The NEW LinkedIn Strategy Dominating in 2026 — Transcript

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1. 0:00Something changed on LinkedIn this year,
2. 0:01and the founders I talked to are able to
3. 0:02feel it without being able to name it.
4. 0:04Your posts used to do fine. Same effort,
5. 0:05same topics, but now the reach isn't
6. 0:07there. So, you assume you got worse or
7. 0:09just blame the algorithm and post less.
8. 0:10Here's what actually happened. The
9. 0:12LinkedIn timeline simply got way more
10. 0:14crowded due to more people posting on
11. 0:15the platform and the rise of all these
12. 0:17AI tools. I run content for over 30
13. 0:19founder-led accounts at Compound, and
14. 0:20I've watched this shift hit every single
15. 0:22one of them the same way over the past
16. 0:23few months. The founders who understood
17. 0:25it are now reaching people who have
18. 0:26never heard of them and turning those
19. 0:27strangers into pipeline. So, let me show
20. 0:28you exactly what changed in the strategy
21. 0:30that's working on LinkedIn right now.
22. 0:32So, there are a few forces at play here.
23. 0:33The first thing is AI content
24. 0:35commodification. Over the past year in
25. 0:37particular, there have been the rise of
26. 0:38a lot of AI tools, whether it be just
27. 0:40Claude or ChatGPT or even
28. 0:41LinkedIn-specific AI tools that promise
29. 0:44to help you write posts faster and
30. 0:45easier. And because of this rise of
31. 0:47LLMs, the barrier to entry to create
32. 0:49content has gone down drastically.
33. 0:51Before, you actually had to sit down and
34. 0:53think of ideas and go through the
35. 0:54difficult work to formulate your
36. 0:56thoughts into a coherent post. Now, you
37. 0:58enter in a prompt in Claude
38. 1:00and you have a passable post in seconds.
39. 1:03Some people argue this is a good thing.
40. 1:04I understand the thought process. You
41. 1:05want to make creating content more
42. 1:07accessible, but it also makes the
43. 1:08timeline a lot more crowded with very
44. 1:11average content. And independent of AI
45. 1:13and all these new tools, more and more
46. 1:15exacts and founders are posting content
47. 1:17on LinkedIn. It's gone from over the
48. 1:18past 2 to 3 years a fringe marketing
49. 1:21strategy that only a handful of people
50. 1:23used to now being pretty commonplace. A
51. 1:25lot of companies will raise a round of
52. 1:26funding and immediately go and hire
53. 1:28someone to run their founders LinkedIn.
54. 1:30And for good reason, it's a very
55. 1:31powerful channel for B2B marketing. But
56. 1:33because more and more exacts are
57. 1:35starting to understand this, similar to
58. 1:36the trend that we saw with those AI
59. 1:38tools, the platform is just becoming
60. 1:40more crowded and more competitive. And
61. 1:41what it takes to stand out is evolving.
