LinkedIn—once a professional networking site, transitioned into a content-driven platform. From thought leaders to B2B brands, LinkedIn is now a space where brands demonstrate their expertise in the space. LinkedIn has been around for over two decades, and within the past few years, we’ve seen the platform transform into something new. As creators turn to independent publishing, LinkedIn has added new features to adapt to this growing trend.
More brands are showing up on LinkedIn with a question in mind: “How can I stand out?” Posting on LinkedIn isn’t just about uploading open job positions anymore. It’s a space to share insights, learnings, and build community. Every brand, whether it’s a B2B or SaaS, can think of LinkedIn like peeling back a layer of what they already post on TikTok or Instagram. It’s all about the thought and brain power behind the greatest brand stunts.
The Winning Formula on LinkedIn
LinkedIn isn’t the easiest space to get discovered on. It’s niche and built by small communities who share similar interests, compared to platforms like TikTok, which are built for users to discover easily. LinkedIn is more complex, authoritative, and dense (sometimes). To build brand awareness and establish your presence on LinkedIn, there are three requirements:
Personal branding
Think aesthetics. Keep every post, text, image, and carousel on brand. From brand colors to voice and tone, your brand should show up the same every time someone comes across your page. This builds recognizability on LinkedIn and helps your followers know that it’s you every time you appear on their feed. Creating that familiarity builds a relationship with your followers in the long run!
Create valuable content
LinkedIn is all about establishing yourself as an expert in whatever niche industry you choose. Whether it’s design, AI, or beauty, your content needs to provide insights from your brand’s tone of voice. Valuable content sparks conversations through uniqueness, relevance, and clarity. How different is your brand’s point of view on a relevant topic, and is it digestible enough so readers don’t scroll away? This helps you develop credibility and build trust with your growing audience.
Consistency
The more consistent brands are with posting, the more people will see your posts. Consistency is key when it comes to posting schedules, formats, and POVs. For example, some brands post every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or only Monday through Thursday.
As your brand gains more followers on LinkedIn, they’ll expect posts according to your publishing schedule. Knowing what to expect means your posts instantly catch their eye because it’s recognizable. This can be through carousels, short text posts, or a bit of both every now and then. Not only does a consistent POV establish your credibility, but it also makes you reliable to people who read your content.
Different Types of LinkedIn Posts
LinkedIn is full of different types of content pieces, but they can all be categorized into four categories: company culture, industry insights, hot takes, and news sources.
Company Culture
These are the posts that shed light on people within a company or in the same field. It can even be about a company’s brand mission and commitment. We often see posts about employee accomplishments, company awards, culture, etc. Company culture posts elevate specific people or groups of people within a company and their behavior. Think memes or quirky text posts about company culture. This type of content tends to lean more light-hearted and wholesome.
Industry Insights
Industry insight posts are research-backed trend discussions and observations within niche spaces. These posts offer insights on what’s happening “behind closed doors” that people wouldn’t think of off the bat. A “did you know?” kind of angle is what’s thought-provoking enough to be an industry insight. This content leans more authoritative and analytical.
Hot Takes
Controversial posts are thought-provoking and are a great way to get the comments sections fired up. These posts bring up controversial opinions about topics, past or present, to prove points—while still demonstrating expertise. These kinds of posts are engaging and provide a conversation starter in your comment section. Think of a question or statement that is dramatic and adds shock value. These posts lean more bold and unfiltered.
News Source
Think updates, timeliness, and relevancy. These posts highlight recent developments like product launches or news pieces, either in the real world or within an industry or company. News source posts are straightforward and cut to the chase. These posts are supported with a headline or digestible image of some sort to grab readers’ attention with dramatic statements or questions. News source posts are oriented to be informative and up-to-date on a certain topic.
The Top 10 Brands On LinkedIn Right Now
Based on LinkedIn’s winning formula and popular content formats, these are the brands that are killing it:
From B2B to SaaS companies, here’s the breakdown of their success on LinkedIn:
1. Semrush
Semrush is a digital marketing software platform that’s all about helping businesses grow their online presence. On LinkedIn, they post a little bit of everything, however, they mainly focus on news sources and industry insights posts related to the marketing world.
For example, their post about AI chatbots and search engines is considered an industry insight because it’s backed by research from Semrush. With their target audience being marketers and SEO specialists, their brand-focused content directly targets the audience that uses their platform.
2. UPS
We all know UPS as the company that delivers and ships our packages—on LinkedIn, we get to see beyond the package that arrives at our front doorstep. UPS on LinkedIn is all about demonstrating its company culture through storytelling.
