Episode 205
The LinkedIn Plot Twists That Will Shape B2B Marketing in 2026
LinkedIn changed the rules in 2025 — fast, unexpectedly, and without warning.
In this episode, host Michelle J Raymond breaks down the five major plot twists every B2B marketer needs to understand before planning their 2026 LinkedIn strategy.
Key moments in this episode -
00:00 — The wild year LinkedIn kept us guessing
01:00 — Why LinkedIn impressions no longer mean success
03:00 — The shift toward relevance + intent metrics
06:00 — The rise of comments as a powerful visibility tool
10:00 — Company Page Premium: worth it or not?
14:00 — Social selling gets harder as spam increases
18:00 — The unexpected decline of video content
22:00 — LinkedIn moves from networking to discovery
24:00 — What B2B marketers must focus on in 2026
25:00 — Michelle’s final advice for staying consistent and effective
🧠 Key Takeaways
- Stop chasing impressions. Start designing content that earns Saves.
- Comments = visibility, trust, and relationships. Prioritise them.
- Premium for Pages can now function like a true landing page tool.
- AI-driven spam and automation have made rapport more important than ever.
- Short-form video isn’t the magic bullet marketers hoped for — proceed with caution.
- Consistency and community beat every algorithm shift.
CONNECT WITH MICHELLE J RAYMOND
- Michelle J Raymond on LinkedIn
- Book a free intro call
- https://socialmediaforb2bgrowthpodcast.com/
- B2B Growth Co newsletter
Today's episode is sponsored by Metricool. Make sure to register for a FREE Metricool account today. Use Code MICHELLE30 to try any Premium Plan FREE for 30 days.
#LinkedIn #B2BMarketing2026
Transcript
LinkedIn kept us guessing this year, and the plot twists were wild.
Speaker:Here are my five plot twists that I think will shape LinkedIn marketing in 2026.
Speaker:G'Day everyone.
Speaker:It's Coach Michelle J Raymond, your trusted guide for building your
Speaker:brand and your business on LinkedIn.
Speaker:And 2025 on LinkedIn, what a year my friends.
Speaker:What a year.
Speaker:It has been mind blowingly crazy, just how much things have changed this year.
Speaker:Honestly, I don't think any of us ever expected for it to
Speaker:turn out the way that it has.
Speaker:It is been twist and turn after twist and turn feels more like
Speaker:a Netflix drama most days.
Speaker:But the question is, what are those twists and turns that you need to pay attention
Speaker:to as a marketer going into 2026?
Speaker:Because some of these plot twists have been significant and will
Speaker:impact what you've been doing.
Speaker:Speaking of watching shows, I was watching a nineties fashion documentary and Anna
Speaker:Wintour, who's the editor of Vogue, everybody knows who she is and one of
Speaker:the things that she said in one of the episodes, and I'm, I'm not gonna quote
Speaker:her exactly, but she basically said, with fashion, if you stick to what's
Speaker:tried and tested, you'll get left behind.
Speaker:And I think that no truer word has been said when it comes to LinkedIn
Speaker:marketing strategies for 2026.
Speaker:In today's episode, I am gonna cover the five plot twists that
Speaker:I think will have the biggest impact on your marketing in 2026.
Speaker:And we're gonna go into those right after this quick word from our podcast
Speaker:sponsors, Metricool.
Speaker:Let's talk about plot twist number one, The Reach Rollercoaster.
Speaker:Never has there been a year where I've felt more uncertain about
Speaker:what's working and not working when it comes to LinkedIn content.
Speaker:And there was a very obvious shift away from reach ie the number of
Speaker:impressions that you get on your post.
Speaker:And you know, there were some days where I was thinking, do
Speaker:I even know what I'm doing?
Speaker:Because I would try things that I thought should work and they wouldn't.
Speaker:I would have posts that I put so little effort into take off, and
Speaker:it didn't seem to be a rhyme or a reason into what was happening.
Speaker:No particular type of content was resonating more than another, and so it
Speaker:really made me lose my way for probably two months, maybe three months all up.
