Write better for social (Dave’s Newsletter)

How To Write Better on LinkedIn: Lessons From Almost a Decade of Posting

I’ve been writing on LinkedIn almost every day for close to ten years now.

During that time LinkedIn has become the social network for work. If you’re in B2B, it’s probably where your buyers hang out, where your CEO wants to be posting, and where you’re trying to build a brand (yours or your company’s).

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from almost a decade on the platform, it’s this: stop chasing the algorithm.

It changes every six months anyway. And half the time it contradicts whatever everyone else is saying. To me that part is not controllable and I like to focus on the things I can control, like:

How to grab someone’s attention. How to hold it. How to make a point that sticks.

Those are the same whether you’re writing a LinkedIn post, a newsletter, an email to your CEO, or a webinar invite. If you can write well on social, you can write well anywhere.

Here are five lessons I keep coming back to; sharing these in case they can help you or someone inside of your company this week with writing for social.

1. The First Five Words Are the Whole Game

Your hook is everything. If you don’t grab someone in the first line, they’re gone. They’re scrolling past you to look at someone’s job announcement or a carousel about “10 lessons from my first year as a founder.”

The best hooks almost always fall into one of three categories:

Contrarian statements that challenge what everyone assumes is true. “Measurement kills marketing.” “Personal branding isn’t about being personal.” These work because they create friction. Someone reads it and thinks “wait, what?” And that’s enough to stop the scroll.

Bold declarations that take a clear position. “Your CMO should be the best storyteller at your company. Full stop.” “Google is crushing OpenAI.” No setup. No hedging. Just a confident statement that demands a reaction.

Simple truths that distill something complex into one line. “Build the company you want to work for.” “The hidden cost of traditional employment: your time.” They work because they feel true the moment you read them.

The pattern across all three: brevity. Almost every great hook is under 10 words. Often just 4–6. If you’re writing a paragraph to set up your point, you’ve already lost. Say the thing. Then explain it.

2. Personal Stories Beat Expert Advice Every Time

This one took me years to learn. People don’t want to be lectured on LinkedIn. They want to hear what happened to you and what you took from it. Last week I had the CMO of Lemlist on my podcast and it stemmed entirely from a LinkedIn post she wrote sharing the break down of her marketing budget for the year. That wasn’t some crazy idea or creative concept - just facts, specifics, examples.

I can write a post that says “Founders should invest in brand early.” Fine. It’s true. But nobody cares.

Or I can write a post about how I spent two years building Exit Five with zero paid marketing and the only thing that worked was me showing up on LinkedIn every day sharing what I was learning in real time. Same lesson. Completely different energy. One teaches. The other connects.

And here’s the thing that will drive you crazy: the posts you overthink almost always underperform. The ones you fire off in five minutes, a quick story about something that happened that week, an honest take on a conversation you had, those are the ones that hit. A 7-second unpolished video of me hiking with my wife was the most viral thing I posted all year. I can’t explain it. But I’ve stopped fighting it.

To say it one sentence: write about what you are doing at work.

3. Show Up Every Day

I know this isn’t the sexy advice. But if you asked me the single biggest factor in building an audience on LinkedIn, it’s not hooks or formats or timing. It’s consistency.

Post once per day. I’ve been doing this for years. You’re building a habit for yourself and training your audience to expect you. That’s when it starts to compound. Not when you write the perfect post. When you become someone people look for in their feed.

There are some tactical things that help too:

• Posting between 6–9 AM tends to get more engagement.
• Tagging people limits your reach (if you need to, do it in the comments).
• Putting links in the post body instead of the first comment can hurt distribution, though honestly I’ve seen it go both ways.
• And hashtags? Skip them. They don’t help and they make your post look like it’s from 2019. I mostly use them to be silly now #foundermode

But none of that matters if you’re posting twice a month. The tactics are a multiplier on consistency, not a replacement for it.

4. Be in the Comments (This Is Not Optional)

Think of this as building karma. If you’re only showing up to post your own stuff and then disappearing, you’re leaving a lot on the table.

Leave thoughtful comments on other people’s posts. Not “Great post!” Actually add something. Share a perspective. Ask a real question. Disagree respectfully. That’s how you get on people’s radar, and it’s how you start showing up in front of their audience too.

Think about how you use social media in real life. When your friend sends you a post on Instagram, don’t you jump to the comment section first? Same thing applies in B2B. The comment section is where the real conversations happen. Your comments. Other people’s comments. That’s why I don’t think you can outsource this part.

Some of the best relationships I’ve built in B2B marketing started in someone’s comment section. It’s underrated and it’s free.

5. Trust Your Gut More Than Your Data

What works for me might not work exactly the same way for you. Your audience is different. Your voice is different. So yes, test things. Try different opening lines. Switch between text posts, images, and carousels. Post at different times. See what your audience responds to.

A simple spreadsheet with the date, post type, and engagement numbers will show you patterns within a month or two. You don’t need fancy tools, just the discipline to track things.

But here’s where I’ll push back on the pure data approach: the data tells you what performs. Your gut tells you what’s worth saying. And those aren’t always the same thing. Some of my most important posts weren’t my highest performing ones. They were the ones that got a DM from someone saying “I really needed to hear that today.” That stuff doesn’t show up in your impressions count. But it’s the reason to keep writing.

I won’t sugarcoat it: this takes time. I’ve had no viral growth. Just a steady climb over 10 years to close in on 200k followers. Most likely you’re not going to write one post and wake up with 10,000 followers. But if you show up consistently, pay attention to what resonates, and keep refining your voice, six months from now you’ll look back and wonder why you didn’t start sooner.

One more thing. I love AI tools. I use them every day. But none of them sound quite like me. The way I write. The words I choose. The punctuation I use. Copy-pasting from ChatGPT or Claude will only get you so far. The best LinkedIn content comes from real people sharing real things in their own voice. I’ve actually been writing more lately just to prove it really is me. I think it’s working. Maybe you can lean into being you?

– Dave

P.S. What did I miss? Hit reply and tell me what’s working for you on LinkedIn. I read every response.

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