Hey there - the single most important part of your LinkedIn post is your very first sentence: the more bold & provocative, the better your post will perform.

The numbers back this up: I analyzed over 1,000 client posts in May and rated each post on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 was milquetoast (eg. “I’m so humbled to be featured”) and 5 was habanero spicy (eg. “CEOs - You suck at praising your team.”). As the divisiveness of the openers increased from 1 to 5, engagement on the posts increased linearly.

The takeaway? Your first line makes or breaks your post.

Here are three things to remember when you write that fiery first line:

#1: PROVOKE

Don’t be afraid to ruffle some feathers. Here are a few of my favorite “hooks” that have performed well for me:

• Baby #2 is coming in 4 weeks, and I am not ready.

• One of my clients has a spreadsheet of influencers to emulate on LinkedIn. He should ignore nearly all of them.

• I invest $75k per year in becoming a better CEO.

• The problem with LinkedIn right now: It reads more like “self help” than “master class”

• Long ago, I offered Justin Welsh $30,000 to get me to 100,000 followers. Here’s why I’m glad he turned me down.

LinkedIn rewards bold statements. In a sea of sameness, you need to capture people’s attention… and you’ve got one sentence to do it.

#2: Make your hook concise

A great hook only matters if people can see it. Burying a hook in a paragraph of content is the surest way to have people scroll past your post.

Make your first sentence concise. More people will notice it.

Here are a few visuals:

Make your provocative statement stand out and people are more likely to stop scrolling and start engaging.

#3: You can add nuance in the body of your post

Here’s a post I almost didn’t publish. It did great:

I posted this at a time when other companies were undergoing massive layoffs. I was worried my post would be tone deaf: who are you to spend so much money on your own professional development, while so many people are being fired?!? 

Thankfully, I learned from our work that you can absolutely make your first sentence extreme, provocative and bold. BUT, you can back off that extreme stance in the body of your post.

Thanks for reading! Next week, I’ll be sharing our newest data report about Company Pages and trends in top performing companies.

Sincerely,
Justin

Justin M. Nassiri | Founder & CEO
M: 650.353.1138 | E: [email protected]
250 Fillmore St Suite 150, Denver, CO 80206
www.ExecutivePresence.io

We specialize in helping top-tier executives boost their visibility, activate their network, and position themselves as thought leaders via our premium, fully-managed LinkedIn service.

Our unique process involves ex-McKinsey, BCG, and Bain consultants conducting monthly hour-long interviews with our clients, and turning them into impactful daily LinkedIn posts to establish their unique voice and authority. On average, our clients see a 500% bump in engagement in their first 30 days with us. Data is continuously analyzed to improve engagement and identify impactful messaging that you can use for conferences, podcasts, and internal communications.