Speaker:I'm just putting it out there listeners, if you felt like this, i'm human just
Speaker:like you, and yes, I play on LinkedIn all the time and I'm learning from
Speaker:the best people around the world and I'm experimenting with my clients
Speaker:to try and find out what's working.
Speaker:But honestly, when LinkedIn changed the rules of the game completely in
Speaker:June with no warning and really no guidance onto what things we would
Speaker:see would have the biggest impact, we had to piece all of that together.
Speaker:We saw them move away from impressions.
Speaker:LinkedIn then came out and said it's about relevance.
Speaker:So they would say that your content's not being seen by as many people, it
Speaker:is seen by more of the right people.
Speaker:I can't see any actual impact on my business or the inquiries
Speaker:that I get through LinkedIn being any better since they've
Speaker:effectively chopped things in half.
Speaker:So I am dubious about that because at the same time, they introduced a feature
Speaker:where I could pay to boost my posts.
Speaker:And so the cynic in me, yes, I do love LinkedIn, but it doesn't mean I have
Speaker:blind faith in everything that they do.
Speaker:But ultimately I think that boost feature and the timing of that
Speaker:coming out just made everything feel a little bit suspect to me.
Speaker:The upside to this is that I like the idea of moving away from impressions long term.
Speaker:LinkedIn have given us some new analytics, which left clues into the direction
Speaker:that they're trying to make us go.
Speaker:So things like saves.
Speaker:Things like sends.
Speaker:These are the kinds of things that LinkedIn are now looking to
Speaker:for more clues around what your audience are finding valuable.
Speaker:So going into 2026, I think we really have to think about, what is the type of
Speaker:content that your brand or you personally can create that other people find so
Speaker:valuable that they're going to hit save.
Speaker:Now that's one piece of the puzzle, but what else are you gonna mix
Speaker:in with that type of content so that you get the reach as well?
Speaker:What we find on LinkedIn, whether you like it or not, is those
Speaker:personal kinds of posts will always, always, always get more reach.
Speaker:It is just because we are humans supporting other humans.
Speaker:There are people out there that take it to the other extreme
Speaker:with their rage bait posts.
Speaker:Like those, those will take off because we all want to jump on board something and
Speaker:share our opinions and everyone's got one.
Speaker:And so from that perspective, it's really quite interesting to see
Speaker:what kinds of content will work.
Speaker:How do we measure success?
Speaker:I think that is going to be where most people, especially marketers, are gonna
Speaker:have the biggest problems going into 2026.
Speaker:You have to go beyond just measuring impressions.
Speaker:I know that they're the easiest, but here's what's gonna happen.
Speaker:You are going to get measured in comparison to the previous year,
Speaker:which is how most KPIs work.
Speaker:Everybody wants to see growth.
Speaker:And effectively at the same time, while you are improving and getting better and
Speaker:listening to all the great advice that you get from the podcast and implementing
Speaker:those changes, at the same time, the algorithm significantly has moved
Speaker:the other way and is actively working against you to have those big numbers.
Speaker:So we have to do things differently.
Speaker:I think plot twist number two is gonna be the one that is going to have the
Speaker:biggest impact on your marketing in 2026.
Speaker:Plot twist two might've been the one that I definitely didn't see coming
Speaker:to the extent that it landed, but the one that I'm most excited about,
Speaker:and that is the power of comments, both via Company Page and also of
Speaker:course on our personal profiles.
Speaker:Over the time that I've been working with my clients and training them
Speaker:over the last, you know, five, six years I have always said to
Speaker:them, it's not just about posting.
Speaker:Get out there and do comments.
Speaker:That's how you'll increase your visibility.
Speaker:And the main problem that I had with that when I was working with clients
Speaker:is they would then come back and ask, well, how do we measure that Michelle?
Speaker:And I could never give them analytics.
Speaker:It was just this arbitrary trust me, I know what I'm doing.
Speaker:It's good for you.
Speaker:Get out there and do more of it.
Speaker:Now, of course when somebody's paying you for training, they want a
Speaker:little bit more than just trust me.
