Why LinkedIn’s CEO Video Boom Is Just the Beginning

That’s the direction LinkedIn is heading. Scroll your feed and you’ll spot the signs:a plethora of  lo-fi videos shot on the go or in amateurish makeshift studios. You could say that the ringlight and wireless microphone are almost a staple of C-suite executives these days. As Robbie Dunion, Head of Social Media at RS Group, often says: Linkedin has become TikTok for professionals. 

But this isn’t about big campaigns or corporate communications anymore. Instead, it’s about leaders showing up as themselves. And recent shifts in platform-related behaviour supports these observations:

• CEO posts are up 52% in the past two years 
• Executive video uploads have grown 44% year-on-year 
• Video is now LinkedIn’s fastest-growing content format, with viewership up 36% YoY

LinkedIn might have started as a digital extension to your CV, but the platform is rapidly becoming a space for leadership to be visible, personal, and real. And for those who lean in early, the opportunity remains wide open. 

There’s been a shift in tone, and with it trust.

In Australia alone, CEO content is up 23% year-on-year, generating 4x more impressions than the average post. Globally, LinkedIn video uploads from executives have jumped 44%, with platform-wide video creation growing at twice the rate of other formats.

It would be easy to assume that this rise in growth has been solely down to a fundamental platform shift and the promise of excellent performance metrics, but one feels as though there is more going on here. 

To my mind, this shift comes down to presence. The smartest leaders aren’t just building companies, instead they’re building narrative around the companies they represent. They’re no longer just broadcasting company values and instead showing how these values are actioned in the real-world - sometimes even in real-time - through the lens of people-first storytelling.

It’s not new. People-first, story-led content has always worked. This is just C-suite - and LinkedIn to some extent - finally catching up.

A CEO talking to a camera or a founder sharing a lesson doesn’t seem like much, but it’s direct, human, and rooted in narrative, and that’s why it works. The numbers speak for themselves: video posts get 5× more clicks, are shared 20× more often, and live video holds attention 3× longer with 44% more comments.

This isn’t about going viral, but instead about just being human. 

Once a digital noticeboard for job moves and work anniversaries, it's becoming a storytelling platform for professionals and especially those in positions of influence.

We’re seeing multiple shifts happen at the same time. Statements to stories. Brand-led to leader-led. The corporate voice to the individual voice.  

And this isn’t happening in isolation. It’s part of a broader recalibration of how we build trust and share insight online. The content that cuts through now mirrors what performs elsewhere. Inevitably, its short-form video, with its lo-fi production aesthetic and personality-driven execution that holds attention at the moment.  On LinkedIn, it’s given extra credibility through a combination of relevance, context, and professional intent.

At its core, this evolution is about human-first storytelling.Not storytelling as a communications or marketing tactic, but as a leadership skill. It’s how people align around ideas and trust is built. But, ultimately, it’s how influence is scaled.

And LinkedIn, with its expanding creator tools, algorithm tweaks, and growing content ecosystem, is going all in on red. 

So where does this all lead? LinkedIn is becoming a space where leaders don’t just represent their companies, but instead become a living embodiment or personification of the values they represent.

The CEO becomes the chief storyteller. The founder becomes the face of the brand. And the lines between leadership, marketing and communications? They’re blurring fast in the milieu of what we now define as ‘content.’

Some have already seen the potential. Ben Francis, Founder of Gymshark, whose casual updates provide an intriguing insight into his professional life and world. The same could be said of Steven Bartlett. The most intriguing? Jamie Laing, blending entertainment and entrepreneurship to build credibility in new spaces. 

I appreciate these are extreme examples, and not your classic c-suite executives. And perhaps the result of not being ‘stereotypical’ has afforded them the opportunity to be more disruptive with content and brand storytelling. 

The reality is, though, they’re not just posting. They’re building connections through the mechanism of storytelling. 

My prediction is that eventually we’ll see LinkedIn operate more like a streaming feed of expertise where leaders drop updates, launch ideas, test thinking in public, and grow audiences based on trust, not their title.

And when that happens, the brands that win won’t be the ones with the most polished output. They’ll be the ones with the clearest, boldest, most human voices at the top. These brands will invariably be led by leaders who understand that storytelling isn’t just part of the job. It is the job.