Why your LinkedIn content isn’t working

(honest conversation)

Author

Tommy Clark
August 19, 2024

Hey!

Welcome to Social Files—your no-BS guide to generating demand for your B2B product using social & content.

Hope you had a good weekend. I spent mine eating too much sushi, reading a new book, and getting ahead on content going into some travel this week (I’ll be in the south of France for a week or so).

Today, I wanted to have an honest conversation with you. Why isn’t your LinkedIn content working the way it should?

There are 3 patterns I see, all the time.

Shall we?

🔎 DEEP DIVE

Why your LinkedIn content isn’t working (honest conversation)

3 reasons why your founder-led content is falling flat

Hey. Take a seat. It’s time for us to have an honest conversation.

Your LinkedIn content isn’t performing as well as you want it to. You’re looking around, seeing all these other founders blowing up on the platform. Yet, you're stuck. Why?

We’ll figure it out today.

I’ve gotten to work with 40+ founders over the past 16 months to help them stand-up a LinkedIn content presence. I’ve talked to 100+ more on sales calls and in my LinkedIn DMs. So I’ve started to spot the difference between winners and losers. There are 3 traits.

And no, we’re not gonna run through any hacks to make your hooks stronger. These are much more fundamental problems. Solve them first—then read the rest of my library of content playbooks.

1. You just don’t enjoy content enough.

Content is hard. Whether you're doing it on your own, or with a team built around you, it’s hard.

There are so many variables to consider. And those variables seem to evolve by the week. Are carousels working? Wait, is short-form video taking off? Do I need to build in public, like Adam Robinson? Do I need to share a bunch of data, like Chris Walker? How do I structure my hooks to stop the scroll? How do I make sure the right people are consuming my stuff?

It’s a lot. And there is no ‘cheat code.’

The most successful founders we work with at Compound have a baseline level of interest in content creation.

Every time we work with a founder who wants to be totally ‘hands off,’ it’s a damn nightmare.

A lot of founders ask me (like actually, not pulling the classic influencer line here) how I stay consistent with my content output as the agency has grown. They don’t always love the answer: I just love this stuff.

Writing, and making videos, are two practices that keep me sane as my plate gets filled with more and more. I just got lucky that it happens to coincide with what brings in revenue.

When you enjoy content creation, you go the extra mile to revise your hook a 3rd time. You make sure your team has everything they need to produce your LinkedIn content. Content performance usually reflects that.

Quick-win: If you're reading this and thinking, oh shit…this is me—all good. I recommend starting with a content medium you enjoy. Writing your thing? Cool, write. Video your jam? Cool, record videos. Don’t force yourself into a medium because it’s trending. Start with enjoyment, then move on to optimizing for performance once you're consistent.

2. You don’t believe in founder-led content enough.

This is related to the first point, but there’s a nuance.

You might enjoy creating content, but if you don’t believe it brings in revenue, you're gonna let content take a back seat to other tasks—hiring, team meetings, fulfillment.

I get it. Well-intentioned, but misinformed. That said, there’s no amount of convincing I can do to get you to believe in founder-led content. You have to come to that conclusion on your own.

I’ve seen it work, so I’m fully radicalized. Every time I send one of these newsletters, I get 3-4 new waitlist sign-ups for my agency. Every time I get more aggressive with my posting cadence, inbound goes up. Every time I get on a sales call, I hear “I’ve seen you everywhere.”

Can’t be a coincidence.

If you knew that posting 5x per week on LinkedIn would net you 5-10 inbound leads per week, you’d take your content more seriously. If you knew that staying active on the timeline would increase your win rate, you’d take your content more seriously. If you knew that posting your thoughts online would attract elite talent to your company, you’d take your content more seriously.

Most of our success stories at Compound come in believing in content already. There is no convincing. There is no begging them to let us post 5x per week. They come in bought in. Once again—content performance usually reflects that.

Quick-win: I don’t know, man. Like I said—can’t convince you. I can just show you evidence. We’re on pace to do > $1M in revenue this year (less than 2 years into business) and content has been the driver. I have a client who is bringing in 65% of their net new ARR each month inbound from LinkedIn. You see what Adam is doing. List could go on. Eventually you figure it out, or you get lapped by the founder who does.

3. You don’t have the social proof to drive engagement.

This bottleneck is the one that nobody wants to acknowledge, but it matters a lot.

Social proof is a multiplier of content performance.

For example, SaaS folks follow Adam Robinson religiously because they can see that he’s bootstrapped RB2B to $1M in ARR in 16 weeks (and it just passed $2M—nuts).

Alex Hormozi can make educational business videos that get a ridiculous amount of traction because he’s sold a business for $46M.

Now, having a massive exit or an insane growth trajectory isn’t a prerequisite for profitable content.

In most cases, the most effective form of social proof for B2B founders on LinkedIn is to be—or have been—your own ICP.

In a recent conversation I had with Dave Gerhardt (dropping soon), he made the point that “most founders don’t just end up as founders on Day 1” (paraphrasing).

For example, a CEO at a martech startup might have been the CMO of a well-known brand before making the jump to start her own thing.

To use myself as an example, I was Head of Social at a fast-growing SaaS startup before leaving to start my own social agency.

Founder-led content works best when there’s an overlap between your ideal customer and your past experiences.

It doesn’t work as well when there’s a disconnect. Or it can, but it just takes more time. You need that time to build trust.

See how this works?

Quick-win: This one can be tricky. If you do have ICP-related experience, amazing. Tell more of those stories! If you don’t, don’t stress. Just understand that ramping this up will take some more time. An alternative is to find someone on your team who was your ICP at some point—ideally someone in your C-Suite—and get them posting content. Do this in tandem with your own, and you should see momentum.

Final thoughts

It’s not rocket science. If you enjoy content creation and you believe in it, you’ll put in the required effort to win with it. If this is you, you have a massive advantage over founders who have to be ‘convinced.’

Compound that with ICP-specific experience, and you’re set up to win on LinkedIn.

🗃 FILE CABINET

Here’s my favorite marketing and business content I bookmarked this week.

BEFORE YOU GO…

As always, appreciate you allowing me into your inbox every week.

Quick question for you. What’s one B2B company you think does a great job with social content? I’m trying to break out of my bubble on LinkedIn, and looking for some new inspiration. Reply here and let me know.

Talk soon,

Tommy Clark

PS: I just released a template pack, with 50+ of the prompts we use with B2B CEOs at Compound.

PPS: If you want Compound to run a founder-led content motion for you… save a spot on our waitlist here. We’re at capacity through August, but looking to partner with some SaaS startups in September.