62. 1:43And on top of the increased competition,
63. 1:45LinkedIn as a platform is not making
64. 1:47growth any easier. And there are a few
65. 1:48forces at play here, too. First and
66. 1:50foremost, they seem to be suppressing
67. 1:51organic reach in favor of paid media,
68. 1:53which is not all that surprising. A lot
69. 1:55of social platforms go through this
70. 1:57progression as they mature. For the past
71. 1:59few years, there's been a ton of free
72. 2:01organic reach on LinkedIn, and now
73. 2:03they've got more and more B2B founders
74. 2:05and creators on the platform, of course
75. 2:07they're going to want to get people to
76. 2:08spend more ad dollars. Now, there's also
77. 2:10just the reality that LinkedIn as a
78. 2:11platform is all over the place. When you
79. 2:13compare it to other social platforms
80. 2:15like Instagram, even Facebook, TikTok,
81. 2:18LinkedIn as a product is just very all
82. 2:21over the place, and a lot of the updates
83. 2:22that LinkedIn product team seems to be
84. 2:24making just don't make sense. In
85. 2:26particular, recently, if you go on the
86. 2:28timeline and refresh your feed, you'll
87. 2:29see the same post appear over and over
88. 2:31and over again. I mean, there's just no
89. 2:33reason for that to happen. They're also
90. 2:35trying to emulate the interest graph
91. 2:37that TikTok helped pioneer by
92. 2:39introducing suggested posts, but a lot
93. 2:41of these suggested posts that tend to be
94. 2:42posts with a small handful of likes that
95. 2:44aren't very relevant to you. So, the
96. 2:45LinkedIn team seems to be making some
97. 2:47questionable decisions on how to build
98. 2:49their product, which is making the user
99. 2:51experience worse. So, you have the
100. 2:52suppressed organic reach, and the
101. 2:54product itself is not in a great place
102. 2:56right now. All in all, it's a pretty
103. 2:57difficult environment. The thing is that
104. 2:59LinkedIn is still the default channel
105. 3:01for B2B marketing. You can reach B2B
106. 3:03buyers on Instagram or Facebook or
107. 3:05TikTok or Twitter, but LinkedIn is still
108. 3:07the de facto B2B content marketing
109. 3:10channel, and until a true competitor
110. 3:12comes to take its place, it is going to
111. 3:13stay that way. So, you want to learn how
112. 3:15to adapt and succeed even in a more
113. 3:17challenging environment. Now, if you
114. 3:18want the whole picture on this, I write
115. 3:20a weekly newsletter called Social Files
116. 3:21where I break down everything you got to
117. 3:22know about founder-led content for B2B
118. 3:25company. It's where I go way deeper than
119. 3:26I can in just one video. So, it's
120. 3:28entirely free. If you want to check that
121. 3:29out, I'll drop the link in the
122. 3:30description for you to sign up. So, now
123. 3:32that you understand what's changed on
124. 3:33LinkedIn over the past year and how it's
125. 3:35making it more difficult for you to
126. 3:37grow, we got to talk about how you adapt
127. 3:38cuz like I mentioned, LinkedIn isn't
128. 3:40going anywhere despite the challenges
129. 3:41it's having right now and that
130. 3:43challenges you might be feeling at this
131. 3:45very moment, it's still the best channel
132. 3:47to reach B2B buyers. How do you [music]
133. 3:49adapt? There are two ways to overcome
134. 3:51these headwinds. First is the content
135. 3:53level. So, how do you change the content
136. 3:55that you're publishing to make it more
137. 3:56likely it's going to get served to your
138. 3:58ICP? And the overarching theme here is
139. 4:00that you want to find ways to create
140. 4:01content that is very obviously not
141. 4:04AI-generated. One, because LinkedIn
142. 4:06itself has come out and said that
143. 4:07they're working to keep AI content from
144. 4:10being surfaced. So, you don't want it to
145. 4:11get flagged by LinkedIn itself. But,
146. 4:13also, readers don't want to read AI
147. 4:15slop. So, you want to have ways to prove
148. 4:17that your content is unique. And you
149. 4:18want to have a moat against these LLM
150. 4:20tools. And there are three ways you can
151. 4:22do that. One is through a narrative
152. 4:23mode. One of the pieces of advice that I
153. 4:25give to all the founders that I work
154. 4:26with and how I train my team to write
155. 4:28exceptional content is to pair every
156. 4:30take with a story. It's no longer enough
157. 4:32to post generic advice content or how-to
158. 4:34content. So, five tips for growing on
159. 4:36LinkedIn not enough. You have to pair
160. 4:38that with a story or a narrative. There
161. 4:40are two variants of a narrative that you
162. 4:42can include in content. So, one is
163. 4:43actually making the entire post one
164. 4:45singular story. One common way this
165. 4:47shows up with founders is the origin
166. 4:49story. run this post with every single
167. 4:51exec that we work with and it crushes.
168. 4:53Pretty much just telling the story of
169. 4:54how and why you started your company.
