Remember when everyone and their marketing intern was churning out carousel posts? Slide 1: "Here's the problem." Slide 2-9: Generic advice you could find anywhere. Slide 10: "Follow me for more."
Well, LinkedIn finally noticed.
Between July and October 2025, data from multiple analytics platforms shows that text-based "knowledge posts" are outperforming carousel content by an average of 340% in terms of meaningful engagement (comments, shares, and profile visits—not just mindless likes). Some accounts are seeing even wider gaps.
This isn't a minor tweak. This is LinkedIn fundamentally rewiring what it considers valuable content.
What Actually Changed (And When)
LinkedIn rolled out what they're calling the "Knowledge Graph Update" in three waves starting in June 2025. They didn't announce it with fanfare because, well, they never do. But the effects became impossible to ignore by late summer.
The algorithm now prioritizes what LinkedIn internally calls "substantive expertise signals." Translation: they're trying to surface content from people who actually know what they're talking about, rather than people who are just good at making things look professional in Canva.
Here's what they're measuring differently:
Dwell time got serious. LinkedIn is now tracking how long people actually spend reading your post versus just scrolling past it. Those carousel posts that people flipped through in 8 seconds? Yeah, that's not helping you anymore. They want to see 45+ seconds of genuine attention.
Comment depth matters more than comment count. Three thoughtful comments from people engaging with your actual ideas beat 50 "Great post!" responses. The algorithm can tell the difference. (Apparently AI got good enough to detect genuine discussion versus engagement pod nonsense. Who knew?)
Profile clicks from the right people. If senior people in your industry are clicking through to your profile after reading your post, that's gold. If random accounts with 47 connections are doing it, not so much.
Time to create matters. This one surprised me. LinkedIn is apparently using signals to estimate how long content took to produce. Quick carousel with stock advice? Low score. Detailed post with original thinking? Higher score. They're not perfect at this, but the direction is clear.
Why Carousels Are Suddenly Struggling
Look, carousels aren't dead. But they're no longer the cheat code they were in 2023-2024.
The problem is that 90% of carousels became completely interchangeable. "10 Marketing Tips," "7 Productivity Hacks," "5 Leadership Lessons"—all saying the exact same things in slightly different fonts. LinkedIn's algorithm got smart enough to recognize when content is just repackaged common knowledge.
I tested this with my own account in September. Posted a carousel about content strategy (solid design, clear tips, the whole nine yards). Got decent reach but almost zero meaningful engagement. The next week, I posted a 1,200-word text post about a specific content experiment I'd run, including what failed and why.
The text post got 4x the reach and actual conversations in the comments. People asked follow-up questions. Several reached out via DM to discuss specifics. The carousel got a bunch of likes and exactly one substantive comment.
Here's what's happening: Carousels optimized for the scroll. Knowledge posts optimize for the stop.
LinkedIn doesn't want people scrolling anymore. They want people reading, thinking, and discussing. Because that's what keeps users on the platform longer, and that's what makes LinkedIn valuable as a professional network rather than just another feed to mindlessly scroll through.
What Makes a 'Knowledge Post' Actually Work
First, let's be clear about what we're talking about. A knowledge post isn't just "long text." I've seen plenty of 2,000-word posts that are just fluffy nonsense stretched out.
A real knowledge post has these characteristics:
Specific expertise. You're sharing something you actually know from direct experience, not something you read in 12 other LinkedIn posts last week. When I see posts that start with "I spent six months testing..." or "Here's what happened when we tried..." I know I'm getting something real.
Original thinking or data. You're adding something new to the conversation. Maybe it's your own data, maybe it's a contrarian take backed by reasoning, maybe it's connecting dots that others haven't connected. But it's not just aggregating common wisdom.
Useful specificity. Generic advice like "focus on quality content" doesn't cut it. But "we increased engagement 40% by switching from question-based hooks to statement-based hooks in our opening lines" gives people something concrete.
Willingness to show the messy parts. The posts performing best right now include failures, complications, and nuance. "Here's what worked" is fine. "Here's what worked, what failed, and why I think the conventional wisdom is wrong about X" is better.
Let me give you a real example. Sarah Chen, a product marketing director I follow, posted a detailed breakdown of why her team's rebrand didn't work. She included specific numbers, showed examples of what they tried, explained where their assumptions were wrong, and outlined what they'd do differently.
That post got 180,000+ impressions and 300+ comments. Her previous carousel about "brand strategy tips" got 12,000 impressions and mostly generic responses.
The difference? One was her actual expertise. The other was just... content.
The Technical Side: How to Structure These Posts
Okay, so you've got real knowledge to share. How do you structure it so the algorithm actually surfaces it?
Start with a hook that requires thinking. Not "Want to improve your marketing?" but "I spent $50,000 on LinkedIn ads last quarter and the best-performing campaign was the one I almost canceled." Make people curious about something specific.
Use line breaks strategically. The algorithm tracks reading patterns. If your post is one giant block of text, people bounce. Break it into scannable chunks. But not every single sentence on its own line (that's the other extreme that's also getting penalized now).
Write for a 60-90 second read time. That seems to be the sweet spot. Long enough to signal substance, short enough that people actually finish. I'm seeing optimal performance in the 800-1,500 word range.
Include a genuine question at the end. Not "What do you think?" but something specific that invites real discussion. "Has anyone else noticed that video content is actually performing worse than it did six months ago?" gets conversations. "Thoughts?" gets crickets.
