Posting on LinkedIn without a well-thought-out plan of what you’re saying, who you’re saying it to and how to even structure a post in the first place is like jumping out of a plane and hoping someone throws you a parachute to catch mid-air.

Basically, it’s pointless.

Before you go slinging up a dog post because your mate Susan does it and gets 17 likes from people who love dogs but won’t ever spend any money with her… Ask yourself what you really want to achieve here and who you are trying to attract. 

Take a moment to create a plan and truly understand your audience and the current struggles in their business so that your content can answer the questions they so desperately need answered. 

Posting without an optimised profile

Posting on LinkedIn without a well-optimised profile, even with a well-thought-out content plan, is like telling the world you’ve opened a toy shop, and filling it full of kippers. Basically, you are leading people up the garden path only to find there’s something fishy going on.

Your LinkedIn content is the all-important driver to your LinkedIn profile, which in a best-case scenario, acts as a well-structured landing page for people to convert on. A conversion is someone taking the next step which could include sending you a DM, going to your website, or adding you to a shortlist of suppliers. 

If you are driving people to a page that looks like crap, doesn’t explain the problem you solve quickly and basically looks like a digital CV from 2008… Your content is wasted. 

Before you post on LinkedIn, please take the time to ensure your profile has all the boxes ticked when it comes to banner, headline, and about sections so that it can do the job it’s supposed to and complete the solution for your target buyer.

Doing what everyone else is doing

There is a saying I take with me every time I create content for social media. 

“When everyone else is going right. Go left.”

The temptation for a new creator on LinkedIn or any platform for that matter is to follow what other successful creators are doing because on the surface at least… It works for them!

But you are not them. You are you and the moment you attempt to copy someone else’s tone or post ideas, you’ll be found out. Plus, there are probably a million other people all doing the same because they haven’t read this blog.

To truly stand out with your content in a sea of drab and dreary corporate crap, you must throw some genuine, never seen flavour into the mix and ensure the real you is coming across. Yes, this can be scary but to truly elevate yourself and become memorable in your space, folk must first feel a connection with you. 

That is only achieved if you bring something different.

Giving up after a week

LinkedIn is a long game. Plain and simple. 

On a platform with almost a billion users, I understand the temptation to think that this shit’s going to be a walk in the park, but it really isn’t.

“I’ve got a thousand or so followers, they should all see my posts and I’ll get instant business.”

Now, be honest, have you ever had this thought?

If it were that easy, all the paid ad platforms around the world would immediately be made redundant because little old LinkedIn over here is giving it all away for free. As if they are going ever to make it that easy for you.

To get in front of your followers no matter how many you have, LinkedIn has to first label you as an ‘active contributor’. Not someone who slings out 7 dog posts a week with no regard for their following, but a genuine ‘giver’ when it comes to the community you are trying to build.

Yes, great content is essential but the work you do in the comments of other people’s posts is equally as important over time. It is this consistency that will ensure your own content continues to get traction, thus eventually and indirectly putting it in front of the people you want to attract. 

This process of becoming a genuine LinkedIn player takes months!

Expecting people to care about your business

We all think our business is the best at what it does, and so we should. But here’s a news flash you may never have heard before…

No one on LinkedIn cares about your business.

You can create boastful content all you want about the amazing things you achieved and the awards you almost won but when you are coming to LinkedIn for the first time trying to get traction… This strategy will fall flatter than my banana bread without my wife’s supervision.

Talking about your own achievements before you’ve built a following based on value and helping others is the same as walking into a networking event full of strangers, standing on the stage and expecting everyone to turn and bow at your feet.

Good luck with that.

When you first start out, establish the pain points of your target audience and address them in the content you create. Solution first, your business achievements a distant second.

If you are starting on LinkedIn in 2024, please save this blog and commit it to memory. You will thank me later.

Stay Unconventionall.