I Posted On LinkedIn 3x Per Week And Here's What Happened

Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about how important it is to create a personal brand for yourself, whether you work for someone else, or you work for yourself.

Why?

Because the right personal branding helps you establish yourself as a trusted expert, thought leader, and influencer, no matter what stage you're at in your career. It can help propel your career in ways you never thought possible.

One of the most effective ways to do this is through social media.

But what if (gasp!) you’re not really into using social media? (cough)

That was pretty much me about a month and a half ago.

Two reasons: 

1. People who know me know that I’m more of a private person. Unless it’s for work purposes, I’m not posting about my thoughts, where I’m at, what I’m up to, or who I’m hanging out with. 
2. It’s such a time suck. We have such little, precious time on this earth. Do I want to spend it checking my social feed 20x per day? What am I really gaining from that? Do I even remember what I posted or watched on social over the past week?

So, frankly, it was a tough decision. I muddled it over. I read some articles. I got some advice from friends. And I decided to take the plunge and test it for a month.

Because that’s what marketers do. We test. And learn. On repeat.

First, let me share the data with you. It kinda surprised me. I didn't think posting 3x per week would be enough to see any real impact.

Then I’ll share: 

• the steps I took to begin 
• what I learned 
• my most engaging posts
• where do we go from here (e.g. will I keep this going?)

From May 12 - June 19 (I skipped one week) I posted 3x per week on LinkedIn. I also engaged with other people’s posts (3-4x per week) including adding comments.

Here’s a screenshot of my profile views data:

Not mind-blowing, but you can see something’s clearly going on. Ever since I started posting regularly, it’s kind of like I created a new average. I used to have 15-30 profile views per week, now I have 30-50 views per week. And so far that new average is holding steady.

What I did to begin

1) Pick A Goal

What’s your goal? To see what happens when you post and engage on LinkedIn? To be a LinkedIn influencer? To learn more about a particular topic by following other people’s expert content?

My goal was to test what happens when I regularly post (3x / week) and engage on LinkedIn for a month. I kept it simple.

2) Pick Your What (Content Focus)

Choose 2-3 core topics that you want to be known for (as an expert in your field), so you can post content that’s relevant and adds value. 

My content focus is:

• Marketing 
• Startups 
• A light sprinkling of family-focused posts, because I have 2 kids and that’s part of my work/life reality

I prepared my 3 posts the week prior. I added ideas to Google Sheets on an ongoing basis, and so now I have 50+ ideas that I can use for future posts. This is how NOT to freak out that you’ll run out of content to post. Just keep adding ideas to an existing list.

I get my post ideas from: stuff I’m working on for clients, stuff I’ve worked on in the past, articles I write, other people I follow, books I read, news articles in my Feedly, and random thoughts while I’m showering (seriously).

3) Pick Your When

I tried posting in the morning (usually), early afternoon, and late afternoon. In the “Top things I learned” section below I’ll talk about what I learned about timing the post.

4) Pick How Often

I decided to post 3x per week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. If I had something a bit more playful to share, I’d save it for Fridays, but this was rare. I picked 3x per week because I knew I could stick to preparing this amount of content. Not scary.

Top things I learned

• At the beginning of my journey, one of my posts didn’t get any likes after 1 day. LinkedIn notified me to tag someone in the comments. This felt forced, so I did not do it. I know some people do. IMHO, I don't really love when people tag me unless it's something they know I’ll enjoy reading and benefit from. This is a personal choice, I guess.
• I kinda knew this was going to happen (that’s why I’m not personally active on other social media platforms, only for work purposes): my constant checking of the app after I post. Nope, don't love that I do that! The notification that someone engaged with or commented on my post sends me back. Every. Single. Time. I’m trying to work on this by designating a specific time of day to check activity (but you know how it goes!)
• Remember to include a CTA for each post. I was not doing that in the beginning. “Let me know what you think in the comments” type of thing. People need to know how to respond to your posts!
• Except for when I share LinkedIn articles, I’m putting links to other sites in the COMMENTS of my posts. You can test this for yourself, but if you include a link inside your post, your views will be lower than if you include the link in the comments section. Likely because LinkedIn doesn’t want you to click off of their platform. Makes sense!
• I took one week off from posting on LinkedIn, given the current events at the time. Instead of working on marketing-related content for posting, I used the time to think about ways to contribute to the movement, talked to my spouse, kids and peers about racism, and then I posted about that because it was relevant. You can plan your posts all you want, but if you don’t have anything relevant to say during an important national movement, don’t say anything at all.
• Best time of day to post: unclear. I'm finding that people engage all throughout the day. I posted at 7:30a, 10a, 12p, 2p, 6p. I can tell you that posting later in the day (after 5p) is not so good for engagement. That’s about all I learned so far. 
• Some people will disagree with your post. That’s totally awesome!! You WANT to bring in all viewpoints, and they might be shining more light onto a potentially complex topic based on their own experiences. More light, more learnings, wins all around. I try to respond to everyone that comments on my posts, but I’m not going to spend a lot of time explaining my point to someone that took the post out of context or didn’t truly understand the point.

My most engaging posts

Common theme? Not surprisingly, the content needs to be genuinely helpful for your target audience. Most of my posts and article views are coming from founders (also business strategists, sales, and marketing specialists). 

Also, sharing something cool (e.g. someone else’s project) and tagging those that were a part of it, plus using a trending hashtag. All these things work really well.

My first post has 800+ views:

Lots of engagement on my first article:

Helping others:

Sharing someone else’s project:

A hot topic (lots of views and comments)

Why I’ll keep it going

Despite being annoyed with myself for checking the app repeatedly, one of my business goals for this year is to write every day so that over time (due to repetition and learnings) I become a better writer. I want to keep developing my personal brand voice and writing style. Let’s be honest. It’s part of my job as a marketing consultant!

And, I’m able to learn more about what interests my target audience. HUGE benefit.

But my goal is not to become a top influencer. So I’ll continue to post 3x per week consistently (aside from engaging with other people’s posts) and some weeks, who knows? I might post 4x!

The key is not to overdo it, else risk losing that consistency that I’m striving for.

Dave Gerhardt, Ex-Drift and CMO of Privy, said it took him YEARS to build engagement and influence. He started working on it in 2015. Today, he has 1,000+ people in his Patreon community paying $10/mo. to access his brilliance. Including me :) 

Buckle up. It’s a long road, my friends. 

It’s not a bad road, either. Building a brand on LinkedIn, it’s a bit of a game, isn’t it? You create something, put it out there, and see what happens. Then you do it again and again and again, staying consistent, learning along the way, getting better. Pretty much what Marketing is all about.

As for my next steps, I’ll see ya on LinkedIn every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with content that will hopefully knock your socks off. I’m also going to review my most engaging posts and see if I can’t turn them into long-form articles.

See you soon, and happy posting!

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