LinkedIn had a busy year. The number of business accounts on the platform rose 108% and the number of posts rose 97%. Nearly twice the voices, nearly twice the noise.
The result was predictable. Average impressions per post fell 23%, from 1,057 to 813. Interactions fell 14%. Comments fell 18%. Engagement rate, the ratio of reactions to impressions, actually rose 11%, which says the people who still saw a post were slightly more inclined to respond. Fewer eyes, but not colder ones.
The more useful finding is about format. Image posts were published at 180% above the average rate, and they earned 891 impressions and 53 interactions each. Carousels earned 1,252 impressions and 579 interactions, roughly ten times the interactions for a fraction of the effort spent by everyone else on images. Polls earned 2,864 impressions, the highest of any format. Articles, the format that takes longest to write, earned 443 impressions and 16 interactions. Video sat in the middle at 726 and 51.
What it means for a South African business
Most SME LinkedIn pages are a stream of image posts: the team photo, the certificate, the branded quote. That is the most crowded lane on the platform and the one with the least return. A page with something to teach, or a real question to ask, is in a far less crowded lane.
What we’d do
Fewer posts and a stricter test for each one. A carousel when there is something to explain in steps. A poll when there is a question you actually want answered. A text post when there is a view worth holding. Everything else is filler, and filler is what the other 108% is already posting.
Data: 2026 Social Media Study, 39.7 million posts across 1.06 million business accounts, 2025 compared with 2024.
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