LinkedIn – how to make it work for your business

This guide explains the importance of LinkedIn for small businesses, how to understand the latest LinkedIn algorithm and how to use the professional network to maximise its benefits to your business.  

Why LinkedIn matters for small businesses in 2026 

With 1.3 billion members in over 200 countries and regions, LinkedIn is the world’s biggest and most trusted social platform for B2B professionals, which makes it especially valuable for small businesses seeking credibility. 

Compared to other social media platforms, significant organic reach is still possible on LinkedIn without having to spend money on advertising.  

The network provides entrepreneurs with the opportunity to share thought leadership, showcase expertise and build a strong brand around their business, as well as providing direct access to decision-makers.  

While it’s most useful for B2B firms, consumer businesses can still use LinkedIn to attract talent, connect with investors, build partnerships and find suppliers.  

Understanding the LinkedIn algorithm 

It’s hard to understand exactly how the LinkedIn algorithm works and it’s easy to become obsessed by trying to work it out. However, there are some fundamentals that we do know about the algorithm in 2026 that are useful when it comes to LinkedIn marketing for small businesses.  

• Dwell time: The longer people engage with your posts, the more likely LinkedIn is to show them to other people, so focus on content that stops people scrolling and encourages them to read your post.  
• Comments: LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards engagement velocity and conversation depth. Posts that generate meaningful comments early are more likely to be amplified than those that receive a quick like, a short ‘great post!’ comment or emojis. 
• Personal profiles: Research shows that posts from personal profiles get up to 561% more reach than content on company pages. While a company page is important for your business, a strong personal profile that posts engaging content is key to making a success of LinkedIn. If you have employees, instead of them just reposting your company page, encourage them to share a post of their own on their personal page.  
• 360Brew: This is LinkedIn’s new AI system that decides the content that users see based on what it thinks is most relevant to them. Previously, LinkedIn used lots of small checks such as likes, timing and basic engagement to determine what to show to users but 360Brew shows posts analyses whole profiles and shows content based on relevance and usefulness to specific people. 
  The system looks at posts to understand what they’re about and who would actually be interested. This means it’s important to not try to appeal to everyone but post content that’s relevant to your specific niche. Write posts that encourage people to click the ‘save’ button or post a meaningful comment. These are indications to the AI that your post is valuable to a defined target audience. Staying within your niche is important too. Post about different topics and the AI could get confused about exactly what you specialise in and which people you’re trying to reach. 

How small businesses can win on LinkedIn (without gaming the system) 

Here are some tips for how small business owners can make a success of LinkedIn.  

Optimise your pages 

Strong personal and company LinkedIn pages are crucial for attracting the connections and potential clients that you want.   

Complete all the profile fields and be concise with how you describe your company and your own experience so it’s clear what products, services or expertise that you offer.  

Add a clear image of yourself on your profile. Think about what the picture communicates about you. Is a photo of you on the beach with a cocktail in hand really that appropriate?  

Use your profile and company page headers to communicate clear information about your business.  

Focus on authority over volume 

Quality is better than quantity on LinkedIn with stats showing reach is reduced if you post more than once in the same day because the second post takes away engagement from the first. 

When you do post, focus on content that’s useful, interesting, helpful or entertaining for your target audience. Don’t post the same type of content all the time to keep people engaged. Content to post includes: 

• Industry news and insights from your industry, sector or niche 
• Behind the scenes stories from your business and stories  
• Thought leadership, checklists and guides 

Think about the best time to post (but not too much)  

Many studies will tell you the best and exact times to post, but no-one really knows for definite and there’s no one size fits all approach. Think about when your target audience will be on LinkedIn and more likely to read your content. That could be before 8am before they start working, or later in the day and even at weekends. You can overthink the best times to post on LinkedIn though and sometimes just posting when you feel like it will work!  

Remember that for the first 60 minutes or so after you post, LinkedIn will share your post with a select group of people to see how engaging it is, so bear that in mind. Based on that it will decide whether to share it to a wider audience. 

Prioritise comment strategy 

As explained above, meaningful comments from relevant people are powerful signals to the LinkedIn algorithm that your content is useful to your niche. Post content that encourages comments such as opinion and open-ended questions.  

Respond thoughtfully to comments you receive and encourage more engagement, particularly during the first hour after you post. LinkedIn favours meaningful conversations that happen in the comment section.  

You should also comment on other people’s posts, particularly those in the niche you are targeting, to boost your reach.  

Use AI strategically  

AI can assist content creation on LinkedIn, but overuse leads to generic posts that fail to build authority or trust. Relying on AI bots can also lead to LinkedIn defining your posts as low quality and reducing your reach. 

Be strategic with AI and use it to support your ideas rather than replace them.  

Rather than mass producing posts with limited human input, use AI tools to turn your notes into structured content which you then edit to ensure it’s personal to you.  

You can also use AI to repurpose your content such as turning a YouTube video into a PDF carousel or a blog post into an infographics. 

Build real conversations 

LinkedIn is ultimately a platform about humans so use it to have real conversations.  

Personalise your invites when requesting connections and follow up promptly to private messages.  

Reply to other people’s posts with pointed thought, rather than generic praise. Add follow up questions about their content to show that you read it properly and are genuinely interested. 

Private messages are a powerful way to build conversations and connections, but don’t be overly salesy, particularly if you’re contacting someone for the first time. You could reference something specific they’ve posted, add a question or share your angle or experience. Make sure it’s relevant.  

Rather than comment randomly on posts, you could focus on 10-20 people in your field or niche and engage with them regularly.  

Tagging people in posts can bring more people into the conversation, but don’t overdo it and only tag people that are genuinely relevant to the content. 

If you spot two of your connections talking about the same subject, introduce them to each other so you’re seen as a connector and not just about promoting what you do. 

Follow TaxAssist Accountants on LinkedIn 

For the latest TaxAssist news, essential tax updates and useful business advice, follow TaxAssist Accountants on LinkedIn.  

 

First published 6 May 2026

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This article is intended to inform rather than advise and is based on legislation and practice at the time. Taxpayer’s circumstances do vary and if you feel that the information provided is beneficial it is important that you contact us before implementation. If you take, or do not take action as a result of reading this article, before receiving our written endorsement, we will accept no responsibility for any financial loss incurred.

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