Last Thursday, I graduated AGAIN! But this time, from the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator! It was an absolutely mental 6 weeks, and I’m actually exhausted from it… but it was totally worth it!
We all celebrated in style at the LinkedIn headquarters in Farringdon, where we drank champagne, ate cupcakes and decorated Christmas cookies!
So, the idea of the accelerator was to learn how to create great content on LinkedIn and preparing us with all the tools for how to do this. But I ended up learning so much more.
I thought I would share my top 7 learnings from the last 6 weeks and hope that you can also use these to help you create content!
Creating content is bloody hard!
First up, creating content is actually incredibly hard! I’m talking about good content here. Anyone can whack out a post, spew some inspirational BS and call that content. Yes, sometimes it works, but if that’s all you’ve got, then it’s going to get boring pretty quickly and your followers will start to drop off rather build up!
Content needs to be meaningful and provide value. It’s not about you at all, it’s about your audience. That’s the first thing you’ve got to remember. So many people create content to show off what they do and paint themselves as a thought leader. Yes, that may attract some attention, but that’s not how you build up a community.
All the creators on the programme were creating content that had so much value to it, packed with learnings and advice, or stories that people could relate to. It’s definitely not easy to do, but this is what is most effective.
Then, you need to be equipped with tools that make this content attractive – i.e. graphic design software, video editing software and subtitling.
Therefore, creating content takes time and dedication, so decide if you actually want to make this commitment.
Have a purpose
If you don’t have a purpose for creating your content, then it will be really obvious… plus, it will be a bit of a waste of time. Think about why you want to create content in the first place.
Is it because someone has told you that you need to get on LinkedIn and post as it will help you get more business? If that’s the sole reason you’re doing it, your content won’t perform well.
Think about what means something to you – whether it’s something in your industry, how you run your business, wider topics such as DEI or sustainability etc. Whatever it is, if you have a passion for it, this will come out in your content and will be a whole lot more meaningful to your audience.
Not sure where to start? Then read Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” and then give it another go!
(note the link in the image too)
Planning is your friend
We got told about the Accelerator just a short time before it actually started and so it was so difficult to plan. Not only was the event schedule jam-packed, but the time to plan meaningful content was difficult.
With a clear vision of what you want to achieve, this is much easier. I had a vision, but it was far too ambitious, and it was never going to happen in 6 weeks. So, I opted for building up awareness before executing the idea.
I’d advise to use a content planner to map out what type of posts you want to create and when they will be published. I personally used Notion and shared the Notion board with the rest of the creators too. If anyone wants a sample Notion template that I use, please feel free to get in touch!
But you can use anything – PowerPoint, Excel spreadsheets, G Suite equivalents, or professional planning software. What’s important is that you’re organised!
Plan out first what topic you want to talk about, the purpose of the post and the type of the post, and then you can create the corresponding caption and creative asset.
Now that LinkedIn has a native scheduler, you actually have no excuse not to be organised!
Experiment
It’s so easy to stick to what you know, and what gets you good results. I certainly am guilty of that a lot of the time. But this Accelerator pushed me to trial out new formats that I never would have even thought of using.
Now, it’s not easy when you try something new and it completely flops. Trust me, I announced that I was joining TikTok after being excited to create video, and it was BY FAR my worst performing post, and basically no one cared! ?
But, do you know what? I’m still going to create video content, because I know that this is the right thing to do. I may not have started to create content that my audience responds to yet, but I will work out what that is soon, and then it will start to pay off!
Don’t be afraid to fail, because you can only learn from your mistakes.
On LinkedIn, their new carousel feature is actually quite incredible – you can mix video with imagery and text, all in one post. Previously, you had to design your carousel out of LinkedIn and upload via PDF. Now, they have this native feature, which is so much more expansive. Plus, they let us know that they will be favouring this type of content in the future!
This is the same with video – they’ve invested time in creating features such as native closed captioning, to make the video content more accessible. This is because they plan to encourage more people to use video going forward.
Your tribe will find you
Building a community on LinkedIn isn’t easy, but there are plenty of people doing it. When creating content, you spend a lot of time working out how to reach the right people. But what you should also realise is that your tribe will eventually find you.
Not everyone is going to like your content – some people may even leave rude comments or drop nasty remarks into your DMs. But you are never going to be able to please everyone.
It’s certainly not easy receiving these messages – trust me! I have had a LOT of crap this year on LinkedIn. But this just means that your content is something that’s worth talking about and is strong enough to provoke an emotion.
Plus, for every nasty comment I got, I got at least 5 amazing ones!
Now, the positive seriously outweighs the negative and I’ve found my tribe. I have people showing up on every single one of my posts, engaging in interesting discussions and showing me some love. They don’t always agree with what I say, but they’re always respectful and love to debate.
Collaboration is incredible
I think the most amazing thing about this group, was how amazing all the other creators were! I tried to connect to pretty much everyone in the group, as I wanted to learn from the content they were putting out and see how I could help them achieve their goals.
Most of them were up for the idea of some kind of collaboration, which was amazing.
Collaborating with other content creators immediately increases your audience! You have two networks to share your content to and it gets you known in new circles. Plus, creating content is actually way easier when you have someone by your side supporting you.
You do half the work, but get more of the benefits! Collaborating is an absolute no-brainer in my opinion, and I plan to do so many collabs next year!
Be resilient
I’ve already mentioned that you’re going to get some negativity along the way while you’re trying to create content. This will be hard to take and you will absolutely need to be resilient to still find the strength to keep going when you get these kinds of messages.
Social media is not for the faint-hearted. You need to show up every day! Yes, I said every day. It’s a huge commitment. Of course, you don’t have to post each day, but the most successful creators do. And even they can’t commit to a post each day, they’re showing up in the comments and letting their peeps know they’re active and there for them.
Some days, you will feel that you won’t have much to talk about and there’s no point posting. But this is why if you’ve planned out your content, even on your down days, you won’t have a problem.
I have to confess; I don’t post every day. There have been weeks where I have done and those weeks have been so much better, performance-wise. However, I have not been planning my content like I should do.
But after this Accelerator, I plan to take my own advice outlined in this article and start upping my content game!
If you have any questions regarding the Accelerator, or trying to create content on LinkedIn, then please feel free to hit me up – I’m always happy to help!