We started posting on LinkedIn last week. One week. That is it. If you are looking for authority, growth hacks, or a "here is how I got 10,000 followers in 30 days" story, this is not that. We have no idea if this is going to work.
Here is what we do know. Here is why we started. Here is what we ignored along the way.
Why now
I have had a LinkedIn account for years and posted almost nothing on it. I would open the app, scroll for thirty seconds, and close it again.
The thing that stopped me posting was not a lack of things to say. It was looking at what everyone else was posting and not wanting to be part of it.
The begging posts. "Please, just one project, I will build your website for exposure." A grown adult with years of experience, asking strangers for scraps.
The fake conversations. "I had a conversation with a client yesterday." You did not have that conversation. Nobody speaks like that. Nobody says "but Rob, what about the synergy between our brand pillars and the digital ecosystem?" They say "can you make the logo bigger?"
The virtue signalling. Companies posting about mental health during mental health awareness week and then sending aggressive payment reminders the same afternoon. The performative allyship that disappears the moment the calendar ticks over to the next awareness month.
I did not want to be part of any of that. So I stayed quiet. For years.
Eventually I decided the alternative to doing it badly was not staying quiet. It was doing it honestly.
The advice we ignored
The moment you decide to start posting on LinkedIn, well-meaning people crawl out of the woodwork with advice. Most of it is terrible.
"Post every day." Publish content daily, they say. Stay visible. Feed the algorithm. Never mind that you run a business and have actual work to do. Never mind that you have nothing to say on a Thursday. Post anyway. Fill the gap with something.
We post three times a week. Because that is what we can sustain without writing garbage.
"Build a persona." Be polished. Be professional. Or be edgy. Or be the "no-BS straight talker." Pick a lane, they say. Perform a version of yourself that the algorithm likes.
I am not building a persona. I am a web developer in Wakefield. Some days I am annoyed at myself for not getting something right the first time. Some days I am proud of something we built. Some days I have nothing to say and I do not post. That is not a content strategy. It is just being a person.
"Follow the formula." Hook in the first line. Short paragraphs. A call to action. Three hashtags. Post at 8am on Tuesday.
We do post on Tuesdays. But if I read one more piece of advice that treats human communication like a Mad Libs template, I am going to delete the app entirely.
What we actually did
We started with a question: what would we post if nobody was measuring it?
No impressions target. No follower goal. No "engagement rate" dashboard. Just a handful of things we actually believe:
- Websites should load fast and get out of the way
- Paying £150 a month forever for a site you will never own is a bad deal
- Most web design advice is written by people who use drag-and-drop tools or pre-made components
- The best websites are straightforward. They tell you what the company does, they give you a phone number, and they load in under two seconds
We wrote about those things. We did not invent conversations that never happened. We did not post selfies with inspirational text. We did not beg.
One post a week from me — usually something technical or opinionated. One carousel from the company page breaking down a topic visually. One post on Google Business Profile for local visibility. Three posts a week. That is the entire strategy.
What we do not know yet
It has been a week. We have one LinkedIn post live. It got some likes and some profile views, which was nice, but that is not a result. That is a number on a screen.
We do not know if this approach will bring in work. We do not know if three posts a week is the right number or the wrong number. We do not know if anyone outside our immediate network will see any of this.
What we do know: nobody has unfollowed us. Nobody has sent a message calling us cringe. Every post we have published is something we actually believe. No fake conversations. No virtue signalling. No begging.
For now, that is enough.
If you are thinking about starting
The bar is lower than you think. Not because it is easy — because everyone else is so bad at it.
Go look at your industry's LinkedIn feed right now. Count how many posts use the word "humbled." Count how many fake client conversations start with "so I had an interesting chat with." Count how many people are performing a version of themselves they clearly hate.
Now consider: you do not have to beat the algorithm. You just have to not be that.
Post when you have something to say. Write like you speak. If you would not say it to someone over a coffee, do not publish it to five hundred strangers. The goal is not to go viral. The goal is for someone to read what you wrote and think: "that person sounds like they know what they are doing."
We are one week in. Ask us again in six months and we might have a different answer. But right now, the strategy is simple: say what you mean, do not fabricate, and for the love of everything, do not start a post with "I had a conversation with a client."
You do not have to beat the algorithm. You just have to not be that.
