Why LinkedIn Is the Best Channel for CEOs to Communicate with Their Own Organization

The All-Hands Email Nobody Reads

Let's be honest about something. When the CEO sends a company-wide email, how many people actually read the whole thing? Twenty percent? Maybe thirty on a good day?

And even the people who read it? They skim it. They catch the headline, maybe the first paragraph, and move on. The carefully crafted update that took an hour to write gets about eight seconds of attention before it's buried under a hundred other emails.

I'm not saying internal emails are useless. They have their place. But if a CEO's goal is to actually connect with their employees — to make people feel like they understand the company's direction and the person leading it — email is one of the worst channels for that.

LinkedIn is one of the best.

Your Employees Are Already Scrolling

Here's the reality. Your employees are on LinkedIn every day. They're checking their feeds during lunch, between meetings, on the commute home. It's where they consume professional content.

When a CEO posts on LinkedIn, it shows up right there in that feed. Not in a corporate inbox competing with meeting invites and expense reports. In the place where employees are already paying attention.

And the post doesn't feel like a corporate memo. It feels like their CEO sharing a thought. That distinction matters more than most leaders realize. A LinkedIn post has a casual, human quality that no internal email can match.

The Engagement Is Real (And Visible)

This is the part that really sets LinkedIn apart from every other internal comms channel. When employees see a CEO's post, they can react to it. Comment on it. Repost it to their own network.

And they do. Consistently. I've watched CEOs post about company milestones, strategic direction, or even personal reflections, and the comments section fills with employees. They're proud. They want to be associated with the message. They want their own network to see it.

That public engagement does something no Slack message or email thread can do. It creates a visible community around the company. When fifty employees comment on a CEO's post about where the company is headed, it sends a signal — internally and externally — that this is a team that's aligned and excited.

Try getting that from a company-wide email. It won't happen.

Employees Want to Know What Their CEO Thinks

Here's something I don't think enough CEOs appreciate. Your employees are curious about you. They want to know what you're thinking about. What you're worried about. What gets you excited. What you think about the industry trends everyone's talking about.

Internal comms rarely satisfy this curiosity. Company emails are sanitized by legal and comms teams. All-hands presentations are structured and scripted. Town halls are better but happen too infrequently.

A CEO who posts on LinkedIn two or three times a week gives employees a running window into their thinking. Not the polished, approved-by-twelve-people version. The real version. And that builds trust and connection in a way that no formal channel can replicate.

The Ripple Effect Through the Organization

When a CEO posts consistently, something interesting happens at the team level. Other leaders start posting too. Directors and VPs see the CEO doing it and realize it's valued. Managers follow. Individual contributors follow.

Within a few months, you have a company culture where people feel comfortable sharing their work, their insights, and their pride in the company on LinkedIn. That's employer branding that no campaign can buy.

And here's the recruiting angle that most people miss. When candidates research your company, they look at LinkedIn. If they see the CEO posting thoughtfully and employees engaging enthusiastically, that tells them more about your culture than any careers page ever could.

What CEOs Should Actually Post

You don't need a ghostwriter or a content calendar (though those help). Just talk about what's on your mind.

• Where the company is going. Share your vision. Not the investor pitch version — the real version. What are you building and why does it matter?
• What you're learning. Read something interesting? Had a conversation that shifted your thinking? Share it.
• Team wins. Celebrate your people publicly. Tag them. Tell the story of what they accomplished.
• Industry commentary. What's happening in your space? What do you agree with? What do you push back on?
• Hard truths. The most powerful CEO posts are the ones about challenges. A tough quarter. A decision that didn't pan out. What you learned from it.

Start This Week

If you're a CEO who isn't posting on LinkedIn, you're leaving one of the most powerful communication channels on the table. Your employees are already there. They want to hear from you.

Write one post this week about something you're genuinely thinking about. Watch what happens in the comments. You'll be surprised how many of your own people show up.

Want to build out your team's LinkedIn presence? Read about encouraging employees to post on LinkedIn and why employee accounts outperform company pages every time.