170. 4:55The other way you can use narrative in
171. 4:57content as a moat is by using supporting
172. 4:59anecdotes. So, the entire post doesn't
173. 5:00need to be a story. Even this video
174. 5:01you're watching right now is still
175. 5:02advice content, but I'm using specific
176. 5:04stories and anecdotes and examples from
177. 5:06my day-to-day that make this content
178. 5:08unique to me. You can do the same thing
179. 5:10in your content. So, look at this post
180. 5:11that I wrote. It's a very simple hiring
181. 5:13post. Nothing that revolutionary. This
182. 5:15probably took me 10 minutes to write.
183. 5:17Yet, it got almost 60,000 impressions,
184. 5:19which is quite a bit and almost 600
185. 5:21likes, got reposted 20 times, almost 170
186. 5:24comments. This post ripped, but it was
187. 5:25simple, easy, and pretty standard
188. 5:27relative to the content you would have
189. 5:29seen on LinkedIn 2 years ago. The one
190. 5:31thing that I made sure to include was
191. 5:32specific anecdotes in the copy that make
192. 5:35this content specific to me. So, a few
193. 5:37examples here. I made sure to shout out
194. 5:39the specific new hires that we made and
195. 5:41and call out that we made these two
196. 5:42hires already. I included this line for
197. 5:44the first 3 years, myself my head of
198. 5:45content were the de facto head of client
199. 5:47services. As we continue to mature, it's
200. 5:49time to change that. So, again, telling
201. 5:51part of my company story in this very
202. 5:52simple hiring post. And then for this
203. 5:54freelance job posting, including this
204. 5:56section about how I get a bunch of DMs
205. 5:58asking if we take on freelance writers
206. 6:00and we're finally opening it opening it
207. 6:02up. Again, that's not something that AI
208. 6:03would know if I just asked to, "Hey,
209. 6:05write me a hiring post." And I think one
210. 6:06of the things that keeps founders from
211. 6:07using more narrative in their content is
212. 6:09that they believe that every post has to
213. 6:11be one of those long-form, single
214. 6:14narrative pieces of content. And those
215. 6:15can be quite overwhelming to sit down
216. 6:17and write. Like when we work on a
217. 6:18narrative post for a client, like an
218. 6:19origin story post, that'll take almost
219. 6:21an entire day to do exceptionally well.
220. 6:23So, don't just rely on that. Use
221. 6:24supporting anecdotes, too. And you can
222. 6:26still do advice content just by using
223. 6:28those specifics, as well. The second
224. 6:29moat you have that will make your
225. 6:30content stand out is called a data moat.
226. 6:33So, share unique, proprietary data that
227. 6:35only you have access to. Again, the
228. 6:37through-line here is that AI cannot copy
229. 6:39that data. On top of that, people on
230. 6:40LinkedIn love data visualizations. If
231. 6:42you can put unique data into a chart or
232. 6:45a graph, people will eat that up. One
233. 6:47example of someone who does this very
234. 6:49well is Peter Walker at Carta. He's
235. 6:51their head of insights, I believe, and
236. 6:53he just consistently posts graphs and
237. 6:55charts and data visualizations using
238. 6:57Carta data about the startup and VC
239. 6:59ecosystem, and it crushes every time.
