GovFeeds Now Covers LinkedIn: How Local Governments Use It, and What Gets a Response
GovFeeds now includes LinkedIn. To mark it, we looked at 799 LinkedIn posts from the official pages of 373 cities, towns and counties in 44 states, posted between May and early November 2026. Here is who is on LinkedIn, what they post, and which posts people respond to.
- Bigger governments are much more likely to be on LinkedIn. We found an official page for about 43% of governments with 250,000 or more residents, compared with 12% of those with 10,000 to 25,000.
- Jobs dominate. Almost a third of posts (31%) are job openings and hiring, more than any other topic.
- People respond to people. Posts recognizing staff, such as retirements, promotions, awards and new hires, get a typical 24 reactions, about four times a job post’s 6, and more than half of them draw comments.
- The typical post gets 8 reactions and no comments. One in ten passes about 50 reactions, and the top 10% of posts draw half of all reactions.
- Audiences are professional and modest. The typical government page has about 1,000 followers. City pages get a little more response than county pages (a typical 9 reactions to 6).
In this piece: Who’s on LinkedIn · What they post · What gets a response · Six posts worth a look · Ideas to try · How we measured
Who’s on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a smaller channel for local governments than Facebook or Instagram, and it is used for different things. Size matters most. Large cities and counties, with big workforces and active economic development offices, are several times more likely to have an official page than small towns.
Most pages belong to the government as a whole. A few departments, most often police, sheriff, parks and human resources, run their own. The typical government page has about 1,000 followers, and one in ten has about 10,000 or more. The typical active page posts a little more than once a week, and about one page in seven had no recent posts at all.
What they post
On LinkedIn, local governments mostly talk to job seekers, partners and the business community. Job openings and hiring lead by a wide margin, followed by posts recognizing staff, events and programs, economic development, and updates on projects and services. Holidays and observances, a staple on Facebook, are a small share here.
What gets a response
LinkedIn audiences react more than they comment. The typical post gets 8 reactions and no comments, and only about one post in four gets any comment at all. A small number of posts carry most of the response: the top 10% draw half of all reactions.
The clearest pattern is about people. Posts that recognize staff, such as a retirement after decades of service, a promotion, an award, a new department head or a team milestone, get a typical 24 reactions, and 58% of them draw comments, often congratulations from colleagues across the region. Job posts, the most common kind, get a typical 6 reactions and few comments. Economic development posts (new businesses, groundbreakings, awards and partnerships) land in between, at about 11.
That doesn’t mean governments should stop posting jobs. LinkedIn is where many of them recruit, and a job post doesn’t need reactions to reach a qualified applicant. But a page that only posts openings misses the posts its audience responds to most.
Six posts worth a look
Ideas to try
- Celebrate your people. Retirements, promotions, certifications and new hires are the most-responded-to posts on government LinkedIn. Name the person, the role and what they did.
- Make job posts about the work. The job posts that do better say what the role leads, who it serves and when applications close, rather than only listing the title.
- Name your partners. Economic development and project posts that tag businesses, schools and agencies give those partners a reason to react and share.
- Share awards and milestones. State and national recognition is natural LinkedIn content and travels well with peers in other governments.
LinkedIn in GovFeeds
LinkedIn posts from official government pages now appear in GovFeeds next to Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and TikTok. You can filter to LinkedIn to see what peer governments post there, with each post’s reactions and comments.
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How we measured
Data: public posts from the official LinkedIn pages of 373 U.S. cities, towns, townships and counties, with reactions and comments as of November 2026. Topic and response figures use the 799 posts published from May 4 to November 5, 2026, each at least a week old. A post’s topic is assigned from its text. The share of governments with a page covers cities, towns and counties of 10,000 or more residents. Reactions combine all reaction types; LinkedIn does not show repost counts publicly, so they are not included. This is a sample of each page’s recent posts, not every post.
Frequently asked questions
How many local governments are on LinkedIn?
It depends on size. We found an official LinkedIn page for about 43% of cities and counties with 250,000 or more residents, compared with about 12% of those with 10,000 to 25,000.
What do local governments post on LinkedIn?
Job openings lead, at about 31% of posts, followed by staff recognition (15%), events and programs (12%), economic development (11%) and projects and services (11%).
What kind of LinkedIn post gets the most response for a local government?
Posts recognizing staff: retirements, promotions, awards and new hires. They get a typical 24 reactions, about four times a job post, and more than half draw comments.
How much engagement does a typical local government LinkedIn post get?
About 8 reactions and no comments. One in ten posts passes about 50 reactions, and about one in four gets at least one comment.
See what peer governments post on LinkedIn.
GovFeeds collects posts from thousands of local governments so you can see what residents and partners respond to, borrow the ideas that fit, and make your own version.
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