LinkedIn is the highest ROI channel for career growth, but many people aren’t prioritizing it — yet. I’m convinced most people don’t realize the goldmine they’re sitting on, for both their personal brand and their company.
Posting content isn’t just for entrepreneurs or job seekers. Employees are a company’s best marketing assets on LinkedIn, from interns to the CEO. But this tactic only works if they have the right strategy, support, and storytelling framework.
Once you’re oriented on how the platform works and what to post, it’s the social media equivalent of an arcade game where you insert tokens and tickets come pumping out at you.
So, what are your LinkedIn tokens? Content. Authenticity. Time. The tickets? New business and industry authority. The clock starts today with my proven five-step LinkedIn framework. I’ll share the exact steps I used to scale a CEO’s LinkedIn strategy to 3,000,000 impressions in four months (plus impact on pipeline).
A Case Study for Growing on LinkedIn
What kind of results are possible with this LinkedIn framework? Look at Christina Ross, founder and CEO of Cube. Christina was like most CEOs. She was interested in LinkedIn, but she was busy and didn’t know exactly what to post. But she wanted to build authority in a tight niche. Think CFOs and senior finance leaders.
That’s when she and I started working together. In her first session, Christina shared her frustrations. She had great ideas, but no time. I walked her through a simple system: Define your niche and audience. Choose 2–3 themes and commit. Write with your own voice. Post weekly.
The key was clarity and giving Christina confidence that her posts would land. Fast forward four months:
- 3,000,000 views
- Her audience doubled
- Her account became a magnet for inbound demos
No ads. No bots. No engagement pods (don’t get me started).
Borrow My 5-step LinkedIn Framework
Christina’s success isn’t a fluke. It’s a repeatable system. Here’s the exact five-step framework that Christina used that you can start with today.
1. Clarify the point of view (POV).
What’s your point of view? LinkedIn is a great place to share how you see your industry. That outlook differentiates you from everyone else on the platform. I promise you have a POV. If nothing positive comes to mind, focus on things that you disagree with.
This was the basis of the viral “propaganda I’m not falling for as a [surgeon/teacher/etc]” social media trend in May 2025. This trend took off because everyone loves a hot take and a little discourse.
… Even when the controversy is self-inflicted, like which burger will be the burger of summer 2025 (the shocking answer, according to Cristen Milliner, is chicken).
This type of content is a spectrum, ranging from consensus content (statements that everyone agrees with) to polarizing content. I know it can be hard to imagine creating content that people might disagree with. But when used correctly, it demonstrates authenticity and credibility.
In a recent conversation on my podcast about polarizing content, marketer Chris Orlob said this: “The best marketing… is polarizing. Eighty or 90% of your audience should be rabidly agreeing with you so much so that they’re passionate about it, and 10% or 15% of your audience hates you.”
Start by dispelling myths and focusing all POV content on your buyer rather than your product. Then, stick to your pillars.
2. Pick 2-3 content pillars.
No one likes to open up LinkedIn and start with a blank page. And no, I’m not suggesting outsourcing to AI (but more on this in a minute). I’m talking about content pillars, a.k.a pre-determined content topics.
Content pillars aren’t new, but which pillars are working on each platform at a given time is a moving target. These are the pillars I recommend for LinkedIn growth in 2025.
- Functional expertise: People are still coming to LinkedIn to learn how to get better at their job.
- Building in public: You have a unique view from the cockpit of your career. We’re all curious. What are you seeing? Share honest glimpses into the challenges and surprises.
- Earned moments: This is a covert way of sharing momentum and success, but packaging it as a first-person story (bonus points for vulnerability).
I like to think of content pillars as bumpers on a bowling lane rather than strict requirements. It’s still worth posting fresh, off-the-top-of-your-head ideas as long as they feel aligned with your audience. Just don’t make those posts your priority.
Here’s an example of personal branding expert Lyssa Leigh Jackson sharing her functional expertise:
3. Lean into “earned moments.”
“Earned moments” will give you maximum reach on LinkedIn. These exist on the opposite end of the spectrum from a company press release.
I think of earned moments as milestones wrapped in a story. These are moments where you share your view from the mountaintop while offering a takeaway for others. These moments could be new product releases, company anniversaries, professional recognition, and beyond.