240. 7:02So, here's an example from him where he
241. 7:03talks about some of the trends in the
242. 7:04market when it comes to seed rounds and
243. 7:06the valuations and the number of seed
244. 7:07rounds that are being done in the market
245. 7:09at the moment. This is all data that's
246. 7:10coming from Carta. And as you can see,
247. 7:13it does quite well. Almost 300 likes, 80
248. 7:15comments, 22 reposts. That's very strong
249. 7:17by today's standards on LinkedIn. And
250. 7:18you have to imagine that a lot of these
251. 7:20visualizations are getting shared in
252. 7:21group chats and Slack channels, driving
253. 7:23that dark social behavior that so many
254. 7:25of us are after. There's likely
255. 7:27something in your company right now that
256. 7:28you can turn into a LinkedIn post like
257. 7:30that. Now, the third moat you have
258. 7:31against AI content and just the more
259. 7:33crowded timeline in general is what I'm
260. 7:35calling a physical moat. Taking things
261. 7:37from real life and putting them on
262. 7:38social as content. This is why IRL
263. 7:40photos are often the best-performing
264. 7:42media type. So, if you're doing a new
265. 7:43hire highlight post, taking a picture
266. 7:45with said new hire and including them in
267. 7:47that post will help it perform better
268. 7:48because it's proof that this is a real
269. 7:50person and you're not just putting this
270. 7:52through Claude. It's also why if you
271. 7:54ever go to an event or a conference, you
272. 7:55should always get pictures. Always get
273. 7:57B-roll photos that you could use in
274. 7:59content. And it's why often times the
275. 8:00purpose of doing conferences or dinners
276. 8:03or in real life stunts is to get that
277. 8:05social footage because it does so well
278. 8:07on the timeline. One funny way this
279. 8:09shows up is a lot of times startups will
280. 8:11get billboards either in San Francisco
281. 8:12or what you'll often see is like they
282. 8:14get their logo on the Nasdaq billboard
283. 8:16in Times Square and then the founding
284. 8:17team will take a picture with it and
285. 8:19post it on LinkedIn. I'd imagine they
286. 8:21get more visibility and more impact from
287. 8:23that photo they post on LinkedIn of the
288. 8:25billboard than they do the actual
289. 8:27billboard itself. This phenomenon plays
290. 8:29out over and over again and it's one of
291. 8:31the best ways to insulate yourself from
292. 8:33this AI slop infestation. Where I would
293. 8:36start is if you have an in-person
294. 8:37office, turn your office into a set.
295. 8:39Have someone on your team could be your
296. 8:40marketing person or social media follow
297. 8:42you around and just snap photos of you
298. 8:44going throughout your day and taking
299. 8:45B-roll footage of people behind the
300. 8:47scenes in the office. It'll feel kind of
301. 8:48weird at first cuz like I don't want to
302. 8:49be an influencer, but having that
303. 8:51library of images and footage to use in
304. 8:54content when it's relevant will go such
305. 8:56a long way and it's just such a low
306. 8:58lift, so why not do it? Now, the content
307. 9:00is one part. The second part to adapting
308. 9:02to the current state of LinkedIn is what
309. 9:04I call bending the algorithm. You cannot
310. 9:06just rely on the organic algorithm to
311. 9:08serve your content to the right people.
312. 9:09I'm not even seeing content from people
313. 9:10who I know I want to see content from.
314. 9:12And there's likely people in your
315. 9:13audience who miss seeing your stuff.
316. 9:15Haven't seen it in weeks or months or
317. 9:16maybe even the past year. So, you want
318. 9:17to increase the likelihood that people
319. 9:19are going to see that content. And
320. 9:21despite its recent faults, one of the
321. 9:22things that LinkedIn has above pretty
322. 9:24much any other social platform is it
323. 9:26does give you more control over who's in
324. 9:29your follower base, who's in your
325. 9:30audience. Cuz when you send a connection
326. 9:32request to someone, if they accept it,
327. 9:33it's automatically a a follow. They're
328. 9:36likely going to see at least the next
329. 9:37one to two posts that you publish. And
330. 9:39if you get them engaging, then they
331. 9:40might end up in that flywheel. So, what
332. 9:42I'd recommend is send every single day
333. 9:4420 outbound connection requests. Every
334. 9:46weekday, Monday through Friday, do that.
