Congrats - you're approved for Marketingland. Activate your free membership now, because we can't hold your spot for long.

Hi Marketing Bestie,

I just started lifting hard again for the first time in a few years.

And now my plantar fascia is SCREAMING at me.

Not my shoulders. Not my back.

My FOOT.

The 30's are hitting different, y'all.

If you've dealt with plantar fascia problems and found something that actually works, PLEASE send me your wisdom.

Rolling balls? Special stretches? Witchcraft?

My foot will thank you.

Was this email forwarded to you?

Mark Jung and I just did 607 MILLION organic impressions on LinkedIn in 2024 and more in 2025 through our agency Authority. 

Not with paid ads. Not with hacks. With a framework they call JUICY.

(No, we did not wear Juicy Couture tracksuits on stage at HubSpot Inbound to present it.)

Mark reads every LinkedIn engineering white paper. (#NERD) Every API update. Every academic journal the algorithm team publishes.

Which means he knows EXACTLY what changed in October 2025 when LinkedIn rolled out their new LLM model.

And it's the biggest shift since the platform launched.

Here's what you need to know to win in 2026....

SPARKNOTES FROM THE POD

Mark's Take: "LinkedIn now is a positive signal only platform, meaning only what you engage with is part of what this LLM is now painting a picture of..."

LinkedIn used to track what you IGNORED.

If a post showed up in your feed and you scrolled past it, that was a negative signal.

LinkedIn would note: "You don't like this type of content."

October 2025 changed everything.

Now LinkedIn ONLY tracks what you engage with.

Your feed is shaped ENTIRELY by who you engage with.

If you're trying to reach RevOps people, you should ONLY be engaging with RevOps content.

Because LinkedIn's new LLM builds a profile of you based on your engagement.

Then it serves your content to people who look like the people you engage with.

This is called "cohort seeding."

And it's how the algorithm decides who sees your posts.

We see a lot of people on Linkedin making a critical mistake.

They're sending their posts to their whole company for "engagement pods."

Bad move.

If your company isn't your ICP, you're teaching the algorithm to show your content to the WRONG people.

Same with engagement pods full of random marketers.

You're diluting your signal.

Takeaway: Audit who you're engaging with THIS WEEK.

If they're not in your ICP, stop engaging with their content.

Only like, comment, and share posts from people who match your target audience.

This trains LinkedIn's LLM to serve your content to the right cohort.

Mark's Take: "You can edit your post after 10, 15 minutes up to a total of 14% of the total character count... Do not put your link in the comments. It is absolutely not."

So many people think putting links in comments is the move.

It's not.

LinkedIn doesn't care if you have a link in your post.

They care about HOW MANY people click it.

The problem with "link in comments":

1. You're commenting on your own post (LinkedIn sees this as spammy)

2. The link is buried where fewer people will see it

3. You get fewer clicks, which tanks your reach

The 14% Rule is better.

Here's how it works:

Write your post WITHOUT a link. Publish it.

Wait 15 minutes for organic engagement to build.

Then EDIT your post and add the link...but only use up to 14% of your total character count.

Example: 1,000 character post = you can add ~140 characters (your link + CTA).

Put the link either:

- Second line (visible above the fold)

- Last line (at the end)

Add white space around it. Use brackets. Use an emoji. Make it CLICKABLE.

Or use the "resource post" strategy:

Drop 4-5 links in one post as a curated roundup.

"Here are the 5 best ad examples I've seen this month."

LinkedIn rewards this with saves and shares.

Takeaway: Stop putting links in comments.

Write your post. Wait 15 minutes. Edit it and add your link using the 14% rule.

Or create resource posts with 4-5 links that people will save and share.

Mark's Take: "Your bio and your profile and your entity relationship matter a shit ton more than they ever did... If someone who didn't know you landed on your profile, could they tell you what your ICP is? What your industry is? What you do?"

LinkedIn's new LLM builds a profile of you.

Like a prompt in ChatGPT.

It pulls from:

- Your name

- Your headline

- Your company

- Your industry

- Your bio

Then it uses that to decide who should see your content.

Think of it like Wikipedia's "entity relationships."

