Most marketing teams use LinkedIn the same way they use every other social platform: Focus on relevant keywords, post content, promote posts that do well, and track engagement. That’s not a bad strategy. It’s just missing the bigger opportunity.  

The biggest winners on LinkedIn are those who focus on telling real stories, building relationships and trust with the right people, and using the right tools and formats. These are the LinkedIn growth hacks that move the needle.  

LinkedIn is the only social media platform where people’s jobs and business interests come together. Those who get the best results aren’t always the ones who spend the most time and money working the platform. They’re the ones who understand that on LinkedIn today, trust is valued more than attention. 

Insights into trust and the LinkedIn algorithm 

People trust people. And the LinkedIn algorithm knows it! Companies and their leaders are increasingly investing in employee advocacy, executive visibility, and helping their teams build personal brands. They’re helping their experts become visible, familiar, and trusted in the minds of their target audiences. 

For example, as a talent recruiter, I post on a variety of topics each week on LinkedIn. Recruiting is a people business, and online engagement is an important step in getting to know people and building relationships.  

In one recent post that performed well, I shared how we do things differently at Goodwin Recruiting, and how when I connect with a job candidate, I take time to get to know them and their goals, and make sure their long-term plans align with employers I aim to connect them with. In that post, I included a bit of humor by sharing a relevant meme that grabbed attention and resonated with my audience as they scrolled through their feeds.  

There are many LinkedIn hacks and methods to reach target audiences through authenticity. Use the tips below to make valuable connections and achieve business goals on this expansive platform. 

LinkedIn’s marketing stack is maturing fast  

LinkedIn offers an advanced collection of software, platforms, and features that organizations and professionals can use to deploy, manage, and measure content and campaigns. Their marketing stack has evolved into an AI-driven ecosystem for marketing, advertising, and content creation, complete with deep targeting, analytics, the ability scale to external sites and apps, and much more. Here are a couple of great examples… 

• Account-Based Marketing on LinkedIn represents a significant capability shift and is among the most precise B2B targeting available anywhere. LinkedIn users have the ability to reach people in specific job functions, job titles, seniority levels, company sizes, industries, geographies, and even specific companies simultaneously – and do it with sequential content that keeps nurturing people across the full marketing or sales funnel. 

• LinkedIn’s Thought Leader Ads are particularly powerful, allowing companies to amplify individual employee posts as paid content. These ads are highly effective because they combine the authenticity of personal content with the precision of paid targeting.  

Recommendation: Use the ‘Expertise Triangle’ in your posts and ads to get results  

After years of testing and observing the types of content that perform best across industries on LinkedIn, I arrived at a content architecture that consistently produces results for professionals and B2B marketers.  

The foundation of that architecture is what I call the Expertise Triangle. It includes: 

• A strong opinion  

• A real-world example  

• A result or lesson that people can learn from  

LinkedIn posts that hit all three points consistently outperform posts that hit only one or two. When your content aims to combine all three corners of the triangle into a post, the information you share will feel more authentic, inviting, memorable, and even fun for audiences, which will drive engagement. 

Share content using formats that work best on LinkedIn 

The content format you use on LinkedIn can make big difference in the results you achieve, but the key is to choose formats based on what you want to achieve. Here are the main formats and what they do best:  

• Multi-image posts are currently one of the best performers in attracting likes and comments. 

• Native documents and carousels (swipeable slideshows) are great for saves and shares.  

• Videos are excellent for reaching new audiences.  

• Text posts with strong opening hooks tend to spark the best conversations.  

• Polls remain an underutilized way to generate engagement and genuine market intelligence.  

What metric information truly matters in LinkedIn marketing? 

When posting, advertising, or conducting marketing campaigns on LinkedIn, it’s easy to focus on impressions, followers, and likes because they’re immediate and visible. But those are activity metrics. Depending on your professional or business goals, here are solid examples of what you might focus on instead for metrics that really matter: 

• Growth in follower quality (not just quantity) 

• Increases in inbound connection requests from people or personas you are targeting 

• Growth in direct message volume from qualified prospects 

• Being able to draw a correlation between your content and the pipeline activity in your CRM  

Marketers who will lead their organizations into the next decade are the ones who can connect LinkedIn activity to revenue outcomes. They’ll do so with enough precision to make investment decisions based on evidence rather than intuition. LinkedIn marketing done well is the highest-leverage brand and pipeline investment that most professionals, executives, and B2B companies can make.  

Find skilled marketing talent and top jobs with one expert connection 

Even though LinkedIn is the largest professional social networking platform in the world, hiring companies and job seekers accelerate their searches by partnering with a talent recruiter. If you’re looking to hire top marketing talent or searching for your next marketing opportunity, save your valuable time and come straight to the source. 

Connect with me today, whether you’re building a team, growing your career, or just want to talk about what’s working in marketing right now. I’m David Florence, a Recruiting Partner with Goodwin Recruiting, and I welcome the opportunity to chat.