335. 9:48That'll add up to about 100 outbound
336. 9:49connection requests per week, which is
337. 9:51the upper limit on LinkedIn for most
338. 9:53people. In that way, every week you're
339. 9:55manually feeding people in your ICP into
340. 9:57your audience. In that same 10 to
341. 9:5915-minute window when you do that, go
342. 10:00and leave five to 10 comments on other
343. 10:02people's content. Ideally, other people
344. 10:04in your ICP or influencers that your ICP
345. 10:07also follows. That way you're building a
346. 10:09bit of reciprocity. So, if they see you
347. 10:11commenting on their stuff, they're
348. 10:12likely going to go at least check out
349. 10:14your content. And if it's relevant,
350. 10:15they'll also engage and comment. That's
351. 10:17usually what happens on social
352. 10:18platforms. And even if that doesn't
353. 10:20happen, the people in your ICP that are
354. 10:22following the people whose posts you
355. 10:24commented on are seeing your comments in
356. 10:26the comment section. And a lot of times
357. 10:27these days, comments will get more
358. 10:29impressions than posts themselves. So, I
359. 10:31know it feels silly to sit there on
360. 10:32LinkedIn and go and search for content
361. 10:34to comment on. But, don't spend hours
362. 10:36doing this. Even just 15 minutes a day
363. 10:38leaving five to 10 comments in addition
364. 10:40with your 20 outbound connection
365. 10:41requests helps you bend the algorithm in
366. 10:43your favor and make it more likely that
367. 10:45people are going to see your content.
368. 10:46Now, earlier I mentioned that LinkedIn
369. 10:47is really pushing thought leader ads and
370. 10:49it's depressing organic reach a bit. And
371. 10:50I don't think you should fight this. I
372. 10:51think you should actually lean in.
373. 10:52Thought leader ads are really promising
374. 10:54ad unit for the reason I mentioned
375. 10:56earlier. If you look on the timeline and
376. 10:58find a thought leader ad, it doesn't
377. 10:59really look that much like a paid post.
378. 11:01If I look at this post that I I saw just
379. 11:03now, look under his name. You see this
380. 11:04tiny little promoted text. That's the
381. 11:06only indication that it's an ad. So, if
382. 11:08you take your best performing organic
383. 11:10pieces of content, ideally best
384. 11:12performing that also attracted a lot of
385. 11:13your ICP, and put some budget behind
386. 11:15them as a thought leader ad, that's a
387. 11:17great way to again control the algorithm
388. 11:19and make sure the right people are
389. 11:21seeing your content. What I'd recommend
390. 11:22doing here is using a tool like Apollo.
391. 11:24You can connect to the cloud and
392. 11:25actually have it do a search for
393. 11:26companies in your ICP. If you have some
394. 11:27documentation around the type of
395. 11:29companies you want to target, build a
396. 11:31list, and you can upload that list of
397. 11:32companies directly into LinkedIn. And
398. 11:34the match rate isn't going to be
399. 11:35perfect, but it's often better than
400. 11:37LinkedIn's native filters. And again, it
401. 11:39just increases the likelihood the right
402. 11:40people from the right companies are
403. 11:42going to see those posts that you decide
404. 11:43to put some budget behind. What I would
405. 11:45recommend is start with like $30 a day.
406. 11:47So, it still comes out to about $900 a
407. 11:49month, but when it comes to ad budgets,
408. 11:51if you're in marketing in B2B, you know
409. 11:53that's not that much. So, I'd start
410. 11:54there just to get some extra impressions
411. 11:56from your ICP on a regular basis. And
412. 11:58then you can scale from there if you
413. 11:59find that any particular post is
414. 12:01performing well. One pro tip with that
415. 12:02leader ads, too, is you can actually
416. 12:04edit the post. So, let it run
417. 12:05organically without a link. Even though
418. 12:07links don't actually hurt performance
419. 12:08anymore, you don't want to put a link in
420. 12:09every single post organically. So, let
421. 12:11it run without a link for about a week.
422. 12:13After that, you can go in and edit the
423. 12:14post and add a URL as a PS line, which
424. 12:17sort of serves as a call to action if
425. 12:19you decide to boost it as a thought
426. 12:20leader ad. Because when you boost
427. 12:21content as a thought leader ad, you have
428. 12:23to use the brand awareness or the
429. 12:25engagement objectives. You can't put a
430. 12:27direct call to action button in the ad.
