1. Where the data comes from
The comments analysis covers 43,496 LinkedIn posts from the last 60 days, collected by GTM Brigade. We pulled the numbers on 21 October 2026.
Most of them are B2B posts. They come from the creators GTM Brigade tracks and the people in their networks, so this is not a random sample of LinkedIn.
The biggest groups of creators in the data:
| Top 5 industries | Creators |
|---|---|
| Computer Software | 2,042 |
| Information Technology & Services | 784 |
| Marketing & Advertising | 691 |
| Management Consulting | 327 |
| Financial Services | 221 |
| Top 5 countries | Creators |
|---|---|
| United States | 2,775 |
| Romania | 903 |
| United Kingdom | 805 |
| India | 304 |
| Germany | 260 |
Out of 7,565 creators in the benchmark, the top 5 industries have 4,065 of them and the top 5 countries have 5,047. The other creators are in smaller industries and countries, or don’t have an industry or a country in their profile. That’s why the two lists don’t add up to the same total.
For every post, we looked at 6 things: the hook (the first line), the length, the format, hashtags, links and the call to action. In sections 2 to 4, every number is an average per post: all the comments in a group, divided by the number of posts in that group.
Across all 43,496 posts, the average is about 16 comments per post. Keep that in mind as the middle line for every table below.
2. The 6 things, in full
The hook
| Share of posts | Posts | Avg comments | Avg reactions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal (“I, my, we”) | 9.6% | about 4,176 | 23 | 74 |
| A number or a stat | 23.8% | about 10,352 | 19 | 62 |
| A plain statement | 56.5% | about 24,575 | 14 | 63 |
| A question | 10.0% | about 4,350 | 12 | 53 |
Only 9.6% of posts start with something personal, and they get the most comments. More than half of all posts start with a plain statement.
The length
| Share of posts | Posts | Avg comments | Avg reactions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Over 1,200 characters | 32.2% | about 14,006 | 21 | 77 |
| 300 to 1,200 characters | 53.6% | about 23,314 | 15 | 58 |
| Under 300 characters | 14.2% | about 6,176 | 9 | 50 |
The longer the post, the more comments: 9, then 15, then 21.
The format
| Share of posts | Posts | Avg comments | Avg reactions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image(s) | 54.4% | about 23,662 | 21 | 81 |
| Carousel (document) | 3.2% | about 1,392 | 21 | 45 |
| Text only | 38.8% | about 16,876 | 10 | 40 |
| Native video | 3.6% | about 1,566 | 9 | 52 |
Carousels get as many comments as images, but about half the reactions (45 against 81). Carousels and native video are only 3.2% and 3.6% of all posts.
Hashtags
| Share of posts | Posts | Avg comments | Avg reactions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No hashtags | 65.9% | about 28,664 | 21 | 75 |
| With hashtags | 34.1% | about 14,832 | 7 | 39 |
A third of all posts still use hashtags, 1.7 per post on average.
Links
| Share of posts | Posts | Avg comments | Avg reactions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No link | 76.1% | about 33,100 | 17 | 63 |
| With a link | 23.9% | about 10,396 | 14 | 64 |
A link doesn’t change the reactions (64 against 63), only the comments.
The call to action
| Share of posts | Posts | Avg comments | Avg reactions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asks people to follow or DM | 4.1% | about 1,783 | 19 | 62 |
| Asks for comments | 1.8% | about 783 | 19 | 53 |
| No call to action | 86.6% | about 37,668 | 16 | 64 |
| Pushes a link or an offer | 7.4% | about 3,219 | 15 | 56 |
86.6% of posts don’t ask for anything. In the post, “asking people to follow, DM you, or comment” is these first two rows together, both at 19.
3. By industry
The same comparisons for the 10 industries with the most creators in the data. Average comments per post. A * means fewer than 30 posts in that group, so read it with care. An n/a means the group isn’t in the data.