Speaker:Now the good part is that LinkedIn with this plot twist number two, gave
Speaker:us comment analytics so we can now see the impressions that we're generating
Speaker:out of the comments that we are making.
Speaker:And I hope that we'll be able to see analytics for this
Speaker:on Company Pages as well.
Speaker:It's a prediction that I've got for Company Page Premium for 2026.
Speaker:I think it will move into there with some better analytics, so
Speaker:fingers crossed from me on that one.
Speaker:But now that we can measure it, and hopefully that does
Speaker:get easier, like I said.
Speaker:But now that we can do that, I think that the power of commenting has just
Speaker:leveled up because from all accounts, from lots of different people that I follow.
Speaker:What's actually happening right now is comments are getting
Speaker:more impressions than posts.
Speaker:Say it again.
Speaker:Comments are getting more impressions than posts.
Speaker:That is mind blowing.
Speaker:That is such an easy win for brands and individuals.
Speaker:Because you don't have to take the time and effort to create the actual content.
Speaker:So effectively you could drop down the amount of time that you're
Speaker:investing in putting posts out there.
Speaker:Increase that time in putting comments out there, and I think it will really build
Speaker:relationships and build your visibility.
Speaker:And both of those things are exactly what people want from
Speaker:their marketing on LinkedIn.
Speaker:So commenting must be a part of your strategy in 2026 to a whole new level.
Speaker:When I was at Social Media Marketing World and speaking at Uplift Live and also
Speaker:the Linked Summit in Denmark, I shared with everybody there the power of Page
Speaker:Advocacy and some of those steps were about getting your page to proactively
Speaker:go out and comment on posts that are out there in your industry, on your topics
Speaker:that your brand wants to be known for, and really contribute to conversations.
Speaker:Now, at that time, it was hard because we didn't even know the
Speaker:value of commenting as much.
Speaker:But my argument to the audience was, if your Page isn't out there
Speaker:commenting and you are just relying on it, showing up in the home feed,
Speaker:you are going to hear crickets.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You can tell when you scroll on LinkedIn, that Company Page organic posts, IE
Speaker:not paid sponsorship posts are not showing in the feed pretty much at all.
Speaker:So from that perspective by commenting and being proactive, you can get out there.
Speaker:It could be commenting on employee posts.
Speaker:It could be commenting on your customer's posts.
Speaker:It could be commenting on your distributors or manufacturer's posts, like
Speaker:there's so many people that make up your industry and other Pages that contribute.
Speaker:So get your page active and out there in the game.
Speaker:Let's get into plot twist number three.
Speaker:Plot twist number three, that I'm not going to say I didn't see coming as such,
Speaker:but I never expected the impact that it would have and that there would really
Speaker:be this much of a significant shift.
Speaker:Plot twist number three, try saying that quickly is all about the pay
Speaker:to play IE Premium products, being now available on Company Pages and
Speaker:personal profiles and seeing exactly what's being included in there.
Speaker:I've got videos that are up on my YouTube channel that I've created
Speaker:not that long ago, you know, within the last 12, 18 months.
Speaker:Back when I created them, when people would say, Michelle, should
Speaker:I have a free account or a Premium account, or a Sales Navigator account?
Speaker:I would strongly encourage people to stay on the free accounts until they came up
Speaker:against something that was blocking them from getting the results that they wanted.
Speaker:Now I have noticed as somebody that's super active and wants to
Speaker:be contributing on the platform by connecting to other people, building
Speaker:community with content, these types of things, I found it pretty tricky to do
Speaker:that without having a Premium account.
Speaker:So that, for me was a signal that things were definitely changing.
Speaker:Historically, free and Premium.
Speaker:There really wasn't that much difference.
Speaker:We're seeing LinkedIn more and more pack things into Premium.
Speaker:There's another video that I put out there on YouTube, a former podcast episode
Speaker:that I've done on Company Page Premium.
Speaker:And just last week, you know, an update with Zoe Bemant and we
Speaker:were talking about Pages Premium.