The UPS team actively posts historical pieces, acknowledges hard-working employees, and spills facts about their greatest accomplishments. Great examples include this post about a UPS employee working for 55 years without accidents, and a fun fact about delivering on bikes, which gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at what it means to get a package delivered to their home.
3. Sephora
Sephora, the most popular retailer of all things beauty and personal care, has a soft spot for its employees on LinkedIn. Similar to UPS, Sephora is big on company culture. Their LinkedIn posts frequently spotlight Sephora employees, their speakers at company events, and all in all, uplift women.
Sephora’s posts showcase the beauty behind the actual makeup products they sell. This post about the percentage of female workers at Sephora shines a light on the voices of women in the workforce.
4. Amazon
As Amazon continues to grow, so does its LinkedIn following. Amazon is known as one of the fastest delivery services on the market, and its LinkedIn page provides readers with the latest company news and updates.
Amazon is consistent with its TOV, often posting about innovation and growth within the company. With over 34 million followers, Amazon continues to be one of the top-followed brands on LinkedIn. Despite many of those newer follows being due to recruitment opportunities, Amazon sticks to a clear visual identity, prioritizing value over virality.
5. The Nature Conservancy
If you care about nature and climate change, The Nature Conservancy is the page to follow on LinkedIn. When discussing personal branding and consistency, this account does just that. It’s clear what The Nature Conservancy stands for, and their posts speak for themselves.
Whether they’re posting about environmental concerns, fun facts, or encouraging readers to embrace nature, this non-profit shares its mission through every post. With this POV, The Nature Conservancy created a niche community of followers who stand by their values, making them an expert in the field.
6. PLM
PLM (Pretty Little Marketer) is a marketing service specializing in industry insights about all thinking marketing, from content creation to trends. Their target audience consists of marketers and content creators, and through that, they’re able to produce content to meet their audience where they’re at.
Consistency is key for PLM as their carousels include observations and learnings in the industry in a digestible and familiar format as the rest of their feed. PLM built a strong community of learners with their consistent posting schedule and insightful takeaways about shifts in the industry. Consistency not only creates familiarity, it builds reliability. Followers can constantly rely on PLM to post content that’s valuable to their needs.
7. Figma
Figma’s LinkedIn feed is all about themselves, and that’s what their audience, a community of designers, wants. Figma focuses on news source-style posts about their company. Their posts often include their latest updates, events, and tips about product features.
Figma is consistent with its messaging style and ability to spread awareness about its brand to avid graphic designers or web developers. Sometimes brands should make content about themselves, they just need to do it in a way that speaks to the right audience.
8. Patagonia
Patagonia’s mission statement is clear from the start. Their LinkedIn bio states, “We’re on a mission to save our home planet.” Patagonia is a retail brand that sells outdoor clothing and products, part of the reason for their commitment to environmentalism.
Patagonia’s LinkedIn page is a testimony to their commitment. Their posts lean towards company culture and news sources. Their page is also reliable and consistent. You can expect to read about the latest bill that impacts the environment or personal statements from employees at Patagonia. LinkedIn is what Patagonia truly is behind the backpacks and jackets people buy to camp in the woods.
9. Google
Google is one of the most followed brands on LinkedIn – and for good reason. Google’s LinkedIn makes readers feel like they’re a part of the Google experience. Their posts give their audience a behind-the-scenes look into Google, where viewers are introduced to different recruiters, interns, and employees who contribute to the company’s ongoing success. Besides company culture, Google keeps readers up-to-date with the latest news and features about its company.
10. Duolingo
Lastly is Duolingo. The infamous green bird that took over socials and owns the “unhinged” marketing strategy. LinkedIn is where we see a sharper and more authoritative side of Duo.
Duolingo highlights its employees-first culture on LinkedIn, regularly spotlighting company culture and how they treat their employees, acknowledging their hard work and contributions.
Their posts also give their audience the latest updates on any new updates to their language learning app, like additional courses or minor tweaks to improve user experience. Duolingo’s personal branding is consistent in every post, aligning with what they look like across all social channels.
Next Steps For Your LinkedIn
LinkedIn isn’t just a platform for recruiting anymore, it’s a full-scale brand-building channel. To see performance grow, brands need to treat it like any other social platform. It all comes down to strategy, consistency, and formatting.
Lead with value, stay current, drive content through storytelling, and start conversations. The brands killing it on LinkedIn today are the ones that blend authenticity with authority. Be an expert and a reliable voice for your followers.