The hook, by industry
| Industry | Posts | Personal | A number | A statement | A question |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer Software | 3,622 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 6 |
| Information Technology & Services | 961 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Marketing & Advertising | 2,464 | 12 | 14 | 7 | 7 |
| Management Consulting | 507 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 3 |
| Financial Services | 229 | 11* | 3 | 5 | 6* |
| Retail | 526 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 12* |
| Computer & Network Security | 195 | 9* | 3 | 4 | 5* |
| Venture Capital & Private Equity | 175 | 12* | 17 | 8 | 16* |
| Non-profit Organization Management | 158 | 9* | 15 | 12 | 7* |
| Food & Beverages | 202 | 4* | 11 | 9 | 4* |
The length and the format, by industry
| Industry | Over 1,200 chars | Under 300 chars | Image | Text only | Native video | Carousel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer Software | 8 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 2 |
| Information Technology & Services | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2* | 7* |
| Marketing & Advertising | 11 | 6 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 14 |
| Management Consulting | 8 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 3* | 2* |
| Financial Services | 8 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 11* | 1* |
| Retail | 7 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2* |
| Computer & Network Security | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2* | n/a |
| Venture Capital & Private Equity | 8 | 25* | 13 | 8 | 4* | 6* |
| Non-profit Organization Management | 20 | 5* | 18 | 5 | 5* | 1* |
| Food & Beverages | 8 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 2* | n/a |
What stands out:
- A personal first line gets more comments than a plain statement in 8 of the 10 industries. The exceptions are Non-profit Organization Management and Food & Beverages, where a number in the first line does better.
- Long posts get more comments than short ones in 9 of the 10 industries. The exception is Venture Capital & Private Equity, where short posts get 25 comments, but that’s a small group.
- An image gets more comments than text only in 7 of the 10 industries, and the same in Computer Software and Information Technology & Services. In Food & Beverages, text only gets slightly more (9 against 8).
- Most groups get fewer comments per post here than in section 2. So compare the groups inside your own industry, not with the overall numbers.
4. By country
The 10 countries with the most creators in the data. Average comments per post, with the same * and n/a as above.
The hook, by country
| Country | Posts | Personal | A number | A statement | A question |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 6,961 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 9 |
| Romania | 835 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| United Kingdom | 2,464 | 16 | 16 | 10 | 8 |
| India | 602 | 13 | 11 | 14 | 22 |
| Germany | 403 | 20 | 10 | 9 | 8* |
| France | 120 | 8* | 11 | 8 | 1* |
| Canada | 493 | 31 | 12 | 21 | 6 |
| Netherlands | 236 | 8* | 3 | 5 | 4* |
| Spain | 191 | 9* | 18* | 4 | 5* |
| Switzerland | 112 | 4* | 9* | 7 | 9* |
The length and the format, by country
| Country | Over 1,200 chars | Under 300 chars | Image | Text only | Native video | Carousel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 16 | 7 | 17 | 9 | 5 | 19 |
| Romania | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1* | 2* |
| United Kingdom | 13 | 8 | 14 | 7 | 10 | 3 |
| India | 13 | 22 | 18 | 9 | 24* | 13* |
| Germany | 13 | 4* | 12 | 5 | 10* | 13 |
| France | 15 | 4* | 9 | 4 | 4* | 28* |
| Canada | 16 | 16 | 28 | 5 | 6* | 44* |
| Netherlands | 7 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 3* | 0* |
| Spain | 7 | 2* | 5 | 7 | 1* | 4* |
| Switzerland | 4 | 10* | 11 | 2 | 23* | 4* |
What stands out:
- A personal first line beats a plain statement in 7 of the 10 countries: United States, Romania, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Netherlands and Spain.
- Long posts beat short ones in 7 of the 10: United States, Romania, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Netherlands and Spain.
- An image beats text only in 8 of the 10: United States, Romania, United Kingdom, India, Germany, France, Canada and Switzerland.
- In Romania, every group gets between 1 and 6 comments per post, and the median creator gets 2 comments in 60 days.
5. Your engagement rate against the benchmark
Engagement rate here means a creator’s engagement in the last 60 days divided by their followers. We use percentiles instead of averages, because a few very big accounts would distort an average.
How to read it: if your rate is above the median for your row, you’re doing better than half of the creators in your group. Above p75, better than three quarters of them.
By follower count
| Followers | Creators | p25 | Median | p75 | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1,000 | 486 | 0.78% | 2.14% | 5.43% | 10.74% |
| 1,000 to 10,000 | 4,882 | 0.31% | 0.73% | 1.77% | 3.71% |
| 10,000 to 100,000 | 2,088 | 0.09% | 0.23% | 0.47% | 0.89% |
| 100,000+ | 109 | 0.11% | 0.18% | 0.38% | 0.63% |
The smaller the account, the higher the rate: a creator with under 1,000 followers has a median of 2.14%, and one with 100,000+ has 0.18%.
