Deciding What You Want to Achieve With LinkedIn Posting

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” – Raccoons.

Success on LinkedIn looks different for different people. It’s important to realize this before you sign over a chunk of your weekly schedule to content creation. The road ahead will be long, so you need to have a clear idea of where you want to go. 

Why Your Follower Count Doesn’t Really Matter

Many LinkedIn experts will tell you to beware of the platform’s “vanity metrics.” Large numbers of impressions, reactions, and followers may look nice, but they won’t put money in your pocket (at least not directly).

This is not the case on other platforms (such as Instagram), where paid promotion is big business. There, creators can leverage their engagement to demand bigger checks from the brands they work with. This type of arrangement is much less common on LinkedIn.

So, while you do want to attract as many followers as possible, this shouldn’t be your overall goal.  

Speaking to the Right People

If you’re using LinkedIn to promote your business, you want your posts to resonate with your target clients above all else. Say you’re running a law firm marketing agency; you’ll get closer to your goals by reaching one law firm practice manager with a post than 50 fellow agency owners. 

So, it’s important to keep this in mind from the start and write your posts accordingly. Create content that will help your ideal client solve problems they’re struggling with. If something you write helps someone to achieve a business goal, they’ll be much more likely to think of you if they want to outsource a similar task in future. 

If we reuse the law firm marketing agency example, potentially effective LinkedIn posts might cover:

• Optimization techniques for mobile versions of law firm websites.

• Tips for boosting a law firm Google Business Profile.

• Step-by-step guides on podcast production for lawyers. 

Equally, though, you don’t need to be myopic about your objectives if an exciting opportunity comes your way. Your goals can change, and that’s fine. 

I know plenty of freelance writers who started posting on LinkedIn in an attempt to speak to their ideal clients, but ended up gaining a large following of fellow freelancers instead. They were then able to leverage this to offer coaching and consulting services, or to launch ad-supported newsletters. 

LinkedIn Thought Leadership

LinkedIn isn’t just about making sales. Many creators use the platform to share insights about their industries and start far-reaching conversations, rather than promote a product or service. 

This “thought leadership” approach to LinkedIn might strike you as pointless. Why, you might well ask, would you invest your time or money into your social presence if it’s not resulting in cold hard cash? Particularly when, as noted above, it’s more difficult to turn follower counts into financial gain on LinkedIn than elsewhere?

The answer is that professional development looks different for different people. Some creators use LinkedIn thought leadership as a means of broadening their career horizons, rather than doubling down on their most immediate goals.

Say you’re a director in a large multinational. You’ve risen through the ranks of your industry, securing a role that comes with great compensation and a high-impact position.

What now? Unless you want to keep climbing the corporate ladder (a task that gets more difficult the higher you go), you’re running out of options in terms of career progression. 

Using LinkedIn to share your experiences and build a network of professionals in other areas might give you options. For example, your followers might enjoy your content so much that you’ll be able to launch a podcast, write a book, or establish yourself on the paid speaking circuit. 

You’ll never know what could happen until you start posting. 

What Does Progress Look Like?

Nonlinear progression on LinkedIn is very common. Impression counts often vary widely from one post to the next; if one post bombs, this shouldn’t be any cause for concern.

There are many algorithmic quirks that can affect your engagement, and not all of them are well-understood. LinkedIn changes its algorithm periodically and in secret. We can’t say with any certainty how its programmers are promoting or punishing content; we can only look at what works over time, and try to keep doing it. 

The good news is that this approach always bears fruit if you stay in the game long enough. Many content creators get frustrated and quit after two or three months of middling engagement. However, those who stay the course for a year or more (assuming they post valuable content multiple times a week) can achieve big things on the platform. 

Need Help?

Whether you’re building your platform from scratch or wondering which direction to pivot in, I can help you. My LinkedIn ghostwriting service includes an initial strategy session, as well as a monthly meeting to assess your progress and discuss adjustments. These add-ons are included in the price of your monthly retainer.

Interested in learning more? Reach out via the contact form at the bottom of my homepage and we can schedule a free initial consultation to get you started!