Use formatting sparingly but effectively. The occasional bold text or bullet points help readability. But if your post looks like a ransom note with random words capitalized and symbols everywhere, you're hurting yourself.
Front-load the value. LinkedIn shows the first 2-3 lines before the "see more" break. If those lines are throat-clearing ("I've been thinking about..." "Today I want to talk about..."), people won't expand. Get to something interesting immediately.
What This Means for Your Content Strategy
Here's the uncomfortable truth: this algorithm change rewards people who actually have expertise and punishes people who are just trying to look like they do.
If your LinkedIn strategy has been built around templates, content recycling, and making generic advice look pretty, you're going to struggle. The algorithm is specifically designed to demote that now.
But if you've been holding back your real insights because you thought people wanted quick, digestible content? This is your moment.
I'm seeing three types of accounts thriving right now:
Practitioners sharing real data. People running actual campaigns, managing actual teams, building actual products. When they share specific results and insights, it performs.
Contrarians with receipts. People challenging conventional wisdom, but backing it up with reasoning and evidence. "Everyone says X, but here's why Y actually works better in these conditions..."
Connectors finding patterns. People who are synthesizing information across domains and pointing out non-obvious connections. "Here's what B2B marketers can learn from how Spotify personalizes content..."
Notice what's missing? Generic motivational content. Repackaged tips. Anything that could have been written by someone with no actual experience.
The Practical Shift: What to Do This Week
Let's get tactical. If you're posting on LinkedIn regularly, here's what to adjust:
Audit your last 10 posts. How many shared something only you could share based on your specific experience? If the answer is fewer than half, you've found your problem.
Pick one thing you actually know deeply. Not something you read about. Something you've done. Write about that. Include the messy details, the failures, the nuance.
Stop trying to go viral. I know, counterintuitive. But the algorithm isn't rewarding viral anymore. It's rewarding resonance with the right people. A post that gets 5,000 impressions but 50 meaningful comments from relevant people will outperform a post that gets 50,000 impressions but only superficial engagement.
Engage substantively with others. When you comment on posts, add something thoughtful. The algorithm tracks this too. If you're leaving "Great insights!" on 30 posts a day, it's not helping you. If you're leaving 3-4 genuinely thoughtful comments, that signals you're a valuable community member.
Test longer form. If you've been keeping posts short because that's what worked before, try going longer with actual substance. Track your analytics. I bet you'll be surprised.
What About Video and Other Formats?
Quick note on this because I know people are wondering: video isn't dead on LinkedIn, but it's also not the automatic win it was.
The same principles apply. If your video is substantive, specific, and demonstrates real expertise, it can still perform well. But if it's just you talking in generic terms about common topics, text will outperform it now.
LinkedIn is prioritizing watch time for video the same way they're prioritizing dwell time for text. A 3-minute video that people watch for 45 seconds is worse than a 90-second video that people watch completely.
PDFs and documents? Mixed results. They work if the content inside is genuinely valuable and people spend time with it. They don't work if you're just taking carousel content and putting it in a different format.
The Bigger Picture: Where LinkedIn Is Headed
This isn't just about algorithm changes. LinkedIn is trying to differentiate itself from every other social platform by being the place where professionals share actual expertise.
They're betting that in a world of AI-generated content and recycled takes, there's value in being the platform that surfaces genuine knowledge from real practitioners. Whether that works long-term remains to be seen, but that's clearly the direction.
For creators and marketers, this means the bar just got higher. You can't coast on good design and generic advice anymore. You need to actually know things and be willing to share them with specificity.
Honestly? I think this is good. The carousel era was fun while it lasted, but it had turned LinkedIn into a sea of sameness. If this change means we get more real insights and fewer recycled listicles, I'm here for it.
Making This Sustainable
The challenge with knowledge posts is that they take more time and energy than churning out carousels. You can't batch-create 20 of them in an afternoon.
So how do you make this sustainable?
Post less frequently. If you were posting daily, drop to 2-3x per week. Better to post one substantive piece than seven mediocre ones. The algorithm rewards quality over quantity now.
Mine your actual work. Every project you complete, every experiment you run, every problem you solve—that's potential content. Keep a running note of interesting learnings. You're already doing the work; you just need to document it.
Embrace imperfection. Your posts don't need to be polished essays. Some of my best-performing content has been rough thoughts written quickly because I was genuinely excited about an insight. Authenticity beats polish.
Build a knowledge bank. When you learn something valuable, write it down immediately. Even just bullet points. Then when it's time to post, you're not starting from scratch.
The goal isn't to become a full-time content creator. It's to share your actual expertise in a way that's sustainable alongside your real work.
What Happens Next
Will LinkedIn stick with this direction? Probably. They've been moving this way for a while, and the engagement metrics apparently support it.
Will carousels make a comeback? Maybe in a different form. If people start creating carousels with genuine depth and originality, they could work again. But the low-effort template approach is likely done.
Will this create new problems? Definitely. Every algorithm change does. We'll probably see people gaming "knowledge signals" the same way they gamed engagement before. LinkedIn will adjust again.
But for now, if you've got real expertise and you've been wondering whether anyone wants to hear it—they do. The algorithm is finally on your side.
Stop making pretty slides. Start sharing what you actually know.
The platform is rewarding thinking again. Turns out that's what it should have been doing all along.
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