Speaker:I actually think for Pages now going forward, if you can afford it, and I'm
Speaker:not talking to consultants out here, I'm talking to brands with employees
Speaker:and teams, but if you can afford it and have the budget, I think Company
Speaker:Page Premium will be a must for 2026 if it's available to your Page.
Speaker:Now, there are some limitations.
Speaker:I believe from everything that I've read, that Company Page
Speaker:Premium is only available to small and medium sized businesses and
Speaker:not at that enterprise level.
Speaker:Now I'm trying to get some answers out of LinkedIn.
Speaker:No one there can tell me what the cutoff is.
Speaker:I promise you, as soon as I find out, I will come back and report on that.
Speaker:So stay tuned and if you're not subscribed to my newsletters already, either my
Speaker:LinkedIn newsletter or you can go to my website, b2bgrowthco.com/newsletter,
Speaker:and that's where I share a lot of the tips first, that I don't share anywhere
Speaker:else on LinkedIn or on the podcast.
Speaker:If I was to summarize where I see Premium for personal and
Speaker:Premium for Company Pages.
Speaker:I would say now, if you look at your Company Page, like a landing page
Speaker:like we discussed in last week's podcast episode, if you miss it,
Speaker:go back we go into this in detail.
Speaker:If you want it to be viewed as a landing page and work in that way,
Speaker:then you need Company Page Premium on your page and you get access
Speaker:to a number of different features that are gonna help you with that.
Speaker:And probably the thing that also stands out is getting your page verified.
Speaker:You can only do that with a paid account if you didn't get it done already.
Speaker:So another, you know, carrot, that LinkedIn are dangling there for people to
Speaker:test it out, but definitely worth a go.
Speaker:So that's a change in how I see things.
Speaker:Premium for individuals.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:The jury's still out for me on this one.
Speaker:I still say stick with free, like I just said about probably five
Speaker:times until you come up against the roadblock and then level up.
Speaker:But please don't be someone that is just paying for it, thinking that
Speaker:you'll get more reach from your posts.
Speaker:You don't.
Speaker:There's a lot of things that are built into Premium that are I don't know,
Speaker:useless not gonna make any difference.
Speaker:The AI features, they're, they're just not worth it.
Speaker:So from that perspective, don't just pay LinkedIn money for no reason.
Speaker:I'd rather you save that up and come and do training with
Speaker:me or get your profile sorted.
Speaker:These kinds of things will actually make a bigger difference.
Speaker:Now it's time to go into plot twist number four.
Speaker:Plot twist number four is I believe that social selling on a
Speaker:LinkedIn got harder and I can't entirely blame this on LinkedIn.
Speaker:But with the rise of AI and automation tools that are off the LinkedIn platform
Speaker:that go against the user agreement and are still in existence because LinkedIn's
Speaker:legal team hasn't gone after them and shut them down as yet, those tools have created
Speaker:a tsunami of unwanted, untargeted rubbish.
Speaker:That is making it so hard for us to reach out and connect with people
Speaker:and actually have them respond.
Speaker:That I find probably the most frustrating thing that's happened in 2025.
Speaker:Has it existed for longer than that?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:It has.
Speaker:You know, we could put engagement pods into this section as well.
Speaker:We have seen people trying to get around the user agreement probably
Speaker:since the beginning of time.
Speaker:Getting around the limits that LinkedIn have put in place to make LinkedIn a
Speaker:better place for us all to hang out, those things really irritate me if I'm
Speaker:saying things nicely, and I was trying to think of what word I would use
Speaker:because it's definitely beyond irritated.
Speaker:And you guys have been listening to this podcast for long
Speaker:enough to know how I feel.
Speaker:So I won't get on my soapbox today.
Speaker:Except to say as marketers and people doing social selling on
Speaker:LinkedIn to grow your business.
Speaker:You need to be mindful of this, you need to be really mindful that
Speaker:when you are sending messages to people on the other side, they have
Speaker:probably already been bombarded.
Speaker:Their walls are up and they've had enough.
Speaker:So you better calm, fully loaded with value that is targeted at
Speaker:them, having done your research and build rapport first.
