Like y'. All. I know, I know, I'm friendly. I'm a friendly introvert, though. Like, I can put it on.

Andréa Jones [00:18:13]:
And I. I like speaking. That's fine. I like doing this podcast. But literally, me recording this podcast right now, I'm in my home by myself, talking to no one except for you. So yeah, this is like introvert friendly. Same thing for LinkedIn. I can log on, spend like 15 minutes like looking around, leaving a comment, and they don't have to look at it for another day.

Andréa Jones [00:18:38]:
Like, that's very introvert friendly. But even she was like, I don't like putting myself out there like that. I don't like jumping into conversations. It feels kind of aggressive to me. And so we came up with another strategy for her which actually will, it will take her a little bit longer, but it'll help attract more people to her without her having to like jump into conversation. So she's actually going more of a search based approach with her content marketing and her visibility strategy. You don't have to do LinkedIn if it doesn't work for you. For me, it works for me because I don't feel like I have to speak in front of a million people every single day.

Andréa Jones [00:19:14]:
I can just do that on the Internet. All right, you don't need to go viral. That's the other thing I want to say as I wrap up talking about growth on LinkedIn. You do not need to go viral. In fact, you don't need to go viral on any platform. But especially on LinkedIn, it really is about the depth and the visibility with the right people versus the masses. So here's what you can do right here, today, right now to get busy on LinkedIn. One, go to your LinkedIn profile right now.

Andréa Jones [00:19:46]:
If you have in your profile what you do, who it's for and why it even matters to that person, you're on the right track. If you cannot answer those three questions, I have something for you. And two, what you can do right now, right now is open up LinkedIn, look at your feed and find one post to leave a comment on. Okay, so those two things will massively help you on LinkedIn. But if you want more, of course, come on and join us in the LinkedIn challenge. It's happening next week, February 16th through the 20th. It's free. We're going to build or rebuild your LinkedIn strategy together.

Andréa Jones [00:20:26]:
I have some people who've joined me all eight years of doing this strategy and every year they're like, huh, I learned something new. Which is so fun. I love seeing that. You can go to onlinedrea.com LinkedIn. The link will also be in the show notes. And hey, if you like this podcast, make sure you rate and subscribe and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. That love goes a long way to helping people find this podcast and help them mindfully market their business as well. I'll be back at you next week with another episode.

Andréa Jones [00:20:56]:
But that's all for today. Bye for now.