Coming up with 31 content ideas for LinkedIn

On Friday, I was invited by Alexandra Foster to Fujitsu offices in central London where she hosted me for my London book launch to celebrate International Women's Day.

You may have seen some of the photos from this event on my profile since Friday.

What you didn't see was the amazing content bank that Alex sent me on WhatsApp to prepare for the event.

I have 31 questions!

We were planning what to talk about, and what Alex would be asking me in our livestream fireside chat to 'watch parties' from Fujitsu, BT and Zoom. I said Alex could ask me anything. So she did. Focused on my book of course!

Using AI to help

I copied all the questions and put them into ChatGPT and asked it to number them and put them into categories.

I have all the questions filed under these six sub-headings:

• General Questions About the Book & LinkedIn Strategy
• Practical LinkedIn Tips & Strategy
• B2B, Social Selling & Market Expectations
• Networking & Relationship Building
• Content & Thought Leadership
• LinkedIn for Career Growth & Personal Branding

I am going to dip into these questions time and time again.

Creating content for LinkedIn or for your blog or YouTube channel is not about what you want to say. It is about what people want to know about what you do. Or how you can help them. When someone asks you a question, this is a gift. Don't ignore it.. keep track of the questions and you can refer back to them.

Top Tip

Have a look at what has brought you the most engagement or inquiries before, and do more of that.

I was chatting with someone recently and I think I overheard this on a podcast, and repeated it to them. Talk to people a thousand times about one thing, rather than talking about a thousand things one time only.

There is a brilliant podcaster and business owner in Australia called Denise Duffield-Thomas who has her core messages she goes back to time and time again. The point is that people need to hear these messages. Whether they are brand new to her, or have been in her ecosystem for a year, eventually either the message lands and they sign up to work with her, or they decide she is not for them , and move on.

I spent a few months listening to her podcast before I realised this was what was happening and a lightbulb went off for me. It was obvious once I saw it. I know I can do the exact same webinar five times in a row, and some people will come to every single one. They ask a different question each time, or they take away a slightly different idea - the key is that they know exactly what we do and how we can help them.

You need to work out what your core messages are, and then we can go to the next step.

How can you come up with YOUR 31 content ideas?

If you are ever invited onto a podcast, or get questions in your email inbox from people interested in your product or service, may I suggest you keep track of those questions?

Showing up on LinkedIn as a thought leader is not about sharing pics of your day out in insert city although I do think we have to mix it up. Show some of your personality. The behind the scenes stuff. If you have a team, PLEASE get them involved.

When we work with companies, my first request is usually to ask if the team members will be up for short video sessions with me.

This may be an online B2B networking platform, but as humans we all connect with other humans and video is currently the best way to do that.

I am hosting an online workshop in a few weeks to help you create your content plan for the next three months - have a look here - https://louisebrogan.com/content-workshop - as with all my one-off workshops, it is priced for an easy YES.

You can absolutely ask AI to come up with your content ideas, but it is usually best to feed it some of your own thoughts and goals first.

Think about the core messages you want to share with your network. Turn them into posts, videos and articles that can help the reader/viewer. Then split that content down further. One sentence can form the basis for a whole conversation piece with your network. The key is to ask the reader a question so that they respond.

During Friday's book launch, I shared with the room that only 1% of people are posting on LinkedIn once a week.

We all have one post a week in us, don't we?

But I want that one post to be something that tells me what you do. Who you help. Shares something useful for ME to read and engage with. Not a post for posting sake.

I don't think everyone needs to go out and write a book. (Ok, I do.) But writing a book has given me all the content I will ever need.

Growing your thought leadership on line DOES take time and effort. We step in and help our clients with this bit. One of my clients said to me recently that without our monthly video recording sessions, they just wouldn't have any time to create content to go on LinkedIn. Which is exactly why we created that product for our clients.

Taking one hour a month out of your time to show up on camera so I can ask you several questions, gives us a minimum of four video posts for LinkedIn plus we extract content for written posts, carousel posts and even a newsletter. Happy to chat about this with any of you (not on Sunday morning) or you have have a browse through the detail here - either monthly or stand-alone packages are available.

It is a beautiful day here in N.Ireland and I hope it is where you are too. I am off to enjoy the spring sunshine and take the rest of the day off to relax after a wonderfully busy International Women's Day. Strong women - may we be them, and may we raise them.

Louise x