The reason it takes you a day to write a post…

“Andy, the reason I gave up trying to post regularly on LinkedIn was because I was spending more time stressing over a single post than almost anything else in my life. In fact, the only thing that didn’t get overshadowed by this bloody carry-on was the stress I faced when a post did finally go live, only to be met by a ridiculous comment from Trevor in accounts publicly telling everyone that there was a typo.”

I’m going to hazard a guess that this is a fairly common challenge among readers of this article. It may be something that has caused you to give up on LinkedIn altogether. Either way, I will try to help overcome this crippling blocker as best I can.?

The Biggest Barrier

Almost every client we write for comes to us because the thought of creating regular content for LinkedIn fills them with dread. Fear of saying the wrong thing or not including enough information shackles them, creating a mile-high barrier that ultimately, keeps them in the shadows.?

In almost every scenario, this barrier is caused by a desperate need to ‘Overthink’ every little detail.?

Posts will be written, re-written, tweaked, tweaked again and then deleted because frustration has taken over and the thought of sharing anything whilst in this chaotic state is too much for people to bear.?

And just like every other day, nothing goes out and the mystery of overcoming this barrier remains unsolved.

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Why do People Overthink?

In a word, EGO.?

As business leaders, we all naturally think our voice carries weight. That if we don’t say exactly the right thing at the right time, it will have a catastrophic impact on our lives, our business and quite frankly, the entire global population because we are indeed… that important.

Can I let you into a little secret??

No one cares as much as you. In fact, in the early days when you are still mastering your craft, the content you produce will be seen by so few people that your ego bubble will burst very quickly.

Your need to perfect every element of a post is not a strength. It's currently your greatest weakness and a huge blocker in your quest to grow through the power of social media.?

How to Overcome the Overthinking Bug

We work with several people on long and short-term training partnerships. One of the first changes we help them make is the need to fit multiple messages and every snippet of available information into a single post.?

More often than not, we will look at a bank of posts and completely rip them apart, stripping out anything people won’t care about, or that takes the reader away from a single piece of information.?

The need to overthink kicks in when you are adding far too much context to a piece of writing designed to be a top-level snapshot. A small segment of value designed to whet the appetite and drive people into deeper action with you and your business.?

A LinkedIn post is not about giving away the entire solution in one go. It’s about bitesize droplets of love that do enough to capture the attention, but not so much that people either switch off or have no reason to come back.

Creating a short-form strategy

To achieve this, you first have to separate LinkedIn content from any other form of writing you’ve done to this point. It’s not an email or a blog entry. It’s not a letter or even a chapter from your latest attempts at writing a book.?

These posts are super short stories that have a hook, a reason for people to stay and something to help them continue the conversation in the comments.?

That’s it.

Once you’ve got your head around the fact that these social snippets of sauciness are just the initial door opener, and not the complete finished offering, you then have to break down all of your different talking points.?

And then break them down again. And again.?

To ensure you have a content strategy that is not only efficient but regular as well, you need to split all your major topics down into their component parts. Once you’ve done that, go again and strip each component part down to its component parts until you’ve dissected your service to such a degree that you have headlines for a month's worth of daily posts.?

Conclusion

Writing social media content is a skill. It is one that can certainly be taught but if you come at it like any other form of writing, you will fail.?

Remember that EGO will drown you. Leaving you crippled by self-doubt and ultimately keeping you in the shadows while your competitors are getting their social media swag on.?

Silence will damage your business far more than any content strategy. Even one that isn’t perfect.?

Stay Unconventionall.