By industry (24 industries)
| Industry | Creators | Median | p75 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer Software | 2,042 | 0.62% | 1.44% |
| Information Technology & Services | 784 | 0.55% | 1.35% |
| Marketing & Advertising | 691 | 0.37% | 0.93% |
| Management Consulting | 327 | 0.32% | 0.85% |
| Financial Services | 221 | 0.61% | 1.56% |
| Retail | 178 | 1.46% | 3.63% |
| Computer & Network Security | 147 | 0.74% | 1.52% |
| Venture Capital & Private Equity | 105 | 0.49% | 0.90% |
| Non-profit Organization Management | 100 | 0.79% | 2.07% |
| Food & Beverages | 98 | 1.40% | 3.13% |
| Higher Education | 95 | 0.48% | 1.01% |
| Founder-Led Sales | 85 | 0.21% | 0.35% |
| Professional Training & Coaching | 74 | 0.31% | 0.84% |
| Social Selling & LinkedIn Growth | 68 | 0.21% | 0.60% |
| Growth Marketing | 65 | 0.26% | 0.63% |
| GTM / Go-to-Market | 64 | 0.30% | 0.53% |
| B2B SaaS Sales | 63 | 0.31% | 0.51% |
| Health, Wellness & Fitness | 61 | 0.58% | 1.77% |
| Staffing & Recruiting | 60 | 0.20% | 0.45% |
| Human Resources | 58 | 0.42% | 0.98% |
| Apparel & Fashion | 52 | 1.13% | 3.66% |
| Telecommunications | 51 | 0.71% | 2.22% |
| B2B Agency & Consulting | 51 | 0.33% | 1.06% |
| E-commerce Growth & D2C | 50 | 0.99% | 2.72% |
By country (20 countries)
| Country | Creators | Median | p75 |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 2,775 | 0.47% | 1.22% |
| Romania | 903 | 0.48% | 1.28% |
| United Kingdom | 805 | 0.71% | 2.08% |
| India | 304 | 0.37% | 0.86% |
| Germany | 260 | 0.81% | 1.87% |
| France | 219 | 0.56% | 1.38% |
| Canada | 211 | 0.60% | 1.44% |
| Netherlands | 151 | 0.84% | 1.89% |
| Spain | 132 | 0.50% | 1.02% |
| Switzerland | 128 | 0.51% | 1.30% |
| Australia | 112 | 1.20% | 3.24% |
| Pakistan | 97 | 0.36% | 1.01% |
| United Arab Emirates | 86 | 0.35% | 0.98% |
| Israel | 83 | 0.81% | 1.82% |
| Brazil | 78 | 0.68% | 2.05% |
| Sweden | 73 | 0.87% | 2.09% |
| Poland | 71 | 0.36% | 0.86% |
| Italy | 70 | 0.35% | 0.94% |
| Denmark | 70 | 1.02% | 3.00% |
| Ireland | 63 | 0.71% | 2.01% |
If you want to see where your own profile sits, paste your LinkedIn URL at gtmbrigade.com/state-of-linkedin.
6. More from the data
Mentioning AI
26.8% of the posts mention AI. They get 52 reactions on average, against 67 for the posts that don’t.
