EP #083: Three Things That Determine Whether You'll Still Be Posting on LinkedIn in Two Years

I ask every prospective client the same question: if LinkedIn works for you, how will you know?

Over half of them can't tell me what success looks like. They're excited to start posting and agree LinkedIn matters for their business, but when I press them on what they're actually trying to accomplish, the conversation stalls. They haven't defined their goal or how they'll measure progress, so they have no way to know if their effort is working.

Without that clarity, most of them quit within six months.

I've worked with over 300 executives on LinkedIn at this point, and the pattern is consistent. The executives who are still posting two or three years later figured out these three things before they ever published anything.

1. A why that's bigger than themselves

Ninety percent of the executives I work with would be happy if no one ever knew they existed, and most of them actively avoid social media in their personal lives.

But they post on LinkedIn anyway.

One prospect put it plainly in our first conversation. "Social media is something I actively try to avoid," he said. "I think there's some inhibitions I'm going to need to shed."

He was describing the same frustration I hear from almost everyone. And yet he signed up anyway because his sales team needed air coverage, his recruiting team was competing against better-known brands, and his investors wanted to see visible leadership. He reframed LinkedIn as an act of generosity toward his organization, and that reframing is what got him through the hard weeks.

That framing matters because posting on LinkedIn requires tolerating real discomfort. You will spend an hour on a post that gets three likes while a colleague's throwaway thought gets hundreds of comments. Friends will text you to give you a hard time about something you shared. 

If you're posting for personal recognition, those moments will break you. But if you're posting because your sales team needs air coverage, your recruiters are competing against better-known brands, and your investors want visible leadership, you'll keep going.

2. A clear definition of what success looks like

Different goals require different metrics. I have clients who want broad visibility before a fundraise, so impressions and reach are what matter to them. I have other clients selling to enterprise CTOs in specific industries, and there aren't many of those buyers. A million likes means nothing to a CEO whose entire addressable market is five hundred people.

Luckily, LinkedIn's analytics now show exactly which job titles viewed your content, which means a post that reached a hundred people can still be a bullseye if those hundred match the buyer profile.

Followers, impressions, profile views, engagement rate, audience demographics - LinkedIn tracks all of these. The problem is that most executives never decide which ones matter before they start, so they track everything and understand nothing. 

Pick the metrics that connect to your actual goal, ignore the rest, and check them monthly instead of obsessing after every post.

3. A system that runs without motivation

LinkedIn rewards consistency over years. Posting for one month is meaningless, and posting for six months is still barely getting started. Just like exercise or saving for retirement, unless you have a way to post week in and week out for several years, your effort won't pay off.

I watch friends get a jolt of energy after a conference and blow up on LinkedIn for three or four weeks. Then life gets busy, the motivation fades, and they disappear for six months. They were relying on willpower instead of building a process, and when the willpower ran out, so did the posting.

My clients who have posted consistently for years aren't more disciplined than everyone else. They just have a system that doesn't depend on them feeling inspired. We interview them once a month and turn those conversations into posts, so they never have to stare at a blank page. They review and approve content on a set schedule, and the posts go out whether they're busy that week or not.

I've watched plenty of talented executives with great insights quit after six months. They could have built an audience and seen real results, but they never figured out their why, their measurement, or their system before they started.

Figure out those three things first, and you'll still be posting - and reaping the benefits - in two years.

— Justin

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

Executive Presence specializes 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.