How startup founders should use Linkedin
I often run experiments to try to help our portfolio companies. One of these has been running for the last month here on LinkedIn. Maybe you noticed?
In recent weeks I’ve worked with a consultant who claimed they could boost engagement, new business leads, investor enquiries and the other benefits we, at DQventures, have been getting from my LinkedIn profile.
Here’s what happened:
- They changed my post style quite a lot. Shorter sentences. More gaps.
- They created images that included my name and profile pic — James Green the thought leader 🫣 (I cringed but went with it).
- They told me my audience wasn’t diverse enough, so proposed much more varied content to post.
- They drafted posts for me, which I then edited (heavily) or deleted.
- They sent me hundreds of posts to provide opinion and comment on. (They actually wanted to comment on my behalf, but I said no.)
RESULTS
- During the month the engagement on my posts didn’t increase. It actually fell. They claimed this was due to an algorithm change…
- I started feeling quite anxious about LinkedIn.
- t became all about # of likes and comments.
- I lost sight of why I’m doing this in the first place (which is to get DQventures in front of more aspiring founders and to share learnings with other entrepreneurs in case it helps them avoid mistakes / wasting time).
I’m going back to my previous approach:
Posting up to three times per week on topics I find genuinely interesting, or sharing lessons I think provide value.
And…
I’ve advised our portfolio company founders not to outsource brand building to a consultant, but to pick my brain on all the other things I’ve learned throughout this process.
I’ll share more on that another time.
P.S. Thanks for sticking with me through this. Did you notice?
