Have you noticed a change in your LinkedIn content engagement? You’re not alone. Let’s delve into the reason and what to do to improve it, plus some other helpful marketing tips for the week.
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The Hotline
What’s Up With LinkedIn in 2026?
I’ve noticed a significant shift in my LinkedIn engagement lately. What’s up? As a B2B entrepreneur with limited time, should I change my strategy? If so, how do I do it without overextending myself?
BREW 360 is what’s up:
Behavior-based (how you act on the platform)
Relevance-driven (what you actually talk about)
Expertise-aligned (how well your post matches your profile)
World-view (connecting you to your "Circle of Interest")
LinkedIn’s unified AI model took full effect in January 2026.
It moves away from simple “likes” in favor of semantic relevance. It treats profiles as “classifiers” and places them in a “circle of interest.”
So, you need to refocus your LinkedIn content from posting content to programming it with your expertise so the BREW 360 model rewards it with exposure.
An analysis of 62,130 LinkedIn posts from January 2026 prompted David Arnoux, founder of GenAI Circle, to share some insight that may help:
1. Create quality, not quantity
Carousel posts saw 4.1 times more reach than text posts. That’s an indicator the new LinkedIn model cares about how long people stop and stare, also known as “dwell time.”
So, instead of creating five daily text updates, develop an engaging PDF carousel to keep users engaged for at least 30 seconds.
2. Get them to “see more”
David’s analysis suggests that 14-plus short paragraphs lead to a 71% improvement in performance.
So, while one-sentence paragraphs can seem annoying, they’re mathematically effective. It forces readers to click “see more,” and that tells the AI model that “this LinkedIn profile is worth reading.”
3. Embrace smallness
Accounts with fewer than 10,000 followers saw engagement 369% higher than average, according to the analysis.
Keep your activity focused on your niche so the algorithm knows exactly who your circle of interest is. Personal stories work well because they provide the human data that corporate accounts lack.
Here are a few more takeaways from his findings on how to do LinkedIn in 2026:
Hook ’em: Use "curiosity gaps." Fill the gap between what they know and what they want to know.
Read easily: Aim for between grades five and seven. (Use this free Flesch-Kincaid calculator to assess reading levels.)
Cap hashtags: Stick to two to three tags. Otherwise, LinkedIn may equate your hashtags to “keyword stuffing,” and your reach will tank.
Time: Skip the Monday morning rush. Sunday posts outperformed everything else, likely due to lower "noise" in the feed. (So, reassess your posting dates periodically as more people will likely post on Sundays.)
While your LinkedIn engagement dropped, the shift is good news for solo entrepreneurs and creators like yourself. By investing whatever time you have in what works, you’ll see better results.
Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future edition of The Hotline? Call or text Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.
The Challenge
This week: Create a carousel for LinkedIn that will attract viewers for at least 30 seconds. Post it.
What I Did With AI This Week
I saw David Arnoux's post about his analysis of LinkedIn posts. But before I shared it with you, I wanted to understand the facts behind the changes at LinkedIn. So, I used Google Gemini because it’s trained on the most recent data.
It explained what was happening (BREW 360), shared source links, and critiqued David’s post. (It was a little suspect of the writing style as “viral-oriented,” but it felt the takeaways were sound.)
Have any AI tricks of your own? Hit reply, call, or text the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.
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Got a question you’d like me to answer in The Hotline? Email me or DM me on LinkedIn. Even better: Text or leave a message on the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.