Content for LinkedIn
Perhaps you found yourself here after stumbling upon my own LinkedIn content. Or maybe not, that’s fine! But you’re interested in putting yourself out there, or upping your game, and need some guidance. I’ll walk you through the three biggest elements you need to consider before you post a single word. They are:
Preparation. Identifying your audience, your voice, your value.
Content. Generating ideas and formatting them to capture (and keep) attention.
Delivery. How to post for maximum impact.
Because it’s not as simple as bashing out a few ideas every now and then. A little bit of work up front can save you hours of time in the future. Let’s get started.
Preparing to post on LinkedIn
Identify your key audience
Most businesses are on LinkedIn these days. I’ve freelanced for over five years, and most of my contracts have come through that platform. Even if they’re with people in my ‘in real life’ network – I messaged them, or they messaged me, on LinkedIn. That’s where they found out I’m freelancing now. It’s where they saw examples of my work. It’s what they sent to their contacts who need someone with my skills. I am chronically averse to monthly subscriptions, but LinkedIn gets my money every time.
You probably know who your key audience is. Write down 1–3 typical ‘profiles’ of people who often buy your product or service, or who currently buy from your competitors. I’m talking:
Their job title, business size, sector.
Their level of seniority, goals and objectives.
The barriers they face when trying to achieve those goals.
Anything that might make it harder for them to buy from you (e.g., they are time poor, cash poor, not tech savvy, heavily regulated, etc).
For example, I might have a profile as follows:
Business owner
Founder, owner or CEO of a small to medium-sized business in the Sustainability or Environmental sector. Very senior and experienced, though they may not have a solid understanding of content marketing. Their goals are likely to be garner support, attract investment and influence policy and public opinion. They are likely to be bootstrapped or running on investment, so will have small, dynamic and highly effective teams who do not have a lot of bandwidth for new projects, such as increasing content production or hiring in-house writers – or even for onboarding writers. They may also not have solid processes and documentation in place to support them with this.
This will be different to a profile for a Marketing Manager at a larger organisation, or a Comms Director at an NGO/charity. This will help you target each post to a specific type of person, rather than trying to write for everyone at once. That means you can be more concise, and you’ll write with more authority.
Once you have a rough draft – literally a short set of notes – go onto LinkedIn and find some people who fit that profile. Tweak each profile as you learn more about them, like something many of them have in common. Then, scroll down to their Activity section, click Show All Posts and on the next page, have a scroll. What are they posting about and sharing? If they don’t post, change the tab at the top so you’re viewing their Reactions. What topics are they engaging with? Add any common themes to the profile you are building.
Identify your voice
Now that you’ve clarified who you’re talking to, it’s time to decide how you’ll talk to them. Think of this more like an outfit your business wears, rather than a fancy dress costume. It’s consistent, reliable and suitable for the room you are in. My LinkedIn outfit is smart-casual: confident, insightful and concise. You may want to use humour, or bold, opinionated statements – equivalent to wearing bright colours and big patterns. Or perhaps you want to convey wonder and whimsy, like someone in earthy tones and chunky-knit sweaters; as long as it reflects you, fits the audience and earns attention for the right reason.
Ask yourself:
Are you direct, warm, irreverent, formal?
Do you use slang, or keep things tight and neutral?
Do you write in short, punchy lines or longer, more reflective paragraphs?
If you're a designer working with founders, a casual but insightful tone might land well. If you're targeting policy leads in government orgs, clarity and structure will matter more than wit. If you’re a wildlife charity, a sense of wonder and earthy wholesomeness might be perfect.
Document this somewhere. You’re building a reference point for future posts — something to ensure you don’t stray too far off-track once you’re producing content quickly.
Identify your value
This is hard, because we often fail to realise how much absolute gold there is hidden away in our brains. I guarantee there is stuff that you can write in a short post that will make your target audience’s lives and work easier.
