The SHOCKING Truth About LinkedIn (2025 Study)

Okay folks, it's, uh, Con Sotidis here. Yes, I'm here with an impromptu LinkedIn Live. Uh, I thought I'd do this and see how it goes with the impromptu one as opposed to being one that's planned. Hopefully some of you will see this come up on your feed and, uh, we'll click and have a look. But what I want to do this impromptu is because I've just come across the latest study by Metricool on LinkedIn, and guys, it's just mind-boggling. I just Just need to share this with you because it's just amazing data we're getting through. I did one recently that came through from Social Media Insider, but this, this is just some amazing data. So, Metricool, thank you very much. I will tag you in this eventually. But this is such amazing data that I just needed to share with you, especially now that I'm doing a lot more with the smaller providers and businesses and, and helping them with their LinkedIn. So just want to share this with you. Let's bear with me. I've just got it myself. It's fresh off the press. I've just seen it. I'm just trying to digest it myself. So let's work through this together and see how we go. Okay, so let's add it to the stage here. There it is there. So there it is. It's a LinkedIn study by Metricool, and what they did is they actually analyzed the number of accounts. So there's the beginning, and I can share the link to the study if you want to later on. So we'll see here, and I'll just make it a bigger screen. They actually analyzed over half a million accounts, and they looked at a variety of accounts, so from small ones, mediums, bigs, and huge. So we've got a good cross-section of data here, and that's very, very important in this day and age. So when we're looking at data, we're looking at it from a broad perspective, not just those big accounts, those ones that got their massive social media teams. We're looking at a broad range of accounts here. Let's go through this now. Let's have a look. So let's see what it's telling us. So when it comes down to, um, looking at this particular data, we can see that LinkedIn health is very strong. Interactions are up by over 31%. So let's have a look at that and see how we go. There we are, there it is. How good is this? So we can see here now that 31%, up by 28%. Video content has grown by 53%. Now let that sink in for a while. I've been pushing video with my clients and with others. 53% over the past year. The platform is not slowing down, so neither should you. If you take anything away from this, it's encouraging to see what we've seen with some of the content that's been posted here. Here we are, we've got a bit of a health check to see how it's going. All the markets are in green, and some like clicks, interactions have really taken off. 12.24% is the number of average monthly posts on LinkedIn. I've been speaking to a lot of you lately about this 1% of LinkedIn, the 90-90-1. There's nearly 1.2 billion people on LinkedIn. In Australia, we've got about 17 million. Only about 1 or 2% are creating content. Get in there, create some content, show us who you are, show us what you got. So here we are, who's posting the most? Of course, the bigger ones are posting the most. They've got the capacity, they've got the capability, but the small and medium ones are not far behind. So if you're one of those categories, there is hope for you to get traction on the platform. 22% increase in impressions with accounts fewer than 1,000. That could be you. That could be you if you're starting out on your journey. We've seen 22% increase in impressions. Although the bigger pages are posting more, the huge accounts averaging 43 posts, there is still a kicker. The smaller accounts with under 1,000 followers saw a 22% increase. How good is this? Data shows steadily positive trend for virtually all accounts. Pages with more than 1,000 followers are getting 13% more engagement than last year. Comments are booming. Again, I've been talking to people about this lately. Comment, comment, comment. Especially if you're a small or medium-sized page. They're up by 24% and 18% respectively. Sharing might be down, but engagement, well, it's on the way up. What I want to do is just quickly jump into the good news. Clicks are soaring, comments on the rise, but they're not so good is that shares are mostly down. So if you're sharing content, maybe put that sort of strategy in the cupboard for a while because they're not getting as much traction. Here is the one that we've all known about, we've heard about, and now we've got some validation. 53% increase in video content over the last year. Video is on fire. Not just more being posted, but impressions also jumped by 73% on video. And views are up 52%. It is clear LinkedIn's focus on video and its strategy is favoring video. If you have been putting off doing video, I deplore you. I ask you, I plead with you, start doing video. It will get you some traction on the platform. There it is. There you can see we are competing with a lot of the other platforms out there. TikTok is going gangbusters, Reels, and so is YouTube. But LinkedIn is holding its own, especially when it comes to views, video views. So skyrocketing, skyrocketing. Sorry, I'm just so excited. Interactions, look at that. Massive engagement and frequency. It is clear that LinkedIn is going to focus on video in the short to medium term. Here we are. This is a nice profound statement from Metricool. LinkedIn has finally embraced video content and it's grown faster than any other platform. While this trend is promising, LinkedIn still doesn't match the leading video platforms in absolute numbers. However, if this growth continues, it won't be long before it catches up. Here's your call to action, guys. You're looking to get ahead on LinkedIn? Now's the time to focus on video before the competition picks up. Like any trend, people will jump on it sooner than later. Are you going to be the later? Are you going to be the sooner? How about growth? Yes, the other platforms are doing okay, but