The LinkedIn sweet spot: 5 areas to focus on in 2026

1. Prioritize people over pages

The data is clear and compelling: On LinkedIn, individuals drive significantly more impact than corporate pages:

• Personal profiles get 2.75x more impressions and 5x more engagement than company pages. (Refine Labs)

The platform is prioritizing authentic, human-to-human connections. This means your best marketing tool is you and your employees.

Here’s where good design comes into play. Whether you’re posting for yourself or creating assets for your company’s employee advocacy program, adding an image can boost reactions, comments, and reposts by up to 40%.

The top of your profile page is valuable real estate. A good cover image can make your professional story more visually appealing. Maybe it’s a photo or a graphic that captures your personality and accomplishments or helps you promote a hero product, like Kenvue CMO Meredith Herman has on her account.

Action Item: Make it easy for your team to share high-quality, on-brand assets from their personal profiles with Adobe Express — especially when it comes to using cover images in the right dimensions.

2. Double down on video content

Video is no longer optional. It’s a central pillar of the LinkedIn experience, and the growth proves it.

• LinkedIn video posts grew by a massive 53% year-over-year. (Metricool)

Embrace short-form video — filmed or edited vertically — for quick tips or thought leadership content. It’s the perfect vehicle for showing your expertise or sharing your thoughts on a timely topic.

To help you level up, LinkedIn recently shared some quick tips to improve your video content, these include:

• Have a strong hook — don’t take too long to get to the point.

• Deliver your message with energy and enthusiasm.

• Use a simple or strategic backdrop to capture and hold attention, because distracting visuals pull focus from your message.

• Likewise, quality audio is key for viewership.

• Always end with a clear takeaway or next step that invites engagement, like founder AJ Eckstein does when he encourages viewers to “drop a comment below”

Action Item: Use easy editing tools (like those in Adobe Express) to maintain a consistent, professional look without high production costs.

3. Leverage the engagement power of carousels

When it comes to engagement, one content format stands head and shoulders above the rest: the carousel.

• LinkedIn Carousels are the top engagement driver, boasting an incredible 45.85% engagement rate and over 791 average interactions. (Metricool)

Carousels are created by uploading a single multi-page PDF document (not single images). The format is algorithmic gold because it increases "dwell time," which is the amount of time someone spends viewing your content as users swipe through.

You can repurpose existing blog posts and reports into visually engaging carousels. You can also use swipe-through storytelling to create tension and dramatic reveals in carousels. Or you can design specifically for the format. Ikea used the extended layout for a creative timeline celebrating the 40-year anniversary of their iconic meatball.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tolga-oncu_happy-birthday-ikea-meatball-activity-7376139280299061248--7qg/

Action Item: Use LinkedIn-optimized templates in Adobe Express to ensure your Carousel designs look sharp and professional for that all-important swipe.

4. Claim your authority with a newsletter

LinkedIn is making it easier for more accounts to build a loyal audience with newsletters, updating the access criteria for creating a newsletter.

• Pages with more than 150 followers and/or connections are now eligible to start a newsletter. (LinkedIn)

This feature is a powerful way to demonstrate your expertise within your professional network. It also helps you move past the noise of the feed and land your best thought leadership directly in your subscriber’s inbox — whether you’re running a corporate newsletter, like Mastercard, or offering weekly market commentary like Nuveen CIO Saira Malik.

LinkedIn gives you every opportunity to get eyeballs on your newsletter. New connections and followers automatically receive a notification inviting them to subscribe to your newsletter. Plus, LinkedIn sends an email and in-app notification each time you publish. Your newsletter also appears on your profile and in feeds.

Action Item: Use Adobe Express’ Brand Kit to easily store and access your logo and design a compelling header that establishes your topic authority from the very first impression.

5. Master the art of consistency

Posting quality content is vital, but consistent quality content is what truly drives long-term growth and visibility.

• The platform saw a generalized increase in action, with LinkedIn clicks growing by 28.13% year-over-year. (Metricool)

LinkedIn’s guidance is that you post at least once a week, which they say can increase your profile views by up to 4x and double your followers.

Meanwhile, commenting once a week can 3x your profile views. You can now even see how many impressions your comments have received, giving you deep insight into your influence within your LinkedIn community.

Of course, you don’t want to spam people, but if you’ve got something valuable to add to the conversation, say it! Building your network on the platform doesn’t just come from your own posts but by connecting with others and joining their conversations.

Action Item: Don't let your content be an afterthought. Use LinkedIn post templates and the Content Scheduler in Adobe Express to show up consistently, track your best-performing posts, and ensure you're always adding value.