You might ask “Why would I just give that away for free?”. If your posts don’t offer any value at all, they are effectively pointless. And we’ll look closely at why in the next section. But free value builds your authority, it builds trust and it is shareable. You don’t want to gatekeep your expertise, you want to highlight it!
Start by listing what you know that your target profiles don’t. This can include:
Insights from your sector or discipline.
Mistakes you see clients make repeatedly.
Questions you’re often asked.
Things you wish more people understood.
Experiences from your own journey that might be useful to others.
Then ask: why does this matter to the person I want to reach? If it doesn’t tie back to their goals or problems, it’s noise.
Once you’ve defined your audience, voice and value, then it’s time to write.
How to write your LinkedIn content
Generate ideas
Coming up with content becomes much easier when you limit your scope. Choose two or three themes that your posts will cover. Every idea should sit within one of these buckets.
Shared ground
Your first theme should be something you and your audience both care about. That might be an industry, a specific discipline (like behaviour change comms or sustainable logistics), or a shared goal. The more specific, the better — “sustainability” is vague; “cutting emissions in retail supply chains” is not.
Personal relevance
This second theme connects your work to your human experience. Think: stories from your business, what you’ve learned from clients, your professional history, or values that underpin your work. This builds trust — people want to know why you care, not just what you know.
Optional: adjacent interest
This is your wild card — something outside your core niche that your audience might still engage with. It could be a hobby, a side project, or a topic you’re learning about. This doesn’t need to be deep or polished — it just adds dimension. (If you’re not ready to post cycling selfies, fine. But if your audience is mostly cyclists, it might land.)
Ask yourself the following questions and answer the questions in as much detail in possible. Each answer should give you one or more ideas for posts.
What’s one thing you often have to push back on when working with a client?
What is a belief you held about [your field of expertise] that you have since changed your mind about?
What are your potential clients/customers yelling at their laptop screen just before they google someone with my skillset? (E.g., “Why doesn’t anyone make X for Y?!” or “Why does X never work?!”)
What’s one value you try to bring into your client work that might not be immediately visible, but makes a big difference to how the work turns out? (This is particularly useful if you want to highlight how your experience in a different sector is valuable.)
What’s something you often have to explain to clients more than once – not because they’re difficult, but because it’s genuinely hard to get until you see it in action?
What do you wish more people understood about your work?
What’s something people often get wrong about your industry?
What’s a common challenge your clients or colleagues face – and how do you help solve it?
What’s one mistake you’ve made professionally, and what did it teach you?
What do people assume is easy about your job – but isn’t?
What’s a piece of advice you’ve given more than once?
What’s something you admire in others in your industry?
What’s one tool, habit or process you rely on that others might find useful?
Keep a running list of ideas in a notes app, spreadsheet, voice memo – whatever suits. Good ideas often arrive when you’re not trying to have them.
Format your posts for attention
Each post needs three core elements: hook, body, CTA.
1. Hook
The first line of your post is your hook. It needs to:
Make people stop scrolling
Spark curiosity or emotion
Promise clarity or value
Avoid soft intros like “I’ve been thinking about...” or “Just a quick one today...” That’s wasted space. Instead, try a bold statement, a surprising stat a question, or a relatable pain point. Keep it short so that it sits ‘above the fold’, meaning the reader doesn’t have to click ‘See more…’ to view the whole hook.
Examples:
“Most sustainability content fails before anyone even reads it.”
“I used to think you needed a marketing degree to do this job. I was wrong.”
“You don’t change behaviour by making people feel like garbage.”
Avoid clickbait titles like “Ten ways to [achieve something impossible] without spending any money”. It’s boring and feels inauthentic.
2. Body
Keep it readable, and remember that many people will be viewing on mobile.
Write in chunks of one or two lines, or bullet lists, with a line break between each section of text.
Use emojis, but very sparingly and try to keep them at the end of the sentence to help people using screen readers. (Otherwise, the reader will start every sentence with a description of the emoji, which can be quite long winded!)
