Three months of content format data

We've been tracking typical reach rate by content format since December — 50,000 LinkedIn posts per month across seven formats. Three months in, the pattern is clear enough to chart.

Reach rate is impressions divided by follower count — how far a post travels relative to the account's audience size.

Every format fell from January to February. The decline was broad — not isolated to one content type. Carousel dropped the most (−1.02pp). Poll barely moved (−0.12pp).

The three-month arc varies by format. Image and video followed a rise-then-fall pattern: up in January, back down in February. Text held flat in January, then fell in February. Carousel flatlined in January, then fell further. Poll has been declining every month since December.

Formats cluster in two bands. Image, text, carousel, and poll sit between 12–14% typical reach. Video, article, and repost sit between 5–9%. The gap between these bands has been consistent across all three months — the upper band moves together, the lower band moves together.

February didn't change which formats travel furthest. It changed how far all of them go.

This is a reference cut: one metric, three months, all formats. The full breakdown shipped last week to paid subscribers: breakout multiples, strong-tier movement, and the carousel volume story. This chart was one piece of that edition.

Earlier this week we shipped the cadence data: How posting frequency affects reach, and where the tradeoff got steeper in February. Paid subscribers get the deeper cut every week — the full tables, the breakout data, the month-over-month comparisons. Pieces like this one come from that.

The Shield Index
@TheShieldIndex / theshieldindex.com

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