Hi Reader,
When I again started posting on LinkedIn in 2021 (was mainly on Quora from 217-21 to garner sales for my first startup), I used to spend around 3 hours to write a single LinkedIn post! This was spent crafting what I thought would be the perfect LinkedIn post.
The result? 97 views. 1 like. Meanwhile, my own podcast announcement post has got 47,000 views in 36 hours! So this definitely wasn’t an algorithm problem. It was a 'me' problem.
And even 4 years later, most of you trying to build your personal brand through LinkedIn are making the same three mistakes I made then.
Mistake #1: The Trying-to-Say-Everything Problem
Here’s what actually happened with my three-hour post. I had started with why I moved to entrepreneurship from corporate, then my experience of franchising 14 outlets in 3-1/2 years & finally about B2C vs B2B.
By the time people finished reading my post, the entirety of my post didn't resonate either with my earlier B2B colleagues or CXO clients (who loved the podcast post!) or founders (because it was too niche about franchising).
Compare that to me introducing my mentor as the first guest on "Brain Box - Te Leadership Podcast". Very focused. Leadership. Guest was Ashish Wattal, then MD of Cisco, ex-Wipro, SUN Microsystems, HP etc.
Here’s your litmus test: When someone finishes reading your post, can they explain it to a colleague in one sentence? If not, you’ve lost them.
Mistake #2: The Corporate Voice Trap
We’ve all spent our careers learning to “leverage synergies” instead of working together. To “ideate solutions” instead of solving problems. We turn simple thoughts into five-syllable word salads because that’s what we think MBAs & professional sounds like.
Then we bring that same voice to LinkedIn and wonder why nobody engages.
People don’t come to LinkedIn to read corporate emails! They are here to hear from actual humans. The posts that work aren’t the most professional-sounding. They’re the ones that sound like a real person saying something true.
Don't get me wrong: It still needs to be professional. But it will be something that builds on your expertise, professional experiences to be credible & worth someone’s time.
Mistake #3: Your First Sentence Is Everything
I see this constantly. Someone has a genuinely interesting insight, but they bury it under three paragraphs of setup. By the time they get to the good part, everyone's scrolled past.
Your first sentence has exactly one job. Stop someone mid-scroll. Not with clickbait or manufactured controversy, but with something that makes them think, “Wait, I want to know more about that.”
That's why I had shared the free "11 Hook Ideas That Helped Me Reach 11,111 Meaningful LinkedIn Connections!" with you.
So before you write your next post, ask yourself: If someone saved this post and came back to it in six months, what’s the one thing they’d remember? That’s your post. Everything else is noise.
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In my experience of dealing with 250+ clients & consulting 70+ founders, the #1 reason people "DON'T WANT TO SELL" is..
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4x Founder with 2 decades of Sales & Marketing Experience | Perplexity Fellow | AI Trainer
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