Use stories! A story about how you discovered something to be true, someone who got it wrong, someone who turned something mundane into a huge success…
Get to the point, don’t add extra friction. You can experiment with some longer-form posts, but start out quite short and sweet. (Yes, stories can be short!)
3. CTA (call to action)
Not every post needs a CTA. But if it feels natural, you can use one to:
Encourage discussion (“Have you run into this too?”)
Invite connection (“I love talking about this – if you do too, get in touch!”)
Share a resource (“I’ve written more on this – link in the comments.”)
Avoid hard sells unless you’ve earned it with trust and relevance. LinkedIn is a long game – you’re building relationships, not writing ad copy.
How to post on LinkedIn for maximum impact
Post consistently — not constantly
Aim for at least two posts per week, spaced a few days apart. If you can do more, then do! It seems that LinkedIn rewards people who post frequently and consistently, but only do as much as you feel comfortable with. I try to hit twice a week. Avoid Fridays unless you’re posting something deliberately light or reflective – most engagement drops off by then.
Stick to your themes, but don’t hammer one topic repeatedly. If you post about the same subject three times in a row, it can feel repetitive. Mix it up to show range and keep people curious.
Don’t post and ghost
LinkedIn isn’t a broadcast platform. If people comment, respond thoughtfully. If they share your post – thank them. That’s how you build trust and visibility. (Just don’t use those cheesy AI-generated ‘Wow, great insight’ comments on other people’s posts.)
Remember to:
React to posts in your niche.
Leave useful or generous comments.
Connect people when it makes sense.
Repost content with a brief take of your own.
You don’t need to do this daily – but try not to skip it. After all, you want people to do the same for your content.
Understanding LinkedIn's algorithm
LinkedIn's algorithm prioritises content that generates engagement early. Posts that receive comments and reactions in the first hour tend to get shown to more people. This is why consistent, valuable content that sparks genuine discussion is your goal.
A few LinkedIn-specific mechanics
Links: Limit your post to one link max (unless you’re citing sources). For better reach, add it in the comments, not the main post.
Images: You don’t need to use them, but if you do, add alt text – it’s in the image editor and takes a few seconds.
Scheduling: If you use scheduling tools, back up your drafts. Sometimes they fail silently and vanish. Don't lose good writing to a glitch.
And, of course, break all these rules if you want to! Especially once you’ve got into the habit of posting regularly. It takes time to build an audience and a voice, but after the first few posts you should at least feel a little bit less like everyone is analysing your every word. And trust me, they aren’t. And you’re great just as you are, so don’t be afraid to get out there and find clients that need you.
Measuring your LinkedIn success
Don't obsess over vanity metrics like impressions and likes counts alone. Instead, track:
Engagement rate: Are people commenting and having conversations, not just clicking ‘like’?
Profile visits: Are your posts driving people (and the right kind of people) to learn more about you?
Connection requests: Is your content attracting your target audience?
Conversation starters: How many direct messages begin with "I saw your post about..."?
The true measure of LinkedIn success isn't followers – it's relationships that convert to real business opportunities. Track these metrics monthly rather than post-by-post to spot meaningful trends.
Final thoughts
This isn’t a rigid formula, it’s a toolkit. A framework to help you get started, stay consistent and avoid the content equivalent of shouting into the void.
To recap:
Preparation: Know who you’re talking to, how you want to sound, and what value you offer them.
Content: Stick to 2–3 themes, capture ideas as they come and format posts to be readable and relevant.
Delivery: Post regularly, engage with others and respect the quirks of the platform (without obsessing over them).
And yes — break these rules if you want to. You’ll notice I do it all the time. Some of my most popular posts do not fit the structure I suggest above, and aren’t related to any of my themes. But I’ve built that intuition by trying different things over time and seeing what happens.
You’ll do the same. Now it’s time to get writing!
And if you need some help, get in touch! I can run creative workshops to generate ideas, edit your ideas into post format or even write the posts for you.
P.S. None of my content is written by AI. I do use it for ideation and critiquing my work, but everything written here is my own – yes, even the en dashes!