431. 12:29can get around this by doing the editing
432. 12:31content trick that I just mentioned. You
433. 12:33edit the content, you put a PS line with
434. 12:34that URL. That URL shows up even when
435. 12:37it's boosted, so it serves as the call
436. 12:39to action button for the ad. And done
437. 12:41right, you can drive a good amount of
438. 12:42landing page clicks to your email list
439. 12:44or to a lead magnet. And again, the
440. 12:45point here is that you're no longer just
441. 12:47relying on LinkedIn's organic algorithm.
442. 12:49If you're playing that game, you could
443. 12:51have some success, but it's going to be
444. 12:52very unpredictable. Now, I want to call
445. 12:54out one really common mistake that
446. 12:56founders can make when they hear this
447. 12:57advice, specifically around the
448. 12:59narrative mode I mentioned earlier. A
449. 13:01lot of founders hear that they need to
450. 13:02include more stories in their content
451. 13:04and talk about things that AI can't
452. 13:05copy, and they over index on personal
453. 13:07story-based content, which actually
454. 13:09isn't that relevant to your ICP. So, you
455. 13:11want to include stories and narratives,
456. 13:13but make sure it's about stuff that your
457. 13:15target audience actually cares about.
458. 13:16So, one easy example of this done poorly
459. 13:19is, you know that common meme where it's
460. 13:20like, "I just got engaged. Here's what
461. 13:22it taught me about B2B sales." That's a
462. 13:23pretty common way that people will try
463. 13:25to gain attention on the algorithm.
464. 13:26Well, they'll post personal events and
465. 13:28it'll get a ton of engagement and
466. 13:30visibility cuz people want to engage and
467. 13:32show their support, but it's not
468. 13:33actually that relevant. And you can do
469. 13:34that occasionally. Like, for example,
470. 13:35when I moved to New York, I made a post
471. 13:36on LinkedIn talking about how I'd been
472. 13:38considering it for the past 2 years and
473. 13:39I finally made the decision and that
474. 13:40post is one of my highest performing
475. 13:42pieces of content in the past few
476. 13:44months. Did it drive a bunch of leads?
477. 13:45Not really, but it helped me stay in the
478. 13:47LinkedIn feed. But, if I made every
479. 13:49single post about that, like my personal
480. 13:51life and stuff that's not related to
481. 13:52content marketing, that if you're going
482. 13:54to work with me, you're going to care
483. 13:55about, it wouldn't do that much for my
484. 13:56business overall. So, you want to make
485. 13:58sure the stories and the personal
486. 13:59anecdotes that you are deciding to
487. 14:00include in your content are actually
488. 14:02relevant. So, this should likely be
489. 14:04conversations that you had at
490. 14:05conferences or on sales calls or
491. 14:07experiences with past customers that
492. 14:09you've worked with. In that way, you can
493. 14:10tap into this narrative mode without
494. 14:12going super broad and top of funnel in a
495. 14:14way that dilutes your audience and the
496. 14:16quality of the impressions and
497. 14:18engagement that you're getting on
498. 14:19LinkedIn. Now, if you only take one
499. 14:20thing from this video, take this. The
500. 14:22founders who win on LinkedIn are
501. 14:24publishing content that is uncopyable by
502. 14:27AI. They tap into narrative and data
503. 14:28modes that allow them to stand above the
504. 14:31noise on the timeline. So, this week,
505. 14:33when you're writing your next post, run
506. 14:34it through that filter. Is there some
507. 14:36sort of narrative, data, or physical
508. 14:37mode that I can add to this content that
509. 14:39elevates it above the AI noise on the
510. 14:41timeline? If the answer is no, you still
511. 14:43have work to do, but after watching this
512. 14:44video, you should be in a good place to
513. 14:46execute this. So, I hope this helped.