Flypost

For release: Tuesday 13 October 2026

What actually works on LinkedIn? Study of 116,000 posts finds three things

Personal stories earn about a third more reactions, images about 35% more, and first lines written as "I" or "we" about 19% more. Most of the usual advice, from hashtags to question openers, doesn't help.

13 October 2026: Three things reliably lift a LinkedIn post's reactions: telling a personal story (about a third more), adding an image (about 35% more) and writing the first line about yourself (about 19% more), a study of more than 116,000 posts has found.

The study, by LinkedIn content studio Flypost, compared the posts of 2,400+ B2B creators with each creator's own other posts, so the results show what a tactic does rather than who tends to use it. It was first run in July 2026 and repeated in October on the latest 12 months of posts. Flypost sells LinkedIn content software.

Key findings

  1. Personal stories win. Posts about something the writer actually did earned about a third more reactions than the same person's other posts, for 3 in 4 creators. Posts with a concrete number, name or example earned about 15% more.
  2. Images still win. About 35% more reactions than the same person's text posts, for 73% of creators.
  3. Write the first line about yourself. First lines using "I", "my", "we" or "our" earned about 19% more; openers built on "you" cost about 10%.
  4. Most of the usual advice doesn't help. Opening with a question cost about 17%; hashtags gained nothing, and three or more cost about 7%; weekend vs midweek made no meaningful difference.
  5. Post more, judge by the week. For accounts under 10,000 followers, four or more posts a week brought about 42 reactions a week, against 12 for under 1.5.
“Most LinkedIn advice is somebody's hunch repeated until it sounds like a rule. Tested properly, the thing that keeps winning is telling people what actually happened to you.”
Sam Cassman, founder, Flypost
Bar chart: change in LinkedIn reactions compared with the same creator's other posts. Personal story +33%, image +35%, I/my/we/our in the first line +19%, concrete detail +15%, 3 to 5 hashtags −8%, link −13%, generic post −13%, question as first line −17%, poll −58%.
Personal stories, images and a first line about yourself lift reactions; most of the usual advice doesn't. The poll bar is shortened to fit. Source: Flypost LinkedIn study, Oct 2026, each creator compared with their own posts. Download the chart

Story angles

One study, four versions of the release for different beats. The facts are identical in all four; only the lead and the order of the findings change.

  • Version A: AI slop and authenticity reporters

    Posts with a real human story get a third more reactions on LinkedIn, study finds

    Posts about something the writer really did beat generic content by a wide margin, and "comment KEYWORD" bait has turned from a 13% gain into a 24% loss since July.

    Release A (PDF)

  • Version B: Careers and LinkedIn-culture reporters

    LinkedIn's "cringe" personal posts actually work, study of 116,000 posts finds

    The personal posts people love to mock earn about a third more reactions, and writing about yourself beats telling the reader what to do.

    Release B (PDF)

  • Version C: Algorithm and platform reporters

    What works on LinkedIn after the 2026 feed changes: study of 116,000 posts

    Since this year's feed changes, engagement bait has flipped to a loss, personal stories keep winning, and a link costs about 13% of reactions rather than the 60% often quoted.

    Release C (PDF)

  • Version D: Marketing tactics writers

    What actually works on LinkedIn? Study of 116,000 posts finds three things

    Three things reliably lift reactions (personal stories, images and first lines about yourself), while most of the usual advice, from hashtags to question openers, doesn't help.

    Release D (PDF)

Findings

Each creator compared with their own posts; 95% interval; share of creators who did better.

Findings: effect of each tactic on LinkedIn reactions
TacticEffect on reactionsIntervalCreatorsDid better
Personal story (Apr–Sep 2026)+33%+29% to +38%1,54975%
Image vs text-only+35%+30% to +41%1,04773%
"I/my/we/our" in first line+19%+16% to +21%1,73469%
Concrete detail (Apr–Sep 2026)+15%+12% to +18%1,00062%
Generic, no story or detail (Apr–Sep 2026)−13%−16% to −10%95537%
"You/your" in first line−10%−12% to −8%1,38235%
1–2 hashtagsno change−3% to +4%90751%
3–5 hashtags−8%−11% to −3%97144%
Question as first line−17%−19% to −11%68531%
Link in a normal post−13%−16% to −10%1,36640%
Weekend vs weekday+3%0% to +6%1,21154%
"Comment KEYWORD", Apr to early Jul 2026+13%0% to +27%17758%
"Comment KEYWORD", mid Jul to Sep 2026−24%−39% to −5%12036%
Poll vs text-only−58%−69% to −50%479%

Download the table as CSV

About the study

Flypost analysed 116,000+ original LinkedIn posts published between October 2025 and September 2026 by 2,400+ English-speaking B2B creators (1,000 to 500,000 followers), drawn from 2,500 tracked across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Europe and elsewhere. Posts are public and were collected through a third-party data provider. Each finding compares a creator's posts that used a tactic with their own posts that didn't, and measures reactions and comments, not impressions. Posts were labelled as personal stories by an AI model (Gemini 3.7 Flash) for April to September 2026; a hand check of 30 randomly chosen posts agreed with 26. The study was not independently reviewed. Full method, limits and charts: flypost.io/learn/linkedin-algorithm-study-data

Published advice and estimates we compared against

Downloads

Charts and data

Press releases

Headshot

Logos

Product screenshots

Media contact

Sam Cassman, founder, Flypost

Available for interview.

About Flypost

Flypost is a LinkedIn content studio that turns a company's own material (posts, transcripts, case studies) into LinkedIn posts, carousels and articles. flypost.io

Read the full study: method, limits and charts