andreas jonsson

CEO @Shield: Get all posts from all your people, all in one dashboard. Stats and analytics for LinkedIn. Learn what works. Get in touch 💬

@TheShieldIndex — LinkedIn benchmarks at www.theshieldindex.com ↗

@Shield — LinkedIn analytics for creators, team, and agencies at www.shieldapp.ai ↗

@bootstrap.university — for founders going from zero to ramen without investors at www.bootstrap.university ↗

CEO, Co-founder

Redefining LinkedIn analytics since 2019.

#shieldapp #weareshield

you can:

take part in the circlejerking of how bad linkedin allegedly is, how much organic reach apparently suck, and how the good old times were much better and more fruitful

or you can:

snap out of that and bring yourself back to the present and make do with what you have right here and right now, irrespective of whether some other time that no longer exists was better or worse, and then focus on the work in front of you

one nets you results, the other nets you nothing but engagement from others who also aren’t getting results

LinkedIn reach benchmarks by follower bracket (Feb 2026):

0–1K followers: 148 impressions
1–5K followers: 479 impressions
5–10K followers: 774 impressions
10–25K followers: 1,216 impressions
25–50K followers: 2,143 impressions
50–100K followers: 5,144 impressions
100K+ followers: 12,520 impressions

numbers shown here are typical impressions per post (median). the top 10% and top 1% travel much further.

laugh or cry the full breakdown is in the latest Index edition.

TheShieldIndex

bootstrapped founder | shield + the shield index

people who fully automate their LinkedIn comments with AI tell me why? like what's the reasoning here i'm trying to understand

alrite have a great rest of your weekend everyone except the AI comment bots

post saves & post sends

the most underrated most overlooked metrics on linkedin

i’ve seen posts get more saves than likes. and personally i’d take that any day of the week

when you save a post or send it to someone that signals resonance on a whole other level than a like or a comment

and therefore my fav two-step prompt on the shield agent is this:

1. fetch my top 100 posts last six months
2. show me top 10 most saved and what they have in common - timing, topic, structure, style, etc.

gm all humans on linkedin

a few exciting things out the gate this morning

1. my love for brew batch coffee is back: unparalleled caffeine kick. the flat in flat white suddenly got a new meaning

2. february is over which means february linkedin benchmarks is coming up. if you wonder whether reach is up down left or right, what content types matter and more, you can follow the Index for free

3. i packed away my winter coats this weekend and caught a ray of sunshine which i for one welcome here in the dark north

ok that's it, talk later

if you're careful "how you show up" are you really showing up as you?

i'm not saying go full pajamas savage ben n jerry's in all your content and encounters - but if you censor yourself to fit a role, a title, to fit someone else's perception of you...

are you really being true? unapologetically you?

and if you're not, is that not gonna be exhausting?

i don’t like reading blatant AI content

but what’s worse is being unsure whether it’s AI or not

like, did you really write this? or did you prompt it? how much were you involved?

i don’t know, if i see clearly that yeah that’s AI and the same template on repeat i smile and carry on

but if im unsure i feel fooled in a way

hbu?

ps yes i wrote this can you tell

how far does a typical linkedin post actually go?

we measured it across 50,000 posts in February.

a typical post at 0–1K followers gets 148 impressions. at 100K+, 12,520.

all other follower brackets are in the Index.

subscribe for free. we ship at 5pm cet today.

TheShieldIndex

posting on LinkedIn is a lottery for certain account sizes

we took a close look at virality versus baseline reach across 50,000 posts spanning 13 follower brackets from 0–500 followers to 1M+

as i said, some account sizes play the lottery. most posts net nothing. a few take home everything. some brackets are stable like that while others move month over month.

it's all in the Index.

subscribe for free. we ship at 5pm cet today.

TheShieldIndex

87.9x

that's the breakout (viral) multiple for accounts with fewer than 500 followers. the ratio between a top 1% post and a typical post.

for accounts with 1M+ followers it's 6.2x.

we tracked ~50,000 linkedin posts in january and measured the breakout multiple across every follower bracket. the full data cut drops this week in the Index.

some brackets are playing the lottery while others barely move.

TheShieldIndex

1. share something interesting 

either people learn, earn or grow from it. that’s something worth saving and sharing.

2. share something often

keep showing up and follow step one. people will hit like, follow, subscribe, save, send.

3. share ways to buy from you

free builds trust, paid builds a business. if there’s no way to buy, people won’t, duh.

that’s the recipe. you can complicate it however much you want but the fundamentals won’t change.

in other words: build ship sell repeat.

Luke Shalom

CEO @ Grow Solo I help the C-suite turn industry expertise into predictable pipeline

There are two ways agency founders try to turn LinkedIn into a reliable source of clients.



One is by guessing. Posting when there is time. Relying on referrals and hoping the next month is a good one.



The other is by building a system that creates steady conversations, even when client work gets busy.



Our clients choose the second.



→ Joya Dass (Founder, Women’s Leadership Lab)



The problem:



- She spent hours in the DMs to book a few calls.

- Content happened on weekends.

- When delivery picked up, sales stopped.



Some months were strong. Others were quiet.



Even in good months, there was stress about where the next client would come from.



What we did:



We built a simple LinkedIn content system she could run in house. No ghostwriter or agency retainer dependency.



We shifted her content from generic how to posts to insight driven thinking.



That changed the conversations. People in her network showed up aligned and ready to buy.



We added a content led outbound system powered by a setter we hited and trained. The system kept working while she focused on delivery.



Results:



- Revenue grew from $150k to $300k.

- Sales became predictable.

- The pressure eased.



