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Q1 2026 Algorithm
Webinar Replay
Chris Donnelly and I poured over 397,605 posts to identify the top trends on LinkedIn in 2026. Get access to the full webinar replay below.
Last Tuesday, I spent the day at LinkedIn HQ in San Francisco.
I was honestly surprised by how much I took away from the event.
I was speaking at their small business owners event and got to spend a bunch of time getting to know the LinkedIn team in 1:1s.
In particular, Laura Lorenzetti, who leads LinkedIn’s team that tracks what's working on the platform and advises creators and CEOs on best practices.
And Lakshman Somasundaram, who runs LinkedIn’s video product. I asked them questions that I’ve seen creators obsessing over for months.
Here's what I learned:
The 360 Brew Algorithm is Dead
The first thing I asked Lakshman about was LinkedIn’s 360 Brew algorithm.
It turns out there’s a bunch of confusion here.
360 Brew was a test LinkedIn ran over a year ago. And they scrapped it.
What they’re doing now is using LLMs to understand the intent behind your content. That means it’s looking at:
Your post text and image
The audio in your video
What’s happening inside each video frame
So we can retire 360 Brew from the LinkedIn lexicon now.
Stop Overthinking Videos
LinkedIn have been working on the video product behind the scenes and users are now spending 2x more time in the video tab than early 2025 and watching videos for 60% longer than last year. It might be the beginning of the inflection point for video. I’ll be testing it more soon.
Creators often ask: Should video be vertical or horizontal?
Lakshman cleared this up pretty quickly.
LinkedIn’s algorithm does NOT prefer one over the other. Both formats show up in the video tab.
So the format debate is mostly a distraction. What matters is getting people to stop their scroll and watch your video.
To do this, focus on the basics:
A text hook people can read in the first 2 seconds
Scene changes so the video doesn’t feel static
Include captions because most people watch with sound off
That’s an important call out: Most LinkedIn video is watched without sound. So if your video needs audio to make sense, you’re in trouble.
Laura also shared 3 types of video that consistently work well on LinkedIn:
Teach - Something useful and concrete. A resume tip. An Excel hack. A simple tactic someone can use today.
A-ha moment - A contrarian news breakdown. A counterintuitive take. Something that makes people rethink an assumption.
Delight and inspire - Behind-the-scenes content. The human side of work. The stuff that makes people feel more connected to you.
In summary: focus on making the best content possible and the algorithm will reward you.
LinkedIn Premium Is Changing - In a Great Way
LinkedIn just launched a new plan - Premium All-in-One and it has 2 features that everyone posting on LinkedIn needs to know about.
The first is Invite to Follow.
When someone reacts to or comments on your post, they can automatically receive a notification inviting them to follow you.
This is one of those small things that can have a MASSIVE impact on follower growth.
Most creators are already doing the hard work - getting people to engage - and this helps turn that engagement into audience growth.
The second is access to a feed that shows what’s trending with your target audience. And you can go pretty niche - e.g. leaders of hospital groups - to find what your target audience cares about.
Name Your Ideas
This was a great reminder from Jason Feifer.
Most people have good ideas, but they leave them floating as one-off thoughts. They say something smart once, then move on.
Instead, give your recurring belief or frameworks, a name. Then repeat it often enough that people start connecting the phrase with you.
James Clear did it with "1% better." Now this phrase is how his audience talks about their own work.
That’s real authority.
See you next week,
Will

Laura, Laksh, and me!
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