What people post about
Average reactions per post, by topic, from most to least:
| Topic | Share of posts | Avg reactions |
|---|---|---|
| Personal & community | 1.7% | 132 |
| Career & mindset | 2.3% | 93 |
| Founder & startup | 1.7% | 92 |
| Awards & recognition | 2.6% | 85 |
| Wellness & health | 1.1% | 79 |
| Event recaps | 1.1% | 78 |
| Culture & holidays | 0.3% | 76 |
| Leadership & management | 3.6% | 74 |
| Software & infrastructure | 3.1% | 73 |
| HR & workforce | 2.4% | 73 |
| AI tools & models | 1.5% | 72 |
| Real estate & construction | 1.1% | 72 |
| Content & LinkedIn advice | 4.9% | 69 |
| Fintech & finance | 5.1% | 68 |
| Life sciences & biotech | 0.3% | 67 |
| Event promotion | 6.2% | 66 |
| Product launches & updates | 3.7% | 66 |
| Brand & marketing | 3.0% | 66 |
| Everything else | 12.9% | 65 |
| Funding news | 1.3% | 63 |
| Geopolitics & policy | 0.3% | 61 |
| Supply chain & logistics | 0.9% | 60 |
| Healthcare | 1.5% | 59 |
| Manufacturing | 0.7% | 59 |
| Content promotion | 7.0% | 58 |
| CRO & experimentation | 2.3% | 52 |
| SEO & content marketing | 2.1% | 51 |
| Sustainability & energy | 0.5% | 50 |
| Sales & outbound | 6.1% | 49 |
| Paid ads | 3.3% | 48 |
| M&A news | 2.1% | 47 |
| AI agents & automation | 1.1% | 47 |
| Hiring & jobs | 3.0% | 41 |
| GTM & RevOps | 2.4% | 41 |
| Ecommerce & D2C | 2.3% | 41 |
| Cybersecurity | 1.3% | 37 |
| AI adoption & strategy | 0.9% | 37 |
| Customer success | 1.8% | 36 |
| Data & analytics | 0.5% | 27 |
How reach is split
Across 54,749 posts from the same 60 days:
| To be in the… | You need at least (reactions) |
|---|---|
| Median post (p50) | 13 |
| Top 25% (p75) | 43 |
| Top 10% (p90) | 114 |
| Top 5% (p95) | 210 |
| Top 1% (p99) | 801 |
| Top 0.1% (p99.9) | 4,437 |
The top 1% of posts take 36.0% of all reactions.
When to post (UTC)
| Day | Posts | Median reactions | Avg reactions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | 4,145 | 9 | 73 |
| Mon | 9,929 | 12 | 59 |
| Tue | 11,433 | 13 | 63 |
| Wed | 10,516 | 13 | 64 |
| Thu | 9,642 | 13 | 59 |
| Fri | 6,131 | 14 | 69 |
| Sat | 2,953 | 13 | 77 |
The best slot by median reactions is Saturday at 04:00 (28), but it has only 69 posts. Then come Monday at 05:00 and Friday at 11:00 (24 each), and Thursday and Friday at 12:00 (23 each). The busiest slot is Tuesday at 12:00, with 944 posts and a median of 19. Sunday has the lowest median, 9.
How often to post (creators with 1,000 to 10,000 followers)
| Posts in 60 days | Creators | Engagement per post | Total engagement | New followers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 3,255 | 32 | 51 | 38 |
| 5 to 9 | 870 | 26 | 168 | 67 |
| 10 to 19 | 513 | 19 | 259 | 76 |
| 20+ | 289 | 9 | 262 | 96 |
Medians per group. Posting more lowers the engagement per post, but the total keeps growing, and so do the new followers. For creators with 10,000 to 100,000 followers, the engagement per post stays between 40 and 49 however often they post, and the total goes from 74 (1 to 4 posts) to 1,178 (20+ posts).
How people comment
From 470,455 comments in the data:
- The average comment is 80 characters long.
- 51.1% are a few words (up to 40 characters), and 2.5% are longer than 400 characters.
- 20.9% are a short agreement, like “great post”.
- 4.0% ask a question and 29.1% use an emoji.
- The busiest time for comments is Tuesday at 14:00 UTC.
7. How to read these numbers
- They show what goes with more comments, not what causes them. A personal first line doesn’t guarantee comments. It’s what the posts with more comments have in common.
- They are averages, and big accounts pull them up. The median creator in the data has 2,666 followers and gets 6 comments in 60 days, across 3 posts. So don’t compare your own numbers with the averages. Compare the groups with each other.
- Small groups move a lot. Every * in sections 3 and 4 is a group with fewer than 30 posts.
- The data leans B2B. It’s not a random sample of LinkedIn.
- Counts are snapshots. A post can still get comments after we counted them.
- All numbers are rounded to whole numbers, and all times are in UTC.
LinkedIn is a trademark of LinkedIn Corporation. GTM Brigade is not affiliated with LinkedIn. All numbers are aggregate statistics.
We pulled all of this from GTM Brigade. If you want to see where your own LinkedIn profile sits against these benchmarks, go to gtmbrigade.com/state-of-linkedin.