→ Jonathan Crowder (Founder, Founders Ally)



The problem:



- No time for content.

- Unpredictable sales calls.

- Leads with no budget.

- No sales background. A 10 percent close rate.



What we did:



We removed Jonathan as the bottleneck. 



We built a content system using AI supported by his real thinking. It sounded like him, not software.



Trust was built before the call. Outbound went from 10% to 40% response rates.



We focused prospecting on real buying moments, like recent funding to catch buyers at the right time.



We simplified his sales process. Clear outcomes. Clear cost of inaction was communicated to his buyers.



Results:



- Meetings went from 3-5 a month to 10-15 sales qualifed leads a month.

- A visible pipeline. Increase to a 25 percent close rate.

- $300k in pipeline in 60 days.

- $30k in new revenue closed.



→ Brian Dukes (COO, Exit Wise)



The problem



- Ovelry dependent on referrals.

- No LinkedIn playbook.

- No time to write.



What we did



- We clarified positioning.

- Simplified the offer.

- Built a content engine.



Then we added outbound from the founder profile.



Everything was owned and run internally.



Results:



- Consistent posting machine.

- 500 to 6500 ICP followers.

- $740,000 in LinkedIn-driven revenue over two years.



We have helped 100+ founder led agencies replace unpredictable growth with systems they understand and control.



If this feels familiar send me a DM with "Grow", we should talk.

Founder

We help executives to build and monetize their brand on linkedin by scaling your content and turning it into leads, authority and thought leadership.

How?

Engagement + DM flows = Qualified meetings. 

Done with you. Done for you.

I close 50% of my discovery calls with 5-figure clients. Here's the exact founder profile funnel that does it:
 
Most agency founders are stuck in "random acts of growth".
 
They post and hear crickets.
They buy expensive tools.
They hire an agency and blow there marketing budget.

Nothing works.
 
So pipeline stays unpredictable.

Referrals dry up.
 
And LinkedIn gets written off as something that "doesn't work for our industry."
 
It's not the channel. It's the absence of a system.
 
The founders winning right now have stopped chasing tactics and built a Founder-Led Demand System.
 
One engine where content, trust, and outbound compound together.
 
Here's exactly how mine works.
 
TOP OF FUNNEL
 
Tools: LinkedIn, Perplexity, Claude
 
My founder brand on LinkedIn is the engine.
 
Every month it pulls the right people in. Follows, likes, connections, profile views from founders who match my ICP exactly.

By the time they reach out, they already know me. They already trust me.
 
That means every call I take is with someone already in consideration. I'm not selling to strangers.
 
But that only happens when your positioning is locked in and your content is engineered to take someone from skeptical to ready to buy.
 
Most founders post randomly and wonder why nothing converts.
 
MIDDLE OF FUNNEL
 
Tools: YouTube
 
LinkedIn gets them in the door. YouTube closes the trust gap.
 
I've never gone viral. My videos are lucky to get 500 views.
 
But every single client I've signed in the last 6 months said YouTube was one of the main reasons they hired me.
 
Why? Facetime. There's nothing that builds trust faster than watching someone think out loud on camera for 20 minutes.
 
Every video is built around a buying objection I hear on calls. I post once a week and drive LinkedIn traffic to it. Our setter uses videos in the DMs before calls, between discovery and close, and when leads go cold.
 
It's the best sales tool for trust building I have.
 
BOTTOM OF FUNNEL
 
Tools: Valley AI
 
This is where most agencies leave money on the table. They generate interest and have no system to convert it.
 
We run warm outbound to every ICP founder who engages with content. Likes, comments, profile views, lead magnet requests. All of it.
 
A human is in the loop at every stage. We qualify hard before anything hits the calendar.

That's why close rate is 50%.
 
Interested in building this out for your Agency? DM me "grow" and I'll show you the gaps stopping you from turning LinkedIn into  7 figure channel.

Founder at Atticus | Predictable LinkedIn pipeline using a founder-led sales system I 100+ clients scaled | Be the next 👉 atticusagency.com

Stop sending DMs that get ignored. I booked 1,000+ sales calls from LinkedIn and made $1.3M doing. Steal the exact script ↓

Comment and I'll send it to you.

I used to spend hours crafting the "perfect" DM. Tweaking. Rewriting. Getting ghosted anyway and following up like a desperate ex.

Now I use a 5-message sequence I've tested for 3 years straight. Instead of 18 rejections out of 20, we are booking 20-40 calls a month.

Every conversation feels like it came from them.

Here's what's inside:

- DM 1: Open with context, not a pitch
- DM 2: Follow up without sounding desperate
- DM 3: Uncover their pain in natural conversation
- DM 4: Transition to a call without it feeling forced
- DM 5: Make it stupid easy to book the meeting
- The complete walkthrough...  all 5 messages in action
- 5 mistakes that kill your DM conversion rate
- How to customise the script for your ICP

BONUS: DM Personalisation Framework that gets 80% response rates.
It took me 2 years and 1,000+ DMs to build. Takes you 60 seconds to steal.

Stop using LinkedIn DMs like a cold email channel. 

Start using them like a trust-building machine.

How to get it: 

1/ Connect with me 2/ Comment below and I'll DM you everything

♻️ Repost to skip the queue. 

P.S. We must be connected... otherwise LinkedIn blocks the message.

P.SS The perplexity lead magnet will be coming over today/ tomorrow... keep those eyes peeled!

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The Battle

andreas jonsson

Luke Shalom

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taplio

The Battle

andreas jonsson

Luke Shalom

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}andreas jonsson's LinkedIn Performance

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