5 Surefire, FAST ways to create content that pops on LinkedIn

This week, we are continuing to explore how to find inspiration to create up to a 30-day content posting calendar on LinkedIn.

Q: Kait, why thirty days?

 A: Because that’s roughly how long it takes to build a habit and also roughly, in our experience, how long you need to commit to LinkedIn consistently for the algorithm to start working for you.

As I likely overstate in the “Build a Brand” series, the key to building your personal brand is consistently creating content that is valuable to your identified audience.

The key to consistency is having a content and inspiration arsenal you can pull from, so today, we are going to work on building up that arsenal so you can create content that coaches a prospect to a conversion right in the feed. (For a framework of how to do this, read this post).  

Content Inspiration Sources:

1.    The first source of content to pull from is your current clients and prospects and the frequently asked questions and pain points communicated during the onboarding phase:

I find many people don’t even consider creating content on social media that addresses frequently asked questions from clients and prospects, reserving these answers for some deep, buried FAQ page of their website.

Here’s the great thing about creating a content arsenal of frequently asked questions—you can store them on a Google document as you receive them, then create videos, graphics, and articles to answer client/prospect questions. This serves a dual purpose—you get content that may help coach a prospect to a conversion AND you have an amazing catalog of items that your customer service/account management team can copy and paste to current clients when questions arise.

Not sure what questions your current prospects/clients have in mind? That’s great – create a social media status asking them. Often when I feel I’m going through a content “dry spell,” I’ll hop on Instagram and create a story with the Q&A feature. I usually get about 5 questions about personal branding that I then answer via video, and then repurpose into a LinkedIn video!

Typically, I will get about 5 questions when I post this to my Instagram stories. I then turn my video responses into captioned videos for LinkedIn and articles like this!

2.    Stake out HARO, then write your own articles around their inquiries.

If you aren’t subscribed to HARO (Help a Reporter Out) then first things first, sign up for their daily inquiries of reporters asking newsworthy questions about your industry.

Now, most people just use HARO to respond directly to a reporter and then hope their answer gets published on in the media, but the sad reality is it’s few and far between that these reporters use your opinion/quote because they’re so inundated by responses. So, what to do? Respond to the question by way of your own article, video, or long-form status post that you can put on your social media. If reporters are interested in it, so are other people. So be your own publisher. I recently did this with my article, “5 Ways to Market Your Brand and Expertise While Social Distancing.”

3.    Find statistics about your industry.

One of my low-hanging fruit content plays is simply Googling, “Personal Branding Statistics.” For example, I found this great one from ceohangout.com that states: “82% of people are more likely to trust a company when their senior executives are active on social media.”

I then turn that into a branded graphic with my colors (for brand consistency) and write a conjoining caption sharing an anecdote about how I’ve seen this play out for my clients. This way the audience gets double the value – a statistic, plus a case study of the statistic in action with real-world examples. Remember, facts tell, stories sell. Combine the two in your content and you have a winning formula.

4.    Identify beliefs about your product/service or beliefs prospects have about themselves.

In “As a Man Thinketh,” James Allen posits that belief always precedes action. So, if you want to create content that moves a prospect or a client to take action, you need to start tackling their negative false beliefs about your industry/product service. These “reframing” posts are some of the most effective we create for our company and our clients’ companies. Start by listing out all the false/negative current beliefs your clients have about your industry or themselves and then start “rewiring” them through content. For example, if I was a real estate agent, I may list out the following beliefs my prospects have:

“I don’t have enough money to buy a house.” --> I would create a series of posts educating my audience about the necessary budgets/expenses for buying a home, outline how to calculate your financial readiness to buy a home, and discuss how purchasing may ultimately be more cost-effective than renting, etc.

“I’ll just wait until I get married to buy a property.” --> I would breakdown the home buying process to occur as less intimidating to a single prospective homebuyer. I would also show examples of how a single salary could work to buy a home, and I would share pictures of the perfect “bachelorette pads.” I could also share stories of other single women/men owning homes and publish client testimonials. 

“All I have to be concerned about financially when buying a home is that I can cover the mortgage.” --> I would create graphics breaking down all the costs that go into a home (insurance, property tax, HOA fees, etc.) to help clients assess what their financial readiness really is.

It’s important to point out that in the above examples, these beliefs may sound “silly” or assumed or elementary but let us not forget that the majority of humans’ beliefs are irrational or “simple,” and to an outside party (you as the expert), completely absurd. Do not dismiss these beliefs because of this, rather tackle them head-on with content so you can remove belief barriers a prospect has that is preventing them from taking action.

5.    Continuation/expansion of other statuses.

One of my favorite features of social media sites like LinkedIn and Instagram is the “save” feature. Whenever I come across a thought-provoking post on LinkedIn or Instagram, I use the “save” function to flag it, then I use it later as inspiration to share my viewpoint on the topic or share an example of how I’ve seen the post in action.

This points to another thing to be cognizant of, which is to continually “prune” your newsfeed. Unfollow posts/content creators that don’t inspire you or relate to your industry, so when you log into social media, your time spent browsing the feed is actually growing you as a professional and as a content creator yourself, versus simply being a time suck distracting you from working on more important items.

There you have it. Those are my five surefire ways to create content when I’m in a slum with my personal brand. I’m curious to hear what’s working for others! Share your comment inspiration tools in the comment section below!