Hey!

Welcome to Social Files—your no-BS guide to generating demand for your B2B product using social & content.

I’m sending this week’s edition of Social Files from the Balearic Islands in Spain. Spending the week in Palma de Mallorca. Got in yesterday after a few days in the French countryside with some friends. Check out this view in Gérardmer 😍

I was able to spend a few days truly OOO for the first time in a little over a year. Much needed. The Compound team held down the fort—a testament to the team and the systems we’ve put in place over the past year. Huge win!

Now that I’m back, I want to use today’s send to run you through some updated LinkedIn content trends, so you can understand what’s working and what’s not. A good amount has changed since my last update in May.

Shall we?

🔎 DEEP DIVE

The state of B2B social...August edition

A trend report: what’s (actually) working for in content for startups

I’ve written an ungodly amount of LinkedIn content over the past few years. As of now, August 2025, my team at Compound is responsible for 150+ LinkedIn posts every week.

So, I’ve got a clear look at what’s working…and what’s not.

LinkedIn is still the best platform for B2B tech founders who want to (1) generate leads (2) recruit 10x talent (3) create investor interest. That said, the platform has been volatile this year. What ‘works’ now has evolved quite a bit since the last update I wrote in May of this year.

Here are some of the observations I’ve noticed, and how they’ve influenced my content strategy.

(1) Video is performing terribly right now…but you should still post some.

Remember Q4 of 2024, when you could post a half-decent vertical short-form video and print 500K views on demand? Those days are gone.

The LinkedIn gods have grabbed the pendulum and swung it as far as possible in the other direction. Consistently, video is among the lowest performing content when compared to text-only, IRL photos, etc.

That said, I still post videos ~1x per week. Despite the lower numbers, video remains the best medium for fast-tracking trust with your audience. Right now, video may not get you in front of a ton of new people on LinkedIn…but it will nurture your returning audience.

And of course, I would not be shocked to see a resurgence in video performance at some point.

(2) Writing is so, so back.

While video has fallen off a bit, text-only posts are making a comeback! I’m consistently seeing text-only content without any media perform well.

As a writer at heart, I’m stoked about this. I don’t have a whole lot of time as a founder to sit down and record video after video. Written content tends to be easier to produce, and also easier to delegate to a team (like Compound 😉) should you have bandwidth constraints.

I’m also glad to see that LinkedIn doesn’t appear to be pushing as hard to turn into another short-form slop app like TikTok or Instagram.

A few months ago, I would have told you you're missing out by limiting yourself to text-only content.

Now, video and photos can help, but you can sustain a LinkedIn content strategy with written content alone.

(3) IRL photos are the king of media.

The most consistent format for outlier LinkedIn posts is text with a relevant IRL photo. For example, if you publish an Origin Story post, you should include a photo of you and your cofounder in the early days as the media for that content asset. It will perform better than the text-only version of the same post.

Founders, myself included, are terrible at capturing photos. You just don’t think about it as you're going from meeting to meeting. But trust me, taking a few ‘cringe’ photos of yourself working at your desk, hiring a photographer to capture a company event, or…dare I say…taking a few selfies can elevate your LinkedIn content performance.

Of course, spamming irrelevant media for the sake of including a photo is not something I would recommend. If you have no media that is additive to the content, just go text-only.

Tactical recommendation: snap 1-2 photos per day, even if nothing ‘interesting’ happens. If you're at an industry event, take photos. If you're hosting an event, hire a photographer. Add new material to your camera roll daily—it will be more useful than you think.

(4) Content lifespan has increased, but now it’s more balanced.

A month or two ago, LinkedIn shifted its algorithm to surface more and more older content. You’d log on and see post after post from 2-3 weeks ago, and less content from 2-3 hours ago. I understood their reasoning (increase the content lifespan), but the change was poorly executed.

LinkedIn seems to have balanced this out now.

Anecdotally, I see a balanced mix of content from the same day plus a healthy amount of posts from the past few weeks. As a creator, this is promising, as it extends the life of a winning post, while also giving newer content enough of a chance to do well. I currently have 2-3 posts from 1-2 weeks ago that still appear to be in circulation, based on my notifications.

(5) Fatigue is setting in for founders ‘testing’ founder-led content.

Founder-led content is the new, ‘hot’ marketing channel for B2B technology companies. Just build your founder’s personal brand, and everything gets easier, they tell you. True! I’ve told you that!

What I’ve also told you—that many others in the personal brand industrial complex won’t—is that consistently publishing high-quality content is hard. Even when you build a team for it or hire an agency, it still takes real time and effort from you as a founder to make content work.

Founder-led content is not an ‘easy’ marketing channel. If it was, every founder would have a phenomenal personal brand.

A lot of founders just don’t have it in them to stay in the content game, and I get it!

The good news is: if you can be a founder who takes content seriously and commits for even just 6 months, you will win.

You already understand business is a war of attrition. Most companies die because the founder gives up, not because a competitor ‘beats’ them. Content follows the same trend. If you can outlast—and come to enjoy content creation—you will unlock an unfair advantage.

Other miscellaneous content observations

• ‘Lead Magnet’ posts still pop up from time to time, but the LinkedIn algorithm doesn’t seem to be pushing them as hard. I’d reserve these only for when you have an A+++ asset to distribute. Here’s how I would execute one well.

• With the flood of AI content on the food, try planting intentional imperfections in your content to preserve the human touch. Minor grammar deviations, casual tone of voice, and even a typo can help your content stand out.

• Per usual, posts with narratives tend to beat out generic ‘how-to’ content. This isn’t a new trend, but perhaps a helpful reminder if you haven’t read my other content yet.

• I have been seeing content do well for recruiting purposes. A lot of my own content has been geared toward Writers and Editors lately (we’re hiring!), and I’ve seen an influx of strong candidates since shifting my approach to content in this direction. Check out my profile to see what this looks like in practice.

• Thought Leader Ads are still worth trying. Mutiny has been pummeling my feed with thought leader ads. I’d head over to their site and get caught in their funnel if you can, so you can see the creative they’re using. They have multiple accounts with content being boosted, seems like I see an ad from them daily.

• Stop diluting your hooks. Take a stance. Lean into negativity bias. Use specific metrics when possible. Apply viral LinkedIn formats. Your ‘safe’ hooks ruin your posts. This is by far the area where I spend the most time educating Compound clients. For more on hook writing, read this.

If you read, an apply, the learnings in this newsletter, you’ll be ahead of the vast majority of founders marketing their products on LinkedIn.

Hit me up in the replies if you have any questions I can help with. I appreciate you reading, as always.

By the way, I also recorded this YouTube video where I spend more time walking you through the current playbook for winning on LinkedIn, tailored to B2B founders. Enjoy 🙂

🗃 FILE CABINET

Here’s my favorite marketing and business content I bookmarked this week.

• I Studied 1000 LinkedIn Accounts, This DESTROYS Their Sales by Tommy Clark 🎥

• These 4 Math Equations Will Make You A Millionaire by Shaan Puri and Alex Hormozi 🎥

Check these out.

BEFORE YOU GO…

As always, thanks for allowing me into your email inbox every week.

More from Social Files:

• Read the rest of my essays

• Work with my agency in 2025

• Try my LinkedIn content writing SaaS

• Steal my founder-led content templates

Talk soon,

Tommy Clark