LinkedIn Writing For Busy Professionals #1, 8.20.22

I'm excited to share how I've been approaching my writing on LinkedIn. Let's dive straight in!

The Job To Be Done

My goal is to build a supportive network and professional brand on LinkedIn.

If I consistently produce valuable and engaging content, my hope is that:

1. I'll build a safety net for my career
2. I'll develop constructive professional relationships
3. I'll increase my "surface area" for luck - making it easier for potential business partners and future teammates to discover me
4. I'll create a foundation for future entrepreneurial activity (many years out, I enjoy what I'm doing right now)

My Writing Process

1. I write (instead of read) in the evenings

I used to spend 30-60 minutes on my phone reading news, social media, and books. That time wasn’t directed towards any specific goal. It was mostly just "zone out" time to get me tired and asleep.

Now, I look at it as writing time. I’m still in bed, on my phone. An outside observer wouldn’t notice much of a difference except that my thumbs move more. And, occasionally I’ll use the laptop instead of the phone to write faster.

I’ve “found” 3.5-7 hours of writing time per week I didn’t know I had.

2. I got disciplined about note taking

I downloaded Notion on my phone. I use it to capture post ideas that cross my mind throughout the day. Anywhere between 1 word or one sentence ideas get logged.

When writing time in the evening comes along, I’m not spending time thinking of what to write. I simply riff on an idea I captured earlier that day or week. And, now I have a backlog of over 100 ideas to help inspire posts when I feel stuck.

3. I let drafts sit 12-24 hours before editing

Most authors you read in books have benefited from a top-notch editor, if not a full blown team of editors. Most of us posting on social media are flying solo.

Every post (including this Newsletter) sits for at least 12 hours before I publish. That helps me read the post with fresh eyes. I'm typically horrified with what I wrote and I start tightening, deleting, and adjusting.

(Note: The exception to this rule is when I write something that I "know" will resonate. My most liked post was published minutes after drafting it.)

My second line of defense is the Hemingway Editor. It exposes common mistakes in writing - sentences that are too long, passive voice, too many adverbs, etc.

The Hemingway Editor catches plenty of opportunities that my 12-24 hour edit misses.

Before I Post - Two Big Questions

About 100 posts in, I noticed a pattern.

My best posts were:

1.Authentic to me (either in content or style)

AND

2. Educational, entertaining, or inspiring for the reader.

Now, if I can't answer "yes" to both questions below, I start over or keep editing.

My "Pre-Post" Checklist

After analyzing low engagement posts, I came up with more questions to ask myself before posting.

These questions run in the back of my mind while I write. I don't require each post to "pass" each filter.

Tier 1

Do I have a clear point of view?

Is my first line a scroll-stopper?

What emotion am I generating?

Is there a personal story? A story of any kind?

Tier 2

Have I cut words more than once?

Is the message positive?

Has it sat for 24 hours before the final edits?

Have I run the post through the Hemingway app?

Tier 3

Am I vulnerable (good)??

Am I preachy (bad)?

Is the insight unobvious? Or from a unique POV?

Did I write the post in 15 minutes or less??(good indicator of success)

My Most Liked Post (So Far)

On June 22, 2022, I posted the following:

This post got 17,614 views, 188 likes, 14 comments, and 3 reshares.

Earlier in the day, I received a call from a former co-worker who was looking for my input on a big decision he was facing. After a brief convo, he shared with me a piece of advice I had shared with him that stuck. The advice was on the theme of trust.

Later that evening, I was reflecting on my day and was thinking about how I'd like to welcome a new teammate that I had recently decided to hire.

It was the combination of those two events that inspired the post. I wrote it quickly - in less than 5 minutes including editing. I posted it at 10pm, which is something I rarely do. But I knew I had something and I didn't want to wait until the morning.

When I woke up and checked my account - the engagement data showed what I felt when I wrote it. This post resonated with people.

What made this post successful:

1. An uncommon format - a letter to the reader
2. Struck a nerve with the reader's emotions
3. Positive, inspiring message
4. Short, straight to the point

The post circulated for over 10 days before it stopped accumulating likes (most posts fizzle out after a day or two).

My Least Liked Post (So Far)

On April 1, 2022, I posted the following:

This post got 3,059 views, 2 likes, and 0 comments (excluding my own comment).

What made this post unsuccessful:

1) The first line "hook" is weak

-> "What's your definition of money?" is an abstract question that isn't very attention grabbing.

2) The topic has very little to do with me

-> I don't go around talking about abstract definitions of money very often, and my audience knows it.

3) There's no real utility to the post

-> What's the reader supposed to do with this information? How are they better off for having read it? I found it intellectually interesting but I didn't add anything to it to make it better. It was a piece of information presented out of context for no particular reason.

4) I tagged Lex Fridman

-> Lex has a huge following, not only on LinkedIn, but on many social platforms. When you tag someone, LinkedIn will punish your distribution if the person tagged doesn't chime in on your thread. This prevents writers from tagging big names to improve their readership. Since Lex had a very low chance of engaging in my thread, I made a newbie mistake.

The post deserved the likes it got and should have seen lower distribution. Somehow, it still got 3,000+ views. I've heard LinkedIn gives new creators "extra" distribution when they're just getting started and this post is a great data point supporting that thesis.

Benchmark Engagement Rates

Below are my post stats through August 16, 2022 (courtesy of shieldapp.ai).

This means my average post is viewed 3,028 times, liked 22 times, and shared 18% of the time.

To see the engagement data for every individual post I've written through August 12, 2022, please find post by post engagement here. The posts are sorted by views.

Note: I deleted the posts below 550 views, so the content of the post is no longer available live on LinkedIn. I used to delete posts when I felt they didn't have traction (enough likes or comments).

Recently, I made a decision to stop deleting posts. I made that decision for three reasons:

1. Keeping them around enables me to reference them in this Newsletter
2. When I execute my pre-post checklist, I avoid "post regret"
3. A lack of likes/comments doesn't mean a post is trash-can-worthy. It could mean it was valuable but didn't trigger engagement (thanks to Dan Manning for helping me view it this way).

In the next Edition of the Newsletter we'll cover

1. How to overcome post anxiety
2. My technology stack for writing
3. My content strategy (or lack thereof)
4. More tear downs of high and low performing posts

Suggested Reading

• Tim Denning writes a fun article giving you some tough love on why you should start writing online.
• Nicolas Cole's book The Art And Business Of Online Writing has been an enjoyable and informative read about the world of online writing.

Two Humble Requests

1. How can I make this Newsletter more useful for you? Drop a comment or DM.
2. How did you learn about this Newsletter? LinkedIn did a nice job promoting it on my behalf, but how they did it is a blackbox.

About Me

I'm a full-time executive at Caribou, a fintech company based in Washington, D.C.

Prior to March 25th, 2022 I had never posted a single piece of original content on LinkedIn, or any social media account. I don’t have and have never had a Facebook account. I don’t consider myself a “social media” person.

Since March 25th, I’ve posted 140+ times on LinkedIn. Since then, my content has been viewed over 423,914 times.?

When I'm not working, writing, or spending time with my family, I'm probably on a walk, reading, playing guitar, trying new food in D.C., or at a Nationals baseball game.