Speaker:So actually spend some time getting to know these people before you fire
Speaker:all guns are blazing with everything that you want to sell to them.
Speaker:So rapport, then we move on to trust building.
Speaker:Then we can talk about, have we got a product or service that will solve a
Speaker:problem or challenge that that person has.
Speaker:Yes, it takes time.
Speaker:Yes, it might be slower, but I promise you it will work even better for you.
Speaker:So just be mindful that even if you are not breaking the rules,
Speaker:there are people and a lot of them that are out there doing that.
Speaker:I was excited to see that LinkedIn have come out on record saying
Speaker:that they're doing things to break down engagement pods.
Speaker:I can't wait.
Speaker:I would put AI commenting in those kind of categories as well.
Speaker:I'm so excited about this because I've even been given an email address
Speaker:by LinkedIn that I can send to their trademark attorneys, the actual
Speaker:companies that I am being approached by personally that are trying to get
Speaker:around these guidelines, and I can effectively go to them and say, here these
Speaker:people are out doing the wrong thing.
Speaker:And you know, raise that with those teams.
Speaker:And I'm very happy to do that.
Speaker:I'm very happy to raise the flag and bring that to their attention.
Speaker:I love the LinkedIn platform.
Speaker:I have a lot invested in success for myself and my customers on this platform,
Speaker:and I want it to be fun for everyone.
Speaker:I want it to work for everyone and just not those people that are
Speaker:trying to get around the system.
Speaker:So from that perspective, plot twist four I think yes, things are harder.
Speaker:Does that mean it's impossible?
Speaker:Absolutely not.
Speaker:I just want you to have more empathy for the people that you are looking
Speaker:to buy your products and services.
Speaker:What is a day in the life for them on LinkedIn, really like?
Speaker:Especially the higher up the food chain with the job titles that you're
Speaker:all chasing after, really slow down and think, what have you got that can
Speaker:really make that person's day easier?
Speaker:And if the answer is nothing, you're just adding to the noise
Speaker:or you know how I feel about that?
Speaker:Plot twist five is something that if you go back to the
Speaker:podcast this time last year.
Speaker:I would have a very, very, very different piece of advice for you, and this is
Speaker:all about video content on LinkedIn.
Speaker:And if we go back a year ago, people were getting millions of impressions.
Speaker:I have a client that I'm working with right now, she said, Michelle,
Speaker:I want you to create some video clips for me so that I can post more
Speaker:video and have them like go crazy.
Speaker:Like I got millions of impressions on a couple of videos last year.
Speaker:Can you do that for me?
Speaker:And unfortunately I had to say no video didn't turn out as big and as amazing,
Speaker:and as great as those signals had shown us in the last quarter of 2024.
Speaker:As much as LinkedIn have been out there spruiking it and telling us
Speaker:how amazing video is, they couldn't even figure it out for themselves.
Speaker:We saw video feeds coming and going the way videos were displayed,
Speaker:changing, and I still don't love the way they show up in the feed.
Speaker:And honestly, they then took away everything they'd been testing.
Speaker:The reach IE the impressions on these videos really wasn't
Speaker:anything that was exciting.
Speaker:In fact, they're probably less than our normal posts and far more
Speaker:effort in my personal and opinion.
Speaker:And this applied on Pages and Profiles.
Speaker:From that perspective, for those people, like honestly, if you're
Speaker:relying on things like ChatGPT to write you a LinkedIn strategy for 2026, it
Speaker:will say LinkedIn video, short form, because LinkedIn put so much out there
Speaker:to promote video on their platform.
Speaker:It was crazy.
Speaker:Lots of amazing stats and all these reasons you should do it.
Speaker:But the reality is, if you listen to that, you are not gonna
Speaker:see the results that you hope.
Speaker:Now, that's not to say you can't repurpose that video content onto other video
Speaker:first type platforms, like whether it's YouTube or TikTok, or even Instagram with
Speaker:Reels and things along those lines, but in my experience, the format that they
Speaker:promised and how amazing it was gonna be, plot twist, certainly didn't end up
Speaker:like that as we get to the end of 2025.
