Have your LinkedIn posts been underperforming lately? You’re not alone — and you’re not imagining things.

New data from AUthoredUp shows an 11–20% decline in reach across all content types, with users reporting an organic reach decline of 66%. That means posts that once received 10,000 views are now receiving fewer than 3,000. LinkedIn influencers and everyday users have been sounding the alarm for months about plummeting reach and engagement.

Why is this happening? In many ways, LinkedIn is a victim of its own success. With the network now hosting 1.2 billion users and 69 million companies, the sheer volume of content means competition for attention has never been higher.

To avoid clogging users’ feeds, LinkedIn has significantly throttled back the amount of content we see from our followers. At the same time, the pay-to-play business model ensures that ads and sponsored content take up more space, as the platform looks to monetize its massive user base.

But does that mean it’s time to give in, whip out the credit card, and start buying ads? Not quite yet.

Related: LinkedIn Changed Its Algorithms — Here’s How Your Posts Will Get More Attention Now

Personal profiles as the antidote to company pages

While it’s true that organic reach has declined, there’s reason for optimism if you dive deeper into the data.

Personal profiles on LinkedIn haven’t been hit nearly as hard as company pages. According to the Algorithm InSights 2025 Report, which analyzed 1.8 million posts, organic posts by company pages now reach only 1.6% of followers and account for just 1–2% of LinkedIn feeds, down from 7% in 2021.

Personal profiles perform much better. DSMN8, the popular social media tool, analyzed LinkedIn and found that 62% of the average feed consists of personal posts from 1st- and 2nd-degree connections, followed by around 30% from ads. The remaining 8% is made up of company pages (5%) and 3rd-degree connections (3%).

Translation: while it might be getting more difficult, it’s still possible to cultivate a large and active following on LinkedIn by leaning on your personal profile, rather than your company page.

CEOs and other C-suite leaders are especially well-positioned to benefit from the algorithm changes because of their visibility and large networks. According to LinkedIn, CEO content gets four times more engagement than other content from LinkedIn members, and CEOs see a 39% increase in followers after boosting their posting frequency.

Related: How I Escaped Burnout by Building a Membership Business — and How You Can Too

5 steps to boost LinkedIn reach without ads

With all that in mind, how can business leaders fight back against LinkedIn’s declining organic reach and ensure their posts still reach followers?

Thought leadership — leveraging a leader’s personal voice and channels to boost business goals — isn’t a new strategy. But now’s definitely the time to use it on LinkedIn.

I’ve seen this up close, working with CEOs and leaders at high-growth startups, Fortune 500 companies, and everything in between. Having a personal profile and unique voice on LinkedIn is the surest way to cut through the noise and reach key stakeholders like investors, customers and media.

Here’s how smart leaders are tapping the thought leadership advantage right now.

1. Use your personal LinkedIn profile to share thought leadership. Entrepreneurs and business leaders should start by shifting efforts from their LinkedIn company page to their personal profile. A study by Refine Labs found that posts from personal profiles received nearly three times the impressions and five times the engagement of company posts—even when they have half the follower count.

2. Be the expert people need right now. Just repurposing corporate marketing content on your personal profile won’t cut it. LinkedIn wants posts that provide real value to users — insights, practical tips and expertise. The algorithm weeds out spam or low-quality content, then betatests posts with a small subset of followers to gauge engagement — pushing only the highest performers to a broader following. Successful LinkedIn thought leaders also post on a consistent basis. LinkedIn’s own research shows that posting weekly generates twice as much engagement as posting less frequently.

3. Lean into video. LinkedIn has consistently emphasized the importance of video over the last few years, and platform usage now skews more mobile than desktop. It also recently announced a 36% year-on-year increase in video views and said that video creation is growing at twice the rate of other formats. Right now, videos are getting an organic reach boost, provided it’s the right kind of video: vertical videos native to the platform, so nothing uploaded elsewhere and linked externally.

4. Go beyond just posting. Social platforms aren’t about one-way communication; they’re ongoing conversations — and LinkedIn is no exception. Successful executives like and respond to comments on their own posts, especially during the critical first “golden hour.” But they also dedicate time to react and comment on other people’s posts, including peers and influencers in their space. Equally important is active outreach to new connections: Aim to send at least 10-20 targeted invites a week to grow your network.

5. Leverage employee advocacy. Leaders at both SMBs and enterprises have a powerful social army at their disposal — their own employees. Messages shared by employees reach 561% further than those shared by a company’s official channel, and they’re also seen as more credible and authentic. Using either an ad hoc approach (“Please share this!”) or dedicated software tools, leaders can ensure their LinkedIn content gets spread far and wide by their own team.

For business leaders, now is the time to invest in thought leadership on LinkedIn. Yes, organic reach on LinkedIn is down, but this is far more true of company pages than personal profiles. For those organizations that shift their focus to thought leadership driven by personal profiles, LinkedIn is the one platform where true organic success is still possible.