Metricool’s LinkedIn Study 2025, now paired with fresh findings from Socialinsider’s LinkedIn Benchmarks 2025, reveals a crucial shift: LinkedIn is no longer just a resume warehouse or a quiet hub for B2B thought pieces. It’s evolving into a dynamic, high-velocity content platform where brand visibility, engagement, and growth hinge on precision, speed, and format mastery.
Across both studies, we see clear patterns: audience activity is surging, but only brands that diversify formats, lead with authenticity, and post consistently are seeing outsized returns. At the same time, there are blind spots emerging—overuse of weak link posts, underinvestment in video storytelling, and a dangerous assumption that large audiences guarantee growth.
Winning on LinkedIn in 2025 requires more than showing up. It demands deliberate content sequencing, human-centered messaging, and a sharp focus on the formats LinkedIn’s algorithm actually rewards.
In this breakdown, you’ll get a clear view of the biggest findings, critical contradictions between data sets, and the emerging opportunities you can act on right now, before the window closes.
2025 LinkedIn Report: More Activity, Better Returns
LinkedIn’s user activity and platform health indicators are up, but not without some nuance.
Metricool shows rising clicks and impressions. Socialinsider backs this up, noting LinkedIn’s average engagement rate by impressions has jumped by 30% YoY, now sitting at 5%. Although activity is up, most of it is driven by a small fraction of active users. Over 90% of LinkedIn users still rarely post. Visibility is easy to earn if you commit to consistency.
Commit to a consistent posting cadence by building a monthly content calendar that mixes carousels, polls, short videos, and high-value text posts. Prioritize formats that trigger early engagement to take advantage of LinkedIn’s algorithmic boost. Brands that schedule at least 12–18 posts per month, focused on sparking interactions, can dominate while the competition remains sporadic.
Bigger Brands Are Doubling Down on Content
Posting volume correlates heavily with success, but quality still trumps quantity.
Metricool highlights that larger accounts post 43+ times per month. Socialinsider adds another layer: most brands post around five images and four links per month, with far fewer videos and polls. Posting more of the wrong formats isn’t as valuable. Socialinsider found link posts lag in engagement, suggesting that over-relying on them can actually hurt performance.
Shift 20–30% of your monthly posts from low-performing link posts into higher-engagement formats like native carousels and short videos. Turn blogs into document uploads. Transform product launches into short behind-the-scenes clips. Brands that reframe their static content into more engaging, platform-native experiences will not only see higher impressions but also deeper interaction and recall.
Engagement Is Up
The 1,000-follower tipping point is real, and it dramatically shifts the engagement curve.
Metricool points out that pages with over 1,000 followers saw a 13.75% increase in engagement. Socialinsider complements this, showing that smaller pages (under 5,000 followers) are achieving the highest growth rates overall—up to 40.75% YoY. Despite lower follower counts, smaller pages are gaining momentum faster, meaning brands that invest early in community-building can create engagement surges before hitting the 1K mark.
Build an intentional follower growth strategy by combining high-impression formats (polls, multi-image posts) with personalized outreach and employee amplification. Focus on crossing the 1,000-follower threshold quickly, because after 1,000, engagement rates start compounding instead of stalling. Treat the first 1K not as a vanity goal but as the foundation for scaling your entire LinkedIn marketing engine.
Comments and Clicks Are the New Gold
Clicks and comments are surging, but only when posts are structured strategically.
Metricool shows clicks exploding across the board. Socialinsider complements this by emphasizing that polls and multi-image posts are driving both high impressions and meaningful engagement. While traditional shares are down (Metricool), polls and carousel posts are enabling new forms of organic amplification, signaling a shift from passive sharing to active discussion.
Design every post with a clear “first move” for your audience, whether that’s voting, commenting, or clicking. Posts that spark immediate interaction within the first hour are rewarded by LinkedIn’s algorithm. Structure content around direct questions, micro-opinions, or value-driven CTAs that naturally pull users into participating rather than scrolling past.
Video Content Is LinkedIn’s Fastest-Growing Format
Video is exploding on LinkedIn—but not every video delivers the same payoff.