Speaker:Does that mean you should quit all things video for LinkedIn in 2026?
Speaker:No, I don't think so.
Speaker:But if you were planning on going really hard on the platform, which
Speaker:I have seen some people, and that's what they're planning to do, like
Speaker:honestly just do it for a short period, test it out, see what results you
Speaker:get with your community and clients.
Speaker:Let me know how it works because I've got a really bad feeling that people
Speaker:are gonna sink a lot of time and effort and resources into making videos that
Speaker:really could have been spent elsewhere and getting more return on that effort.
Speaker:And so it's been interesting.
Speaker:It's not one that I would have thought that LinkedIn would've let it drop as
Speaker:much as what they have, but honestly, I think the more LinkedIn tries to be
Speaker:like other platforms instead of doing what LinkedIn used to do really well,
Speaker:which is be a professional platform for networking where we could stay
Speaker:in contact with our network easily.
Speaker:They've now moved into this discovery platform.
Speaker:Maybe this is a bonus plot twist, but I don't think LinkedIn's
Speaker:a networking platform anymore.
Speaker:I think it's a discovery platform, and that will have a
Speaker:big impact on what we do in 2026.
Speaker:So things like if you haven't got your LinkedIn profile updated and
Speaker:optimised, you need to make that happen.
Speaker:That's your job over the break.
Speaker:If you are someone that doesn't wanna do it yourself, well ta da.
Speaker:Of course you can reach out and I can help you with that.
Speaker:The other side to it is our content, the more it speaks to an audience
Speaker:and is optimised for a particular audience, I think it will help your
Speaker:content be discovered by new people that you haven't reached in your network.
Speaker:So that's completely different to nurturing relationships with
Speaker:people that you are connected to.
Speaker:They are my five, or should I say five and a half plot twists that happened on
Speaker:LinkedIn that really changed the way that our content is measured, how we connect
Speaker:and grow our community, and also how we measure the impact that we are having.
Speaker:So many big changes and I know that it probably at times has felt like
Speaker:nothing you ever did is working and that LinkedIn's against you.
Speaker:And my advice for people having thought through this for a few months now, it's
Speaker:not something that I just magically woke up and everything was all good.
Speaker:But it's actually demanded that I become better at LinkedIn marketing
Speaker:than what I was in previous years.
Speaker:That I couldn't just rely on things that were tested and tried and I
Speaker:knew would work with my eyes closed.
Speaker:I now have to put in some more effort.
Speaker:But I'm rewarded for that effort.
Speaker:I'm also rewarded for staying consistent and keeping on going.
Speaker:So if you have kind of, you know, taken a step back and said it's
Speaker:all not worth it, I totally get it.
Speaker:I've been there, I've done that myself.
Speaker:But I honestly think that if we take a deep breath and think about
Speaker:what is it that we could do most in 2026 to get results for our
Speaker:brand or our business on LinkedIn.
Speaker:And I think that really is coming back to having empathy for your audience,
Speaker:doing a lot of customer research and understanding them in detail.
Speaker:Think about how much effort you are putting into knowing
Speaker:your customer right now.
Speaker:Are you talking to your sales team?
Speaker:Are you talking to your customer service team?
Speaker:Are you really getting those valuable insights that you can
Speaker:turn into great content that really resonates with that audience?
Speaker:I think there's so much that we can do in this space and stop focusing and
Speaker:worrying about the algorithm so much.
Speaker:Like just let it go.
Speaker:It's out of our control.
Speaker:And focus on the things that as marketers we know will make the biggest difference.
Speaker:If you get stuck and you can't get yourself out of the funk,
Speaker:just book a Power Hour with me.
Speaker:I'll work with you to get you back on track.
Speaker:To point you in the right direction and make sure that you are seeing
Speaker:a return on the effort that you're putting into LinkedIn.
Speaker:So if that sounds like a plan, just go to the show notes and you'll
Speaker:find a place there where you can just come and book a call with me.
Speaker:We can talk through what that might look like.
Speaker:So until next week, listeners, cheers.
