Metricool, a global social media management platform, today unveiled its third annual LinkedIn Study, providing a comprehensive overview of LinkedIn users' post performance and how content and engagement are evolving on the platform. For the first time, the study expands to include data from both LinkedIn Company Pages and Personal Profiles, reflecting broader usage behaviors and trends across the platform.
While traditional metrics like likes, comments and shares are down year-over-year (YoY), with likes down 13%, comments 17% and shares 10%—Metricool found overall engagement is up nearly 14%. This growth is driven by a phenomenon called “invisible interactions,” where actions like clicks, carousel swipes, video views and link taps signal user intent even if not publicly visible. Carousel content’s rising popularity underscores users’ growing preference for interactive formats that go beyond traditional reactions. Metricool’s findings reflect a broader shift on LinkedIn as the platform continues to evolve its algorithm, with growing emphasis on credibility, relevance and deeper forms of engagement.
“Social media managers have relied on likes and comments for years as the clearest signs of engagement, but that picture is changing,” said Juan Pablo Tejela, CEO and Co-Founder of Metricool. “This year’s data shows that some of the most important engagement signals on LinkedIn are happening in ways that are less visible but often more meaningful. The challenge now is understanding which metrics actually reflect impact and building content strategies around that shift.”
Key findings include:
- Clicks increased 5%, while likes, comments and shares dropped
- Personal Profiles outperform Company Pages on engagement, with a 63% higher engagement rate on average
- Company Pages get shared more, while Personal Profiles drive significantly more comments
- Only 7% of LinkedIn Company Pages grew enough to move into a higher follower tier, underscoring how difficult sustained growth has become
- Carousels and multi-image posts continue to outperform standard image and video posts across most key metrics
- Polls are still one of LinkedIn’s most underused opportunities, delivering the highest average impressions on Company Pages despite accounting for less than 1% of posts
Content behavior on LinkedIn is split between brands and individuals. While Company Pages and Personal Profiles generate similar average impressions per post, personal accounts drive more interaction and stronger engagement overall, especially for smaller and emerging brands. Meanwhile, Company Pages remain more likely to generate shares, making them an important tool for distributing polished, credible content.
Metricool’s LinkedIn Study also highlights a growing mismatch between what users post most often and what actually performs best.
“Our data showcases how quickly behavior on LinkedIn is changing,” added Tejela. “Last year, video was one of the clearest growth stories on the platform. Now, we’re seeing that just because a format becomes more amplified doesn’t mean it is most effective.”
For Company Pages, image and video posts make up nearly 75% of all content published, yet formats like carousels, multi-image posts and polls consistently outperform them in impressions, interactions and engagement. For Personal Profiles, video is now the most-used format, but it underperforms relative to carousels, image posts and multi-image content—marking a shift from Metricool’s 2025 study where video emerged as one of LinkedIn’s fastest-growing formats. The 2026 data suggests that while video has become more common, adoption has outpaced performance.
The full 2026 LinkedIn Study, including detailed platform benchmarks, format analysis, performance by follower size, industry breakdowns and strategic takeaways for social media managers, marketers and creators, is available here: https://metricool.com/linkedin-trends-study/
Methodology
Metricool analyzed 673,658 LinkedIn posts published by 63,108 accounts worldwide between January–February 2025 and January–February 2026.
Metricool is a global social media and online ad management platform that serves more than 2 million professionals, agencies, and brands in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Spain, France, Germany, and Latin America. They help social media managers simplify tasks, automate processes, and unify tools to plan and execute successful campaigns. Metricool is a trusted partner of global brands including Louis Vuitton, David Guetta, Adidas, H&M, Costco, etc.
