LinkedIn Workshop Brussels Recap 2026
40 communications professionals got LinkedIn's own team to confirm which growth tactics are real, which are myths, and why some LLMs can't read the platform at all
Most LinkedIn advice comes from people guessing, then selling the guess as a course. On 23 June, Social Capital and The Right Street put LinkedIn's own team in front of 40 Brussels communications professionals at Ambiorix Centre and let the room ask the questions directly: what actually moves the needle on the platform, and what's just superstition that's been repeated so often it sounds like fact.
Some answers confirmed what people suspected. A few overturned it outright. One slide, on how LinkedIn content gets surfaced to AI models, turned out to be the thing the room kept talking about afterwards, in the room and in the WhatsApp group that kept going until the next morning.
What happened
The conversations that sparked
The myths LinkedIn's own team killed on the spot
Three pieces of received wisdom went down in the same session. Links in posts are not deprioritised, and there is no need to leave them in the comments. One nuance: LinkedIn watches what happens after the click. If people return to LinkedIn quickly after following a link, the algorithm reads it as a signal the destination wasn't worth it. Posting more than once a day doesn't hurt reach either, provided each post earns its place. And there is no universal best time to post. The day and the hour genuinely don't matter.
What measurably hurts reach, and what the video specs actually are
Hashtags are functionally dead, with one exception: unique campaign or conference hashtags still pull some weight. The colour blue, LinkedIn's own brand colour, genuinely underperforms in feed: people have seen so much of it they stop registering it. On video: the recommended format is 2:3 vertical for phones, square for desktop. When in doubt, go vertical since you can't control which device your audience uses. One important distinction: video performance on LinkedIn is measured by watch time, not engagement.
Two features in the pipeline
LinkedIn is rolling out two things communications teams should track. Collaborative posts, being tested at Cannes Lions, let two accounts co-author content. The initial rollout covers individual and company page combinations; both parties see the full metrics. For event partnerships and brand collaborations, it's a step up from simply tagging someone. The individual-plus-individual pairing isn't there yet but is coming. Separately, LinkedIn has acknowledged that company pages don't have access to the same analytics as individuals (saves, for instance), and better company page metrics are in the works, without a launch date.
Why OpenAI can read LinkedIn and other AI models can't
The slide that outlasted the Q&A: LinkedIn does not give every AI model the same access to its content. OpenAI's models can crawl LinkedIn fully. Other LLMs, including Claude, largely can't. That matters for any communications team trying to show up in AI-generated answers, beyond organic search: the data behind those answers isn't the same for every model.
The event content formula that still works
One of the clearer pieces of tactical advice from the session: when you run an event, structure your content in three phases. Build momentum before it happens, capture real-time content during, then extend the reach with recaps and follow-up for weeks afterwards. LinkedIn confirmed they see strong reach potential in event content and are pushing calendar invites and LinkedIn Live to support it. The room's read on the bigger picture was more skeptical than reverent: as one attendee noted, a lot of what gets repeated as LinkedIn gospel is information that happens to sell whoever's saying it a book, a service, or a webinar slot.
Unexpected connections
Dominic Geiger found the most reassuring takeaway wasn't about the algorithm at all. LinkedIn's advice on covering events sounded a lot like ordinary journalism: photos and quotes from key speakers, a clear angle, said plainly. The platforms changed; the job of telling people what happened clearly didn't.
The atmosphere
Ambiorix Centre is a working studio space, not a conference hall: a screen at the front, chairs close enough that the Q&A felt like one conversation rather than a queue at a microphone. The session was capped at 40 and sold out before it ran. Attendees didn't wait for a panel break to ask the harder questions, including, more than once, why LinkedIn's own Direct Messages interface still hasn't improved. The conversation carried on in the Social Capital WhatsApp group well past midnight, with people adding their own biggest takeaway for those who'd missed it.
Key insights
What we learned
The algorithm doesn't punish posts. People do.
Content underperforms because it's generic, jargon-heavy, or obviously AI-written. Links, frequency and timing are myths. One exception on links: if people bounce back to LinkedIn quickly after clicking, the algorithm registers the destination as low quality.
Video format: 2:3 vertical for phones, square for desktop
When in doubt, go vertical. You can't control which device your audience uses. And LinkedIn measures video by watch time, not by likes or comments, so retention is the real metric.
AI discoverability on LinkedIn isn't neutral
OpenAI has full crawl access to LinkedIn; other LLMs don't. Any brand or communicator optimising for visibility in AI-generated answers needs to know which models can actually see their content in the first place.
Hashtags survive only in one context
General hashtags are dead weight. Unique campaign or conference hashtags are the exception. LinkedIn confirmed they still work, without confirming exactly why.
Collaborative posts give both parties the metrics
Being tested at Cannes Lions: individual and company page co-authored posts where both accounts see the full performance data. Likely to outperform tagging. Individual-plus-individual is coming next.
Event content: before, during, and after
Event content performs well on LinkedIn, and the platform is actively pushing it. The recommended approach: build anticipation before, capture real-time during, extend with recaps for weeks after. LinkedIn's own tools (calendar invites, LinkedIn Live) are built around this.
Company page analytics improvements are coming
LinkedIn has acknowledged that company pages lack individual-level metrics like saves. Better analytics are in the works. No launch date confirmed yet.
Quote that captured the night
“This is no surprise, but: authenticity, consistency and relevance. Anything else is detail.”
Member stories
What attendees said
Jonathan Hunter
Workshop attendee
“I had the chance to question LinkedIn employees on persistent myths about their algorithm. Using links in your posts isn't punished: that may have been true once, but LinkedIn says it isn't anymore. Posting more than once a day isn't punished either, if the posts are interesting. There's no universal best time to post. And using the colour blue is, weirdly, true: not because LinkedIn is possessive over its own colour, but because we see so much of it that we tend to pass over it.”View on LinkedIn
The Right Street
Co-host & strategy partner
“We hosted an event with LinkedIn about LinkedIn, and now we can post about it on LinkedIn. The algorithm doesn't deprioritise posts with links. Best days and times to post is a myth. Vertical video is the way to go. And authenticity, consistency and relevance are still what matters most.”View on LinkedIn
Ana Oliveira
Social Capital
“According to the LinkedIn experts at Social Capital's event, the algorithm doesn't punish posts. Instead, users punish posts by finding them uninteresting, generic, AI-written, or jargon-heavy.”View on LinkedIn
Andrea Bittnerova
Workshop attendee
“LinkedIn cares about the quality of the link. If, after clicking, people return to LinkedIn too quickly, the link is not good enough, and it sends signals to the algorithm.”View on LinkedIn
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