Here’s an example from copywriter Jasmin Alić where he reflects on his copywriting career while sharing a personal story:
4. Choose a posting schedule.
How often should you post to grow on LinkedIn in 2025? Three times per week. Start with text and then mix in photos and videos when you’re ready.
Consider a weekly posting cadence that mixes:
- Earned moments
- Leadership POV
- Personal stories
This isn’t the only blueprint for success, but it’s an approach that balances limited time with the desire for results.
Warning: If you only post once or twice a week, you probably won’t get the return you want. It takes a certain threshold of content to pick up momentum in the algorithm and with your writing.
5. Iterate based on performance, not perfection.
Follow the data. Don’t worry about stats day to day, but instead, recap and learn from each month. Once a month with my one-on-one clients, I put together a deck that looks at all of their posts from that month. I pull the:
- Top three most viewed posts
- Bottom three least viewed posts
With this content pulled up on screen, we talk through each post together. I speculate as to why the successful posts performed so well and what can be done better next time with the underperformers.
The value of this monthly huddle goes beyond the stats recap. Yes, it helps clients to reflect on their results with a bird’s-eye view (more productive than obsessively checking a single post’s stats during the day). But clients really enjoy these performance reviews because they always spark new ideas.
If you’re still here at this point of the conversation, then I think you see the value of LinkedIn. You’re excited about its potential for you. And, you know that you can be your company’s best marketing asset with the right strategy, support, and storytelling framework.
Let’s look at what you can do today to move the needle.
What To Do Today
Even if you’re not ready to dive into a heavy LinkedIn investment immediately, there’s still something you can do to initiate this process: Start creating your strategy.
This is where my process of growing a LinkedIn account begins when I take on a new client. I ask these three questions:
- In the last three months, how much are you posting?
- What kind of engagement are you getting?
- How many views are you getting?
The answers to these questions set the benchmark for an account.
Upgrade your profile ASAP.
Your LinkedIn profile is the most valuable digital asset that you have as a professional. When I onboard new clients, I work through a checklist for optimizing their accounts. That includes changing the following.
- Banner image: Make it branded, keep it clear, and use it to its maximum potential (depending on what your CTA and goals are).
- Headline: These are the most-viewed words on your account. Make it count.
- Featured section: Don't sell your reputation. Focus on a reputation that sells.
- Seamless viewer experience: Think of the user experience going from a post in their feed to your account to (potentially) your website.
Set a 20-minute timer.
The rule: You cannot edit a LinkedIn post for longer than 20 minutes.
Why? It’s just too easy to rewrite a post looking for perfection (which you’ll never find). Overworking your content has two negative consequences:
- Underperformance. The posts that you spend the most time on tend to perform worse than their more spontaneous counterparts. Over-polishing might feel good to you, but it doesn’t necessarily feel authentic to your audience.
- Falling into a black hole. If you end up spending an hour editing every single LinkedIn post before publishing, the straightforward task of publishing becomes too daunting. The odds of executing your strategy go down, while your odds of burning out on LinkedIn go up.
Creating LinkedIn content shouldn’t be taxing. I want you to get your creative juices flowing and experience joy in this process. Creativity and enjoyment are cornerstones of community building, and both are easily lost in the pursuit of perfection.
Can AI do it?
Not all AI content on LinkedIn is bad, but none of it will have the same impact as original writing. The human experience that people seek on LinkedIn does not come from AI. Neither does originality.
Here’s a better way to use AI: Use AI to turn your conversations into LinkedIn post ideas. The next time you’re having a conversation about your role or challenges, record it. Upload a transcript to ChatGPT and use that as your source material instead of having ChatGPT pull from the sea of existing content online. The content ideas that result will be your experiences, your ideas, and your voice.
In the same vein, resist the temptation to go find the top few people who you “want to be” on LinkedIn. Focus on yourself and your audience. Be authentic. That’s not a buzzword. It’s a reminder that the human element is essential for LinkedIn conversions.
Chris Orlob said it best when we discussed finding your authentic voice on my podcast.
“I don’t think any of this is conscious, but I think people have a distrust for an inauthentic brand, in other words, a vanilla brand, versus a brand that’s willing to stake a claim and stand for something,” he says.
Launch your LinkedIn journey today.
Five steps. Twelve weeks. It’s simple, not easy. But the payoff is real for those who follow through. I hope that you’ll play your hand and get to experience results. That’s especially powerful on the most valuable platform for professional growth.