Metricool highlights a 73% increase in video impressions and a 52% rise in video views. Socialinsider sharpens the picture: videos now drive the third-highest engagement rate on LinkedIn—5.6%—but only when crafted strategically. Not all videos succeed. LinkedIn users favor videos under 90 seconds, loaded with immediate hooks, strong subtitles, and a real human voice, not polished ads or slow intros.
Build a video-first content series by prioritizing snackable, story-driven clips that start strong within the first three seconds. Create founder messages, quick insights, or “what we learned” narratives—not ads. Use captions religiously, and keep the format raw and real to mirror what users now expect in their feeds.
Carousels and Polls: Your New Secret Weapons
Carousels and polls are the most underleveraged but highest-performing formats on LinkedIn today.
Metricool and Socialinsider align: carousels lead in engagement (45.85% engagement rate) and polls deliver 206% more reach than average posts. Both formats aren’t just trending—they tap into LinkedIn’s current content preference for participatory, swipable, or vote-driven experiences.
Anchor at least 30–40% of your content strategy around carousels and polls. Use carousels to break down frameworks, insights, or story arcs in swipeable slides. Launch polls framed around strong opinions, emerging trends, or “choose your side” debates to spark immediate interaction and viral visibility.
Posting Links Isn’t a Penalty—It’s an Advantage
External links aren’t the engagement killers they were once thought to be—but they still require strategic framing.
Metricool shows that posts with links actually see 4.9% more impressions and 13.57% more interactions compared to posts without links. However, Socialinsider clarifies that links tend to lag behind other formats like carousels and videos in raw engagement rates. While posting links won’t penalize your reach, links alone won’t drive high-quality interaction unless embedded within a larger storytelling or value-driven context.
Reframe every link post around a narrative or insight. Tease the key takeaway before offering the link. Where appropriate, place the link in the first comment to keep the main post focused on driving engagement. When executed thoughtfully, links can complement, not cannibalize, your visibility and interaction goals.
Industries Winning on LinkedIn
Certain industries are pulling ahead by embracing a content-rich, engagement-first strategy.
Metricool’s sector analysis shows that technology, financial services, and niche B2B industries are outperforming others in impressions, clicks, and engagement. Socialinsider supports this by highlighting that sectors actively using native documents, video, and polls are leading the way. Large follower counts alone don’t guarantee high engagement. Niche expertise combined with content diversity matters more.
Table: 2025 Industry Breakdown
| Industry | Followers (Avg) | Impressions (Avg) | Weekly Frequency | Interactions (Avg) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technology, Information & Media | 19,992 | 1,295 | 2.7 | 120.76 |
| Financial Services | 9,663 | 1,016 | 2.32 | 79.87 |
| Public Administration | 17,932 | 1,009 | 2.78 | 107.02 |
| Education | 11,259 | 1,039 | 2.64 | 98.19 |
| Commerce | 7,485 | 905 | 1.96 | 93.88 |
| Manufacturing | 6,362 | 923 | 3.42 | 93.51 |
| Oil, Gas & Mining | 11,306 | 902 | 2.29 | 87.54 |
Benchmark your sector’s top performers and audit your content format mix. Prioritize building depth through document carousels, regular polling around industry topics, and thought leadership videos. If you’re in tech, finance, or specialized B2B markets, scale output now while visibility gaps still exist.
How to Win on LinkedIn in 2025
Winning brands are moving faster, testing more formats, and personalizing their content at every opportunity.
Both Metricool and Socialinsider converge on a crucial point: LinkedIn’s best-performing brands aren’t locked into one formula. They mix formats, experiment with tone, and prioritize authentic engagement over polished perfection. Algorithmic changes favor brands that maintain a high posting cadence while balancing diversity, polls, videos, documents, and short-form text posts all rotating through their calendar.
Structure your monthly LinkedIn plan around a “core and catalyst” system. Use carousels, polls, and short videos as core content pillars to drive reach and interactions. Then amplify results by layering in human-driven posts: employee spotlights, behind-the-scenes clips, trend commentary. Optimize not just what you post, but how quickly you respond to traction—boosting high-performing posts with engagement support in the first hour to maximize algorithmic momentum.
Download the 2025 LinkedIn Reports Below
