LinkedIn isn’t the platform you learned three years ago. It’s not even the same place that your marketing manager encouraged you to “do more on” back in Q1. LinkedIn moves fast.
The algorithm shifted. User behavior changed. What worked in 2022 or even 2024 barely registers in 2025.
If you’re still posting polished company updates and hoping for organic reach, you’re playing by rules that no longer exist.
Here’s what actually works now.
Rule #1: Messy Beats Perfect
Your most polished posts are your worst performers.
That perfectly crafted company announcement with branded graphics and corporate speak? It gets 47 likes from your colleagues and dies.
But the post where you admit you screwed up a client presentation? That gets reshared, commented on, and remembered.
LinkedIn users scroll past perfection. They stop for authenticity.
Old approach: “We’re excited to announce our Q4 results exceeded expectations.”
New approach: “I bombed a sales call last week. Here’s what I learned about why prospects really say no.”
Raw beats polished. Every time.
Rule #2: Your Employees Are Your Marketing Team
Company pages are dead zones.
Unless you’re paying for ads, your company posts reach about 2% of your followers. The algorithm treats business pages like spam.
But personal profiles? They still get organic reach.
Your employees’ posts about your company perform better than your company’s posts about your company.
The shift: Stop asking your marketing team to manage the company LinkedIn page. Start enabling your employees to share their experiences working at your company.
A post from your engineer about solving a technical problem beats any marketing-written thought leadership piece.
Rule #3: Conversation Trumps Consumption
Likes are vanity metrics. Comments drive reach.
A post with 50 likes and 2 comments gets buried. A post with 20 likes and 15 comments gets amplified.
LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritizes content that starts conversations, not content that gets passive approval.
The strategy: Stop trying to impress people. Start trying to engage them.
End every post with a question. Make claims that invite debate. Leave something slightly incomplete so your audience fills in the gaps.
“What’s your take on this?” isn’t lazy. It’s strategic.
(Flip this rule on its head, too: You should comment on posts from people you admire. A rising tide lifts all ships.)
Rule #4: Your Profile Is Your SEO Strategy
LinkedIn is a search engine now. (Remember, it’s search everywhere optimization.)
When prospects research your company, they don’t just look at your website. They search for your team on LinkedIn.
If your profiles don’t show up for relevant keywords, you don’t exist in their evaluation process.
The fix: Treat your LinkedIn profile like a landing page.
- Use keywords your buyers search for
- Write headlines that solve problems, not just state titles
- Include outcomes in your experience descriptions
- Make your “About” section customer-focused, not ego-focused
“VP of Marketing” tells people nothing. “Helping manufacturing companies turn expertise into authority” tells them everything.
Rule #5: The First Three Lines Are Everything
Nobody reads your full post. They read your opener and decide whether to expand.
If your first three lines don’t hook them, they’re gone.
Bad opener: “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the importance of customer service in today’s competitive marketplace…”
Good opener: “Our biggest client almost fired us last month. Here’s what saved the relationship.”
Front-load your value. Save the setup for later.
Rule #6: Your Internal Slack Threads Are Your Content Goldmine
Stop brainstorming LinkedIn posts in isolation. Your best content is hiding in your company’s internal conversations.
That explanation your engineer gave about why a system failed? That’s a post.
That customer success thread about recurring objections? Content gold.
That operations update about a workaround everyone’s using? Your audience needs to see it.
The strategy: Set up a #content-ideas Slack channel. Drop one useful internal conversation per week. Turn it into a LinkedIn post.
Your audience doesn’t want your brainstorm session outputs. They want your real expertise, captured in real time, solving real problems.
Rule #7: Comments Matter More Than Posting
You don’t need to post every day. You need to engage every day.
Thoughtful comments on others’ posts often generate more opportunities than your own content.
When you add value in someone else’s comment section, their audience notices you. When you just post to your own followers, you’re preaching to the choir.
The strategy: Spend 80% of your LinkedIn time commenting, 20% posting.
Find posts from your ideal prospects. Add genuine insights in the comments. Build relationships there.
Rule #8: Document Your Learning, Not Your Expertise
Stop posting what you already know. Start posting what you’re figuring out.
“Here’s what I learned this week” beats “Here’s what I know” every time.
LinkedIn users don’t want to be lectured by experts. They want to learn alongside people who are solving problems in real time.
The shift: Replace “5 Ways to Optimize Your Process” with “We tried to optimize our process. Here’s what happened.”
Show your work. Share your experiments. Document your failures.
Real-time learning builds more authority than polished expertise.
Rule #9: Quality Beats Quantity (Finally)
The days of posting twice daily are over. The algorithm rewards engagement rate, not posting frequency.
One post per week that generates real discussion beats seven posts that get polite likes.
The math: 1 post with 100 meaningful interactions > 5 posts with 20 meaningless reactions.
Focus on creating fewer, better posts that actually start conversations.
Rule #10: Your Customer Problems Are Your Content Calendar
Stop guessing what to post. Start listening to your customer support tickets.
Every “How do I…” email is a LinkedIn post waiting to happen.
Every “What happens if…” question is content your prospects need.
Every frustrated customer call reveals exactly what your market struggles with.
The system: Ask your customer success team for their top 3 questions each week. Turn those questions into posts.
Your content calendar shouldn’t come from editorial meetings. It should come from real people asking real questions about real problems.
When you answer customer questions publicly, you’re not just helping one person. You’re building authority with everyone who has the same question but hasn’t asked yet.
What This Means for Your 2025 Strategy
Stop optimizing for the LinkedIn that used to exist. Start playing by the rules of the LinkedIn that is.
Out: Perfect company posts with branded graphics In: Raw employee stories with authentic insights
Out: Daily posting for algorithmic favor
In: Strategic posting for genuine engagement
Out: Broadcasting your expertise In: Starting conversations about industry challenges
Out: Company page management In: Employee advocacy programs
Out: Hashtag research and optimization In: Natural keyword usage and authentic voice
The Bottom Line
LinkedIn changed because user behavior changed. People want authentic connections, not corporate broadcasts.
They want to engage with humans, not brands. They want conversations, not presentations.
Your 2025 LinkedIn strategy shouldn’t be about gaming the algorithm. It should be about building genuine relationships with real people who have real problems.
The algorithm will reward you for that. But more importantly, your prospects will too.
The new rules aren’t really new. They’re just more human.
And in a world of AI-generated content and automated outreach, being genuinely human is your biggest competitive advantage.
Use it.