When you search "Tim Cook," Wikipedia knows:

- He's the CEO of Apple

- Apple makes iPhones

- iPhones compete with Samsung

LinkedIn's doing the same thing with your profile.

If your bio is vague, the algorithm doesn't know who to show your content to.

Your bio needs to answer 3 things:

1. Who are you? (Exact title, company, industry)

2. Who do you help? (Your ICP—be SPECIFIC)

3. Why should I trust you? (Metrics, credentials, proof)

Bad headline: "VP of Marketing | Helping companies grow"

Good headline: "VP of Marketing @ SaaS Co | Helping B2B tech companies scale ABM programs from $1M to $10M ARR"

See the difference.

The second one tells LinkedIn EXACTLY who you serve.

Takeaway: Rewrite your LinkedIn headline and bio THIS WEEK.

Front-load it with specifics: your exact role, your ICP, your niche, and 1-2 credibility metrics.

Make it so clear that an LLM could parse exactly who you are and who you help.

Mark's Take: "LinkedIn's new LLM... the first 60 tokens that they're using to analyze your content is the highest weighted... depth driven hooks with very specific metrics, the exact situation and calling out the exact cohort of audience will actually start performing way better."

LinkedIn's LLM analyzes your post in under 50 milliseconds.

And the first 60 tokens get the most weight.

What's a token? Roughly 4 characters (so ~240 characters or 40-50 words).

That's your hook. Your first 2-3 lines.

Old way: Engagement bait hooks.

"I failed 3 times before I learned this lesson about marketing..."

New way: Depth-driven hooks with metrics and specificity.

"We spent $47K on LinkedIn ads in Q4 and got 14 demos. Here's what we learned about targeting RevOps leaders in mid-market SaaS..."

The second hook:

- Calls out the specific audience (RevOps leaders)

- Uses exact metrics ($47K, 14 demos)

- Signals authority and credibility

LinkedIn's LLM rewards that.

The old storytelling hooks still work.

But you need to pair them with SUBSTANCE.

Edutainment > pure entertainment.

If you're posting a meme, there better be depth and POV behind it.

Takeaway: Audit your last 10 posts.

Check if your hooks include:

- Specific metrics

- Exact audience callouts

- Clear authority signals

If not, rewrite them. Front-load the depth in the first 60 tokens.

Mark's Take: "LinkedIn introduced Dwell Time as a metric back in May 2020... there's on the feed dwell time, which means once a post comes into 50% of your viewport, it's measuring how long you are spending looking at that post... The second thing they're looking at is called after the click dwell time."

LinkedIn doesn't just count likes anymore.

They track two types of dwell time:

Pre-click dwell time: How long people stare at your post in the feed before scrolling.

Post-click dwell time: How long they spend reading after clicking "see more."

Both matter.

But the metrics that matter MOST now are saves and sends.

LinkedIn rolled these out for a reason.

They wanted to reward creators making content worth sharing.

Think about it.

A like takes half a second.

A save means someone wants to come back to it later.

A send means they're sharing it in DMs with their team.

Those actions signal HIGH value to LinkedIn's algorithm.

So how do I optimize for this?

Create resource-heavy posts.

List posts. Frameworks. Curated links. Templates.

Stuff people will want to save for later or send to a colleague.

Add a CTA at the end: "Save this for later" or "Send this to your team."

Sounds cringe. Works incredibly well.

The other move: Make your posts LONG enough to require a click.

LinkedIn measures post-click dwell time.

If people click "see more" and spend 30+ seconds reading, your reach explodes.

Don't optimize for likes.

Optimize for people stopping their scroll, reading your full post, and saving it.

Takeaway: End every post with a save or send CTA.

Test longer posts that require a "see more" click.

Track your saves and sends in analytics...if they're low, your content isn't valuable enough.

IN A MEME

If you have any questions on Linkedin, reply to me. 

Your friend,

Daniel

Join 7,390 other marketing leaders in Marketingland

The conversation doesn't have to stop here
Keep learning and connecting in Marketingland

EVENTS  |  FEED  |  LIBRARY  |  DIRECTORY

Get your brand in front of 118,432 marketing leaders.

Workweek Media Inc. 
1023 Springdale Road, STE 9E
Austin, TX 78721

Want to ruin my day? Unsubscribe.