EP #095: The Post That Falls Flat Isn't a Failure

I’ve spent four years on LinkedIn. I’ve written hundreds of posts and built a company built around helping other people excel on the platform.

And it still stings when something doesn't land with my audience.

I want to talk about that sting - what it actually is, what it means, and why the leaders who learn to read it correctly end up miles ahead of the ones who avoid it entirely.

The Fear of Silence

Most executives assume the thing keeping them off LinkedIn is the fear of negative feedback. They'll say something wrong, someone will push back publicly, and the humiliation will follow. 

That fear is valid, and I'm not going to dismiss it.

But in my experience, that outcome is not the one that actually stops people from posting. What really stops them is the fear of being ignored.

At least if someone pushes back, there's a conversation. At least if someone disagrees, they engaged. Being ignored - sharing something that you care about and watching it disappear into the scroll - is more gutting. 

It's the equivalent of telling a story at a dinner party and watching everyone's eyes drift away, or performing a stand-up comedy routine in front of a silent crowd. You'd almost prefer the heckler.

The Meditation Retreat Post

Each year, I go on a silent meditation retreat (this will make sense in a moment). I spend a week with no talking, no phone, no outside contact. It's one of the most meaningful experiences of my adult life - and meditation as a practice has shaped how I lead, think, and show up for my team and my family.

A while ago, I wanted to share that on LinkedIn. No, I hadn’t calculated the engagement potential of vulnerability content. I just wanted to talk about something that mattered to me, because I believe the connection between contemplative practice and effective leadership is worth exploring publicly.

So I spent time on this post, thinking carefully about how to articulate something that's inherently hard to put into words. 

Then I published - and the post fell flat. Not horribly, but relative to the time and intention I put in, and relative to how much that experience meant to me, the response felt too quiet.

In retrospect, I can see that the post didn't fail because it was bad. It probably fell flat because the content - silent meditation, contemplative practice, inner work - wasn't what my audience on LinkedIn was there for. 

They follow me for insights about executive visibility and leadership presence. And turns out, the Venn diagram between "people who follow Justin on LinkedIn" and "people who want to think about meditation right now" is smaller than I thought.

That's a data point. A frustrating one in the moment, but a useful one. 

That post taught me that you can share something completely genuine, true, and important to you - and still miss your audience.

The Stand-up Comedy Connection

I mentioned stand-up comedians before, because the really good ones talk openly about bombing - not with a hostile crowd, just a quiet one. Many say that particular silence is one of the hardest things to sit with as a performer.

These comedians also talk about how they never fully stop feeling the sting of silence - and how it makes them better.

The comedian who bombs on Tuesday takes what they learned, refines the set, and goes back onstage on Thursday. The more repetitions, the faster the refinement. The failure is one single data point in a process that only works if the performer keeps showing up, set after set.

That's my experience with LinkedIn exactly. 

Four years in, and I still feel some discomfort before hitting publish. The sting when something doesn't land hasn't disappeared. But now, I treat that feeling as information about what to do differently.

The Silent Potential

My meditation retreat post fell flat, and I learned something from that. 

Posts I've written about leadership and building a company have landed well, and I learned something from that, too. Over time, the data has told me exactly what my audience needs from me.

Start there. Sometimes, your idea needs refinement, or your framing is off, or your audience simply doesn’t care about a certain topic.

That’s something a post that falls flat can help you see. If you adjust, refine, and try again - eventually, your posts will start landing every time.

— 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.