My LinkedIn Content Journey

[A note: this article was written in June 2024, but the learnings and principles are still relevant as you read it today.]

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In this article, I want to share a little of my own journey in building an audience of 35k+ on LinkedIn.

First, let’s acknowledge a fundamental concept.

Becoming a better content writer is not about a method or process.

It’s about exposure.

If, for example, LinkedIn is the channel where you want to build your personal brand, immerse yourself in LinkedIn. Figure out who you want to be positioned alongside and digest their content. Pick up their style, tone, and subtext.

Writing for social is a skill you develop, and there’s only one way to develop a skill for writing and uncovering insight, as demonstrated by Albert Einstein.

Research shows that volume and quality go hand in hand

Professor Dean Keith Simonton studied famous stories of high productivity in science.

Specifically, scientific papers.

He went through the data to find which papers were most often cited as an indicator of which papers were the highest quality.

Were they produced by the creative genius creating one incredible paper each year?

No, quite the opposite.

The most famous scientists you’ve heard of, the Nobel prize winners, were the most prolific. Einstein, for example, wrote 240 papers. The vast majority received little to no attention. But a handful made an enormous impact. (Story from Keith Sawyer in Zig Zag).

I believe that’s true for any field. The most successful writers produce a mass of mediocre writing, but amongst that mediocrity are nuggets of gold.

That’s exactly what I’ve experienced in social content.

Here’s a graph showing my post frequency since 2016.

Those 2024 numbers cover less than half the year (we’re in June at the time of writing), so I’ve doubled my production velocity compared to 2022.

Most of my posts go absolutely nowhere

But I’ve increased my surface area of luck. More posts, greater chance of coming up with a banger.

I’m writing and posting daily, and the more consistent I am, the higher the quality of content, the better the engagement and reach.

But again, we’re talking about this relationship between volume and quality.

Most of what I produce barely makes a ripple.

But for every 7 or 8 posts that go nowhere, one resonates and spreads, which is why I’m currently growing at 1,000 followers per month.

But is this leading to any business results?

What were my results like before taking content seriously?

Well, I wasn’t pulling in anywhere near as many prospects. I’d get some, but it was infrequent. Feast and famine.

Now I’m inundated with enquiries.

But it’s not just direct enquiries.

I have people reaching out, offering me their services on a performance basis to get access to my network.

Invites to appear on podcasts.

Invites to contribute as a guest expert for publications.

Invites to sit on awards panels.

And as mentioned, sales leads.

And it’s all directly correlated with the content volume I put out.

I know what you’re thinking now. This seems like a lot of work! It is - it’s like going to the gym, but you do have options…

Can you outsource it?

Not easily. There’s a difference between someone writing for your company page and someone writing as you.

Here are the options available to you in order of preference:

1/ Editor - This is the optimal approach. You do the writing, but hire an editor to improve your writing. She also acts as an accountability partner.

2/ In-house employee - They’re full-time and fully immersed in your business and market, but they need the specialised skills to write engaging content. They rarely do as they’ve probably been hired for their skills elsewhere.

3/ Ghostwriter - A really great ghostwriter can interview you and produce good enough posts so you don’t have to write yourself. The challenge is finding a great ghostwriter with enough subject matter knowledge to pick up the nuances of your field.

4/ Ghostwriting agency - Chances of a ghostwriting agency putting a great ghostwriter on your project, who also has subject matter knowledge, are slim to none. Whilst you’re out looking for this agency, go find yourself a tin of tartan paint too.

Ok, that’s a little on creation.

What about engagement

I believe the significance of engagement is overhyped.

First, let’s address the idea that you grow by engaging with big creator content.

Justin Welsh gets hundreds of comments on his posts. If I comment on every one of his posts, is he likely to engage with mine? No, because plenty of other people are doing that, and he doesn’t need to engage with other creators to attract engagement.

Will others see my comments, like them, and subsequently follow me? Yes, but I don’t believe the results here merit the time invested.

Okay, what if you reciprocally engage with other SaaS creators and founders with a similar following? Yeah, if you comment on their stuff, they’ll comment on yours, which spreads reach.

But you’re the CEO of a SaaS. You’re incredibly busy, and I really don’t think engaging with other people’s posts is a smart use of your time.

Engagement is fuel to the fire, but it’s not the fire

It’s an accelerant.

The real driver is value and quality of what you post. Those successful posts of mine I shared above, very few big creators commented or engaged with them. It doesn’t seem to be a driver of growth.

What drives growth is value and relevance. So I say, focus all your attention on that and everything else follows.

One final observation and word of warning

Be careful what you measure

I’ve analysed 858 posts by SaaS CEOs. I looked at the top-performing posts, some with up to 50,000 likes… they’re pretty dull.

Most are about new funding, a new role starting, or a Forbes 40 Under 40 type brag.

These people are thinking of nothing but vanity metrics. It feels great when you get a like, but if the content isn’t adding value to the right person in a way that anchors back to the problem your product solves, it does little to progress the business.

Which is why, if you haven’t read it already, take a look at the series I created on positioning (LINK TO ARTICLES). The purpose of everything I’ve discussed in this series is to ultimately anchor your brand as the solution to a specific problem you address.

That’s all I’ve got for now on personal branding.

I’d love to know if you have any personal branding questions. Did I miss anything?