Results and learnings from 120 days of posting on LinkedIn
Including my 10 best performing posts
Why I started posting on LinkedIn?
I have always enjoyed sharing best practice and have seen firsthand how impactful it can be. I knew that I wanted to share tangible advice from my own experiences but also by interacting with other world class operators.
However, before fully committing to a style/format on LinkedIn I wanted to spend the first 90 - 120 days testing out different content formats in order to see:
What works on LinkedIn in terms of engagement
What i personally find fulfilling and can see myself do for years
For me, without both of the above being true, I would not be able to continue to consistently show up over time.
The results
Since I started posting in February I have had a little more than 500K impressions and 225K unique views. A lot of the views have been driven by a few popular posts (can be seen below).
What I’m personally most happy about is probably the fact that people I respect have reached out with encouraging words around the content and that they found it useful in their work. That was my objective to help people, particularly folks in the startup and tech world, with tangible operational advice.
The 5 LinkedIn content strategies
From my observations there are roughly 5 content strategies one can pursue as an individual on LinkedIn. These can all work but it depends on what you are trying to achieve as well as what works for you personally. Below is a high-level overview of the various strategies.
FUN
Definition: Post funny memes, jokes etc.
Examples: Elena Verner, Enzo Avigo
My view: These kind of posts gets a lot of engagement and can be great to build a relationship with your audience. I wouldn’t want to do it all the time but occasionally they can be great.
MOTIVATIONAL
Definition: Focused on sharing motivational and inspiring content that can help others.
Examples: Justin Welsh, Sahil Bloom
My view: These kind of posts are normally very popular as they motivate people who might experiencing a hard time. They can reach very high levels of virality as many will recognize the feeling.
CURATOR
Definition: Curate the best bits within a domain (Venture Capital, Fintech etc.) and share them
Examples: Marcel Oost, Guillermo Flor
My view: This can be a great way to build a following, particularly if you are not really sure what to write about yourself or don’t have relevant experience. Personally not a big fan of this as I don’t think you get a lot of learning yourself but primarily is focused on growing followers and engagement by posting what other folks have created.
INSIGHTS/THOUGHTS
Definition: Share your own opinions on a matter or topic
Examples: Harry Stebbings, Jason Lemkin
My view: In order for this strategy to work you need to be a well known person with a following from other platforms or experiences. Unless you are respected within your field no one really cares about your view or opinion.
TANGIBLE ADVICE/PLAYBOOKS
Definition: Create long-form, well-researched content that often provides tangible advice and frameworks for the reader
Examples: Kyle Poyar, Lenny Rachitsky
My view: This is my personal favorite due to the value you are creating for your audience. When done well this can have a tangible impact on individuals and startups as they can directly leverage your work.
Top 10 posts
When analyzing my highest performing posts its interesting that by far the ones with the most engagement were the ones that I would categorize as “funny”. Post 1, 2, 4 all fall within this bucket. 3, 6, 7 and 9 all fall within what I define as “insights/thoughts” and 5, 8 and 10 are “long form, tangible operator advice”.
That being said the impact from a business/career POV is not aligned with the number of impressions - at least not in my case. For the most part the posts that have provided the most business opportunities have been the long form advice and the sharing of insights.
What does this mean? Doubling down on my newsletter - Rule of Thum👍
Personally I find most satisfaction in the last category which is the long-form content where tangible advice is shared with the audience. Occasionally I don’t mind shorter form advice or funny memes but they will not be the primary form of content I share despite the performance.
I still think there is a lack of content from world class operators who have both the operational experience but also are able to share learnings and frameworks in an easy to digest way.
Going forward I will double down on sharing tangible advice from my own experience and by interviewing world class operators such as Loic, Max and many others to come. Hope you will continue to follow along :).