it's also the platform with the biggest challenges. And opportunities that are there. So it's growing bigger than Facebook, growing bigger than X. It's got a little way to go before it gets up to Instas and TikToks and YouTubes in growth-wise. The next part is about analysis by sector, and I'll let you have a look at that on your own. It goes through a couple of sectors, but these are some key conclusions. Size does not matter when it comes to engagement. If it works, double down. If something is working for you, then do it again. Specialized content doesn't scare, it attracts. So if you're in a sector with the highest clicks, such as financial services, utilities, and gas, your content is working well. LinkedIn is the ideal platform for your content. This is something I was surprised in. This is something that I was really surprised to see. During COVID we saw polls explode. They went wild and crazy. But now we're starting to see them come back into vogue. Polls are not— are the least used format in only— oh geez, what's that? 0.000 34% of publications, but they achieve the highest reach. I was talking to some clients this morning and doing some training on polls, and actually suggested they do one a month. Use it as strategic intelligence. Capture the mood of the meeting. Capture the mood of your network. Very, very powerful, this part, this slide. So what content formats are working best? Carousels are winning. They're what we call in Australia those PDF documents that we upload. In America, they call them carousels. Highest engagement, nearly 46%. Polls, not used a lot but very effective. Text-only posts, still relevant. But they lag behind images, carousels, and videos. One of the strategies I deploy with my clients is to not post without an image, a video, or some sort of visual. I think that's the way to go. Text posts do have a position and a place, but visuals with a post are always what I suggest to my clients. And like the guy says there, data is clear. Be visual, be dynamic. It's all there for us to see. So when it comes to formats that work, carousels lead in engagement interactions. Polls underrated. I'm going to go back into polls. I don't know about you, I'm going to start doing a poll at least once a month. Text only? Better not. Give us some visual effects. Aha, best day to post on LinkedIn and the best time. This does vary from location to location and geography, geographic regions, in my view, but I think it's best to post during the morning. I was saying to a client this morning between 8 to 10 AM and also in the evening between 4 to 5. Now, this is some data they use, so I'm not going to deny this is not right. I think Thursday is a good day because it's not— it's past that sort of hump day, but it's also not the last day of the week. And 5:12, why 5:12? Well, most people are in on the bus, uh, they're at home, they're about to sit down and relax, and what are they going to do? They're going to look at their LinkedIn feed to see what's been happening for the day. What have they missed out on? So there's a good one for you to keep in mind as well. Whatever you do, but be present and be consistent on LinkedIn. Now we do have this situation where 30% of our publications contain links to external sites. There's been a bit of a furf in the past that don't put a link, put in the comment. I've not noticed much. detraction from posts in relation to that. I hear Richard Vanderbloem's, um, new report will be coming out soon, so hopefully we'll see more on that in relation to links in posts. Here we are, there's your answer confirmed with what I just said. No, posts with links have 4.9% more impressions, 13.57% interactions. Again, be interested to see what Richard does say on this. I know in previous reports he's mentioned the fact that they don't work as well. We're now seeing that changed by LinkedIn. So, put your links in the post. It doesn't limit your reach. So, what are some of the best practices? Use carousels to tell stories. Repeat content themes. Use video. LinkedIn wants video, so give them what they want. Carousels, we talked about. Rinse and repeat. If it's working, do it again and again. If it's resonating with your audience, I want to see more of it. I'm a big advocate of repurposing, so if you're doing something on TikTok, you're doing it on Instagram, repurpose it for LinkedIn. Create content for your different personas. The more you tailor your content to the specific audience you want to engage, the more relatable it will be. Allude to stronger connections and better results. So in conclusion, LinkedIn is and will always be a powerful platform for driving traffic. You need to look at LinkedIn as part of your social media strategy, especially when you're into business-to-business relationships. Carousels and polls are your new bestie. Start doing carousels, start doing polls, start creating video. Video content is going gangbusters. So there you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed that. That's a, a bit of a snapshot, quick snapshot into LinkedIn's A list of the recent LinkedIn study by Metricool. I will put the link as a comment to this, uh, live. I hope you enjoyed that. If you didn't get a chance to see it live, it will be available to you later on as a replay. It's also gone onto YouTube directly, so you can go to my YouTube channel, just look up the Social Selling Warrior, and you'll see it there as well. A great report, um, confirms some of the stuff that I've been talking about. It's even validated a lot of the stuff that I've been asking people to do around video and carousels. But for me, the eye-opener has been polls. I had lost hope with polls. I thought the polls were not as effective anymore, but they are back. They're back, baby, and they're back with a vengeance. Hope you enjoyed that. I'll try to do more of these impromptu videos for you. And hopefully you can catch up with them on the replay. Till then, remember the Social Selling Warrior— we help you sell the social way. Take care, have a great day. Thank you.